Bechler River fishing report Sept 16-18, 2011

Wow, did I need that backcountry trip! I haven't had any backcountry nights in a long time. I forgot how great it is to go to sleep at 9pm and sleep til 8am in the awesome fresh air.

So, how did this trip go? Not perfect but pretty darn good.

Pete called me on Wednesday and told me it was going to rain. Well, I didn't like that news but I'm glad he told me because I hadn't looked at the forecast.  Now the forecast was calling for rain and a low of 28 degrees....snow?!?!   In any case, I had just bought a bunch of new flies and was eager to try to catch my first fish out of the Bechler River, and it was going to be my first nights out in the woods in a long time...nothing could really damper my enthusiasm.

On the way from Boise on Friday morning, Pete drove through some heavy rain in the Twin Falls area, a foreshadow of things to come. He picked me up in Pocatello under dry but threatening clouds, and we drove to Ashton under dark clouds. We stopped in at the Idaho Irresistables for a report and some flies; I was excited to find some new patterns even after buying far too many flies in Pocatello the day before. Ken was nice enough to let us know that the magic color was green.

We met Roy in Ashton; he was being dropped off after some time in Yellowstone with his cousin from England (who caught his first trout in Yellowstone on this trip!). As we ate lunch, it began to rain. Yeehaw, I thought. On the drive out of Ashton, Roy told us the YNP Ranger he talked to said the confluence of Boundary Creek and Bechler River was where all the action was and there are indeed some "sharks" to be caught in there.

Thirty minutes drive out of town and we were at the Bechler Ranger Station. We geared up and started to walk. Then it started to sprinkle. Then it started to rain. At least it didn't really downpour on us, just a nice little rain for 2-3 hours. Enough to soak my boots through the Gore-text for the first time ever.  Ninety minutes and 3.3 miles later (we were cruising cuz it's nice and flat), we set up camp in the rain. As soon as we were done setting up, it stopped raining. Ok, no sweat, at least now we can fish in some dry weather. Time to get the "sharks."

As we walked from our camp at 9C1 (a very average, basic camp, by the way, but close enough to the river to be nice....and this was the first time in my life I didn't get a picture of camp!), we saw risers all the way on the short trip to the confluence. The first few casts had immediate hits, and then the fishing pretty much turned off for some mysterious reason. It was dinner time, anyway.  And then, soon enough, it was bed time.

I wrapped up in my down bag with SmartWool beanie, gaiter, long-sleeve top, and socks...snuggled in nice and warm and dry as the rain began to pour some more. I love my tent! Ten years later, the Black Diamond BetaMid I got for $100 barely used still stays dry as ever.

Saturday was the main event. We had the basic breakfast, and then I topped it off with my new backcountry treat of Starbucks micro-brewed coffee....very nice on a cold backcountry morning. We crossed the Bechler River ford about a half-mile south of camp without incident, other than a no-kidding pain from the water being so cold...water was knee-deep if you crossed in the right areas, by the way.

From there, we bush-whacked upstream next to the river, thinking very few people ever do that because the trail is nowhere near this side of the river. Less people equals less pressure equals more "sharks" for us....or so we thought. Throughout the breezy, mostly chilly day we threw everything in the river with few results. We knew it was going to be difficult, but this was more than we expected. The sun came out every now and then to give us some warmth and remind us why we were there. We saw Collonade(?) Falls from the river, and that was pretty cool. No wildlife sightings until near the end of the day when we saw a bald eagle soaring above us.

Roy hooked into a huge fish, probably the biggest rainbow he's ever had on in the park and brought it the bank before it flipped off. I had a really nice rainbow hit my hopper while I was watching where I was walking instead of my fly; it was exciting to see the fish but would have been cool to at least fight him for a bit. Pete had a big rainbow on for a bit at mid-day but didn't bring him all the way in. I'm quite the amateur, so I was just hoping to catch a fish. Pete and Roy are pretty good anglers, so to see them have some trouble was frustrating, too. But hey, the real treat was just being in the Bechler River area and out in the backcountry.

