Pioneer Family; White Water; A Cutie By the Fireplace; Brrrr.....; A Tale of Four Fishies

While reading the Oregon Trail Hysterical Markers, I found several inscribed stones on the wall of the Visitor’s Center. One was for Oleah Crockett True, whose parents had been two of the pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail and settled here in Glenn’s Ferry. Distantly related to Davy Crockett, she must have had some wonderful stories of life out West for her children. 

We departed our Snake River campground and traveled through busy Boise into real Idaho mountains. State Highway 55 took us up along the Payette River. It was a steep, windy, narrow two lane road, and much of the route was through a canyon cut by the river. This typical scene shows the Class 5 white water that the Payette is famous for. Expert kayakers consider the Payette one of the most challenging Class 5 runs in the world. (Class 6 is considered impossible or too dangerous to attempt.) Take a look at the semis in this photo to get an idea of the scope of this attention-getting river.

Our latest campground is at Ponderosa State Park in McCall, Idaho. We are snuggled into a site with a large Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa... I'm not kidding about its scientific name!) only 4 inches from the side of The Coach. There is no cell phone service, but WiFi is available for a daily fee. Since we are staying Tuesday-Friday, the campground is only sparsely occupied, which we really like. The weather here is not as warm as that back in The Villages. Today was in the mid-40s with wind and rain; tonight is supposed to drop into the 30s. (Did I mean 30 Centigrade? No, 30s F, like just a few degrees above FREEZING!) We had our electric fireplace running all day long; Gretchen especially liked curling up in front of its vents (she hates being cold!)

My Lovely Bride thought that a mountain biking excursion would be fun today. I voted for dozing in front of the fireplace with Gretchen, but was outvoted 10-1 (husbands will understand my math). We rode a great bike trail along Lake Payette and up over a big hill, leaving us ready for the fast downhill scream on the other side. Here she is (with a plastic bag over her seat) just before a thunderstorm arrived and we had to seek shelter in The Coach. 

Idaho is also known for its skiing, hunting and fishing. I chose to check out the last activity, and wet my line first at Little Lake Payette. It was a very pretty mountain lake, ringed with trees and no houses at all, but I had not a nibble there... 

... so I moved on to a small unnamed lake, cast my ultralight lure... and Bingo! Four rainbow trout landed in one hour; another two threw the hooks and one stinker took my lure. (And yes, Bob, they were all larger than sardines!)

Here is one happy fisherman preparing a trout dinner for His Lovely Bride. You can’t smell the garlic, but rest assured that no werewolves will come around for several days...