An August Week in Idaho

August 11, Tuesday                Emerald Creek                 I left Emerald Creek campground on Wednesday with my aggregate half-ounce of star garnets, but did not stop for the night at the spot on the Potlatch River that I had chosen. And not just because it was basically a wide gravel parking area under a bridge, but also because the narrow valley was chocked with smoke—the most that I had seen in quite awhile.

August 12, Wednesday          McKay’s Bend                  So, I continued down the road to a spot along the Clearwater River about 20 miles upstream from Lewiston, Idaho. I asked the campground host if the Potlatch River, which joins the Clearwater just downstream from the campground, always dried up this time of year or was this something new. A local, who had lived at the campground for 8 years, said that this was the first time the river had dried up.

August 13, Thursday              McKay’s Bend                  After the afternoon at the library in Lewiston on Thursday, I returned to the campground to see the valley upstream on the Clearwater River full of thick, dense smoke. Fires had begun between Orofino and Kamiah—the count was already up to 21 separate ignitions, all lightening caused

August 14, Friday                   Orofino                            Keeping to my short hops from one spot to the next, I moved upstream about 25 miles to Orofino; to another small place alongside the Clearwater with just a few parking sites. Noticing a couple packing up, I asked them if they were leaving—their shady spot was the best one left unoccupied. A very distraught woman replied that, yes, they had paid for that night, but there were fires around their home and they needed to get back. He was concerned that the roads would be closed and they wouldn’t be able to get there. As they packed up, I pulled up the Oregon road closures on my phone and showed him what the current conditions were—every road to their town, Unity, was closed. With optimism and bravado, trying to convince each other that they would be able to access their home, I gave them a thumbs-up as they drove off and waved goodbye.

August 15, Saturday             Selway River                    During the night Friday, the unusual sound of people pulling into the campground woke me, with even more people arriving around 6-7am. Evacuees from the fires. The man that had parked next to me came over to talk. He works for Idaho Department of Transportation and his wife works at the Post Office. They were living at what had been her grandmother’s house on a rural road between Orofino and Kamiah, a road that also was home to her parents, a cousin’s family and others. By that time, the cousin’s house and that of a neighbor had burned. He was worried that his father-in-law did not have insurance—for the house or for the work truck that never left the property. Both of which were in pretty certain danger.

My plan had been to spend the night at Kamiah—the other end of the fires. A pilot car escorted us through active fire fighting, not because of the smoke as much as to assure that drivers avoided the trees that were falling onto the road from the steep hillsides on our right and flames both on that side and on the left between the road and the river. Across the river were flames just about everywhere you could see.

The town of Kamiah was the incident center with hotshot crews from other states and even the rural fire truck from Moscow, Idaho. Talk at the gas station was of all the folks they knew, or of one woman there, and the losses they were seeing or experiencing. I didn’t stop but decided to see what was open along the Selway River.

All the Forest Service roads were closed along Highway 2 and the road up the Selway River was only open for 7 miles—and it, too, had an area where firefighters were headquartered. While I thought that I had arrived someplace beyond the fires and smoke, within 2 hours you could barely breathe—all new fires, some surrounding us.

August 16, Sunday                Wilderness Gateway        Another hop-skip-and-jump to Wilderness Gateway campgournd perched on the banks of the Lochsa River; 89 camp sites and almost empty. The first loop was reserved for later the week and closed for the public. I randomly drove into the second loop and was awed by the damage done from recently fallen trees. Most sites were inaccessible and crews were felling and bucking fallen trees all over the area. I talked with 3 of the 4 families that were there and was told of a 4-5 minute storm that was so intense that some of the people (and the loop had been full Friday night when this occurred) weren’t even aware of the falling trees because of the strong wind and heavy rain and hail. Two trailers had to have people help get the trees out of the way so they could get out of their trailers and out of the site. I selected a site without big trees around it and none blocking the site; betting that something like that wouldn’t happen again only 48 hours later.

August 17, Monday               Powell                                As I left Wilderness Gateway Monday morning, signs showed the whole campground was closed. Fires were now burning on the slopes just above us and the crews that had been taken off of fire duty to clear downed trees were needed elsewhere.

Powell campground is about 12 miles down from the summit of Lolo Pass on the west side. My site was right along the Lochsa , beautiful and peaceful—until helicopters began working an area just over the ridge. The sound rotors beating did not change much from where they were dipping the bucket for water and dumping the water on the flames—the two locations must have been close to each other and close to us, and lasted over two hours.

The campground host couple at Powell was from Orofino and said that 79 homes had already been lost. Not vacation homes or commercial properties—homes belonging to people like the guy who worked for the highway department and his father-in-law who didn’t have insurance.