We headed back to camp and had dinner. And then we finished the day at the confluence of the Bechler River and Boundary Creek again. Roy pulled in the fish one after another for probably an hour. I caught a few small rainbows before I lost my luck. Interestingly, I caught them on an orange stimulator while I stripped it back into my rod. Roy caught most of his on an orange stimulator, too.

Waterfall in the middle of the picture, a barely visible white speck, created a nice feel for the area.

Bushwhacking along the Bechler River.

Saturday evening, the sun had come out, and Roy was having fun at the confluence.

As I walked downstream to Pete, who kept fishing a mid-stream seam, he hooked a large fish. That large fish jumped out of the water, and I saw what I'm pretty sure was the largest cutthroat I've ever seen personally. It was huge, and I was about 150 feet way from it as he jumped in mid-stream. Then he ducked under a log and ripped the line. Dang, that was a big fish! Indeed, the Ranger that Roy had talked to knew what he was talking about when he mentioned "sharks" in that area.

Back to camp. Back into my down bag wrapped up in SmartWool. Back into dream world, finally with dry and warm feet again.

Sunday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and then packed up. But, before we packed up, we looked for my mysteriously missing fishing rod. Where was it? Thirty minutes and several theories later, I found it on the bank of the river. Somehow, I had left it there when returning the night prior. How does somebody forget their rod like that? Crazy!!

The walk back to the car was fast but relaxing. Pete and Roy surveyed different parts of the river thinking about some wish-fish, those they know are down there in a hole that they could hit if they stopped long enough to fish it. There was a ten-minute section through a mature, lodge-pole forest where you could see a fairly long ways through the trees. It was a bit surreal because ALL of the trees were lodgepole, and nearly all the ground cover was a two-foot high leafy bush that was all-yellow. Eighty-minutes later we were back at the car.

Bechler River is a must-do-trip in the fall. The cool mornings and normally warm and dry afternoons are perfect for admiring an ecosystem completely different than anything in the immediate area and certainly different than everywhere else in the park. The fishing will drive even the best angler a bit crazy. There's talk of an annual outing to the Bechler River, but they'll have to keep pulling me away from the Lamar!

Next up: Madison River browns over the three-day weekend in October! Talk about chilly mornings!

Heading to Bechler Meadows tomorrow

Gotta love fall in the park! Staying at 9C1, expecting to do some dayhiking. Buddy said the ranger said fishing is good in the area.

Forecast is 70% chance of rain on Friday night, with a low of 30. Do the math...and....that equals......SNOW!  I like to drink my coffee while the frost melts off my tent. I don't know how I feel about shaking the snow off my tent.

Pics and vids to come!

Economics of a national park vacation

An excerpt from an economics blog: http://www.oftwominds.com/blogsept11/dessert-cart-Titanic-9-11.html

If you go car-camping in a small, high-mileage vehicle, the dessert cart is remarkably low-calorie. We spent a grand total of $225 on gasoline to drive 2,415 miles (40 miles per gallon in a 1998 Honda Civic with 15-year old technology) over nine days, and less than $160 for campground fees, which ran from $12 in some Forest Service campgrounds to $20 for contractor- operated FS campgrounds, and $22 for Washington state parks. The National Park campground in the Northern Cascades Park was $15 a night. (It's generally free to camp on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. Do some web searches to discover the full range of camping options.)

I absolutely agree with the writer about vacationing on the cheap via tents and campers. I think the campers with extra gas costs, insurance, maintenance and such quickly get into the too-expensive-category, but I'm thinking about getting one (gasp..the horror!) because it will make it easier to get the kids out in the woods.

I honestly would rather spend one week in Yellowstone than two weeks at a resort in Mexico or something like that. Not only is Yellowstone more my style of fun, but is significantly cheaper. If I went to the Mexico resort, I would constantly be thinking that it's way too expensive.

