SUNDAY, A DAY WITH FRIENDS ON THE SALMON RIVER

June 30, 2013 - 95 degrees

The reason we came to Stanley Idaho and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area was a recommendation from a friend on mine, Mary Ann Dozer.  Mary Ann is a Fly Fishing Guide for this area as well as the McKenzie River in Oregon.  She is also  FFF Master Casting Instructor.  I met her last year at a beginning fly casting class and she awakened my love of fishing that I had suppressed for years.  If Mary Ann says Stanley is the place to go, that's good enough for us.


Mary Ann's guide schedule opened up on Sunday and we were excited she and her husband, Dave, were available for a visit.  It was a great afternoon of hamburgers, chips, and swapping stories about experiences on the river and life.  Ironically, Mary Ann is from the same state as Ray -

Had to check out the river in front of our camping site.  It was fun to fish again with Mary Ann.  Her enthusiasm is catching.

Went on a road trip and checked out the scenery in the area.  Mary Ann showed where she drops in the river with her drift boat and pulls out.  Ray got a few pointers on how to read the river from Dave.  Even though I love Ray's company, it was so much fun to meet up with friends.  It was a great afternoon.

It was still hot hot hot at 7 p.m. so Ray and I headed down the road to cool down by the river.   We grabbed the dogs and went to two of our favorite fishing holes.  The first one already had 3 people working the hole so we moved on and found a spot of our own.  Enjoyed being cooler but no fish.

We arrived back at Torrey's RV to view the beautiful sunset.  The temperature had cooled down enough we could enjoy sitting outside.  We looked at each other and realized this is the dream we had talked about for so many Sundays sitting on our deck in Portland.  We're living the dream.









Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the 19 firefighters battling the Arizona blaze that lost their lives.  Their dreams ended too early.

We will always appreciate the work fire crews perform to save the beauty of the national parks, forests and wilderness areas that we will be visiting along your journey this year.