It’s August already and Alexi and I have crossed off a few more things on our Idaho Bucket List. The most exciting of these accomplishments is that we finally caught our first fish in Idaho over the Fourth of July weekend! And it couldn’t have been in a more beautiful place. We backpacked into the Sawtooth Wilderness up near Stanley, Idaho with Jonathan, another CLM intern out of Twin Falls.  Our destination was Toxaway Lake, but unfortunately there was too much snow at the pass we were going to cross, so we decided to camp at Alice Lake.

Not a bad view from our campsite at Alice Lake in the Sawtooth Wilderness.

We were a little hesitant about camping there. On our way up we passed a man who saw our fishing rods sticking out of our packs and immediately began to tell us how the fish were not biting at Alice Lake. He told us he had tried everything and seemed to have fancier equipment than us. Then he proceeded to tell us how the mosquitos were so terrible that he spent most of the time in his tent. So yeah we were a little apprehensive. But as soon as we came upon Alice Lake we saw a woman who had already caught a few fish and was catching even more in just a half hour. Alexi and I immediately dropped our packs and ran for the shore. Within an hour we had both caught our first fish and it was glorious. They were beautiful brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) with their signature pink dots outlined with blue haloes and bright red/orange lower fins.

Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) caught at Alice Lake in the Sawtooth Wilderness

As soon as we caught a fish immediately got out our knives and cut off its head so it wouldn’t suffer. Then Alexi taught me how to gut the fish by making a cut on the ventral side and then pushing the organs out. I was definitely not expecting the fish to still be moving during this process so I was a little spooked when it suddenly jumped out of my hand (this was a good 5 minutes after I had cut off its head).

The gutted brook trout-probably right before it jumped out of my hand!

We threw the gutted fish into a plastic bag, tied it to a rock and put it in the water to keep them cold while we kept fishing. I’m not sure why that man we had encountered earlier didn’t catch any fish, they were definitely biting! We brought some salt, pepper and butter packets just in case we caught fish and cooked them on our camping stoves. These brook trout were meaty and delicious.

Nothing like eating freshly caught trout in the wilderness!

Fishing at our campsite at Alice Lake.

Although they are an invasive species out here, we appreciated their contribution to our first successful fishing experience in Idaho. Since that trip we’ve also tried our hand at fly fishing and it turns out we are actually pretty good at it. We got the casting technique down and caught a few rainbow trout up near Sun Valley, Idaho. I’m currently looking for fly rods on Craigslist.

Catching rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) during our first try at fly fishing!

Work has also been very exciting lately since we have started doing bat roost surveys in lava tubes. Before entering the caves we have to put on jumpsuits, helmets, kneepads and gloves. We also have to make sure we have three sources of light. After exiting each cave we have to decontaminate to prevent the spread of white nose syndrome, which has decimated the bat populations in the East and is heading west. I’ve never been caving in lava tubes, so I wasn’t expecting everything to be so sharp. There were some places where we had to crawl around on our stomachs to squeeze through some tight areas, which resulted in many bruises the next day. Most of the cave entrances were blocked by a wall of Russian thistle (Salsola sp.), so we had to battle through them to find the entrances.

Russian thistle (Salsola sp.) blocking some of the cave entrances.

At some of the caves we were greeted by Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus) that flew right at us and over our heads. They build their nests at the entrance of the caves, which are littered with owl pellets and bones of small mammals and birds. I’ve got a good collection of owl feathers, which are the softest feathers. Altogether we’ve surveyed about 30 caves in our field office. I was super excited because about half of the caves had Lord of the Rings themed names- so I was nerding out a bit. We have found only one maternity colony in a cave called Aragorn. The maternity colony of Townsend’s big-eared bats (Corynorhinus townsendii) was comprised of six adults and two pups. The pups were quite large already- about half the size of the adults.

Towsend’s big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii) maternity roost with 6 adults and 2 pups.

One of the bats started to fly around us, so we quickly left so as not to disturb them anymore. Although we only have found one maternity colony so far, it is still very exciting since this is the first confirmed documented sighting of a Townsend’s big-eared bat maternity colony in the Shoshone Field Office.

Well it has been an exciting month since my last blog post. I’ve been applying to winter jobs like crazy (have an interview on Wednesday!), took a trip to the Tetons, did a trail run up to Sawtooth Lake and went home to North Carolina for a week. Yesterday I did a hike with the Idaho Conservation League up to Grays Peak in the Pioneer Range and saw some incredible views and met some interesting people. I know August will be just as exciting- I just wish it would slow down a little bit.

Until next time,

Avery

Shoshone BLM Office

Running up to Sawtooth Lake- still lots of snow up here!

View from Grays Peak in the Pioneer Range near Sun Valley. Notice the Eriogonum ovafolium in the foreground.

An assassin fly with its prey that landed on our truck the other day.

Found some friends in Ketchum, Idaho who are helping to clear out some of the invasives.

Found a nice swimming hole along the Little Wood River- complete with a diving board!

Witnessing the start of the Dietrich Fire near Shoshone.