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s t a n l e y • F a i r f i e l d • S h o sh o n e • P i c a b o
Poppies to Help Us Remember
the weekly
Page 3
Saturday’s Gallery Walk includes Pop-Up Gallery Page 4
Longevity Talk at this Weekend’s Wellness Festival Page 14
M a y 2 3 , 2 0 1 2 • Vo l . 5 • N o . 2 1 • w w w.T h e We e k l y S u n . c o m
Campgrounds Open Just in Time for Holiday
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he Sawtooth National Forest would like to encourage everyone to get out this Memorial Day weekend and enjoy your National Forest. People planning on recreating on the Sawtooth National Forest over the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend will find a number of facilities open and operating, however due to the lingering snowpack, a number of roads and trails will be closed. Visitors to the Sawtooth National Forest are encouraged to bring their own drinking water and be prepared to haul their trash back home. Even though many of the developed campgrounds will be open, full services may not be provided at this time. Most of the Forest roads and trails remain wet and soft. Visitors are asked to avoid driving or riding on muddy roads and trails to avoid damaging the running surface. Please check with your local Forest Service office for current road and trail conditions. The following is a summary of major recreation areas throughout the Forest. Ketchum Ranger District Boundary Campground is open. Full services are available at Boundary Campground. Fees will be charged - $10/night single unit. The District will enforce dog leash and dog waste pickup regulations at Boundary Campground, Adams Gulch and Trail Creek Trailhead. Current road and trail conditions can be obtained by calling the Ketchum Ranger District at 208-622-5371. Sawtooth National Recreation Area All of the following campgrounds will be open with full services and fees. Wood River Valley; North Fork; Murdock; Caribou; Wood River; RV Dump Station at North Fork; Easley; Alturas Lake; Smokey Bear Campground and boat ramp (open without fee until 6/4/2010); Smiley Creek RV Dump; Pettit Lake; Pettit; Redfish Lake Area (fees); All campgrounds except Sockeye, Mt. Heyburn and Redfish Inlet; Sunny Gulch; Stanley (downriver); Salmon River; Casino Creek; Riverside (river side); Mormon Bend; Upper and Lower O’Brien; Whiskey Flats; Holman; Stanley Lake; Stanley Lake; Stanley Lake Inlet; Sheep Trail; Trap Creek; Elk Creek; and Grandjean Fairfield Ranger District Roads over Couch and Wells Summits are open. Trails are snow covered and impassable at the higher elevations. Baumgartner Campground is open with fees of $10 and $20 per night. Water and dumpsters are available. The following Campgrounds are open with fees of $6.00/night: Chaparral, Abbot, Bird, Canyon, Bowns, and Willow Creek Campground The following campgrounds are open with no charges: Five Points, Bear Creek Transfer Camp, Pioneer Campground, and Willow Creek Transfer Camp Hunter Creek Transfer Camp is closed due to a washout on the road into the transfer camp. Campgrounds and dispersed sites are subject to being closed before the weekend due to high water conditions on the South Fork Boise River. Call the Fairfield Ranger District for more information on current road and trail conditions and up-to-date campground information. tws
Food Photographer Paulette Phlipot to sign books Saturday read about it on PG 8 + RECIPE ON PG 9
A Flyfishing Journey
Bryant Dunn put clients on his most recent trip up in beds in tents on the banks of the Saryu river in India. Dunn’s group also fished the Mahakali on the border with Nepal, the Western Ramganga in northern India, the Cheow Lan in Thailand and the Haa Chhu river, the Mo Chhu river and the Punasang Chhu river in Bhutan. The fishermen rose between 4 and 5 a.m., fishing in tripledigit heat and returning to camp about 7 p.m. where they sat round a fire telling fishing tales until it was time to turn in. COURTESY PhotoS: BRYANT DUNN
BY KAREN BOSSICK
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TOP TO BOTTOM: Debby Dunn shows off a trout she caught during a fishing trip to Bhutan. Bryant Dunn shows a group of Bhutanese boys how to bait and cast a fly rod. Bryant Dunn shows off 16-pound golden mahseer trout that he estimates is about 30 years old.
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ryant Dunn is beginning to get used to having leopards stroll through his fishing camps. It comes with the territory when you fish for steelhead on the Salmon River one day and then flick your line above exotic rivers with names like Cheow Lan, Haa Chhu, and Saryu a few days later. Dunn operates Flyfish Bhutan and Beyond, the only Western guided excursion taking flyfishermen into the Himalayas. He will present a free slide show of his expeditions to India, Thailand and Bhutan at 6 tonight at The Community Library in Ketchum. The show will combine pictures of 50-pound golden mahseer trout with photos depicting Bhutan’s towering Punakha Dzong palace, prayer flags strung beneath waterfalls and other aspects of a culture so foreign to Westerners. “There’s no experience like flyfishing in the Himalayas. It’s a trip for the truly adventurous—someone who wants to be on the cutting edge of global flyfishing,” said Dunn, who just returned from a month-long fishing trip in the Himalayas. Dunn likes to quip that he was born with a fly rod in his hand. “I can remember sitting on the banks of Silver
Creek and my father hiking me into alpine lakes when I was 5. To me, the fly line is a figurative and literal connection to nature—a direct line with natural forces. It’s naturally addictive,” said Dunn, who grew up in Seattle. As soon as he could, Dunn moved to Sun Valley where he established a home in the heart of Ketchum accessible by a steep dirt road, a steep dirt path and 40 wooden stairs. There he has an unfettered view of the valley below and Bald Mountain where he supervises the Sun Valley Ski Patrol. Dunn leads hunting trips for deer and elk during the fall through his Sun Valley Outfitters. And he guides fly-fishing trips for Silver Creek Outfitters during the spring. Dunn began fishing Bhutan in 2007—shortly after the so-called “Land of the Thunder Dragon” located at the eastern end of the Himalayas opened up for tourism. The number of visitors has climbed from 9,000 to 38,000 in five years, Dunn said, but tourism is still tightly controlled. Dunn was introduced to Bhutan by Ketchum kayaker and filmmaker Gerry Moffat whose American-Bhutanese corporation wanted Dunn to access the “fishability” of the kingdom for a recreational lodge it was building. The rivers in the Himalayas can be as wide as the Thompson and Fraser in British Columbia, Dunn said. Even “creeks” the size of the Big Wood River flowing through Ketchum can hold fish over five feet long. The few fly-fishermen who venture to Bhutan find themselves alone on the rivers because the Bhutanese people’s Buddhist beliefs do not permit them to fish. “The Bhutanese do not fish, although their
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sun valley wellness festival May 24-29 Memorial Day Weekend Sun Valley Inn
Over 50 presentations on Mind, Body and Spiritual Wellness
sunvalleywellness.org
726-2777