Ben Brock checked in with Andy Johnson last night via satellite phone. According to Ben, everybody is doing great and having a good time. They hiked about eight miles on their way down from Meadow Ridge to Indian Creek today and camped at Kwiskwis Hot Springs along Indian Creek. If you have an Idaho topographic gazeteer, you can locate them about 17 (straightline) miles SE from Yellow Pine. On Tuesday, the group heads to Pistol Creek on the Middle Fork of the Salmon so another student can join the group.

The photos below were taken as the crew worked their way into the trailhead on Monday afternoon. Andy and Ben cleared 20+ dead falls in order to get them this close to the trailhead!

Outdoor Program Director, Ben Brock, and Middle School math teacher, Jen Coffey, left Riverstone this morning with nine middle and high school students on a nine day trek along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

According to Ben, here’s the plan:

“We will leave on Monday and travel to Yellowpine ID, east of Cascade. The following morning, we will begin hiking down Indian Creek, one of the major tributaries of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Once we join the Middle Fork, we will hike upstream towards our ultimate goal of Marsh Creek Trailhead near Stanley. Our route will parallel the Middle Fork and along the way we will pass several backcountry landing strips, a couple Forest Service Guard Stations, numerous hot springs, and innumerable fantastic fishing holes. Additionally, the majority of the hike will take place on Idaho’s Centennial Trail, which begins on our southern border with Nevada and ends on the Canadian border in the north.

The Summer Middle Fork Trek will take us through my favorite section of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, which is considered one of the crown jewels of America’s Wild and Scenic River system. In addition to the hot springs, the fishing, and the amazing scenery, we will also pass through many Native American sites along the river, including ancient hunting blinds and campsites where I have personally found arrowheads, scrapers and spear points.

Over the course of nine days on the trail we will cover approximately 60 miles of gradually uphill terrain; definitely a reasonable distance given our strong crew. We will finish our hike, as originally planned, on Wednesday, July 27 near Stanley. After loading up our gear and a final jump in the creek, we’ll head to Stanley for a burger and then head for Boise.

I’m truly excited about this trip and can’t wait to show our young hikers one of the places that helped define me as a person.”

Ben Brock, Outdoor Director, wrote the following email to Grade 10 students who were in his group for last week’s outdoor trip and copied their parents. Students spent five days backpacking along Sheep Creek in southeastern Idaho.

“I’m sure you’ve all had a chance to share stories with parents/teachers etc by now and I just wanted to weigh in and say that last week was one of the most relaxed, entertaining, and rewarding Riverstone trips that I’ve been on. From being able to let you all do the bulk of the cooking and navigation, to learning new camp games, to post-dinner hiking, to the coolest wilderness discovery I’ve ever made, I’ll remember this trip for a long time. It is definitely a challenging environment, but I think you took it all in stride, especially considering that only four of you were born in North America.

I hope that, if nothing else, you have all gained a new understanding (or maybe even appreciation) of what it means to live in southern Idaho. It is a pretty wild place when you get just a few miles off the beaten path.

One last piece of Outdoor Program Director advice: don’t forget to dry out your sleeping bags and tents before you put them away until the next trip…

With that, here are some of my favorite shots from the trip….thanks to you all for making it so great!”