floating the river

One of the favorite summertime activities for Boise-ites is floating down the Boise River. You park your car at a park on the outskirts of town and inflate your raft, inner tube, kayak, or whatever you can find that floats. Drag the makeshift craft down to the sandy launch ramp and you're off.
The water's cold but the sun is hot, the perfect combination. Dangle your feet over the edge as you go with the current. There are a few bumps on the way, just enough to keep the kids excited. We hit one just right today and Claire bounced three feet into the air. I was just getting ready to catch her when Janelle pulled her back down by the strap on Claire's life vest. You can always rely on Mom to have your back, or in this case, the strap on your life vest.
The whole experience is very relaxing. You don't have to paddle other than to keep away from the occasional low hanging branch. You just sit back and enjoy the river. Birds fly between the banks catching insects. An occasional fish splashes just out of the corner of your eye. We even saw two weasels, or minks, not sure which, today along the river's edge. The purpose is to relax, enjoy the sunshine, the water, and let the kids splash a bit without getting everyone too wet.

1st fishing of the year

My father in law and I went fly fishing when they visited a couple weeks back. My father in law is a great fisherman. He's got all the gear, knows all about fish and rivers and lakes... the whole nine yards. I on the hand know very little. My fishing expertise is limited to grade school fishing in streams and ponds of Wisconsin.
Now that we live in Idaho, fly fishing is THE thing. Apparently Idaho offers some of the best fly fishing in the lower 48. We can even drive downtown and fly fish for trout in the Boise River as it passes through town. Pretty cool really. So Dad and I took a class from Cabellas in the summer. We learned how to tie our flies onto the line properly so they wouldn't fly away on the first cast, how to cast twenty feet on the high school baseball field... lots of hands on practical stuff.
After investing a small fortune in the sport Dad and I have hit the river twice now. We went once last fall when it was still warm out. This last time it was definitely not warm out. We waded into a river cold from snow run off and my feet froze stiff in five minutes. My fingers were numb and I managed to set free a number of flies having discovered it's harder to tie them on in the river than in the classroom. It's also harder to cast twenty feet in the river than on the baseball field. I can manage fifteen but that's my limit. And speaking of limits... Dad and I hit our limit of half a dozen flies lost that morning after about three hours.