The Idaho Traverse

Strong believers that adventure is where you find it, a team of three local adventurers will pioneer a variation of the Idaho Centennial Trail during a 15-day multisport south-to-north speed traverse of Idaho in the summer of 2011. The 840-mile route will forge a new line through Idaho's most beautiful and wildly diverse sections while leveraging the natural efficiencies of the terrain, utilizing packrafts, mountain bikes and fastpacking techniques. Instead of hiking the high alpine desert, we will run the Bruneau River. Instead of hiking through the Frank Church—River of No Return Wilderness, the team proposes to paddle both the Middle Fork of the Salmon and Selway rivers. Before finishing at the Canadian line, the expedition will cycle the Stateline National Recreation Trail.

Stay tuned for updates as we approach the 2011 departure date.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The Timeline

The team will depart in June of 2011.

A significant logistical hurdle will be obtaining river permits from the U.S. Forest Service to run the Middle Fork of the Salmon and Selway rivers within our proposed expedition window. The rivers are tightly regulated, and permits are granted through a lottery application; we require two permits, one for each river. Our team is working with the Forest Service to obtain special permits to run both rivers outside the lottery while respecting this precious Wild and Scenic River treasure. Should we not lottery river permits, the team will depart September 1st, immediately after river season closes and we can paddle with Forest Service permission.

In addition to the typical logistical preparations required for any expedition (travel logistics, packaging food, gear), the nature of this enterprise requires a significant amount of physical (and mental) training. In order to cover the proposed mileage in the allotted time, the team will need to be prepared to move an average of 60 miles a day without a break, and so will build the physical and mental calluses required to continue when it’s no longer fun. In preparation, the team will undertake several training trips noteworthy in their own right, including several non-stop, 48-hour mini-expeditions throughout Idaho, to hone skills under physical stress in the expected terrain.

Over the next few months, the Idaho Traverse team will also will grow an expedition social network presence on Twitter, Facebook and through our expedition blog. This will allow the team to continually push information out to our followers about our expedition, including stories and multimedia content about training trips, gear, expedition nutrition and our multisport ultralight method of travel.

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