Blog Archives

With Bat Man and Snake Lady

Posted on by Kris Millgate / Leave a comment

Don’t look down now, but there’s a snake slithering between your feet.” That’s what I hear as I balance my body across two boulders while trying to shoot video.

The creepy factor is off the charts, but I don’t look down, even though I know the warning is not an idle threat. There really is a snake at my feet, plus a few hundred more on the rocks around me and several dozen bats over my head. It’s too much to take in all at once, so I focus on finishing the shot before the sun goes down, knowing it will only get worse in this desert cave on the Snake River Plain east of Arco.

Bill Doering is the bat expert. He’s married to Sara. She’s the snake expert. Despite their unusual wildlife preferences, they are the delightful couple I’m meeting in the desert between Idaho Falls and Arco. I throw in “delightful” for my own benefit. It keeps me from turning around halfway across the desert. I can’t even use lost as my excuse for not showing up, because that unmarked dirt road on the right is hard to miss when the Doerings and their big, burly truck are waiting for me at the turnoff. The only truck around is also the only truck with an abandoned cat in the cab. The Doerings found the hungry kitty on the side of the road. They have all night to care for it so they bring it along. Like I said, delightful. Continue reading →

This content is available for purchase. Please select from available options.
Purchase Only

Douglas Did It

Posted on by Jennifer Rova / Leave a comment

Come and look at these windows. I think someone has been shooting at them with a BB gun,” exclaimed my husband.

I went into the master bedroom and looked up high at the area Bob indicated. There were several sets of tan-ringed, small holes in the outer panels of two thermal-paned windows.

“Looks like it. Maybe it is kids but I think we would have heard the noises,” I mused. “I’ll go around the neighborhood and ask if anybody else has noticed or heard anything.”
As I was walking across the street, Bob yelled out the front door, “Jennifer, I found some more on the windows on the front side of the house like the others. These are way up high also.”

I knocked on door after door, inquiring if people had noticed any vandalism to their houses in any form. Nobody had noticed anything, but each one said he would check his house. Walking around our Hayden Lake neighborhood on that spring day, I reflected that northern Idaho has a basketful of weather conditions. We enjoy four temperate seasons, enough snow to make the conifer trees sparkle like Cinderella’s dress at the ball, and Windex-blue skies with cotton ball clouds. But this changeable weather is the opposite of our temperate law-and-order climate. We live at the end of a looped street, across from the north side of Hayden Lake, where there are few houses and even less traffic. It is quiet and we had never had any problems. Why would the vandals shoot only at our house? Why apparently only on the front side? When did it happen? Who did it? How much was this going to cost us to have the windows repaired? Continue reading →

This content is available for purchase. Please select from available options.
Purchase Only

Pelicans Overhead

Posted on by James Blue / Leave a comment

When the five of us, most of whom were practically strangers, embarked on our backcountry journey deep into Hagerman Valley, little did we know what awaited.

We were headed for Box Canyon Springs Nature Preserve, about twenty miles northwest of Twin Falls, near Wendell.

We all had met by way of an online “hiking interest” group. J.R. (the host of our group) posted the day trip as a chance to witness the eleventh largest spring in North America and the possibility of seeing some unique wildlife. Being somewhat new to Idaho by way of Indiana, I jumped at the opportunity to explore the rugged southern Idaho backcountry. Doug, Lisa and Mindy, the other members of the group, expressed similar excitement at the chance to see what hidden treasures might await at the canyon.

I admit that my first impression of the park, especially the flat stretch of trail leading to the spring from the parking lot, was underwhelming, to say the least. A few of us commented on how unremarkable the surrounding landscape was as we approached the park along county roads, passing large cattle ranches and farms. “So, this is it?” someone said in a rather disappointed tone as we pulled into the parking area. But after a walk of a mile or so along a well-traveled dirt road, everything changed dramatically. Continue reading →

This content is available for purchase. Please select from available options.
Purchase Only

Ineptitude

Posted on by Ryan Lynch / Leave a comment

I know the term for a skier who doesn’t have a clue what he is doing is a “gaper,” but what’s the term for someone who doesn’t have a clue about fly fishing?

