Gathering The Umphrey Family Site

Shepp Ranch, on the beautiful Salmon River--the Wild and Scenic River Corridor through the Frank Church “River of No Return” Wilderness--the largest wilderness in the lower 48, was the scene of my civic duty.

Normally, the cost is $900 for 3 days, but I had a different deal.

My favorite meal in the evenings was the barbecued pork ribs, though the grilled salmon was also quite good--and, come to remember, the roast lamb was also tasty. That’s Crooked Creek on the left in the picture. The Salmon River isn’t really shown. 

So here’s a view of the river--the sandy beach as seen from the orchard (apricots, peaches, pears, cherries, apples) in front of the lodge.

There were rafters and kayakers passing through most days, and the river has sandy beach after sandy beach. . .unfortunately, years ago a firefighter drowned in this river, so to this very day the Nez Perce National Forest bans all firefighting employees from swimming, wading, splashing or looking too closely at the water. Too bad--it was over 100 degrees most days, and the nomex the goverment provided isn’t great as beach wear.

The fire started in an ordinary way.

I was the first EMT to the Incident Command Post (nobody but Team Leader Jim Gross--a noisy ex-marine) and I helped set things up at an abandoned air field at the guard station near Dixie. It involved quite a lot of walking and I hadn’t ever put those fancy boots on before and I was just wearing cheap cotton socks since it was a travel day and my feet started to feel a little blistered, but I wasn’t too concerned. As soon as we got the tent up and the swamp cooler installed, things would slow down.

Later, the ICP was moved to the Red River Ranger Station, 15 miles farther north, which made it hard for me to get all the stuff I left behind when I was told, contrary to info Gwen had given me, that I was going to spike camp! (Later, Michael K was assigned to this Dixie station, though by then I had left the world of telephones, roads, and even radios and helicopters).

The first morning--well, it was really about two in the afternoon when the ship lifted off, but I was standing on the airfield with my duffels and wearing the cozy nomex by 10:00 am--I was given a ride down the canyon about 15 miles from Dixie to the river.

As we got into the canyon farther, I wondered how the pilot could see to fly. Most days, it turned out, no helicopters flew before about 1:00, waiting for the inversion to lift so the smoke would clear out, and some days there was virtually no flying. This would have been less of a problem if we hadn’t been 15 miles into a roadless wilderness area.

At Shepp Ranch, the main transportation is jet boats. People here boat down river 17 miles to Vinegar Creek, which is just a landing, then they drive their car another 15 miles or so to Riggins, Idaho. To get supplies or “resources"--fire code for “people"--the fire had a four-hour drive from ICP to Vinegar, then a half-hour boat ride to Shepp Ranch. They never did figure out how to make it work.

The front boat is 26 feet long and has a 460 horsepower engine. With a 2-ton load on, it draws only 6 inches, which is about the depth of some sandbars on the river. A few miles upstream from where I was are the Ludwig rapids, which only smaller boats can navigate this time of year (and local lore has it only one pilot can get through). The fire is moving that way, so I imagine logistics is interesting--though even farther upstream at Whitewater, there’s an actual road that connects to ICP (though its threatened by fire).

We ate most breakfasts in the lodge. Eggs cooked to order, with bacon or sausage, fresh fruit, pancakes, whole milk from the cows on the ranch, orange juice. One morning we had to have MREs, because the ranch was full of guests. It was pretty rough.

Since there really wasn’t a fire, I mostly hung around with overhead.

From left: Our communications team leader, Dennis Schlabach, a former DJ from Tennessee (Michael, if you were there you may know him as “Shepp. Spike. Com.”; Linda Barbee, EMT and faith healer; Ruby Moore, facilities director who negotated the use agreement for the breakfasts; Mike Goyette, Helicopter base manager; and Division Supe John Gubel, who I spent three days with at Indian Creek Ranch (which was a totally different experience).