The Farrer Side Family

Nancy and Clarke
Mom & Dad
Nana & Poppa

Clarke & Bethany
Farrer







Benjamin Franklin
Farrer






Sarah & Dan
Farrer











Wyatt Daniel
Farrer

















Elder Shawn Farrer
Morristown NJ Mission
http://farrerawaynj.blogspot.com/









Derek & Amanda
Whipple

Can You Canoe?

We had a fun day on Saturday. Amanda and Derek asked me to take them fishing and teach Derek how to fly fish. Then one of my camp directors, Dan Deakin, asked if I wanted to go canoeing with him on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River. We floated the Box Canyon section of the river in rafts about a month ago and both agreed it was pretty tame for rafts but would be a fun trip in canoes. Henry’s Fork drains the Island Park valley (it’s actually a huge volcanic caldera west of Yellowstone) and is only a few miles from Island Park Scout Camp.

I asked Amanda and Derek if they wanted to go canoeing in the morning and then fish in the afternoon and they said that sounded great. In the end eight of us went canoeing. The group included four canoes with two people in each canoe; Dan and Sarah (Nancy babysat Wyatt), Amanda and Derek, Tiffany and Ann Marie (two of Sarah's friends), with Dan Deakin and me in the fourth canoe. The day started off cold and rainy but by the time we were loaded and ready to get on the river the weather had cleared up and it looked like a beautiful day.

We put in just below the dam that forms the Island Park Reservoir and did a little canoeing practice. The worst rapids are right after the put-in and I wanted to be sure everyone could steer well enough to get through the rapids safely. The only canoe that had a problem was ours. Dan had offered to take the stern and steer so I could fish. I have done a fair amount of canoeing over the years but I cannot recall the last time I took the bow—I’m always the stern-man. A guided drift boat had stopped right in the middle of the rapids and we ran smack into them. It was pretty embarrassing. There was plenty of room on either side but we managed to hit them anyway. (A sincere apology to the drift boaters whoever and wherever you are.)

The first part of the river was fairly swift and I helped paddle instead of fishing. Just as it started to slow down and I was thinking about getting my fly rod ready a storm blew up and it started raining on us. We all got wet and cold but fortunately we were close to a take out spot at Last Chance. The storm passed quickly and we had a picnic lunch while we all dried off. Everyone decided to canoe the next part of the river because the weather was beautiful again. We all got back in the canoes and set off for the second half of our adventure. This time I fished almost the whole time but never got a strike. Henry’s Fork is a World Class fly-fishing river but I’m not a World Class fly fisherman. The stretch of the river from Last Chance to the Osborne Bridge was wide and slow—almost boring in a canoe—but breathtakingly beautiful.

The people in the other three canoes decided to entertain themselves by gathering clumps of seaweed. Then they decided our canoe was too clean so they surrounded us and bombarded us with stinky slimy seaweed. I'm not sure what we did to deserve that but they had fun doing it. Dan and I paddled hard and outran their attack.

The only challenging parts of that portion of the river were two sets of rapids by bridges that cross the river. There was an old canoe wrapped around one of the piers of the first bridge. Someone missed the gap and hit the bridge footing broadside and the water pressure wrapped the canoe around the footing like a bumper on a car.

After about two hours of easy paddling another storm was growing on the horizon so we started paddling hard to beat the storm. This was a big dark thunderstorm with lots of thunder and lightning. We were almost to the takeout when the storm hit. Dan and I were only in the storm for a few minutes before we got to the takeout where Nancy and Wyatt were waiting for us. Nancy drove us back to the start to get the other vehicles and canoe trailer. We drove back as fast as we could and by the time we arrived everyone else was off the river and looking like wet cats in the rain. Dan and Sarah had gotten broadside to the wind and were blown over and their canoe swamped. Sarah was wet, cold, and mad. Derek and Dan had to portage the last two canoes off the river because the storm was blowing so hard it was impossible to paddle against the wind.



Nancy, Sarah, and Sarah's friends drove back to Rexburg while the rest of us took the canoes back to the camp. By the time we had them unloaded and stored the storm had passed so we spent an hour fly-fishing on the camp lake. But the normally plentiful fish were all hiding (I think the storm scared them) and there were no fish to be seen or caught. So we headed back to Rexburg and stopped at Big Judd's in Ashton for dinner on the way. (Big Judd’s is famous for their “Big Pig” meal of a 5-pound hamburger and a pound of fries. If you can finish it off you get your picture hung on the wall.)

It was a crazy day but we all had fun—except Sarah at the very end. She was a good sport about it though.