Recreating The Past, One Step At A Time

Is there a memory in your past that you wouldn't mind reliving? A time and place where everything seemed darn near perfect, where you wouldn't mind hitting pause and it wouldn't ever go away. It may well be impossible to make the best times of our lives fall back into place, but who's to say you can't put back together the crew that caused it and go back to that same place. Maybe age and gained knowledge will keep all of that from coming back. I suppose there are instances when ignorance truly is bliss.
This time though, the past was recreated a second time and it worked just as well the second time. Fast forward another ten years from the second go around and lets find out if a third go at it will be just as good.

Trip 1, summer of 1996:
Not knowing what to expect, the four of us (Dad, Seth Ogle, Dan Harlander and myself) jumped into the four seater in Orofino with all of our backpacks fully packed and ready to go. As it was my first time in a four seater, the experience would not be forgotten. Flying over the beautiful mountains of Idaho is something that everyone should get the chance to do at least once. There really isn't much better and the experience just doesn't ever diminish. After about 45 minutes, we see the landing strip, a couple hundred yards of grass at the end of a lake in which at least two other planes make their existence at the bottom of.
Over the following five days, we hiked and hiked some more. Along the way, we caught a few fish and saw some extremely remote areas that clearly few others would ever see in the way we did. For the first 25 or so miles, we didn't see any other people, which is tough to do, even out in the deep woods. The last night of the trip, we set up camp along the Selway River on a sandy beach that was still far enough up from the end of the road that nobody else rivaled us for it. It may well have been the greatest place I've spent a night. On the drive out, we made a point of stopping for a gynormous burger, did that ever taste great after five days of backpacking meals!

Trip 2, summer of 1998:
This time Gary Gertje took the place of Dan Harlander and another fantastic trip was to be had. Instead of five we took six days, spending two days at the meeting of the north fork of Moose Creek for some extended time at the good fishing hole. On the last day, we hiked 15 miles and Seth and I decided to race the last three or so of it. Try that with 45 to 50lb's on your back sometime and I guarantee you end it extremely exhausted! Thank goodness for that big ol' hamburger again!

Trip 3, summer of 2008:
I'll let you know how it goes when I get back on the 22nd of August, but Charlene is slotted to go with us too!


Fish Lake - 1998

Near Moose Creek

Dinner, fresh from Moose Creek

Fording the Moose Creek

Do guys ever truly grow up?

Just the right amount of mountains!