My vacationing budget for just me on a fishing trip with friends looks like this:

Three nights backcountry campsite reservation = $20 per trip
Three days of food = $50
Gas to/from YNP = roughly $90 (450 miles at 20 miles/gal at $4/gal)
20 new flies = $30

$190 for four days/three nights. This is exactly what I'll be doing next weekend on a trip to the Bechler River, except we didn't get a campsite reservation (saved $20 there), I'm buying the flies on sale this weekend (saving $10 there), and I'm carpooling a total of 300 miles so only paying for 150 miles or 8 gallons or about $30 (saving $60 there). And I'll be eating some chow I scrounge up in the house and also some leftover MRE's from the recent training activities, so my food costs will be about half at $25 if I really go all out on whatever I end up buying. Total cost for this upcoming trip will be about $50.

If I spent three nights in Salt Lake or Boise, that's easily $150 for hotels (even if sharing) plus probably $100 for an event like a football game or something, for a total of $250 before we even start adding in gas and food.

The economics of backcountry fishing....saving your money, mind, and soul.

Labor Day outing report

The original plan for Labor Day was to go to Albert Moser Campground on the Cub River, east of Preston, Idaho. Well, I waited a day too long and entered into the three day period that no longer accepts reservations for campgrounds at www.recreation.gov. I was pretty sure that campground would fill up before I would be able to get there on Saturday, and by Friday afternoon I was thinking of making sure I got to church on Sunday morning, meaning my arrival would be even later. So….

Paul and I went on a driving recon of the Bear River. For several years, I’ve wanted to see the road that goes north/south along the Bear River and the Oneida Narrows. This was the year. I was really hoping to get Paul to stand in the middle of the river and do some fishing or at least throwing the fly around a bit. But, the water was really high and no sandbars were available for that. The water is still bank full. We pulled into Preston and played at a park for a bit then got ice cream…raspberry shakes in southeast Idaho are always awesome!

While eating my ice cream, I decided we would go to the Warm River campground on the Warm River near Ashton, leaving directly after church and coming home Monday afternoon. After church we packed and got out of dodge, taking far too much stuff and far too long to pack it (and I even forgot some stuff!).

I love driving near Ashton because the landscape has my two favorite things: wheat fields and mountains.

Two hours after leaving Pocatello, we were at the campground. The nice lady host asked how my day was going, and I told her “It depends if you have sites.” I was prepared to just screw around a bit til sundown then come home if there were no campsites. But we got lucky and got a really nice site by the river….then I just had to go back to Ashton to get CASH to pay. Anyways, this campground is great for one simple reason: you are within 50 feet of the river! You can’t camp by the river like this in many places anymore, so I thought it was special.

This may be the perfect river campground for families with little kids:

1. Next to a river that is only two feet deep the entire way across.

2. The tubing and floating opportunities are awesome.

3. All sites are close to a bathroom, which is perfect if you’re little one is just getting potty-trained. Of course, the little boys have it easy, and Paul took 110% advantage of that!

4. Henry’s Fork is very nearby and Harriman State Park is 30 minutes away for adult fly-fishing adventures.

All winter long, I read the “Just me and my dad” book from the Critter series to Paul, and he would always yell “We’re gonna campout!” at some point. Well, that some point got here FINALLY. We put the tent up and then played in the river. I forgot his swim trunks and another shirt!!! Aaargh, at least I had more than enough food.

After playing in the river, we took a quick trip down to the fish viewing site about a mile away. I had seen earlier that people were watching fish, and I wanted Paul to see them and get excited about them. Standing on the platform, we could indeed see many fish below us. People would throw bread at the fish, and they would rise to it and pick it off the surface. Then someone showed up with small size dogfood, and the fish LOVED that! He was so prepared that he brought several extra bags to let others in on the action.

After an hour or so we headed back to camp and cooked up some hot dogs and then marshmallows. I left Pocatello without big marshmallows, thinking I’d just get some in Ashton. No go! All that was left was the mini-marshmallows, but they were going to have to work. And they did work! Paul liked cooking them and playing with the spear…(good thing his Mom wasn’t around to make sure he was playing super safe).

