Idaho Backcountry Trip Report

[C5Engineer 1170]

Well I made it home yesterday from the most epic flying adventure I've ever been on. I've been planning this trip for almost a year seriously and I've been planning it in my head since I found out you could land a plane in the Idaho brush when I was about 8 years old.

I left on Tuesday night for a quick 55 minute flight over to Jackson, CA where I met up with my flying partner for this trip Emmet. He flies a Rans S-7. Wednesday morning we were at the airfield before daylight prepping to go. We took off and headed NorthEast at first light. Our route took us North of Lake Tahoe through Emmigrant Pass and generally over I-80. We made it safely and that marked my first of many "Firsts" this trip.... Crossing the Sierras in my Avid.

After the crossing it we continued through the desert to our first fuel stop of Denio Junction on the Oregon border. It's just a gas station in the middle of no where with a dirt landing strip next to it. You have to taxi your plane right into the parking lot being careful to avoid cars. We used the same gas pump as the cars were using. This marked two more firsts for me. It was the longest distance wise I'd ever flown a plane and also the longest flight time wise at about 3.5 hours. Before this I'd never been up in the air in a small plane for more than 2 hours.

From Denio we pressed on for Idaho. We crossed into Idaho right at Homedale and then continued on to Cascade Idaho for our second fuel stop. From there it was a quick 35 minute trip into base camp of Johnson Creek Airstrip Idaho. Johnson Creek is nestled in the Frank Church Wilderness area about 30 miles East of McCall, Idaho near a small town called Yellowpine.

We arrived Johnson Creek at 2pm and logged 6.9 hours of flight time on the Hobbs meter. When at home it generally takes me 2-3 weeks to log that many hours. We set up camp right away and got the airplanes tied down and did some relaxin since we were both exhausted. Flying a small loud plane like the Avid with no autopilot of any sort while in cramped quarters because of all my camping gear for that long was pretty mentally demanding.

Thursday morning we got up and three of us flew over to the famous Mile Hi airstrip just to "check it out" The conditions were right and we all felt good about it so one by one we landed it. Mile hi is at nearly 6000 ft and is basically just a meadow on the side of a mountain. It has a very steep slope to it and is considered one of the hardest strips to land in the US. I have watched every Youtube video there is on this strip and have been dreaming of landing there for a very long time. This was a huge accomplishment for me to do this!!!! After Mile Hi the others flew onto another strip for Breakfast and Emmet and I flew back to camp and had a killer breakfast with my Dad. My Dad drove down from Orofino and spent all 5 days with us which was awesome!!! He brought us all kinds of food and some real camping gear since we were very limited on what we could bring in the planes.

Thursday evening Emmet and I flew to the strips that lie down on the North Fork of the Salmon River. We landed Indian Creek and Lower Loon. We flew over about 4 more strips but they were all fairly large strips in comparison to Mile Hi so we didn't bother. Thursday evening I went to make a small adjustment to my Carburetor and discovered one of my throttle cables was frayed and could possibly break if not corrected so I was broke down at this point. Friday morning Emmet flew me to McCall and we were able to find a shop that could build me a new cable. By noon we were back in business and after waiting out some rain and fog we flew back into Johnson Creek and my Dad the amazing mechanic had me going again in short order. Thank You Emmet and DAD for saving my butt out there!!!!!

Saturday morning we were up at daylight once again for some more flying. Today was different than the rest though. Friday night an old friend that I've known since I lived in Spokane flew in with his S-7 and also we were going to have the distinct pleasure of flying with Steve and his famous Highlander. Steve is very well known as the "Deadstick Takeoff Guy" For a while he had a video on Youtube of him pushing his plane down a steep hill above the Snake River, jumping in and taking off with his engine SHUT OFF. He then proceeds to glide it down to a sand bar and land. His antics became so extreme that he was forced to take down all his videos off the net but he produced his own DVD which I own and have watched about a million times. He is an icon in my eyes and I can only hope to get anywhere close his skill level as a pilot one day. What he can do with his plane is absolutely amazing. Having him as a guide all day on Saturday was amazing. Here is a link to how he flies most of the time. Be sure to check out his DVD he has for sale.

Saturday Steve, Ty, Emmet and I started at Soldiers Bar which is a cool strip up on the side of a mountain. From there we proceeded to 3 of 4 strips known as the Big Creek " Big 4" These strips are straight up insane and not for the faint of heart. You have got to have a plane capable of landing there, the skills to fly that plane in there, and finally the craziness to try it. Of the 50 or so planes that flew into into this Fly-in we were the only 4 people to land these strips. The second strip we hit was Cabin Creek which is not hard but once you are on the approach you are committed to land because it has no go around capability. There is a huge mountain in way. After Cabin Creek we flew over to Vines. Vines lies right on Big Creek and is very narrow and at 600ft pretty short too. On the approach the trees were mere feet from my wingtips. It's only as wide as your landing gear and has huge rocks all over. After Vines we flew up to Mile Hi again and proceeded to each take turns doing 5 or 6 landings each. It was an absolute blast. After Mile Hi we flew over to Dewey Moore.

Of all the strips I was most intimidated by Dewey. It also lies deep the Big Creek canyon and has no go around potential. The big kicker is that you cannot see the strip until about 5 seconds before you land on it because it's around a steep bend in the canyon. It's also uphill and short to land it. I flew over it high once to get a good look and then followed the other guys in. What a rush it was when I finally shut down my engine at the top. It took me 15 minutes stop shaking.

