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Exploring the Panhandle of Idaho | St. Joe River

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2025-07-26
Post category:2025 Idaho
Post comments:1 Comment

This trip started with a whoosh. Well, actually it started with a long slow drive up a rocky road, leading to that whoosh. The whoosh was the air rushing out of our right rear tire at record speed after being punctured by a rock. There’s nothing quite like spending the day working your way into a remote site in the forest to spend a few days, only to come up a mile or so short of your goal, and then feeling the need to go get a tire fixed. We passed the three options of camps we intended to stay at. They looked very nice. Maybe next time.

We spent the remainder of the day, and most of the next one driving out for a tire repair and then back to the St. Joe. Along the way out we picked up another flat tire. I guess the rocks are sharp on the St. Joe. Or they had a message for us. I’m going with the first option.

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Dworshak Reservoir Boat, Camp and Fish

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2025-07-08
Post category:2025 Fishing
Post comments:0 Comments

Up until this year we hadn’t had much luck at Dworshak Reservoir., which is a shame, because here is this huge reservoir that mostly has an undeveloped shoreline, nice boating amenities, but the fish we were catching were tiny. Like fall through the net tiny. That all changed this year. We started catching kokanee with a decent size to them, and figured out the technique to start catching decent numbers (hint: they are really shallow). By early June we were having 30 fish days going out for day trips. The water level topped off at full pool about then as well, which made the boat in mini camps (70 in total) easily accessible for some boat in camping. We packed up the boat and headed out for three days of boat in camping to chase some kokanee.

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Floating 70 Miles of the John Day River | Clarno to Cottonwood

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2025-06-29
Post category:2025 River
Post comments:0 Comments

Our trip started at Clarno where we departed on a 6 day trip down 70 miles of the John Day River. The deserted boat ramp at the put in was a good sign. River trips normally start with a lot of chaos as people who seemingly have no clue that the boat ramp is for rigging your raft and then moving out of peoples way mill around eating breakfast and watching their kids splash in the water. Having absolutely nobody at the boat ramp never happens. Until this trip. We received a peace and quiet bonus by getting to the ramp early, and we shoved off to the sounds of blackbirds instead of screaming kids. It’s going to be a great trip!

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