Bitterroot Mountains, Selway River and Moose Creek
Trip Report
Gear List
Day 1 - Race Creek to Three Links Creek
Day 2 - Three Links Creek to Moose Creek Ranger Station
Day 3 - Visiting the Graves
Day 4 - Resting in the Rain
Day 5 - North Fork Ford
Day 6 - Retreat
Day 7 - Three Links Creek and done
Dead Man’s Flat
The area at the confluence of the North and East forks of Moose Creek is known as “Dead Man’s Flat” - due to the presence of two graves from 1895. Dave spent a day looking for these graves during his trip, and in some ways this day marked the beginning of his true wilderness experience. For more information, I have uploaded photos of a report I found at the Moose Creek ranger station, Dead Man’s Flat by Robert Printz.
Route Information
Route start: Selway Falls Campground
Route end: Schumaker Campground at Lost Horse Pass
Dave’s start date: April 25, 1977
Marc's start date: June 5, 2019
Dave’s duration: 14 days?
Marc’s duration: 10 days
Length: 100-120 miles roundtrip
To see extremely detailed route maps, see the Detailed Route Maps page.
An out & back hike in the Selway River area of the Bitterroot mountains. Dave spent 14 days attempting to cross the mountains, only to be turned around just shy of Moose Lake by snow drifts and a lack of food. Trip is mostly on-trail next to the Selway and then Moose Creek, with a 2-day detour on side trail that I believe follows Three Links Creek (shown in red).
Dave’s intended route would have crossed Lost Horse Pass and exited into the Schumaker Campground area. Notably, Schumaker does not typically open for the season until JULY.
Start: Selway Falls
End: Lost Horse Pass
When to begin? (updated 4/15/2019)
The exact calendar date seems less important than the conditions when deciding when to start. Besides snow depth, the moon phase will have an important effect on the feel of the nights, so I think that matching the phase of the moon is important to the experience.
Dave started this hike on April 25, 1977, one day before the first quarter moon. This means that the moon was a growing presence in the sky while he was in the woods - at the start of the trip it rose at noon and set at sunset. For the first week of the trip, the moon would have been a constant and comforting presence in the sky in the evening and early nights, reaching a full moon on day 8 of the trip. But from that point on, the moon began rising well after sunset. Combined with his position in a deep valley in tall timber under a cloudy sky, the final nights of the trip must have felt very dark.
In 2019, the equivalent moon phases will occur on May 11 and June 10. As I expect to have a shorter trip, good start dates for me will be slightly later in order to catch the full moon. I believe that May 13-15 would be good starting dates for me, as long as the snow conditions allow travel at this time.
What about snow? (updated 4/15/2019)
Late April can still present winter conditions, as Dave discovered when he got snowed on several times and ultimately got turned back by snow drifts on the trail.
As it turns out, 1977 was a VERY low snow year - the snowpack was roughly half of the average. In fact, the National Snow & Ice data center cites the winter of 1977 as the record low snowpack for the Bitterroots. Unfortunately, 2019 is a slightly higher than average snow year. At this time the Bitterroots are at 115% of the historical 1981-2010 median. On this date in 1977, snow depth was 22.80 inches. Today it is 43.1 inches.
At the Twin Lakes snotel near where Dave wanted to cross the divide, there are 87 inches of snow on the ground today (April 15, 2019)!
Clearly I will need to start hiking later in the year if I am to stand any chance of crossing the divide.
Challenge: Food and Pack Weight
The logistics of a 14-day self-supported hike are brutal and come down to a single thing: how much does food weigh? A rule of thumb is 2.5 pounds of food per day, which in this case means 35 pounds of food. Dave himself lost 7 pounds on this hike, which points to a significant caloric deficit. I’m unwilling to lose weight, but also unenthused about starting with a pack weighing 50+ pounds. Air drops or horse packing feels like cheating, but clearly I will need some way to cut my pack weight.
Additional Reading
Betsy Kepes - Moose Creek Journey (Done in 5 days of hiking in August 2013)