After Dewey we flew back to Johnson Creek. From the air you know why they call it the Frank Church Wilderness of NO RETURN. That is some HUGE country down there!! There is nowhere to land anyplace if you had and engine failure for miles and miles between these strips. People ask me all the time how reliable my 582 is.....

Saturday afternoon I went on a 3 mile hike to a hotspring that lies on the side of a mountain. Someone was brave enough to carry a cast iron bathtub up there. It's truely amazing to soak in a hot bath with the view that I had. You will see in the pictures. Saturday night was the potluck and wine tasting. Everyone that flew in for the event was there. It was an awesome dinner to say the least. It's always neat to put faces with names. I've known most of these people for several years on the internet but this was the first time I met most of them in person.

Sunday morning we broke camp in the dark and I was the first one to blast out of Johnson Creek at daylight. We went to McCall to top off our tanks and then basically flew the reverse route home except for hitting Cascade. We stopped in Denio again for fuel and then headed back over the Sierras. Just before the crossing Emmet and I lost Comms somehow with each other so via cell phone we went our separate ways. During the second leg I flew nonstop from Denio Nevada to Nut Tree airport here in Vacaville. I was airborn for 4 hours and 9 minutes!! This was almost triple my previous longest flight in the Avid before this trip.

Overall I burned almost 100 gallons of fuel and logged 21.5 hours of flight time in 5 days. We flew over 1500 miles on the trip meter of my GPS. I averaged 5.1 gph because I was at gross weight most of the time and running my little 582 as hard as it would go at high altitude. I'm ordering a Hacman before I do this again. I cruised at 10,500 for 3 hours yesterday with EGT's clear down to 1000 degrees. I could have burned a ton less fuel with it leaned out properly.

This was truly one hell of an adventure. Special thanks go out to my awesome wife Susanne for allowing me to go. Without her support this trip would have never happened. Thank you honey!! Also thank you to Emmet for leading the way and flying slow so that I could keep up and taking me to McCall and back for parts. Finally thanks to my Dad for coming down and helping me out during a stressful period when my plane was broke hundreds of miles from home.

Enough of my story telling...I just wish my pictures did this place justice as they most certainly DO NOT. My flying partner took over 1000 pics and tons of video so there will be more to come.

Headed over the Sierras Wed morning at 9500ft

Some of Emmet's killer pics

This one is going on the wall of my garage as an 18x20

Denio station is just a gas station in the middle of nowhere with a dirt strip by it. 91 octane was $3.90 a gallon but still better than paying for Avgas and going way out of our way to get it.

Headed in to Johnson Creek

Left downwind for Rwy 17 at Johnson Creek

Camp

Sitting atop the famous Mile Hi

A proud pilot... Again on Mile Hi..what a rush it is to land at 6000ft on a hillside

Departing Mile Hi..your tail comes up just as you head over the hill it's pretty wild. You have to pick out a tree on the opposite ridge for takeoff because you start on a flat and can't see down the slope.

Another angle on top of Mile Hi

Love this shot

The view from up there is indescribable

[C5Engineer 1170]

This is what it looks like pretty much all the time

Indian Creek

Lower Loon

Atop of Soldiers Bar

Cabin Creek... Another beautiful strip.. fairly long but no go around once your committed.

Another Avid post card shot

Vines...looks good from here but it's short with trees on both ends and it's really narrow with huge rocks on either side. This is known as one of the Big Creek drainage "Big Four"

This is Steve the Dead Stick Take guy showing us how it's done on Mile Hi. The normal way is known as one of the craziest places up there and he landed it with four different variations.

Dewey Moore

We were done flying on Saturday by 11am so I hiked up to the hotsprings.

Gotta be the coolest Hot bath I've ever taken..check out that view..the perfect end to a perfect flying day.

These dudes were from Florida

The town of Yellow Pine. It's only 5 miles down a gravel road. Not much but they had gas and beer.

The Potluck on Saturday night

That is the moon not the sun..awaiting daylight on Sunday morning

Headed back towards the desert

Some of the trip home coming across the Oregon desert

I was packed pretty tight

Flying low out across the desert..had to make it interesting somehow.

In the climb for 10,500...

One final shot coming across the Sierra's before descending into the Sac Valley.

[dholly 718]

A very enjoyable read, thanks. What an incredible adventure that must be, can't wait for the vids!

Oh, and welcome to the [other] Mile-Hi Club haha...

[C5Engineer 1170]

Short video to give you an idea of the terrain we were flying around up there

[akflyer 1427]

Nice write up! sounds like an AWESOME time. Will have to put that one on my bucket list. I was following some of the JC on the supercub forum. I see some faces from there in the pics you took!

[horsepower 24]

Nice job Joey,Thats a trip we all would like to take.Someday when my bird is done and I have a little more tailwheel and mountain flying experience I am doing a trip like that.It was pretty cool with the SPOT tracking you, looks like something we all should have especially up here in the NW and the Alaska boys should all have one.Me and a buddy were suppose to fly down to Johnson Creek Sunday morning but it didnt work out.Nice pics,might even use some for my screen saver.Glad to see your 582 purrred like a kitten,goes to show you that if you maintain them and treat them right they will treat you right.Good job man. Randy

[C5Engineer 1170]

Thanks guys it was by far the best flying trip I've ever been on. Flying around home is going to be soooo boring now after landing those insane strips. I can't wait to go back.