Hello all, I just returned from several days camping at Smiley Creek and it was a good trip. I landed up and back at Mountain Home for fuel (nice facility), stopped at Wrangler drive in at Fairfield for lunch, got the tiedown spot I wanted (pull thru) at Smiley, shared whiskey, ribeyes and stories with new pals from Texas, met a couple of BCP'ers including QMDV and BirdyinBoi (both old 182 drivers, but A-OK), just missed CoyoteUgly at Idaho City. I flew to 13 airstrips new to me, including Flying B Ranch and Upper Loon. I bought beer at Picabo and Huckleberry ice cream cones at Smiley Creek Lodge. I scored a few high altitude strips including Copper Basin. This trip really improved my airspeed control and spot landing skills. I also did some camp cooking on my new stove and enjoyed some mountain bike riding. At home I downloaded two great movies on the iPad for my nightly pre-sleep ritual: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Two thumbs up for both films.

Google balloons launching from Winnemucca! They go to the stratosphere and drift for over 100 days...



Semi-Glass cockpit. I like ForeFlight best but think the HSI Garmin Pilot provides is superior. I use Horizontal mode for XC cruise.



My $12 organizer/coffee holder worked fine (Walmart-sourced). Those Trader Joe's cracker jacks are gooood.



Big tent! The REI garage is handy for keeping bike, chair, camp kitchen covered while out exploring.



A bunch of straight-tail 182's showed up for their fly-in. This one from Mobile. More on that later in the report...





There were some interesting airplanes at Smiley.





Flying Idaho essentials.



Idaho City. I walked over to Trudy's for some ridiculous corned beef hash. Great pie too!





Flying B Ranch. I will return with family. Beautiful.





Upper Loon I wanted to visit since the Husky ad. Notice the yellow Maule departing to the north. Good backcountry color!





Copper Basin 7920' a bit rough.



Twin Bridges 6900' also a bit rough. Like to fish there sometime.



Antelope Valley, only 6193' not bad. It's a pretty valley and I would like to ride bike to the nearby petroglyphs.



Fuel pump at Arco. All locked up. No one around. A local 182 came in and the pilot knew which rock the key was under!



Bought fuel at Cascade and visited with longtime backcountry pilot Ray Arnold a couple of times. Nice man.



Andrew George, Prez of the Idaho Aviation Association was kind enough to fly over and share his wealth of Idaho
flying experience with the 182 bunch. Then I had the audacity to publicly flog him for mispronouncing "Nevada". Me bad.



Rode the bike after lunch every day up toward Vienna.



Aspens near the big Douglas fir tree.



My carnivorous compadres from Laredo and Deming.





Oh, here's a Smiley webcam shot while I was there and one from this morning, June 29. 182 from Alabama still there!





More wheel pants? You cannot be serious!



On departure from Smiley.



Ok, I have tortured you all enough. Thanks for looking!

Looks fun! Ballad of Buster Scruggs will become a true classic, what a great movie.

Now that's a trip report.

Really great photos and commentary Roger. You done Idaho proud! Did you take the shots with a phone? No prop in the aerials. ?

I wish I could remember to take a pic of my breakfast sometime. That was serious corn beef!

Phil

Thanks Phil. The key to keeping the goofy propeller out of your iPhone air shots is to use the SIDE window! It IS hard to remember to take the food photos before you dig in, especially when faced with some awesome vittles.

Great TR. Nice pics. Thanks.

Very well done trip report! Thank you.

I met Stephen in the classic YKS-7, Waco in Nehalem, Oregon about the same time last year. He’s an Alaska Air Pilot.

RK, Great job reporting your fly-in adventure, thanks for taking the time to post it here! Funny thing that 75 years ago seeing that Waco wouldn't have even raised an eyebrow. As for the C-336...never have seen one before!

Happy landings buddy!

Dang man, what a trip. Thanks for posting all that. Pictures were great.

Thank you for your comments. I just can’t wait to get back up there!

Not to detract from this thread but I got to ride in this YKS about thirty years ago. When my Dad owned the airport at Mound City MO his friend owned it.