Billy Creek

Hikes: D, O.
Total Distance, D: 4 miles.
Difficulty: Levels I, II.
Season: February 1-May 1.
USGS Maps: Limekiln Rapids, *Captain John Rapids.
Fish and Game Map: Craig Mountain W.M.A.
Dirt Road Miles: 9 gravel.
PLSS Location: Section 14, T32N R5W.

Introduction: This hike is in the riverside portion of Idaho Fish and Game's Craig Mountain Wildlife Management Area. It demonstrates what happens when wildlife habitat becomes the predominant management goal, and livestock grazing is halted.
  In contrast to higher, drier, steeper areas like Fort Simons Ridge, where cows don't like to roam, this riparian area has been severely overgrazed, and is recovering slowly. However, it offers good opportunities to climb up out of the old cow zone and into good grass, plus great early season hiking alongside a powerful river. And, in early spring, you can see hundreds of deer, vast herds of elk, and occasional bighorn sheep.
  This area starts to green up in February, and you may hike it from then until late April, when river levels get too high for safe crossing. The hike requires that essential item for enjoying the lower Snake: a boat, and the ability to use it on a swift, powerful river.

The Hike: Once across the river, you have three main choices: hike southeast up the Billy Creek drainage to D or W1; hike south along the river to sandbars and rapids, towards O2; or hike north along the river and some grassy benches above it, to O1.
  Your best chance to see deer and elk is to climb Billy Creek. Walk up the road past the Fish and Game cabin, which is occupied part of the year. Continue past the old barn, to a small basin along Billy Creek that is just beginning to recover from overgrazing. Turn left off the road, and proceed crosscountry up Billy Creek, staying on a very old road that follows the gentler north side. How far you go depends on the early season state of your climbing muscles! By the time the road crosses to the south side of Billy Creek, you have an excellent chance of seeing elk. You can reach the first stringer of timber at 2100 feet, where the canyon narrows.
  Level II hikers can climb south to the summits at 2660 or 2559, where you have a good chance of sighting bighorn sheep. From the summits, you can descend the ridge to the main road where it climbs above the river, near the summit at 1509.
  If you head south, you can get an excellent view of the mouth of the Grande Ronde River. Just hike the road to the south, passing the cabin and barn, and climb the divide east of 1509, a hill covered with petroglyphs. Then descend toward Captain Lewis Rapids, a good camping area with views of all the activity at the Heller Bar take-out across the river. Continue to the Grande Ronde. Public land currently ends at the sandbar next to Limekiln Rapids..
  You need the Captain John Rapids map to hike down the river (north). From the landing, just climb a bit and hit the road near the graves your map shows. These hold the remains both of Chinese miners massacred upriver, whose bodies washed ashore here, and of early homesteaders. You are on a bench that undulates above the river, offering good chances for exploration and good camping away from the noise of the road across the river.
  About 1 1/2 miles down the road, you come to the sandbar below Captain John Rapids. The southern two thirds of the bar is owned by Fish and Game. It offers a near-ideal camping area: lots of noise from the rapids, lots of sand to allow several parties to share the site, and no curves on the opposite road to make car headlights shine on you at night.
  The author is unsure of etiquette for sharing these sandbars. He urges you to simply be quiet, considerate, reasonable, and clean.

Access: Begin at the blinker at Washington Street in Asotin, Washington (5 miles south of Clarkston). Continue 19 miles south along the river. You pass the Captain John Ferry site, and then see the Fish and Game house across the river. A decent road leads down to an area where you can launch a canoe. (If you have the USGS Captain John Rapids map, you can monitor your progress from the Couse Creek Road, which is signed.)
  Be cautious: the water here is fast, and the Snake is unforgiving. Stop and watch it for a while. You have back eddies on your side and the opposite side, and the main current in the middle. The best route is to use the back eddy on your side to go upriver, so you can hit the "V" of the main current near the very top. Then, cross the main current at a gentle angle (NOT a right angle). Keep your weight low and centered, and your speed up. When you reach the far side of the "V", gradually turn right and use the back eddy on the other side. There is a decent landing area at the base of the road.