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A Pilgrimage of sorts

Montana’s version of coal mining occurred in the late 1800s in the Ruby Valley. Placer mining, basically dredging up the earth to find gold, made a few people very rich and left a swath of what was once a beautiful valley a patchwork of rock hillocks.

At one end of the Ruby Valley and north of the notorious Nevada and Virginia cities, is the town of Twin Bridges. Sitting along the Jefferson River this small town is home to a premier rod building company. Winston Rod Company makes some of the finest fly fishing sticks in the world and they do it all from a factory in this small Montana town.

Been there and got the hat.

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One of Three Forks

In the mid-seventies I spent a few years in Bozeman, MT attending college and attempting to be a filmmaker. Eventually, I turned to television, moved north and really never went back. Until this summer.

Some of my more memorable fishing experiences involved the Gallatin River, but that was nearly 50 years ago. When you put it like that, I feel quite old. 

A lot has changed in the Gallatin Valley, but the river is a constant. Headwaters in Yellowstone Park, the Gallatin flows north first meandering through alpine meadows and then rushing through a rocky canyon. It spills out onto the farmlands west of Bozeman, eventually joining the Jefferson and Madison to become the Missouri river. 

This road trip was a shakedown of camper van and kit. We didn’t even have fly rods.  Two days were spent camped mere feet from the river’s edge. A vantage point that offered many restful hours watching the stream flow by.

 

 

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A Picnic Lunch

Now you have all those salad recipes, here is what we do with them … we go for a picnic. No, really.

For starters, pick up some deli cups (and lids) at a restaurant supply store. We use two sizes 16 and 32 ounces, which is basically two or four servings.

The clear plastic cups chill quickly, don’t break, but still allow you to see what’s inside. And when empty they are are very stackable. They aren’t dishwasher safe, but they do wash easily. We’ve gotten numerous re-use out of an initial purchase.

The cups also freeze nicely so you can put several frozen dinner offerings into the cooler and they help with the chill.

On the most recent camping trip, a week on the road, we had a salad smorgasbord for lunch and dinner

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A little JULY heat

When you head out on a road trip in July you expect some hot weather,

Well … at least you should.

Add to this, the southwest corner of Idaho is your first night’s camping destination and HOT moves to a new level.

Bruneau Dunes State Park is on the edge of the Snake River plain. It is an area created fourteen thousand years ago when Lake Missoula’s ice dam breached and the Bonneville flood reshaped the landscape of Idaho, as well as eastern Washington and Oregon … the end of the ice age. 

A reservoir completed in the early fifties to supply irrigation water raised the water table and caused small lakes to spontanously appear. Idaho Fish and Game stocked them, fisherman showed up, and by the seventies there were camping facilities opened.

The State Park’s campground was a logical stopover on the journey east. Montana is really too far for us to reach in a day. This put us at the campground around three in the afternoon and even with scattered trees and the awning in full shade mode it was hot (95 degrees).

We did get to use Tip’s new ‘swamp cooler’ jacket. I know it seems counterintuitive to put a jacket on an already hot pet, but when this is soaked with cold water evaporation brings a natural air conditioner to Tip’s back.  It really worked!  

We depleted the ice supply, took advantage of camp shower facilities, and were aided by an evening thunderstorm. By ten that night the desert camp was a comfortable 65 degrees. 

Up with the sun, we started the second leg of the journey looking forward to tree lined sites along the Gallatin River … leaving the sweltering desert climes behind, for now.