Not knowing this probably qualifies me for whatever that is. I want to learn how to fly fish, maybe because I’ve watched A River Runs Through It a few too many times. In any case, I’ve only been fly fishing a few times and have begun to think it might be a myth that people catch fish this way.

When I decide to try one more time, the first thing I do is go to the local fly shop in Driggs to get a fishing license. I’ve lived in Teton Valley, a world-class fly fishing destination, for the three-and-a-half years, and sadly have never bothered to get a license. The guy in the shop looks the part of a fishing guide, so I ask him where I should go. Should it be Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, South Fork of the Snake, the Teton River? He suggests Henry’s Fork, says they’re biting on nymphs, and then helps me pick out a few fly patterns. I rush home and thumb through Fly Fishing for Trout in Streams. How does one use these nymphs? I know at least that nymphs are for subsurface fishing, so I thumb through that section. Looks like I’m going to need some tippet material and strike indicators. The pictures in the book show I will be attaching the indicator to my lead line and then tying a few feet of the material called tippet onto that, which will have my nymph on the end. The book says the strategy is the nymph will be a few feet underwater, and I will watch the indicator to see if I have hooked a fish. Continue reading →

This content is available for purchase. Please select from available options.
Purchase Only

Eagle Eye

Posted on by Kris Millgate / Leave a comment

A New Nest in the Neighborhood Story and Photos by Kris Millgate February The wind is down, the temperature barely up. The road is clear of ice and traffic. My eyes linger on the landscape as I drive
READ MORE

This content is available for purchase. Please select from available options.
Purchase Only

For the Birds

Posted on by Elaine Ambrose / Leave a comment

A Christmas Hunt? Never Again. But Still… By Angela I. Nielson This content is available for purchase. Please select from available options. Purchase Only

This content is available for purchase. Please select from available options.
Purchase Only

Hunter, Beware

Posted on by Gabriel Rees / Leave a comment

How Much Should He Tell His Wife? By Gabriel Rees This content is available for purchase. Please select from available options. Purchase Only

This content is available for purchase. Please select from available options.
Purchase Only

Gopher It

Posted on by Andrea Scott / Leave a comment

I don’t know that anyone wakes up one day and says, “I’m going to be a gopher trapper.” I certainly didn’t.

I had gophers in some of my pastures farther out from the house, but there weren’t many mounds and holes, and I’ve always been one to try to live within nature rather than dominate it. Then one day, a hole appeared right by the front door. If it had been to one side, I might have lived with that. It was smack in front of where I walk every day.

I called a gopher trapper, and he said he’d come out. Well, a few days turned into a week, and I called him and he said, oh, he’d get there soon. Soon turned into two more weeks. This time when I called, I raised the urgency a bit. He responded, and when he got there, apologized, and said, “Man, I’ve been swamped, I’m sorry.” I was a bit irritated, and said, “I’m sure of that. It’s February.”

He explained that gophers never hibernate like most people think and, yes, he actually was quite busy. One of the things I loved about Don right off was he had a great laugh and was just darn likeable. I followed him as he explained that this was definitely a male gopher and that you can tell because they usually burrow in straight lines looking for romance. Female gophers, he said, create burrows in circles. Both sexes are highly territorial. Continue reading →

This content is available for purchase. Please select from available options.
Purchase Only

The Moose and I

Posted on by Wallace J. Swenson / Leave a comment

By Wallace J. Swenson

A bead of sweat, born in the region of the youngster’s hairline, started its journey down. Stealthily, it crept across the furrowed skin of his forehead, wound its way through the roots of his eyebrow, and paused.

Aware of it, the young hunter concentrated harder on the peep sights of his Mossberg .22 rimfire target rifle. Held rock-steady, the front sight remained centered on the left eye of the fourteen-hundred-pound bull moose that stood chest deep in the water forty feet offshore. Continue reading →

This content is available for purchase. Please select from available options.
Purchase Only

JOIN US ON THE JOURNEY