The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1922-08-24
ADVENTURES OF tom
and Me- =
Johnson Creek Full of Trout and
Woods Fairly Alive
With Deer

brakes Lodge at Knox, Monday
night-"Tom and Me" are just back
from four-day fishing expedition to
johnson creek Ia miles from here. We
had great sport, and made big catch
Of rainbows. The beauty of the fish
ing is that the trout will rise for q
fly, making the sport really worth
while. Just as we were breaking
camp, Guy Mains and Larry Phelan
rode up on horseback with three sal
mon they had shot about 10 miles far
ther down stream. One of them
weighed 35 pounds. Salmon are run
ming now and trout are forgotten
Guy and Larry say they found a
school of about thirty-five. Guy
chased 'em on horseback and attempt
ed to rope them, but their horns were
too small to hold the rope, so he used
gun.
The trip was made in the mail wag-
on, over one of the toughest roads we
have ever rode over. Dan Drake has
the contract to deliver the mail to
Yellow Pine. In the winter time he
uses dog sled as the snow is from
six to IA feet deep. Going north
from the Cabin Creek summit, many
of the pine trees along the road are
girdled about 10 feet from the ground.
This, we were told by "Hank," the
stage driver, was done by porcupines
last winter, standing on the snow
while eating the bark.
Our camp was made about half a
mile above Burnt Log Creek. Every
night we kept awake by varmints of
some kind who held high carnival
inside and outside the tent. Guy
Mains says they were flying squirrels,
Tom guessed they were bears and l
just knew they were mountain lions.
Whatever they were, they certainly
had the time of their young lives.
Their first stunt was to turn the roof
into toboggan slide; then they turn
ed it into a jazz dance that would
make the Emmett band look like a
Sunday school picnic. At times they
would rush into the tent and grab a
lock of Toms hair with which to line
their nests. One, that | guessed was
a big wood rat, had a surprise when
he ran across my face and got his
feet filled full of splinters from my
stubby beard. The pesky things were
into everything, but when they tackl-
ed the "hop-toad" they danced the
hornpipe like a pack of drunken sail
ors. They were sorry when we left
they bid US goodbye with tears
down their faces.
Then there are other noises which
one hears only where the mountain
streams dash over boulders and the
pines whisper their secrets-noises
tnat one hears only at night. Wax
ing up during the night, Johnson
Creek at times sounded as if the wind
we're blowing through the elms at
home. bearing in its wake a storm,
and unconsciously we were about to
arise to close the windows; at other
lines it sounded as if the wagons of
A circus were rumbling along in the
distance Then there is the peculiar
noise that the wind makes when it
blows through the branches of the
,ine trees, and which doubtless sug-
rested "the whispering pines" They
ire noises so harmonious as to lull
o slumber he who hears them.
That you may judge how good the
ishing is, let me tell you that Tom
vas pulling Hing them ont two at a time
n fact, they came so fast that he
Iung them on the branches of trees
nd picked them off at his leisure
S one would pick prunes or peaches
t home.
Friday night Johnson was the scene
brilliant electric storm, accom-
anied by heavy rain. Such thun-
er and Tightening / have not
experienced since leaving Kansas. The
orest rangers had busy "a hours
Many fires were started,
ut the fire watch is so systematic
nd thorough that all were promptly
ipped in the bud. One big dead pine
zee was struck and rended from tip {
, root, splinters of wood flying in ,
very direction. Loren Wellman, who
ranger at Trout Creek station, says
j
in all-and he was pretty busy
an for few hours I
Bill Basye, with a most beautiful
op of whiskers, came in with US to-
ght from Yellow Pine and will 20 to c
mmett in the morning. "Bill' has e
,en employed by the forest service t
build "lookouts" and cabins on
abin Creek summit and Blue Point :
mmit. When these are completed a
viii construct bridges on the new
ad which the forest service is build
g to Yellow Pine and make possible
r automobiles. to travel the entire n
stance. The road is being built in h
ctions this year, the worst stretches
ing constructed first. Two more a
ars will be required to complete the t.
ogram. d
This road will open up to automo- tc
es another large area of virgin ter :.
%< - h,,r. ND -