South Fork of the Snake, Fall 2011

I flew out to Salt Lake early Sunday morning and arrived around noon. Howard picked me up at the airport.  As we were driving back to his home, I couldn't help but notice the  mountain tops were capped with snow and the mountains themselves were full of fall colors.  This immediately got me excited because I was anticipating a beautiful fall week on the Snake River.

Once at home we discussed the agenda of the week. Howard thought it might take the rest of the day and possibly most of Monday to get all the necessary gear ready so he was thinking about setting off early Tuesday.  This would have been fine but we both REALLY wanted to make this trip as long as possible so we could thoroughly get our fill of trout and wilderness. Well, we decided to get the boat completely ready to go that afternoon so all we had to do was drive the next morning. Once the boat was pulled out, we loaded all the light gear into it and covered it up. It was ready to go.  I then made lunches while Howard packed his gear. I made 8 lunch meat sandwiches out of pastrami, roast beef, Cheddar and Swiss. I made 6 peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  I loaded up all the food into a plastic tote that didn't need refrigeration and put it in the garage.

I decided I wanted to have all my rods rigged and ready. I rigged my 5 weight up for nymphing. I had two stone fly nymphs tied on with an indicator (thingamabobber) and split shot.  I rigged my new TFO 7 weight rod with a black streamer.  I then rigged a third rod that Howard lent me, with a hopper pattern with a stone fly dropper.  Stone flies are what did the trick two years before when we went in the fall.  All these flies I had tied myself by the way. 

I then transferred all necessary clothes and gear of mine out of my suitcase and into a green duffel bag Howard lent me. This would just be more convenient for travel and camping.  Before we knew it, all was ready for the next day.  We were on the road by 10 AM the next day.  I had loaded the Lexus while Howard finished some mapping and last minute items. We had decided that we wanted to camp under the dam and float that upper stretch for the first day's float. Neither one of us had done that section before so this would be a new adventure.

Howard had a brilliant idea on the way to Swan Valley, ID.  We should stop at Golden Corral for lunch and FILL UP.  I had mentioned what our lunches were to be for the week.  Our dinners included beef stew, ravioli, soup, and chili....... all of which were to be cooked in their original cans. This actually is a great way to do dinner.  None-the-less, we stopped one last real meal that happened to be all-you-can-eat.

We arrived at South Fork Anglers around 3PM and made arrangements for a shuttle.  It was here that we were informed ( by a young, not so fish savvy girl) that the ramp we planned on using was not in good shape so we planned to use one about a third the way down the stretch of river we were to float the next day.  We bought my license and took off to see the campsite near the dam and to check out the area. It was then I somehow remembered that I forgot the milk.  Luckily there is Huskies', the convenience store fight across the street form our campsite. I ran in to get the milk and while in there I over heard a man tell the owner about a mountain lion hunting trip that almost went all wrong.  He apparently was using two goats, that were out in his truck, for bait and while he was using nature's facilities, a cougar came and he was without his gun. He frightened it off before it got his goats though.  Weird, they were good looking goats too. Made me think about keeping my knife very handy though.

 
We checked our the dam, saw people catching fish right under it and we both got excited.  We had no spinning gear so we didn't fish.  It wasn't the right environment to fly fish. We hopped in the Lexus and set off to set up camp.  We found the campgrounds in GREAT condition and to top it off they are free after September 30th.  We found an awesome site right along the river under some large cedar trees. Only one other man was in the area.  I saw an eagle's nest right on the other side of the river. Perfect!  Rain was predicted for that night and the next day.  We watched as it rolled over the mountain and toward us.  We heated up our clam chowder and hit the sack early, around 8. It rained all night long. We had forgotten to zip a vent closed and I got 2 drips directly in my eye but other than that we stayed warm and dry.  The tent was damp around the edges but no complaints for a solid night of rain. Howard bought two new sleeping bags for the trip, both rated to 0 degrees and -40 degrees. They worked wonderfully thank goodness because it did get COLD!