July 18-25, 2010.
We had only a day or so to return from Yuba with Leon and prepare to vacation with Dave and Nancy in the Stanley area. The fender and exhaust that were damaged on the way to Yuba were repaired only to find water dripping from the water tank compartment on the motor home. We had also experienced dripping from the water tank drain valve earlier. A tear down found that screws had been used that were long enough to eventually wear holes in the plastic water tank. The holes in the tank were patched, the drain plumbing was replaced and the compartment door was re-installed way after dark on Saturday night with Lance's help. Dave and Nancy showed up also with minor problems with their pickup that were quickly fixed the next morning before we headed for Stanley. We found that our special campsite on Beaver Creek was occupied so we took a nearby site for the night. However the other campers packed up and left the next morning so we moved over. It was great to be back after several years but the only disappointment was the number of dead trees from the beetle kill that had not reached this area on our last trip. The devastation of that whole area is deplorable from the beauty it once had. We did not let this affect our enjoyment and the weather was warm days and cool nights the whole week with no rain. We spent the first day fishing at Josephus Lake and came back to camp for a fish fry dinner. Dave and Nancy don't have a dune buggy so we all rode in ours wherever we went. They brought mountain bikes and took a ride while Dad and I took walks. On Tuesday we took a ride to Stanley Lake, Stanley, the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge where Dave and Nancy took a tour, Custer and the Bonanza cemetery. On Wednesday we hung around camp and cooked dutch oven dinner and desert. On Thursday we target practiced with two of Dave's pistols, a .22 caliber competition pistol and I believe an Ruger .45 caliber using bullets Dave had loaded. He is highly knowledgeable about virtually any type of firearm and ammunition and can quote histories and ballistics like you would not believe. I got a knot on the forehead from the hammer of the Ruger pistol from recoil as it was very powerful and I did not have a firm enough grip. Later that day we packed up camp and headed back toward home. We parked the camp vehicles near Stanley and took a dune buggy ride to the fish hatchery and then to the Redfish Lake resort area for a look-see and a delicious ice cream cone. We then headed back down the river to the Bayhorse campground on the Salmon River for the night. It is so much improved from prior years that one would hardly recognize it even to include a host now. On Friday morning we dune buggied up to Big Bayhorse Lake for some fishing and returned with a nice mess of fish. Dave and Nancy took Dave's limit (Nancy did not fish) and they headed for home. They had been having refrigerator problems in the camper and needed to get a part, do some yard work in Preston and get Dave back to Jackson by Sunday night for work on Monday. The time with them seemed to go all to quickly without doing much of what we had planned but we still had a great time and hope they did also. Dad and I stayed in the campground Friday night and drove down river for a visit to the Buffalo Jump and the Visitor Center and Museum near the fork with the highway going to Challis. The Museum was very interesting with lots of history of the various towns in the area. Saturday morning we drove up and fished Little Bayhorse Lake. We had limits within two hours and I caught the biggest fish by far. All others were about the same size and very nice with nearly all being larger than any of the fish from Big Bayhorse Lake. On the way back to camp we stopped at the new state park in the old Bayhorse town site for a visit. That was also very interesting since for so may years we had had to bypass it on the opposite side of the creek and only get peeks at the buildings through the trees because the town site was privately owned. That evening we drove a few miles over to the Challis Hot Springs private facility where we camped once again near the bank of the Salmon River. The campground was very nice and we enjoyed three different swims in the pool, before dinner, after dinner and early Sunday morning before heading for home. The water was crystal clear and a wonderful temperature to both soak and do a little swimming. All in all it was a great vacation.
We had only a day or so to return from Yuba with Leon and prepare to vacation with Dave and Nancy in the Stanley area. The fender and exhaust that were damaged on the way to Yuba were repaired only to find water dripping from the water tank compartment on the motor home. We had also experienced dripping from the water tank drain valve earlier. A tear down found that screws had been used that were long enough to eventually wear holes in the plastic water tank. The holes in the tank were patched, the drain plumbing was replaced and the compartment door was re-installed way after dark on Saturday night with Lance's help. Dave and Nancy showed up also with minor problems with their pickup that were quickly fixed the next morning before we headed for Stanley. We found that our special campsite on Beaver Creek was occupied so we took a nearby site for the night. However the other campers packed up and left the next morning so we moved over. It was great to be back after several years but the only disappointment was the number of dead trees from the beetle kill that had not reached this area on our last trip. The devastation of that whole area is deplorable from the beauty it once had. We did not let this affect our enjoyment and the weather was warm days and cool nights the whole week with no rain. We spent the first day fishing at Josephus Lake and came back to camp for a fish fry dinner. Dave and Nancy don't have a dune buggy so we all rode in ours wherever we went. They brought mountain bikes and took a ride while Dad and I took walks. On Tuesday we took a ride to Stanley Lake, Stanley, the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge where Dave and Nancy took a tour, Custer and the Bonanza cemetery. On Wednesday we hung around camp and cooked dutch oven dinner and desert. On Thursday we target practiced with two of Dave's pistols, a .22 caliber competition pistol and I believe an Ruger .45 caliber using bullets Dave had loaded. He is highly knowledgeable about virtually any type of firearm and ammunition and can quote histories and ballistics like you would not believe. I got a knot on the forehead from the hammer of the Ruger pistol from recoil as it was very powerful and I did not have a firm enough grip. Later that day we packed up camp and headed back toward home. We parked the camp vehicles near Stanley and took a dune buggy ride to the fish hatchery and then to the Redfish Lake resort area for a look-see and a delicious ice cream cone. We then headed back down the river to the Bayhorse campground on the Salmon River for the night. It is so much improved from prior years that one would hardly recognize it even to include a host now. On Friday morning we dune buggied up to Big Bayhorse Lake for some fishing and returned with a nice mess of fish. Dave and Nancy took Dave's limit (Nancy did not fish) and they headed for home. They had been having refrigerator problems in the camper and needed to get a part, do some yard work in Preston and get Dave back to Jackson by Sunday night for work on Monday. The time with them seemed to go all to quickly without doing much of what we had planned but we still had a great time and hope they did also. Dad and I stayed in the campground Friday night and drove down river for a visit to the Buffalo Jump and the Visitor Center and Museum near the fork with the highway going to Challis. The Museum was very interesting with lots of history of the various towns in the area. Saturday morning we drove up and fished Little Bayhorse Lake. We had limits within two hours and I caught the biggest fish by far. All others were about the same size and very nice with nearly all being larger than any of the fish from Big Bayhorse Lake. On the way back to camp we stopped at the new state park in the old Bayhorse town site for a visit. That was also very interesting since for so may years we had had to bypass it on the opposite side of the creek and only get peeks at the buildings through the trees because the town site was privately owned. That evening we drove a few miles over to the Challis Hot Springs private facility where we camped once again near the bank of the Salmon River. The campground was very nice and we enjoyed three different swims in the pool, before dinner, after dinner and early Sunday morning before heading for home. The water was crystal clear and a wonderful temperature to both soak and do a little swimming. All in all it was a great vacation.
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