Island Park Scout Camp

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to my Home of Island Park Scout Camp and spend three days there with my family. I got to help out at my favorite areas of camp: C.O.P.E. and Climbing.

That area of camp has a view of one of the best skylines in the world:

Thursday was pretty much just full of belaying climbers and rapellers at the climbing tower, and generally having a good time at the area I used to work at.
That evening some storm clouds rolled in, that didn't really do much, other than cool things off a little, and make for a nice sky to photograph.

On Friday, Fall River Electric delivered and set two utility poles for one of the Low C.O.P.E. elements that had to be retired until the old poles were replaced. We worked on that for a while, and then went down to lunch. When we got back, storm clouds were rolling in over Sawtell along the west rim of the caldera where Island Park sits.

We watched the clouds above us swirl in several different directions, and the clouds approach from the northwest.

We finally had to evacuate the group that was going through Low C.O.P.E., and run down to the lodge to escape the torrent. Just as we were closing in on the lodge, pea size hail began to fall, and after five minutes it turned to rain, then after 15 to 20 minutes of rain, the storm would let up for a few minutes then hail, then rain then subside.

The storm finally let up enough for me to go check my tent and make sure that I wouldn't be sleeping in a puddle that night, and to run to my car and get my real camera instead of using my phone. All in all I had about 10 minutes before a second set of clouds moved in and dropped more rain on us.

It was the biggest and most torrential storm I'd seen up there, probably ever. At least during the summer.
That evening, the remaining clouds made for a gorgeous sunset.

After everyone had left on Saturday, my family had the entire camp to ourselves, and we got to play around at the waterfront, and I got to cast my new 8 weight fly rod I'd just finished building (a post about that is forthcoming), and we cooked dinner over a campfire. Sunday came too quickly and catapulted me back into civilization, forcing me to bid farewell to my Home.

Falls River

This weekend I got to go up to Idaho and see the family, and do some fishing on the Falls River. When my dad, brothers and I all got into fly fishing, the Falls River was the first place I remember going after we'd all gotten our rods and reels, so it was good to return after having not fished that river in I don't know how many years. And it was all made better by the fact that my dad, and two of my brothers, Casey, and Riley came along as well.
On the way to the river, we drove past this burned and collapsed potato cellar, and I had to photograph it:

The stretch we always went to along the river was under an old rail road bridge. In the years we've not gone there, the bridge has been made far safer than it ever was. There are now cable hand rails, and an even deck on the ties, so there's no more danger in falling. I kind of liked the idea of risking life and limb crossing the bridge back in the day. It kept you on your toes.

After fishing the Logan River and Blacksmith Fork all year, it was a bit of a new experience fishing such a wide river again, and it really wore my arms out having to cast so far. After a few casts and a few fly changes, I finally caught a whitefish on an X Caddis. Then a little while later, after tying an Olive Serendipity to the bend of the hook of the X Caddis, I hooked into a nice Rainbow Trout. He was in the 14-ish inch range (I really need to get a tape measure), and fought like a mule. I finally landed him, and my dad got this photo:

After we'd finished fishing, we hiked back to the car, and I grabbed my camera and returned to the river to make this photograph:

Saturday, the whole gang got together at McCowin Park in Ammon for an awesome lasagna lunch, and to take some family photographs. If any of you saw pigs flying this weekend, or saw the weather report from Hell and saw it had frozen over, the reason is because I finally made "people" photographs. This is what the Duncan Clan looks like as of October 16, 2010: