WALLOWA LAKE — It was a wild race with boats reaching all of about 5 mph Saturday, July 22, as six homemade craft powered by mighty electric trolling motors “sped”
LOSTINE — If you see a group of boats sporting the names of local businesses and racing across Wallowa Lake this weekend, you ll be watching M. Crow’s first seaflea derby.
Fortunately the solution was standing right beside the fast-flowing mountain stream.
And it was big, too.
Fixing the problem required toppling several tons of Douglas-fir in dangerously steep terrain and then wrestling the obstinate mass into place.
All this in a spot where winter is the longest season.
Little wonder that constructing a new bridge across BC Creek, along the Chief Joseph Mountain trail, spanned parts of two years.
The single-log bridge, with hefty rails on each side, was finished Saturday, May 22.
Its completion gives hikers an easier, and safer, route to one of the grandest vistas in the Wallowas, from the shoulder of Chief Joseph Mountain.