Goal accomplished. We skied to West Fork Cabin and stayed overnight. This has been on my wish list for the last several years and it finally came together this year.
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| Skiing up the Smith Creek Road |
I first visited the cabin two years ago in August when we backpacked into West Fork Lake to spend the night. We stopped by the cabin to check it out and only stayed long enough to change into shorts since it was quite hot that day.
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| Cow Creek in winter |
This time it was significantly colder. Temperatures hovered around 15 degrees Fahrenheit after the sun set and by morning the temperature was 4 degrees. Probably a 70 degree difference from the last time we were there.
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| Ryan pulling the pulk sled he built |
The ski was well worth the effort with the clear skies and almost full moon. We started at the Smith Creek hydro plant and skied up the Smith Creek road until it branched off to the West Fork road. This section was easy going since there had been snowmobile traffic, which left nice tracks. However, from that point on we had to break trail–more precisely, I broke trail while Ryan pulled the sled. Neither was easy.
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| Snack break at the trailhead |
The trail was the most difficult part–dodging moose tracks (as they catch your ski pole), alder brush and icy patches under trees. This was the one part I was not looking forward to on the return trip.
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| Beginning of the West Fork Trail–wish there was more snow to cover the trees. |
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| Only a quarter-mile left to the cabin |
Not quite sure where the cabin was along the trail, I didn’t get my hopes up with each turn. But when I rounded the last bend in the trail and saw the cabin, I was overjoyed. We even made it before the sun set.
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| West Fork Cabin |
Once we opened the cabin door and shutters and inspected the cabin we began firewood duty. Ryan sawed down a few large dead trees while I collected the smaller branches for kindling. Ryan assumed fire-stoking duty while I did snow-melting duty. Both full time jobs–I was amazed at how much snow it took to make a pot of water.
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| Ryan clearing the chimney of snow |
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| Melting snow on the stove |
This being my first winter overnight trip, I was glad to be in a cabin–so was Nelson. I enjoyed going out into the moonlight meadow to collect snow for water and look at the stars. The mountains glowed in the moonlight and the snow sparkled. A perfect night to be camping with a fire to go warm up next too.
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| Last light of the day–view from the porch |
I wished we would have brought enough food to stay another night as the meadows and mountains beckoned to be explored. One more reason to return next year. This was more of trial run to see if our sled worked and if we brought all the right stuff–which we did.
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| The meadow was beautiful under the almost full moon. |
I wish there were more cabins like this one around here. For some reason the Forest Service kept this cabin in good condition to be enjoyed in the summer and winter. There were many other cabins like this that either were burnt, torn down or left to succumb to the elements. These cabins were first built for use by fire lookouts and fire crews back in the 1930’s. The original West Fork cabin was built in 1930 and rebuilt in 1998 after it burnt down.
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| Cabin in the moonlight |
Like many cabins, this one had a logbook of previous visitors–which makes for good reading in the evening. Two entries were from two groups of guys who skied from Salmo Pass to Schweitzer!
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| Nelson enjoying the warmth of the cabin |
We explored the meadows some the next morning after finishing firewood duty. We wanted to leave a nice stack of firewood for the next group–an unspoken rule for backcountry cabins–so a fire could be started quickly if need be. We were hoping for some firewood to start a fire, but alas, not everybody knows cabin etiquette.
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| Cabin etiquette–always leave firewood |
The trail was quite entertaining on the return trip–I only fell three times. The moose tracks made for rough going along with dodging them to avoid getting your ski pole caught. Once we reached the trailhead it was smooth skiing down to the truck.
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| Nelson enjoying running through the meadow |
Overall, it was an awesome trip–one that I would definitely do again.
Trip Stats: 14.5 miles (7.25 miles each day)
