Thread: Flying into Idaho's backcountry

This weekend I flew into the mountains of central idaho . This is the largest wilderness area in the lower 48 states, and is named the "River of no Return". The airstrip is called Thomas Creek, and lies adjacent to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. This river is famous for week long whitewater rafting trips. Below are pictures and a link to the landing video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APLQyjVBHfY

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This area is on my list with possible visit this September.

Question: When I looked at the video the strip seemed rough with fair size gravel at the end.

Do you use Tundra wheels? Is it comfortable for the CT?

josjonkers,

I do have the tundra tires, and wouldn't fly into those strips without them. This strip actually wasn't that rough. There were some rocks on it, but they weren't too bad. Maybe an inch to inch and a half in diameter, which sounds worse that it actually was.. The strip was really wide though, so I wasn't too concerned about vering off. My main concerns were decending down into the narrow canyon, and a go around would have been difficult with the hill at the end. You can go around 200' above the ground, but not once you are below tree level. Still it was 2000' long, and it didn't seem too bad, once I was safely on the ground.

Idaho has some great back country airstrips, and several are relatively easy to land on. The Idaho Dept of Aeronautics does a wonderful job of maintaining and promoting them. I hope that you can come down.

My fish is bigger than your fish!!! We went up to the Yellowstone near Bozeman last week and caught 20 fish up to 6 pound browns! I REALLY feel sorry for all you guys living up in the NW.

John

PS I'm the guys with the hairy legs...

OK, this is in the Elk River in Steamboat Springs, the fish ain't to bad there either.

This is how arms races get started

Arnold and John,

There is no question that those are very nice fish, but the question begs to be asked: Were you able to walk from your CT to the fishing hole