We were delighted to receive and email and amazing pictures from Earl Wutt, who spends his summer volunteering in the Frank Church Wilderness as a camp host along the Selway River.  “Paradise Earl,” as he is known to area hikers is enjoying his summer with his wonderful hiking companion Ozzie. Take a look at some of the places/sites/scenes they saw this summer:

Here is what Paradise Earl shared in his last newsletter:

It’s been two weeks since I’ve last had Internet access and much has happened! hBesides hiking/backpacking almost 100 miles we’ve had many interesting visitors come through Paradise. There’s been packers, hikers, fishermen, campers, floaters, day hikers, backpackers, along with a fairly large influx of ATVers! Let’s get started!

Paradise has been a staging ground for multiple Forest Service pack trips down the Selway. There has been two ongoing projects, grading the landing strip surface at Shearer Guard Station 15 miles downriver and rebuilding of the Bear Creek pack bridge which lies another 3 miles downriver from Shearer. We’ve had many mule trains packing gear and supplies for both the construction projects as well as feed for the stock and food for all the workers. Our corral has had overnight guests multiple times these past two weeks along with various crew members in our yard and bunkhouse.

July 4th was the launch date for one of the four or five Forest Service float trips that happen each season. I decided that it would be fun to shuttle a vehicle for this trip down to the take-out and backpack back to Paradise. I failed to realize how hot this hike can be in July! I also learned that ‘river miles’, those shown on the float maps, do not equate to ‘trail miles’ one actually hikes. Instead of 47 ‘float’ miles I recorded 55 ‘trail” miles plus another 2 or more if one includes the elevation changes along the way. Still, it was a very interesting hike as I got to see the lower section of the river and the many rapids that all the floaters talk about when there’re here getting ready to launch. Along the way I met our float group and enjoyed lunch with them at Dead Elk Campsite.

Thank you for sharing a little of your summer adventures with us! 

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