For this summer and perhaps several more to come, one virtue will need to be valued above all others for the Wood River Valley's community of avid backcountry trail users.
Patience.
In the weeks ahead, warming temperatures will begin to melt this year's deep winter snowpack, giving local recreationists a reminder of the sweeping impacts last summer's Castle Rock Fire had across so much of the Smoky Mountains landscape west of Ketchum. Over a 20-day period during the months of August and September, the fast-moving wildfire burned 48,520 acres.
As the snows began falling last autumn, trails in a large portion of the popular area remained closed due to fears of falling snags, unstable slopes and flashfloods.
But the fire's impacts were not absolute. Within the blaze's massive fire perimeter, licking flames created a mosaic of blackened, partially burnt and completely untouched forests. In lower portions of drainages so popular with recreationists like Adams Gulch, Greenhorn Gulch and Fox Creek, evidence of the fire is there, but is not necessarily devastating.
But higher up in these and other drainages the story is much different. There is where flames from the Castle Rock Fire burned hottest, leaving the scene in many of the uppermost basins a sea of needle-straight blackened trees perfectly primed to topple over.
It's this alternating patchwork of burned and unburned forest and range with which Sawtooth National Forest officials are now contending. Moreover, backcountry enthusiasts may find it distressing as they find access to some of their favorite trails closed off for safety reasons in this first post-fire recreation season.
Outdoor enthusiasts should expect a mixed bag when it comes to trail access this summer, said Renee Catherine, trails coordinator on the forest's Ketchum Ranger District.
For starters, most of the Castle Rock Fire area is covered by a U.S. Forest Service closure order that prohibits most recreational access beginning May 1 and ending Nov. 30. Within the approximately 80-square-mile closure area, access to trails will be prohibited during those dates unless the Forest Service says otherwise.
But don't despair. Catherine and other officials at the Ketchum Ranger District do not intend to keep trail users from accessing every trail within this large area this summer. Rather, they'll be considering trails on a case-by-case basis to determine if they're safe for recreation use. Trails deemed safe within the closure area will be opened as quickly as possible, Catherine said.
She said the closure does not prohibit people from venturing off trail either on skis while there is still snow on the ground or by foot once the snow melts off.
Catherine said the forest's first priority will be opening trails in the lower half of the Adams Gulch drainage, which is just northwest of Ketchum. These include the Citizens Trail, Lanes Trail, Adams Gulch Loop, Harpers Trail, Lake Creek Connector and the south side of Wanderers Way.
Catherine said the opening of Shadyside Trail and the north side of Wanderers Way may be delayed several weeks longer due to wet conditions.
Following Adams Gulch, she said the Forest Service will work to open trails in the lower Greenhorn Gulch area. Following these trails, they'll turn to the Fox Creek Loop.
Other trails in the middle to uppermost elevations in the fire area may not open until mid-July or later, Catherine said. These include the upper Adams Gulch, Imperial-Greenhorn and lower Lodgepole and Mahoney trails.
Where the fire burned hottest, some trails will not open this year, she said. These include Warfield Creek, Red Warrior Creek, Rooks Creek, Eve Gulch, upper Mahoney Gulch, upper Lodgepole Gulch and the West Fork of Warm Springs Creek. Catherine said these latter trails were so damaged by the fire that they've been scheduled for major reconstruction.
The bottom line is that recreationists should be prepared for many of their favorite routes to open late or not at all this summer, the spokesman for local trails advocacy group Big Wood Backcountry Trail Chris Leman said during a recent interview.
"The trails may not open like they have in the past," Leman said.
That is why Forest Service officials hope people will be patient and work with them this summer and in the next few summers to come, Catherine said.
"It will be important for people to be flexible," she said.
Of course, numerous trails lace local mountainsides and valleys outside the fire area. Catherine expects trails in Corral Creek and in the southern Wood River Valley will receive greater use from people displaced by closed signs.
She said people should know that "poaching" trails inside the fire closure area will be dealt with sternly by the Forest Service. Violators may be prosecuted. She said the same goes for recreating on bulldozer lines created to control the fire.
Information on trail closures and openings will be available at a variety of locations, including at trailheads, local outdoor shops and the Big Wood Backcountry Trails Web site (www.bwbt.org). As they have in the past, the group will work with the Forest Service to sign trails as open or closed.
Forest Service regulations prevent the agency from adding bulldozer lines to the forest's network of trails. Catherine said the agency is working to rehabilitate the large network of bulldozer lines built as part of the fire suppression effort.
Throughout the summer, trail users should also be aware that the Forest Service may move to temporarily close trails that may have already been opened if conditions call for it, Catherine said, "particularly following a rain event."
Catherine said heavy rainfall may be followed by landslides on slopes denuded of vegetation by flames. The heavier the rainfall, the greater the chance for destructive blowouts.
"They are really common in big fires," she said. "There's no vegetation to take up that moisture."
Helping local Forest Service officials open fire-impacted trails this summer will be a series of 12- to 24-person federal and private work crews. As the snows begin to subside early on in May and into June, a combined hotshot and smokejumper crew will be touring the fire area removing hazard snags and conducting other post-fire safety work.
Big Wood Backcountry Trails is also looking for volunteers to help with trail work.
Even on trails in the fire area that are open, people will need to be heads up for several years to come, Leman said. In addition to the dangers of flashfloods and landslides, trail users should be aware of the serious potential for falling snags for at least the next three to five years, he said.
"Lots of snags are going to be coming down," he said. "It's just a different environment."
Following the Castle Rock Fire, the Ketchum Ranger District received a large influx of federal money to fund post-fire trail work, Catherine said. For this year alone, the district has about $336,000 on hand to fund trail reconstruction in the fire area.
For 2009, the district has another $178,000 to spend.
Catherine isn't letting this summer's challenges get her down. In fact, she thinks the most damaged trails that will remain closed this summer may actually come out better in the long run once rehabilitation work on them is completed. She said recreationists will end up with more sustainable, scenic and challenging trails in some of the more remote places like Rooks Creek, Eve Gulch and other trails scheduled for extensive reconstruction.
"They should see trails that are a lot more interesting," she said. "This is our golden opportunity."
U.S. Forest Service sawyers work to clear a large burned log from the upper Lodgepole Gulch Trail last fall.
Photo courtesy Big Wood Backcountry Trails
