I recently had a very disappointing trip into one of our wilderness areas that made me very disappointed with our Forest Service. Me and a buddy have been talking about doing a 100-mile horse packing trip for a few years. We finally decided to make it happen this year. We were going to ride into the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. The plan was to get dropped off at point A and a week or so later get picked up at point B.

The plan was to ride until late afternoon everyday, then stop, set-up camp and flyfish for a few hours everyday. We tweaked our plans and changed locations to the Sawtooths and reduced it to a 41-mile trip.

As you can imagine, it takes a lot of time, money and labor to plan a trip of this magnitude. We met numerous times to plan menus, gear we’d need, what supplies etc. etc. The day finally arrived and we loaded up the horses and took off. We hit the trailhead and set-up a camp for the night.

The next morning we whipped out a fast breakfast, watered/fed the horses and threw the saddles on the horses. We then loaded up the packs. There were three of us. We’d each be riding a horse and dragging along a pack horse.

With all of the above said, you can imagine my disappointment when we didn’t even get a mile down the trail and got blocked by a log across the trail. I didn’t count but I bet we hit close to 15 trees that had fallen across the trail in the first 4-miles. We cut logs for 4-miles but finally ran out of juice.

We still had 16-miles to get to the top. We were going to ride across the top and then drop down another drainage to go down. I can only imagine that the trail down would be just as impassable as the trail going up. In fact, a backpacker had left a note at the trailhead that said the trail up on top was almost impassable-and that was on foot so it would have been totally impassable on horses.

The above scenario is the norm in our wilderness areas. I have noticed this repeatedly over the past 25 years and not just in one specific state. In talking to one Forest Service employee, it sounds like they semi try to keep the main trail open but make no attempt to keep the other trails clear.

I hear rumors that the goal of the FS is to lock us out of our wilderness areas and can only believe that these rumors are true due to the actions or lack thereof by them. They seem to view the wilderness as some supreme being and the presence of man’s foot print in it defiles its beauty and pureness. Man should not intervene in nature at all which would explain why they don’t maintain trails.

Years ago we packed into the Frank Church. The main trail going in was passable. But the other trails were impassable. If you’re not familiar with the trail system let me explain. A main trail may follow a river for 20-30 miles. So you ride in and set-up a camp. Then there are trails that go up to the top of the ridges and follow along the ridge system.

Look at a FS map and you can see the old trails. Here’s the reality though. Twenty something years ago a buddy shot an elk up on top of a mountain. There was a trail by our camp spot that crossed the river and went up to the top. Back then the trail was rideable. We rode three horses up and packed the elk down.

Now? I can’t even tell where the trail is since the FS has not maintained it and it is the only trail to ride a horse up to the top. So since the FS hasn’t maintained the trail they have effectively shut down that whole mountain range.

Let me further elaborate. What percent of the population is physically fit enough to throw on a 45 lb. pack and go on 1-2 week, 80-mile backpacking trip? Let’s narrow it down. How many people in Idaho can? 40? 75? 100? So if the FS doesn’t maintain the trails into our wilderness so that horses, llamas or pack goats can pass then they have locked 99.9% of the population out from being able to go in and explore, hike, hunt or fish in our wildernesses.

Which brings up, what is the purpose of the FS? To serve the public? Or do they have their own hidden agenda? Or are they just not properly managed and have lost their way? I’m asking.

As their paying customer my first and foremost request is to maintain trails and yet even as much as I am in the mountains I have never once actually seen a government employee maintaining a trail. I have seen a trail cleaning crew packing in. I have seen them camped along the way but I have never personally seen them cutting so much as a twig.

I don’t know if this is the gospel or not but it is what I hear. They don’t really have full-time trail clearers and that the FS is top heavy with office dwellers and sparse on employees in the field. They only hire young people part-time in the summer to clear the one main in/out trail. This is not sufficient.

Do any of you readers know what we can do correct this huge issue? I contacted the FS and they emailed me around from person to person saying they were trying to connect me to the proper person to answer my questions but that never gelled.

I tried to contact Rep. Moyle, Rep Fulcher, Sen. Crapo, Sen. Risch and Gov. Little. Sen. Risch’s office responded but couldn’t meet with me and said to submit a list of questions-which won’t suffice to rectify this problem. And to be fair to Rep. Fulcher I just emailed him last week. I received form replies but Sen. Risch office is the only one that I’ve talked to a human. I realize that we are days away from an election but still, I have been disappointed by the response. I need to meet with someone so we can set a course of action to rectify this problem.

In the meantime, our wildernesses are basically shut down to the public. Wildernesses have gone from the land of many uses to the lands of no uses. Something needs to be done.