The Henry's Fork of the Snake River

I had to play this one very carefully: and I did. You see, June 21 is my anniversary and it was also a day that I had off from work in Wyoming and I was invited to go fishing with a pediatric dentist that I work with. I petitioned Diane with a sad story of having very few days off this summer and asked if it would be all right if I went on this trip on our anniversary. She gave me her blessing and the planning began. Two pediatric dentists, Briant and Clark Romney travel from Salt Lake to Rock Springs to practice pediatric dentistry. They bring along their nephew, Drew who works for them. They do the surgical cases at the surgical center where I work. We always talk about fishing and lately we have been planning this trip up to Idaho. Briant suggested that I invite Tom Meuleman and he got a fishing pass from his wife as well. Tom arrived at my house at 4:30 am on Friday morning. We drove up to Briant's house in Bountiful and loaded up the boat and the truck. Briant;s son, Bri(or little Bri as we came to distinguish them) curled up in the back seat after drawing attention the mullet that Meuleman was working on.  Drew was bringing a second boat and would meet us up the road. We made good time to Idaho Falls and stopped at the Walmart and got provisions and fishing licenses. We went back on the road and met Drew in Ashton. We decided to fish the section of the Henry's fork designated Warm Creek to Ashton. With two cars we did a self shuttle and got on the river before noon. We started off picking up small fish with a dry dropper rig. It was a beautiful day and what we lacked in catching large numbers of fish was made up for by the pure beauty of the river and the experience of being in such a great place. We had a great float despite the fact that I developed a painful left shoulder. I did not injure it but it got more and more painful as the day went on.  We headed up the road and Tom and I checked into our motel, The Anglers Lodge. Then we drove out to the "Ranch" the nickname of the Idaho State Park Harriman Railroad Ranch an iconic stretch of the river known for its prolific spinner and green drake evening hatches. We saw only a few this evening and even fewer fish rising on the river. We left to go to dinner at Anglers Lodge. We had a great dinner overlooking the river and then Tom and I headed up to our room and the other three headed for a campground. It was decided to put the old folks in the motel. Tom gave me a shot of toradol before we went to bed.

The next morning we woke up to rain and drizzle. My shoulder felt only a little better but not so bad as to keep me from fishing. We had a big breakfast at Trout Hunter before we waited out a little rain and then headed up to Box Canyon for our float there. The shuttles were accomplished and boats launched and we were fishing. The Box is a beautiful canyon with some areas of really fast water. We were nymphing and had to weight our lines to get the flies down to the fish. We got some big rainbows for our efforts. We encountered some heavy rain showers that got us all shivering despite having on our rain gear. The afternoon saw us floating on calmer waters. As we got closer to the Last Chance takeout, Tom switched to a parachute adams dry fly and had a huge rainbow take it in the shallow water. We took pictures and continued on to the take out. We had dinner at Trout Hunter and the Romneys went to the ranch to fish, Tom fished near our motel and I found a hot tub to soak my shoulder in.

On Sunday, our last half day, we decided to fish the Box again. We did not want to do an all day float because we had to drive back to Salt Lake that day. The Box was perfect for that. Drew had Tom and me in his boat again and once again we picked up big rainbows in the Box. We had our nymphing rigs dialed in with prince nymphs, pheasant tails, and copper johns. Briant showed me how he ties on his weight terminally which helps from losing so many flies. It was like deja vu, having just fished the same canyon the day before. This day, however, I caught the big rainbow on a parachute adams right before we got to the take out.

There was nothing left to do but pack up and head home after a great weekend of fishing with great friends.

Wildlife Trifecta/Zion National Park

I got a few days off so Diane and I decided to go down to southern Utah for a

few days. We went by to visit our friends, Tom and Jan who have a house in

Hurricane Utah. We went for a hike along the Virgin River and came across a

desert tortoise. It is indigenous to the area but not too often seen. It was

smaller than I had expected but maybe it was a baby. That afternoon we drove to

Springdale, Utah, just outside Zion National Park. It was not the busy season

yet and we were able to find a cute little motel called Flannigans. It had a

shaded courtyard and was quiet and serene. After checking in, we took the

shuttle into the Park and got off at Weeping Rock. We hiked up to Hidden Canyon

and the afternoon sun warmed us up as we ascended the steep trail. We entered

the shadows of Hidden Canyon and enjoyed the cool air. We misjudged the amount

of water we should have taken and got a little thirsty on the way down. It was

back to the motel for a quick clean up and then to the Spotted Dog Cafe for

outside dining and a great meal.

The next day we decided on an ambitious hike to the top of Angel's Landing. It

doesn't sound too bad "on paper": about 2 1/2 miles one way with a 1600 foot

elevation gain. It starts out OK but each segment got more arduous. A pleasant

walk along the Virgin River turned into a steep uphill that got us breathing

hard and saw us making several stops to "enjoy the scenery"! Again, it was

warming up but as soon and we make a turn into a canyon, the cool air coming

down from Refrigerator Canyon cooled us down. We traveled along that canyon

until we got to the infamous Walter's Wiggles. That was a serious climb of

multiple switchbacks that got us up to Scout's Lookout. This is also where the

West Rim Trail merges with the Angel's Landing trail. We were now looking at the

knife-edged fin of sandstone that leads to the summit of AL. It is so steep and

narrow that the Park Service has installed chains along the route to cut down on

the number of dead bodies that they have remove from the bottom! After a long,

difficult and scary climb to the top we reached our goal and documented it with

a few pictures. We had to be careful coming down for now our legs were tired and

shaky and we still had to worry about the the 1000 foot drop offs on either

side. Well, we made it down and when we got to Refrigerator Canyon we looked up

canyon and saw 3 California Condors riding the thermals up above. As we

continued down, we encountered a volunteer ornithology ranger who asked us if we

wanted to see a Mexican Spotted Owl. She lent us her binoculars and we got to

see the bird nesting on the ledge of sandstone. What a treat! That is when I

came up with the term, Wildlife Trifecta.

 On this trip we saw a desert tortoise,

California Condors and a Mexican Spotted Owl. Some people go their entire lives

without seeing any of these things and we got to see all three in one trip. We

hiked down and caught the shuttle and went back to Springdale. We had dinner at

the Bit and Spur that night and slept very well. The next day it was back to

reality.