Good and Bad Things We Learned at the Sawtooths

We are camped in the Sawtooth National Forest, just a few miles from Redfish Lake. Someone from central Idaho would already know what wonderful opportunities for outdoor activities this place has. But travelers from Oklahoma that have never been in central Idaho before, have a lot to learn--some good and some bad. So we visited the National Forest Visitor Center and the Redfish Lake Visitor Center for advice. We soon found out that Redfish Lake is cool and clear and is tucked into the Sawtooth Mountains. That's a good thing!

They have a lodge and grill, and we learned this is a good place to eat, with views of the lake, and the mountains, and all the other vacationers. This seems to be a family place, and we didn't see any of the foreign tourists that flock to the national parks. It seemed very local, and we like it.

We thought we must be looking very local ourselves, because people kept asking Mark questions. Then we realized that his outfit of the day--green shorts, tan shirt, and brown cap--could be forest ranger issued work clothes. So that's why people were asking him so many questions!

This area is in the middle of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, and they are beautiful mountains! Highway 75 is in the valley, and everyone on the highway can get a good view of the Sawtooths because they are only a few miles away. We were up early one morning, and the rising sun was lighting up the Sawtooths. They are definitely the stars of the show around here. That is another good thing we learned.

The other star of the landscape is the Salmon River that winds its way through this mountain valley. This is the second time we have camped on the Salmon, and its claim to fame is that it is the longest river in the country that is completely within one state.

Besides learning things at the ranger stations, we also learned more at the annual Salmon Festival that was happening a few miles from us in Stanley, Idaho.

There was a local band playing bluegrass music with one of the prettiest backgrounds around. We listened and danced and ate at the festival. That is another good thing!

But the highlight of the Salmon Festival was the field trip. They loaded us up on a bus and actually took us to a location on the Salmon River where wild salmon were spawning. We had several biologists and salmon specialists who explained everything we were seeing.

For example, they pointed out the lighter colored oval in the water. That is called a "redd" or salmon nest. The female salmon has already been here, using her tail to move the river rocks to make a large bowl-shaped place to lay her eggs. The biologists could tell which fish was the female because her tail was worn down from all this digging in preparing the redd.

Right now a large male salmon was hanging out at the redd, waiting for the female that dug the nest to return. You can see the dark fish against the lighter stones of the nest, hoping to be the only male when the female returns and is in the mood to lay eggs.

The reason for the festival was to raise awareness of the small number of wild salmon that are returning to lay eggs in Idaho's Salmon River. The fish that we saw today were hatched here several years ago, and beat all the odds to survive the perilous 900 mile trip from here to the ocean. After spending a couple years in salt water, they make the remarkable 900 mile trip against the current to return to their birth place. The leader of our group called them the olympic athletes of the salmon world to make it back here, especially because of all the obstacles in their way. That would include the man-made dams that make their trip so much harder. Where this section of the Salmon River once had 24,000 returning salmon, this year that total will be in the hundreds. So we are seeing a pretty rare sight when we get to see the female return to her nest, now accompanied by the male.

No spawning during our field trip, but we walked downstream to see a couple more redds. The lighter patches of river stones are easier for our untrained eyes to spot now that we understand more about the wild salmon and its plight. We appreciated the experts sharing their knowledge and transportation with us. It was a great field trip for us! Even though this is bad news for the wild salmon of Idaho, it was a good thing for us to learn about.

So if all of this learning was good, what could possibly be the bad thing we learned at the Sawtooths? Well, it has something to do with these little paw prints in the sand around our campsite.

We're not sure of the exact species, but some little rodent is wreaking havoc with our sleeping. We're still trying to figure out exactly where they are entering and exiting, but we can hear the pitter patter of tiny feet overhead in the middle of the night. They exit quickly when we pound on the ceiling, but they some times return to wake us up again. We are not loving our idyllic free camping spot on the Salmon River nearly as much after three nights of interrupted sleep. We have been reading about possible ways to get rid of them, so we are trying peppermint oil and cayenne pepper tonight. Wish us luck as we are learning some bad things in the Sawtooths as well.