It certainly felt good to get out of our recent summer heat in Salt Lake City. And not a better way to venture “out-there” by traveling by motocycle, that is, if you enjoy hearing & feeling the torque of that engine; sitting in ur saddle, feeling the wind & breeze on ur helmet, and into your body; gazing forward, seeing, feeling, perceiving what’s around you, the sky, the clouds, speedy cars passing by not having any consideration of who or what is around them. Speed and haste is their way. So I just let them go by.
As I found myself in Ketchum, Idaho, early that evening, I found myself in the middle of Ketchum’s downtown construction – what a mess that was. It was riding through a maze or jigsaw puzzle. But with an hour left of day light, I finally arrived at Sunny Gulch campground just 10 miles south of Stanley.
After 8 hours on the bike, it was certainly a nice feeling to be coming “home – to my campsite for three evenings”. The camp host welcomed me as I was setting up my tent, and asked if I needed some firewood, and even offered to charge my phone at his residence. I said, “Sure”.
But Idaho was havng some nasty fires this summer. By the time the end of August came, over 117,000 acres of forest burnt. The skies were pretty smokey, so not too many stars were visible. You may catch a glimpse of some of them in the pre-dawn hours.
Stanley is quite a tourist town. Travelers, vacationers fly in from all over the States and even from Europe. It’s a grand business season time for the locals, so most businesses are pretty packed. My personal experience was that it’s not a time to experience good customer service. But now they’re offering you to pay a 20-25-30% even before you get whatever you ordered. I guess it’s a way of them taking care of themselves, but you don’t know what kind of service you will or not receive.
My first time flyfishing was fun. There were two of us in about a 14′ foor sturdy raft with an experienced fishing guide at the helm. We all got some basic flyfishing lessons…and down the Salmon River we went. The river’s water was so clear and clean, that you cud see the fsh swimming in the water. And then the guide wud say, “Cast ur line and ‘fly over there’. The fish wud see the fly, and they’d gulp at it. The you’re suppose to “set” ur fly line; that means you raise ur flyhook staright up, so that you hook, the fish’s upper jaw. And if you’re skilled enuf, then you let the fish waggle around in the water a bit to let the fish fatigue, then you slowly reel it in. It’s a Idaho fishing law that after you catch a fish, you’re suppose to return it to it’s habitat, back in the river, which we did. But it sure is fun seeing those fish swimming around, and me trying to land my “fly” in that fished-water-area.
The guides are pretty talented. They cud cast their flies’ ambi-dexturously and be pretty exact. It’s like being a switch-hitter in baseball; you can hit from either side of homeplate.
I got my 10 trout; returned them all, and our weather was gorgeous!
Look forward to next time!