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Up early, AM makes another coffee and pastry run to the Java on Main in Hailey – still great coffee!! Packing up and then heading out of town, we turn left off the highway to the Hayspur Fish Hatchery (roughly opposite Silver Creek on the other side of the road). We chat with Bob Esselman (208-788-2847), the hatchery manager about their work. This is the first hatchery in the state of Idaho and was established originally in 1907. They produce about 12 million trout of which 95+% are triploid (ie will not reproduce) for the state. They use photoperiod control to get the eggs from the broodestock when they need them as the broodstock are kept in special round buildings with aerated water and controlled lighting periods. We peeked into the buildings and saw lots of huge and beautiful and really big and really massive and really cool trout. JR offers $50 for 15 minutes in the building if left unsupervised.

Bob tells us that they have seen evidence of whirling disease in Silver Creek and Big Wood River since 1987 although at very low levels of spores. The hatchery uses pathogen free spring water for their operations. He has never seen wild or hatchery trout with whirling disease in this area. Very interesting observations. When asked where he fishes, he said he and some buddies were going to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and kick back for serious fly fishing along with their favorite adult beverages. Sounded like fun!!

Heading eastward from the hatchery, we pick up some local wildlife include a mom deer and 2 fawns and 2 young coyotes in a field just outside of Picabo. Leaving the lushness of the greater Sun Valley region behind we encounter wide-open, barren terrain which goes for miles in the areas around the Idaho Energy and Environmental Laboratories. No wonder they chose this area for the early nuclear reactors. Who would know if one blew up other than the increased light at night? We arrive in Idaho Falls at 12:30pm. Finding the local Wal-Mart on 17^th Street we are able to pick up some hip boots for AM whose other brand new Hodgmans who suddenly delaminated the felt from the boot. Flies are only 96 cents each but you do get what you pay for. Again dining on the areas finest restaurants, we grab lunch at a sit down table at Wendy’s. Full of food and anxious now to reach the fabled Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, we cruise out of town on Highway 20.

Now in what was truly the most frightening event of the trip, AM in the large, very white, very visible minivan was cruising eastward in the left-most lane of the divided 2 lane highway. The highway goes to 3 lanes as an entrance ramp creates the additional lane on the right-hand side. A semi tractor hauling an empty flatbed enters the highway slightly behind the mini-van in the right most lane. Behind us, AB is cruising comfortably along in the Chevy a couple of hundred yards back. As the flatbed enters, the driver keeps increasing his speed to pull up roughly along side of the mini-van and moves over into the lane on our right as the far right entrance lane closes ahead. Continuing to increase speed, the flat bed pulls ahead of us by about a half length of his vehicle and then continues to merge into our lane! Since we were in the lane, this created a quick problem as the truck is pulling into us! We brake carefully and rapidly to avoid locking up the tires and drives to the left-most edge of the pavement trying not to hit the soft dirt on the shoulder which could roll our mini-van. As the rear tire goes by us, we can see the top of the spinning tread at about the middle of the passenger side window only a few inches from our mini-van. Silence in the vehicle as everyone sees the events unfold. The truck is past us and we continue to slow. AB asks is we are OK via the CB; I assure him we are physically OK but mentally shocked. Voices arise about catching up with the "blankety-blank", we have volunteers for physical retribution. As driver, however, we are on vacation, the guy did not actually hit us (although not apparently for lack of trying!), and we want to move past this event. As we cruise by the truck (we are substantially faster than he is I suspect), the driver sits way back in the seat to avoid having to make eye contact with my gesturing and angry passengers. We put some distance between us and the truck; he pulls off at an early exit. I am sure the event took less than a couple of seconds, but we can all see the events clearly and as if they were in slow motion. As is so often in life, there can only be a few inches between life changing paths we might follow. We are blessed.

We reach Last Chance, Idaho in the mid-afternoon although we run into massive road works by Harriman State Park main entrance. We stop at Lawson’s Henry’s Fork Anglers ( http://www.henrysforkanglers.com )where we had the infamous teal shirt duel a couple years earlier. No teal shirts this time. Picked up the obligatory T-shirt and flies. Now it is very dark to the east, very unstable weather patters, high winds blowing downstream with huge gusts that put riffles across the water. The advice is to use 12 to 15 foot leaders with 20-22 size flies on the Ranch section. Right. We elect to go look at the Box Canyon section all the way up to the dam. Nymphing is supposed to be good here but the walls are steep and access is limited. By the dam outlet, we note the wind is lower probably due the protection of the dam itself. Headed back to Trout Hunter ( http://www.trouthunt.com )in Last Chance for some more advice; they told us about nymph rigs with multiple nymphs. Back at the dam, we tried some flies though casting is somewhat limited and the water is fairly big. GK gets a very nice 19 incher on a spinner cast way out to the middle of the river.

We head on towards at our hotel; lots of flaggers and road construction make going even a few miles quite slow and tedious. The Aspen Lodge did not have our reservations and had no rooms at all!! This is the first time a reservation on one of our trips has not held up. They feel bad (apparently they had some hired help difficulties in May when I made the reservations). We try the Village Motel and RV (PO Box 17, Macks Inn, Idaho 83433 208-558-9366) and score two rooms! We are curious about the wilds across the highway back toward where the Henry’s Fork originates from underground springs. It looks like isolated areas according to the map so maybe we can get some large stupid trout to give us some fun! (At least this is the theory.)

