I'm Your Huckleberry

Once and a while you just get cranky and there is really no reason, you just don’t feel like yourself.  This happened leading into this weekend and it made me a bit depressed, and somewhat irritable. What better remedy for the “bite your head off blues” then to get away from town with good friends, and that is what we did.

Happy Hour, a little wine and margaritas.

Huckleberry Campground is a BLM pay campground located on the St. Joe River just above Calder, Idaho.  The Upchurche’s towed their Arctic Fox trailer up the river and we followed them and secured two sights next to each other.  The weather was beautiful and the campground was very nice.  Our home base was the perfect remedy for the Mr. Grouchy flu.

Fish on!!!

We spent our time exploring the area and fishing as much as possible.  We would load up the truck with our fishing gear, a couple chairs, and our lunches and then we would drive some place.  We never really had a direction or a destination in mind, we would just drive and when we got hungry we would eat.  Usually we would also fish a bit after lunch.  One of our first drives took us up Big Creek to a campground located about six miles up the stream.  Darren was spin casting while I tossed some flies.  Big Creek as not as big as it sounded and I was less than successful when it came to catching fish on this stretch.  Darren caught one real nice cutthroat which he landed and released.  About all I could did was get some minnows to strike at the bugs I had on, but all the big guys didn’t even look at what I was presenting.

Meet Lucy, she was our guide but who
always seemed to be recalculating!

 We went back to camp and had hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. Darren kept a good fire going into the night and we all sat around talking. About 9:00 PM Kobi started looking at the truck.  We have noticed that Kobi goes to his crate at 9:00 PM when we are at home, and he is real good at heading to bed around that time when we are camping.  I think he takes after me in that respect.  Whenever I am rafting, camping or at home, when 9:00 PM rolls around I start looking over my shoulder at the tent, camper or bedroom. Our son Kobi is the same way.

Lucy led us to Big Creek where we fished
and ate lunch.

We got up early and Linda, Kobi and I went down to Calder where I let the two runners out for their morning run.  On the way down we saw a doe and fawn in a grass field.  Their heads were the only things we could see as they ran down towards the river.  I let my two passengers out and then continued on up river for six miles.  I watched for game but didn’t see any and when I reached the three mile point, I stopped and let them catch up. Once they were with me, I took Kobi and we drove out to the six mile mark.  Linda came along and joined us and we returned to camp via the main road.

Bug on the run.

I fixed breakfast and then we loaded up the truck and headed up river past Avery to Tin Can Flats.  Darren and I fished along the river at the various stops we made.  I caught some nice cutthroat on stimulator patterns.  We ate lunch and explored the town of Avery, which took all of five minutes.  We found a couple Geo Caches along the way; Darren stumbled on to one when he walked up a trail head to see where it headed.  There were several graves at this site.  I will check and see if the cache Darren found gives us some further information.  The cache was hidden just off the trail and Darren found it when he was checking out the graves and the cache was under a stump but most of the camouflage had fallen away.  The drive back was uneventful.

This BM is for Al Dee. We were able to find several
Geo Caches while we were out.

At 5:00 PM we met over at the Upchurche’s for evening drinks and to watch the camp fill for the weekend.  Darren was using his new, old, Dutch oven to prepare a meatloaf that Marcy had prepared.  They made the main course and placed it in the Dutch with potatoes, carrots and red peppers.  We sat and talked, listening to XM radio.  They had it on a classic rock station and we all were trying to identify the various artists as the songs played.  When the meatloaf was pronounced done, we dug in and ate till we couldn’t eat any more.  As the sun set, we let the food settle and watched Kobi start looking toward the camper. Yes, it was ten after 9:00 PM his dog clock was right on.  I put him away for the night and returned to find that Marcy had made some sorbet.  What a great evening ender!  Strawberry sorbet eaten while Led Zeppelin played softly in the background, it doesn’t get any better.

We slept well and at 6:30 AM Linda woke up and we loaded up and headed up river for her run.  It was a short one so we crossed the river at The Greeks and went up the old train grade.  There were some Geo Caches located along our path so I found one and got frustrated with the second.  The one I couldn’t find was located somewhere in a gravel pit.  I hate caches where they lead you into a rock slide or a pit and then hide the mini cache under one of seventeen bazillion rocks.  It doesn’t take me long to give up on those. Linda caught up to me and we drove back to camp where we met Darren and Marcy.

Darren and I loaded up the Jeep for a road trip and left the ladies behind.  We drove up to Marble Creek and followed the exact path the Linda and I had driven several years back when we stayed in one of the Marble Creek camps.  The road took us up to an area where the Lines Creek Memorial Trail was located.  We parked the Jeep and hiked the three mile trail.  It was a very nice easy hike and I wanted to do it so that I could show my nephew, Kenyon, and his dad, Al Dee, the photos of the locomotive. Darren and I were amazed at how much work was done, most of it by hand or horse, to make this logging project go.  Marble Creek has a rich history with logging and mining as the focus points.  There is a great interpretive museum and visitor at the start of the Marble Creek road.

Darren approaches one of the old trestles.

This if the Locomotive that the
guide (above) talked about.

From the trail we drove up to the top of Hobo Pass and dropped back down the Marble Creek drainage.  To complete the reenactment of Linda’s and my past exploration we drove into the Hobo Cedar Grove and took a quick walk around.  The trees there are amazing, but there were so many trees that had had the tops blown out of them.  This damage looked very recent and I know that it had not happened the last time we visited.

Our drive back was fast and dusty.  We arrived back in camp and were greeted by the ladies and Kobi. We told the stories of the day and then retired to the showers to wash the dust and dirt off.

Linda and I made the last dinner of the trip.  We went with pasta and red sauce with turkey sausage, mushrooms, red peppers, and onions.  We served it with salad and garlic bread and for dessert we had popsicles.  We watched a deer grazing up the hill across the St. Joe River. The sounds of James Taylor, Billy Joel, and Sir Elton John playing softly in the background. It was so relaxing, except for Kobi and his dog gone stick! Just another scene from the laid back adventures of Canyonwren.