Soon enough, it was getting dark and time to go sleep. This was the part I was dreading..would he go to sleep for me? without mommy around? After about 20 minutes of playing on the leap-pad, I showed him the moon. He saw the face in the moon! I don’t know if he had heard a story about it or not, but that was pretty cool to hear him say. Then all of sudden he let out a big yawn and said he was sleepy.

The sleeping arrangements had me nervous, too. Right away when we went into the tent he wanted the orange sleeping bag. Well, that would be my down sleeping bag, versus the old green Coleman monster that I brought for him because it has so much padding. We were sleeping on individual sleeping pads that can be kind of slippery, and he moves around a lot at night. I decided to put the mats together as close as possible so I could hear him if he woke up and also move him around to keep him on the pad if needed.

Paul woke up every hour for the first four hours. After a short whimper of some sort, he’d be fast asleep again, off the pad and uncovered. So I covered him up and put him back on the pad. At 1:00 am, I was tired of it and don’t remember waking up anymore til the sun was shining. The night went well! But I could have done without the interruptions.

First thing Paul wanted to do when we got up was play in the water, so that’s what we did. That water was significantly colder than the day prior! I couldn’t stand in it for more than a couple minutes. Still, we washed our faces and got our hair wet with the really cold water, waking us up instantly. He loved it!

We packed up and headed to the Mesa Falls up the road. The lower Mesa Falls were running well, and Paul was excited to see them. One mile up the road is the Upper Mesa Falls lot. $5 to park!! I guess that paved road is expensive, and keeping open the lodge there is expensive, too.

We hiked one mile to the lower Mesa Falls, keeping watch out for swipers along the way. Don’t worry, I didn’t know what a swiper was, either, til I just looked it up. But Paul was very concerned about them!  After a mile walk to the lower falls, we had lunch in the woods for a while and then hiked back. Paul is such a little hiker!

We did the upper falls boardwalk loop and then reviewed the lodge. The furs in the back room were especially fun, but he didn’t like the bear. Paul had been concerned about bears all weekend, and this proved to be no exception.

Then off to home!  A great father and son weekend, everything I had hoped it would be. Except I didn’t get fishing in, but hey that will come as he gets older.

September planning done....where are we headed?

So, I missed Awesome August in the park and the great fishing that is available up there at this time of the year.   But I'm back home now, and I'm planning to get out and about in Sweet September. Hey..that started today already!

This weekend Paul and I are going to hit the Cub River in southeast Idaho near Preston of Napoleon Dynamite fame. The river is pretty small, so it's perfect for a three-year old. It's not really backcountry, but considering it's Paul's first night out of the house without Mommy, it's about as backcountry as I want to get with him right now. We'll be a 90-minute drive away from home, so the escape is very doable but hard enough to make me think twice about bailing.

I'm expecting to do a little bit of fishing and probably a lot of hiking. Paul wants a fire, too, and there are fire rings in the campgrounds, so we'll get to do that. I guess hot dogs and marshmallows are in order then, too! Of course, we'll be sleeping in a tent. If he's asleep before 9:30pm, I'll call it a success, but my plan is to simply let him go to sleep whenever he wants to so he'll associate camping with staying up as late as he wants and therefore want to go all the time. I hope to be able to sleep in a bit, but with this kid...who knows!?

On a side note for you planners, you can see all the campgrounds available online at www.recreation.gov and make reservations there, too. But beware that you can't make reservations once you're inside a three day window to the arrival date...I'm caught in that trap right now because I didn't make reservations yesterday and they don't take phone-ins inside that window either.  A commercial site that does the same thing is www.reserveamerica.com.

Then.....for the weekend of Sept 17, I get to hit the backcountry of Bechler Meadows for two nights. It's gonna be AWESOME! I've only been to that part of the park once, but it was so incredibly cool that I can't wait to get back. The fishing is much harder than the Lamar River, but I'm telling myself I'm ready for it. Also, the drive time is about half as long, so that's another plus.