Traversing through the dirt roads and various turnoffs, we follow a winter cross-country ski trail in our rigs, to an endpoint. We know roughly where the river is, and hope to cross the forested but open country to intercept it. We take along some rags to mark the trail since we would be returning in the absolute pitch dark and don’t want to be lost. When we run out of rags to hang on trees, we construct large arrows on the ground from downed limbs to point the direction of our return. I am not so confident about our ability to find these in the pitch dark but, hey!, this is supposed to be an adventure. MS and GK forge on ahead and keep us abreast of their progress via the Motorola FRS radios. Now we are thinking we should find really great fishing this far from any good access. As they approach the river, the find picnic tables, 3 houses, kids playing all around, motorboats traversing the river and a good access road. So much for the wilderness experience here! Back to the rigs (the trail finders work although it is not dark so the test is kind of weak), and then to a local establishment for dinner - the Island Park Lodge and Restaurant (US Highway 20, Island Park, ID 83429). Good food and great shirts. I had the Fettucine and Garlic Bread – great tastes which can stay with you all night. It is here we learn that Island Park is the second largest incorporated city in the US west of the Mississippi behind only New York City. This is because they are measuring area and not population! The Lodge itself was built in 1947 by the fellow who ended starting the Cactus Pete chain of gambling parlors across Montana and Idaho.

Back at the hotel we reattach a couple of wayward tiptops on the rods and crash for the evening.

Up at 0630, we note the highway construction has continued unabated through the night. The road now is open and paved just by the motel where it was all torn up the night before. At the hotel office, we convince the local clerk to let us use the coffee maker to brew some Starbucks French Roast. Since he got some, he was more than willing to replace the swill they usually make. We were also able to fill our thermoses up with great coffee for the day. We contact Becky at the One Horse in West Yellowstone and add an extra night to the front of our itinerary with her. Heading back to the Henry’s Fork section by Last Chance and the Railroad Ranch section, we grab breakfast at The Angler’s Lodge at Henry’s Fork (Last Chance, Idaho 208-558-9555 www.anglerslodge.net Dave & Dede Eby). Wow! What a cool place! Great restaurant and bar location which has wonderful views across the river from all of the tables. There is a small outdoor dining area but it seemed a little cool and windy for that in the morning. The lodge and restaurant seemed sort of like an upscale Ernest Hemingway themed place with dead heads of fauna on the walls but without an oppressive dark feeling. The service and chow were both up to our demanding standards. We watched a group of fellows pleasantly flog the water without much success but did watch another single fisher who was consistently hooking trout. That motivated us to leave the pleasant surroundings and head to the river!!

We went into the section by Last Chance where there is good parking and great access all along the river. Trails on both sides of the wide expanse of river which is wadeable if one is careful. Although the sun is brightly shining in a light blue cloudless sky, the wind is still blowing in hard gusts and on so undersurface nymphs are selected by most of us. The water is extraordinarily clear but the colors are stretched out by the flows to a stunning set of greens, turquoise, yellows, golds, and browns all under your feet. The area subwater vegetation is rich in bugs, the steam affords small boulders and depressions for holding areas, it has to be a fish paradise (except for those pesky fisherman). Several of us choose to fish near the access area and several spread on down stream where the access path runs unabated for as far as any of us wanted to go. Our group hits several fish with some smaller ones. AM hooks a beautiful 19+ inch trout on a prince nymph and pheasant tail nymph combo (the hook-up was on the PT); JR does a masterful job of netting the fish while MS uses his new wide angle APS format camera to capture the event. More hookups by the team but none as nice as the one above at this time. We regroup after an afternoon and early evening of fishing in high wind conditions to head back to the dam area to fish there a little bit out of the breezes (gales?). Fishing there AM is unsuccessful with flies but JR and GK get some action on spinners (the metal kind) including a large 19 incher by GK. With the wind starting to die down, we elect to head back for an early dinner and then return to the Railroad Ranch section for the late evening fish (of course when it is supposed to be even hotter!).

Impressions of the Henry’s Fork included:

We arrive for dinner at The Angler’s Lodge at Henry’s Fork for a pleasant sojourn and meal. Menu selections included Penne ala Vodka, Chicken Avocado Sandwich & Fries, Hamburger and Fries, and Chicken Marsala (X2). Fine food and service! We will likely want to stay here for some future trip.

We return to the RR section as the wind suddenly calms at 8:30 pm. Beautiful sunset conditions! A small number of fish were surface active but no large pods of fish. Essentially the 25 fisherman in the area (everyone had the same idea we did apparently!) were enjoying a great sunset, excellent conditions for practicing the fly cast, but did not need to have a hook on the end of the line as no-one was catching fish. We stayed to the very end and came off the water at a little after 10:00 pm. Cleaning up, we headed north to West Yellowstone where we arrived at the One Horse Motel ( http://www.onehorsesmotel.com )a little after 11pm; the keys were out for us by the office. Arriving in our rooms, we again able to find for Mike the Montana All-Gun Channel ("If it moves, we can shoot it!").