Friday, June 22, 2012

Why Argentine North Fork?

The bridge is completely finished and the trail is 100% ready to go.  Some of you ask about its name, The Argentine North Fork Trail.  The front side of the ski area is in the North Fork of the Snake River Basin.  The back side is in the Snake River Basin which includes connections to the old town of Argentine and Argentine Pass.  Dating back to at least the mining days there has been some type of trail connecting the two sides of the mountain.  There are hints of an old trail on Upper Lenawee and along the base of the East Wall.  At some point, I believe in the 40's, there was a jeep road built up to the Summit.  The old topo maps identify that old road as the Argentine North Fork Trail. In the 60's and 70's that jeep road was substantially improved and realigned to become our current summer mountain service road.  The new hiking trail somewhat aligns with the old trail and jeep road.  There are portions of the new trail directly on the old jeep road.  Anyway, we looked at the new trail as not really new, but a realigned and improved version of the historic Argentine North Fork Trail.