Middle Fork of the Salmon (Frank Church III)

Some quick parting shots from the crags. (Thanks Henson)

After hiking out of the crags we drove around to the campsite on Marsh Creek right on the edge of the River of No Return Wilderness.  Salmon were supposedly seen running up the river and up the creek.  We fished the creek a little the evening we arrived, but didn't see much and didn't catch anything really over 6 inches. 

The plan was to break camp in the morning, bust it the 5 miles down Marsh Creek to the middle fork, fish the middle fork until late afternoon, then fast pack out before dark.  A full day for sure.

The trail down the creek was nice.  For the most part we stayed right on the water giving it a fairly gentle grade the entire way. A nice change of pace from the crags. Pushing hard, we made it to the middle fork in around an hour and a half (light packs are a blessing!).  More trees and understory at this lower elevation.  It looked like a good spot to spot some large mammals, but only saw a single mule deer.

Saw only one salmon and he wasn't particularly interested in anything.  Totally focused on getting upstream.  However, the trout fishing was outstanding.  It seemed every hole held fish.

I hooked into a couple of heavy 14+ fish in some holes as well, this is when I regretted not having a net.  Trying to land a large fish, with light line, while standing on a rock with little bank, in heavy current, is difficult.  I would work them in, get a hand on them and they would make another run every time.  Both fish broke me off right next to the bank as I tried to land them.  This was quickly followed with lots of swearing and rock throwing... followed by bargaining with the fish and assuring them I would release them quickly, depression as I had to tie on a new fly, then finally acceptance.  After all there was plenty of biting fish. 

Even generally bottom feeding whitefish were hitting dry flies off the surface! They had super tiny mouths, but would hit the large flies.  Fun to catch.



The fishing was spectacular and we eventually did have to pack up and head back.  Great day of fishing and a great trip too.

Frank Church II

The fishing at Heart Lake was decent but not fantastic.  The lakes seemed to be a little fished out.  It was the first really good place to camp on the trail and fish so the pressure here must have been higher then else where.  What fish we did catch here were solid though.  Just had to work a little harder for it

We spent the day fishing Heart and the smaller lake adjacent to it.  We decided tomorrow we would day hike north and check out Bird Bill Lake and a couple of lakes nearby it.  Bird Bill was rumored to have golden trout.

The trail around to Bird Bill traversed around a large peak then switchbacked down it.  In places we had to negotiate the snow pack still across the trail, and erosion leaving the trail nothing more then a sandy foot path traversing a steep slope.

Bird Bill kept with the theme... stunning

It was in the 70's, but we were fishing in the snow in places.  Needless to say I had no complaints.  No Golden Trout out of Bird Bill, but lots of good Cut Throats.



We worked our way to the other lakes that we separated from Bird Bill by small streams and marshes.  The fishing at these other lakes was almost silly.  The fish weren't huge there, but almost every decent cast resulted in a rise at least.  The small streams and marshes had a surprise for me too. Amphibians at 9,000 feet! 



Columbia spotted frog

 Western Toad

We fished the rest of the day in this area before hiking back to camp.  We made the decision to hike out tomorrow and head for Marsh Creek on the other end of the wilderness. 

River of No Return!

Its a lucky thing I did return from the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area, because it was spectacular. 

We arrived in Boise and still not totally sure on exactly what our plan of action was we drove towards the Big Horn Crags section of the Frank Church.  The wilderness area by definition is accessed by trail only so it was a long drive around to the northern section to the crags trail head.  The views were nice though, passing by the Sawtooth Range

After a decent drive on twisty mountain roads we turned off the pavement and headed up.

(nice mail box right?)

After another hour and a half or so of dirt road we finally made it to the trailhead.  But we now actually had to make a decision.  We had essentially one goal, catch fish.  We knew the area would be gorgeous so the goal was simply catch trout.  It was already very late in the afternoon so we decided to hike in about 4 miles to a spring, where we would camp for the night.  The trail in was gorgeous and moderately strenuous.  It was just never flat! That combined with 9,000ft elevation can make things interesting at times. 



We decided the next morning to head for Heart Lake.  It was about another 3.5 miles in but Heart Lake was more or less centrally located so we could day hike to other lakes and fish.  Again the trail was gorgeous.  There was one lengthy climb we had negotiate.  I felt pretty fortunate since the difference in elevation from flag was only around 2,000 feet on average. 

The view at the top was pretty nice.

As we started our descent down the other side we got our first views of Heart Lake.

The trail going in from here wasn't too bad and we made good time.  It also always helps being able to see your destination!  And it didn't dissapoint.  I have found a new happy place...