This is our horses high lined between trees at our camp at the trail head. We slept in out horse trailers the first night, the left about nine the next morning.
This first picture should really be the third one. I accdently skipped it the first time through, and I don't know how to put it where it should go. This is the main office at the Moose Creek Ranger Station. There were five other log buildings tucked around in the trees within a few hunderd feet of this one. The style, color, and smell is right out of the 1930's. The entire place was well maintained. We visited with the volenteer range, then rode another mile or so before we made camp.
The week of May 9th a friend, Newell Morgan, and I packed about 30 miles into the Moose Creek Ranger Station on the Selway river. I was also doing a little photo journalism for a grand nephew Charlie Stands. He sneaks into a couple of the pictures.
Our first night out we camped at the same spot that I camped at three weeks earlier when I first explored this area alone. This is about 12 to 15 miles up the trail.
At the end of the second day we are tied up at the Ranger Station.
The cabins are behind us. You are looking down the grass runway.
We camped a mile and a half from the station at the sight of an abandon homestead.
The next day we left the camp, took a lunch, and the horses to the sight of what was once the headquarters of a large ranch and packing operation. At one time it had been the location of numerous buildings, an airstrip, miles of fencing, and even a hydroelectric plant. This is a picture of the East Fork of Moose Creek which passes the area.
Looking across the creek and up the hillside you can see a rockie seam running diagonally across the high meadow. This is a natural salt lick. Deer and elk were using it almost constantly. Two more pictures down is a close-up.
A pretty horse in a beautiful setting.
Deer at the the salt lick.
Newell coming across the old ranch area.
Three fur trappers tried to spend the winter of 1894-95 at the sight. Two died of scurvy, while the third hiked out to Hamilton, Montana where, after telling his story, he was accused of murder. The next spring the bodies of his friends were exhumed, examined,and he was cleared of all charges. Now days pine needle tea is an easy remedy for scurvy. This is the wooden head stony of one of the victims. There were two markers that seem to have the same name on them, one was wooden, while the other was grant. Two men, two markers, one old, one new, I'm confused.
Resting on the way out.
View of the river. Where did Charlie come from.
This waterfall was a point of interest along the trail. It was a great trip. I hope to do something similar in the fall.
