STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

If the Boulder Mountain Tour was held today, racers would need water skis instead of snow skis.

A big chunk of the race course opposite Durrance Peak is missing—washed downstream with the flood waters that have ripped through the mountains north of Ketchum and the Wood River Valley for the past four weeks.

And other parts of the trail are under fast moving cappuccino-colored water.

But Kirk Flannigan, area ranger for the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, affirmed his intentions to rebuild the trail on Monday.

“The first step is to get out there with members of the Blaine County Recreation District once the flooding subsides. We have to determine: Can we repair it in place by bringing in fill dirt? Or, do we have to reroute it?” he said.

Rebuilding portions of trail that were obliterated by flooding would be the least expensive, Flannigan said. Rerouting it would be more expensive.

“Plus, we don’t have a lot of room to reroute it as a reroute would push us closer to the highway,” he added.

It’s unknown at this point what kind of damage might have been caused to other portions of the trail under water opposite Durrance Peak and in the Easley Hot Springs area.

A silver lining of rebuilding the trail is that smaller finer gravel—what’s labeled as “reject material” from road work—can be used to resurface the trail.

The large diameter gravel used to surface the Harriman Trail when it was built more than a dozen years ago is good for automobile travel but more difficult for bicyclists and strollers to navigate. The finer gravel binds together well, making it more user-friendly for mountain bikers.

The part of the trail that disappeared and is currently under water is also in the area that has been beleaguered by ice dams most winters. So it’s possible that engineers can figure out something that might address that problem while fixing the flood damage.

“We are definitely going to want to have something in place by the Boulder Mountain Tour race,” said Flannigan. “Fortunately, the trail will be on top of snow. So, if we have another halfway decent winter snowpack, it doesn’t have to be perfect.”

Water from Hyndman Creek began flowing over East Fork Road near the town of Triumph on Monday, as the Wood River Valley marked a month of flooding. The water is making travel difficult or impassable.

A few inches of water remained on Big Wood Drive in Ketchum. And some water is running along the bike path that runs along Broadford Road in Bellevue, making it slippery and fishy smelling.

The stream gauge at the Bullion Bridge in Hailey was showing 7.73 feet—more than a foot and half over flood stage Monday afternoon, as residents of Hailey’s Della View neighborhood continued to deal with a foot or more of water surrounding their homes.It had dipped to 7.44 feet by 5 a.m. today.

The Big Wood River is predicted to reach a peak height of 7.82 feet today—Tuesday, June 6—in Hailey. That would equal the peak flow on May 8 and be slightly under the record of 7.9 feet.

“It came up a lot faster than had been predicted for Monday,” said Anne Jeffery, public information officer for the City of Hailey. “And it’s expected to remain at or above 7.3 feet for the next five days.”

The temperature is expected to soar to 98 degrees in Boise on Wednesday, with snow expected at 6,500 feet over the coming weekend, as this year’s spring temperatures continue their wild rollercoaster ride.

Meanwhile, the results of tests from the Department of Environmental Quality show that contaminants in the flood waters are below Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs), the standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency for drinking water quality.

The DEQ tested flood waters for arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, selenium, silver, zinc and mercury. And all were found to be below the amount of substance allowed in public water systems under the Safe Drinking Water Act for drinking water.

None were found to pose any danger to aquatic life, either.

A Community Meeting addressing flooding will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 8, at the Community Campus in Hailey. Representatives will be on hand to address weather, weakened trees and recovery measures, among other things.

Further north, the Fisher Creek Road, which offers access to a popular Fisher Creek mountain bike trail south of Stanley, has blown out, said Flannigan. Bikers, hikers and equestrians will still be able to access the road to get to the trail. But motorists will not be able to drive the road.

Highway 21 west of Stanley was closed on Monday as the river paralleling the river tore away part of the highway.

“I don’t know of any other significant damage to trails at this point because so many of our trails in the Boulders, Smokey Mountains and White Clouds are in high country, and they’re still covered by snow,” Flannigan added.