for Flybinder - Lochsa's Lowell not-a-hovel

[lestrout]

FB - just got back from 10 days on the Lochsa, Selway and Missoula. Thinking of your note about the not-a-hovel, the cafe we all ate breakfast (big, rancher style) and dinner (also big) is Ryan's Wilderness Inn.

tl
les

 

Lestrout;
Thank you, for the report and for making me feel even WORSE, that I wasn't fishing my old home rivers, any longer! ha!
This "Wilderness Inn", doesn't sound like the same old place, right in the highway, that had the flea bitten, dusty, black bear mount, in one corner of the dining room!?? The, original, old, 'lunch counter" right as you walk in the door? Or, you could take a right, and sit with the black bear mount, in a small dining area!!?!
So, how was the FISHING, since you OBVIOUSLY "ate well"!??

 

[tomgamber]

This "Wilderness Inn", doesn't sound like the same old place, right in the highway, that had the flea bitten, dusty, black bear mount, in one corner of the dining room!?? The, original, old, 'lunch counter" right as you walk in the door? Or, you could take a right, and sit with the black bear mount, in a small dining area!!?!

Now that's funny...You just described about a dozen different places I know of in Idaho. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[lestrout]

FB - yup - that's the place. Also had some other mounts including a very big cat.

Now, Tom, ID is a moderately big place, but how many cafes are right by the road 'twixt Missoula and maybe Kooshia? (Ans: less than 2). Only about a hunnert and twenny miles, along the Lochsa and Lolo Creek.

FB - not to make you feel worse, the seasonal home made huckleberry pie is something I look forward to every year. The blueberry ice cream is pretty good too, if you like ice cream.

Ffishing was ok - not up to the last 6 years or so. Not much free rising, for whatever reason. The cutts were spread out all the way down to the Clearwater, as the water was now cold (40º's). Summertime I hear tell it was up in the 70º's. One day it snowed above 5,000 so the snowmelt kept the water at 140 at 41ºF. Not that many big caddis either. However, most days I was able to pound up double digits worth - and the cutts were bigger than some years - 14-18".

Had a bull chase a small cutt on the Selway - that was exciting.

tl
les

 

[pete41]

I had a rule out west-I never crossed to the other side of the road to stop for food.
3 hours on 93 along the Salmon was really putting that rule to the test.Breakfast ended up being lunch instead.lol

 

[tomgamber]

I was referring only to the part of the description which I quoted...as I was reading it for the first time I could see every detail... and I was only on HWY 12 beyond Kooskia once for any distance and didn't stop to eat.

There's a place in Banks and another in Lowan at opposite ends of the south fork of the Payette that (although its now a forest fire casualty) look exactly as you described. theres another near Riggins, and another In the middle of nowhere on hwy 21 on the way to Ketchum...I used to look for places that looked like that to eat...always good food. I remember fonger steaks, buffalo burgers and some amazing cinnamon rolls...

 

[pete41]

Best meal I ever had was in the back of a saloon in Ennis,Mt.
Home made blue cheese dressing that was AWESOME.On a fresh garden salad.
Homemade bread and a
30 ounce steak so unbelievably fork cutting tender with a taste the Eastern dudes never get to sample.
Sitting at a picnic table.
The people from other places just don't get to eat the great beef-from the west.Even Safeway will admit they have dual standards.
You have to go to a $100 a plate place to get what sells in Montana supermarkets.
I sure miss it.

 

Okay, Lestrout, when ya' mentioned me missing the fresh huckleberry ice cream, ya' stepped over the line! There's only so much "drooling and slavering" a grown man can take!
The fishing, actually, sounded about "par" since the forest fires in the panhandle a few years back. They pretty much ruined a lot of the natural river habitats throughout the panhandle, but it's coming back, I understand.
Now, for "real eating", you need to go up, over the hump and drop down into "Avery" Idaho, 47 miles upriver from St.Maries, (where The "Shadowy St.Joe" meets the St.Maries River).
There, you'll find a small Tavern, (Bill's), on the hillside above Avery. You'll know "you're in the right place", when you see the glass case, at one end of the bar, that holds the skeleton of "A friend of Bill's, found in Alaska, during the thaw".
Clamped to the foot of "Bill's old friend", is the rusty remains of a large grizzly bear trap. Evidently, (as the tale goes), this unfortunate fellow got caught, in the trap....while prospecting for gold , and then "froze/starved/bled to death" and wasn't found until "Spring Thaw" the following year.
SOME, of his tattered clothes and leather belt, also, still adorn the skeleton and it makes for VERY appetizing dinner decor!
But, darn if the steaks aren't a foot thick and can be cut with a fork!