If I wanted to go with Bill to Smith Creek, we would go there. Otherwise, he planned to head up the Moyie River where he would fish for the afternoon and early evening.
We went to Smith Creek.
Smith Creek is one of Bill's old stomping grounds from the days of his first summer in Idaho, working for the U.S. Forest Service.
Since 1974, I do not believe a year has gone by that Bill has NOT gone to Smith Creek. This time, he issued a pre-emptive warning.
"I will fish for 35-40 minutes," he told me.
That seemed all right and just about the perfect amount of time for me to walk around and take pictures.
So, Kiwi, Bill and I loaded up and headed toward the creek, located on the west side of Kootenai Valley not far from the Canadian Border.
Our route took us across the valley at Copeland, up the West Side Road to the Smith Creek Road and the same route back.
Even though smoke was in the air, we enjoyed some wonderful late summer scenes, where in the majestic valley, the recent harvest of grain has left some idyllic images. Up above in the mountains, the bees and butterflies are working furiously at a tapestry of wildflowers in full and fresh bloom along the roadsides.
Bill caught a few fish, yelled at something big and invisible splashing around in the creek. He thought it might be a deer, but who knows---maybe it was Bigfoot.
In the meantime, I walked up and down the road near the brand spanking new bridge where we were parked. Since the bridge currently has no egress other than a turnaround, we felt pretty safe to park there.
We stopped a few times on our way back to play "turist."
It turned out to be a lovely outing, and I'd say picture taking yesterday was even better than fishing.
Happy Wednesday.
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