Return to my Roots
by: Tom Sorenson
This past weekend, my wife and I decided to get away for a little camping excursion before she headed back to work as a special needs teacher. Our plan was to leave Thursday evening and get a spot on Brownlee, Oxbow, or Hell’s Canyon Reservoirs – any of the string of reservoirs on the Snake River.
What we didn’t realize is that by Thursday, those places are already filling fast. We finally found a spot on Hell’s Canyon Reservoir at 11:00 Thursday night. We stepped out of the car and were greeted with – heat! Unbearable heat! I couldn’t believe it could be so hot at 11 pm. I’m sure that it was still over 90 degrees, and after getting camp set up, we settled in for a pretty sleepless night.
When we woke up Friday morning, we realized that this treeless, hot camp site was also host to thousands of yellow jackets – and since I’m allergic to bees, I am admittedly scared silly by anything that is black and yellow and buzzes loudly. We packed up camp and headed up into the mountains surrounding the canyon – heading for the country where as a youngster, I camped with my family numerous times – North Pine Creek.
A fishing trip on North Pine Creek quite a few years ago. How about the style of that cool kid on the right?! (That’s me, if you were still wondering.)
We found a shady little spot well off the road, pitched our tent, and fixed a little breakfast. It was nice to be outside in the timber where it was so much cooler! We cleaned up the messy camp site a little bit – a habit I learned from my grandfather – and then I just couldn’t hold it in any longer. I had to fish North Pine Creek. It had been years since I’d fished a creek, and North Pine Creek in particular as I remember catching some of my first trout out of this small creek. I was really looking forward to catching some 7-8 inch trout out of the little stream – perfect size for frying! We headed for the river, and I tied on a trusty little Mepps – red and white – and started hitting the riffles and small holes. It wasn’t long and I caught a very small trout – as far as I know, they’re all native in this creek, and even a small native trout puts up a pretty good little fight in a small stream like that! Shanna took pictures until our camera finally bit the dust – it’s been a good camera for the four years we’ve been in procession of it,but it finally kicked the bucket on this trip, and I’ve got no pictures to show. It will take someone with more tech sense than me to get the pictures we did take off the now defunct camera. We waded down river, fishing as we went and trying to keep our little dog from getting washed away!
Alright, so I know I’m reaching for pictures – but at least this is a picture of our dog even if it is from a while back.
It was the perfect camping trip. It brought back so many fond memories for me and built some new ones as well. To top it off, I caught a couple fish that were around the ten inch mark – not much, but more than I expected the little creek to produce! We had such an awesome time and I was reminded just how doggone fun that creek fishing is.
13 Responses to “Return to my Roots”
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Sounds like a great time despite the heat. Too bad about the camera. Some pictures would have been great.
Your dog is too cute. Also, looks like I’m not the only one that likes pink.
Sounds like a good trip, once you got away from the bees and the heat. I think the dog picture is adorable too, even if it isn’t recent.
I’ve never explored that area. I’ll have to add it to my list.
@The Hunter’s Wife – Ouch! I plead both color blind and….umm, well, six years old!
I think pink was the style then – I mean, I’m sure I wouldn’t have worn something that was out of style.
Tom,
How about those short shorts where they instyle? Maybe you were a John Stockton fan, I don’t remember.
Tom, lol. Maybe you could blame it on your older brothers.
Benji – of course they were in style. My chubby legs and knobby knees look awesome protruding from those rad (keeping with what was in style) shorts.
Hunter’s Wife – absolutely, I will blame them! What are older brothers for?
That is a classic camping picture if I have ever seen one! Glad you guys had such a great adventure, and it sounds like an unbelievable place to spend some quality time with the family.
Great story, sounds like alot of fun. There is nothing better than the peace and quite of fishing a stream in the mountains. Good luck on your upcoming Elk Hunt.
As long as you had a good time and you got some great memories out of it, that is all that counts.
Bummer about the camera. And the heat. And the stinging insects. But it STILL sounds like fun.
Sounds like a great trip…. I look forward to us being able to do things like that again!