Here is one of my adventures that is more about people than exotic flying capabilities. I had recently put a 150 hp Lycoming on my stock PA 12 in 1987. I wanted to fly west so my cousin and family were going to drive and we'd meet at Yellowstone. I headed out from Paullina and made it to Greybull WY the first day. Since I didn't have my night time rating I didn't think I could quite make Cody so camped out with a bunch of Hawkins and Powers fire bomber relics which seemed a little eerie. I made it over to Cody the next morning and was met with a Jeep luring me to the Spirit Mountain FBO for gas. After gassing I met a couple, Ruth and Bete, from Sweden who had rented a 172 in Ontario Canada and flying around the USA to get hours since he wanted to become an airline pilot. They had just come down from Yellowstone and said the winds were terrible. We ended up going down to the Buffalo Bill museum in the courtesy car and while there I saw a guy with a Schweiss cap. Schweiss is at Sherburn MN which is not far from home. Homer was stuck at the airport too and also a Ridge Till(conservation) farmer like me. I found out my cousins turned around at the Black Hills. Homer and two guys were in a 150 hp Cherokee and the next morning was good but could be a little iffy up at the pass going into Yellowstone so I went ahead with the idea I could report and they could turn around before it was too late. It was beautiful and we were over Yellowstone Lake when Homer asked where I was headed. I said not sure but probably Ennis since there were some people modifying PA12's. He said follow us and I said where----McCall ID. I looked at the nose high, tail low attitude they were flying in and figured if they can make so can I. I pulled up to the gas pump at McCall and a good looking woman comes out to help me. The first thing I do is ask if she wants to fly around with me but she said she rode with her boyfriend. I find out later that is Mike Dorris who owns the place, McCall Air Taxi. Later on we became friends and I rode with Mike a couple different times doing the mail run in his 185 on skis and he checked me out in a 85 hp J3 on skis that I flew solo one winter. Homer had wintered and skied at McCall for years so had lots of friends and one builds log houses. We went biking, rafted the Cabarton stretch of the Payette and went up to Burgdorf Hot Springs that Carol King owned and camped out on Crystal Mtn the night of the Harmonic Convergence. To pay back for the use of Joan's jeep that we ran around in, I gave her an airplane ride to Big Creek. Joan had worked for the Forest Service and was almost on the DC 3 that crashed at Moose Creek years earlier. So, the Cherokee,giving rides, and my 12 head to Big Creek and when we land I see Emmy Lou Harris' twin sharpening a cross cut saw at the Forest Service building. I'm like wow Idaho is the place to be. The two planes head over to Chamberlain and we hike around and go home. My new log building McCall friends knew the gal sharpening the saw so call on the radio and arrange for me to go pick her up when she has some days off work. I get back to Big Creek and she goes, you know I just want a ride back to McCall and I'll feed you breakfast in the morning. Not my plan at all as I slept under the wing of my plane with dew dripping off the wing on the foot of my sleeping bag but after her co workers left the next morning things changed and she said we could go camping somewhere. Since I knew I wasn't a super dooper bush pilot , we walked over to the Big Creek lodge and I asked if there was another big airstrip. They said Indian Creek should be doable so my new girl friend and her dog loaded up and headed over. My second time past Thunder Mountain. We were the only people at Indian Creek and pitched my tent right down by the river awakening to fog. We eventually got back to McCall and she headed up to Moscow to see about college. My Minnesota friends had left days earlier and gone via Sun Valley so that was my plan too. I flew over Sun Valley and landed for gas at Jackson Hole. They only had 100/130 which I wasn't thrilled about. The line boy told me about a micro burst area northeast of town so I went that way and saw hundreds of acres of timber that looked like you'd dropped a box of toothpicks. Flew by some really rugged terrain and eventually picked up the road down to Cody where I spent the night. After that, it was just get back home so I could think about what I had just experienced and let it soak in. Back then a sectional was all I used for navigation.

Good story. I enjoyed reading it.

Great read. Would you even recognize McCall now?

Great read. Would you even recognize McCall now?

I feel fortunate that I experienced McCall in the late 80's and through the 90's----the good old days. I spent quite a bit of time at the airport when I wasn't plowing snow or skiing at Brundage Mtn. There were some good photo books in the lobby,back then, of the good old days before I ever made it out there.Ha Ha

First time I was by Greybull, the relics there were quite a surprise for sure! They are still there. Good story.

Just got a chance to read this. Good times. Awesome to have time to wander and explore like that.