Wow is time flying by this summer! It is the end of July already. It has been a month since I have posted anything....that must mean that I haven't done anything! Well that is almost correct. It has been a very hot month with most days getting into the lower 90's and some into the 100's. I have been struggling with the effort to get out on days like this to go fishing or exploring in the out-of-doors.
I did get into the mountains to help my friend maintain some Forest Service trails. The Fish Lake Trail on the Powell Ranger District of the Clearwater National Forest was the trail maintained. We camped at the trailhead the night before and left early in the morning the next day. The photo shows Sandra and Duane getting the equipment ready to head up the trail. The wheelbarrow contraption only was able to go in one mile before the trail got too steep for it to be pushed. We made it in to the Willow Creek Trail bridge by mid-afternoon. After a break Duane went up the trail towards the cabin where he found several down trees in the trail. He finally ran out of gas before calling it quits. He will have to make another trip from the top of the mountain and the other end of the trail. We spend the night after a wonderful dinner of noodles and sauce. Everything seems to taste better after a hard days work. We got up early the next morning to beat the heat but it was hot by 800pm. The temperature had gotten done to 50 during the night. The stars filled the sky during the night.
The hike out was spent doing a lot of brushing. I am sure the "loopers" needed to be sharpened after I got done with them! We got to the trailead at 100 pm and drove home in the hot afternoon sun.
During the last month a trip was also made to the head of the Dvorsak Reservoir to catch smallmouth bass. Duane and I drove in the Grand Dad Boat launch. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive from Orofino. We went in on the Bertha Hill Road and the trip was a quit late afternoon drive. We motored the boat up the reservoir to the Salmon Creek Log landing (see the photo on the right). We fishing but it was very slow. We camped on the landing after it got dark. The moon was half full and the stars filled the sky. We got up before daylight and was fishing as the sky turned light. The fishing was SLOW! We quit at 1100 and took the boat out. We had 10 nice 1-1 1/2 lb fish. I had hooked a nice 4 lber but when I got it to the boat it tossed the hook! We seen 2 cow elk on the drive out Silver Creek. But as we approached the highway (only 5 miles short) we came upon a construction project which had closed the road. We had to drive all the way back to Grand Dad and come out the way we had gone in! An extra two hours of driving didn't make us too happy.
