STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Judy Cahill’s lab-greyhound mix Brooklyn was as flabbergasted as his Mom when the two saw how spring flooding had carted away part of their beloved Harriman Trail north of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area headquarters.

“He was very sad. He’s used to going on that trail and he kept looking at where the trail had fallen off in the river. Then he looked at the river. Then he looked at the trail again. Then he looked at me, as if to say, ‘Where did it go?!’ ” Cahill recounted.

Cahill didn’t sit idly by. She stepped up to host this year’s Harriman High Tea, which raises funds to maintain the cross country ski trail and mountain bike trail that runs 18 miles from SNRA to Galena Lodge. And about 80 women turned out in summer hats and dresses to show their support for the trail amidst the colorful yellow lysimachia and other garden flowers surrounding the Cahill patio just south of Ketchum.

“The Harriman Trail needs a little extra love this year,” Megan Stevenson of the Blaine County Recreation District told them.

Jim Keating, the BCRD’s executive director, promised the women that the trail would be built as soon as the Forest Service, which owns the trail, figures out the best options given the resources available to it.

“Women of the community built this trail,” he said, acknowledging the work that former BCRD Director Mary Austin Crofts, SNRA’s Lisa Stoeffler and perennial trails advocate Jenny Busdon had done to get it started in 1991 with help from the Mary W. Harriman Foundation. “And it’s women who come out and support the trail. It’s going to be more important than ever this year because we need to rebuild.”

Flooding from a record snowpack carted parts of the trail off or took it down to river rock in three places:

• A 50-yard stretch of trail 1.5 kilometers north of the trailhead opposite SNRA broke off and was carted by flood waters to Magic Reservoir.
• Another stretch north of Easley Hot Springs has endured water on the trail for a couple months, which removed the trail surface.
• A third stretch near Baker Creek Road was wiped out when Baker Creek got out of its banks.

Keating said he and SNRA Ranger Kirk Flannigan will meet with engineers today to survey the damaged areas, perhaps even getting in the water to measure the depth.

“We’re 100 percent committed to rebuilding. Without your support, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he told the women, as they nibbled on gazpacho and pecan balls.

In the meantime, BCRD’s Trail Director Eric Rector and Summer Trails Coordinator Chris Leman have done heroic work this year repairing trails and bridges and cutting tree fall. Leman has organized two to three volunteer work parties a week to make the many trails damaged by snowmelt usable again.

And Rector is already beginning to get the trails ready for winter, repairing culverts and restoring Nordic bridges moved from their designated places by flooding. Crews used a Pisten Bully to pull out the bridge at Billy’s Bridge ahead of flooding to keep from losing it in flooding.

The rebuilding will make Brooke Hovey’s miniature Australian shepherd Luna the Lunatic happy.

“She was very upset –we had to put her in dog therapy—after she learned of the damage to the Harriman Trail,” said Hovey. “That’s the only stretch she can go for 20 kilometers.”

Jenny Busdon said she ran into Teresa Heinz Kerry earlier in the day and told her of the tea. It was Heinz who jump-started the campaign to save Galena Lodge with a magnanimous donation years ago. It was also Heinz who made a call to then-Vice President Al Gore to get the Harriman Trail off the ground after its approval had become mired in government bureaucracy.

“Barbara Thrasher came up with the idea for the tea to support the trails and I’m just amazed by how many women turn out to show their love for the trail year after year,” said Busdon, who co-hosted the event along with Thrasher, Terri Bullock, Charlotta Harris, Mary Hogg, Brooke Hovey, Linda McClatchy, Esther Ochsman, Leslie Silva, Jane Williams and Erin Zell.

While the focus this week was on the Harriman Trail, the attention will shift to the new Galena Bike Trails on Aug. 4. That’s the day the BCRD will cut the ribbon on 47 miles of trails built for mountain biking, hiking and horseback riding over the past three years.

The ribbon cutting is being held in August to allow crews to put the finishing touches on the trails. The ribbon cutting will be at 2:30 with a celebration involving beer and more on the deck after people have had a chance to get out on the trails.