Dawn was generous enough to let me post some of the shots she got on the Salmon while my telephone/camera was scuba diving. And this amazing shot from the Grande Ronde. Beauty.

We put in on the Salmon the next day at Spring Creek, well above the “normal people.” We passed them all a day or two later. A few days down we caught up to Shawn Baker’s conflagration of wooden dories. I think with our boats the total came to thirteen. A couple original Briggs boats, several of Andy Hutchinson plan-built boats, A Fretwater: Mike Guryan’s Wild Child, an original Woodie Hindman McKenzie, and a few other floating devices. We spent the night with them at Allison Ranch, then stayed back on our slow pace for a while.

Allison Ranch

Susie gave us a full tour and lots of herbs at Yellow Pine Bar

Dawn needs one of these cat hats.

We got to spend a whole afternoon at Campbell’s Ferry with Doug and Phyllis who brought the place back from the dead.


The Jim Moore Place. Jim built some mean cabins.

And on we went. We took a night off at an air b&b in Riggins. Wonderful. A bit of a climb from the boats but well worth the shower.

We spent one night with our old friend Pete “Dirtbag” Gross, on a one boat trip with his wife and a friend.

I think we saw more bugs than I’ve ever seen. Rare was the moment we didn’t have a visiting dragonfly.

RJ befriended the locals in the lower stretch and got us a couple bass.

And I went for a mulberry safari with local rancher Kip.

We caught up to Andy and gang again down in Blue Canyon.

The last few days of the trip saw the onset of a record breaking heat wave, which finally convinced us to take out a day early. Andy and I finally found the coolest spot to hang out:

‘Til next time!