HIGH AND WIL

[Music] a snake river steered in the cold hands of a hardy fisherman the coffee and the river are steaming together you are aboard the idaho queen number two headed up the mighty snake river on a two-day adventure that includes hunting geese deer and fishing for steelhead your skipper and guide dick rivers this is our snake river story hi don hobart your cameraman host with another high and wild adventure and today the snake river once each week a boat leaves lewiston idaho carrying mail and passengers up the snake river every wednesday morning at daylight rain or shine winter or summer the idaho queen number two in the hands of her very capable skipper makes the run into the mighty wilderness of rock cliffs and wild white water known as hell's canyon the ranchers who live in the canyon during the winter must depend on the idaho queen for their supplies and during the winter months the mountains 5 000 feet above the river become locked in ice and snow to escape the bitter cold and the impossible feeding conditions of the high country the wildlife migrate to the more comfortable climates along the banks of the river to the hunter the fisherman and the photographer this is a winterland paradise our story in just a moment time tied and the snake river mailboat wait for no one so the boat left without me the only way up the river other than by boat is by airplane with the snows of winter licking at my heels i missed the boat at lewiston i hired a small airplane i mean small to fly me up 70 miles to catch that boat 70 miles up the mighty hills canyon the snake river winds below us this is winter we're skimming across the rock walls the towering mass of rock that makes up the 5 000 foot deep canyon of the snake [Music] [Applause] the mouth of the salmon river as it runs from idaho the snake river is the dividing line between oregon and idaho i land on a hillside a very short very dangerous runway this pilot has flown this canyon for 15 years and i i'm sure he knows every landing spot his takeoff he drops me off in the heart of hell's canyon and then flies away and leaves me 70 miles up the canyon at copper river bar is the camp of dick's rivers he is the skipper of the idaho queen they quickly pick me up from the landing spot that the airplane dropped me and bring me to the camp which is well equipped for winter and summer residents [Music] this camp can be reached only by boat ray kiernan here thought he was going to get out of doing the morning dishes but they trap him on the next turnaround bill gregory ray kiernan and garth caldwell are our dish doers here and they're doing a fine job down on the banks of the snake the idaho queen number two sits nestled against a sandbar the temperatures here now are nine degrees below zero the mists of the warm snake river as it boils down through this canyon make a strange combination everett spalding another guide on the river is taking some of his steelhead fishermen and goose hunters down the river while we will be going up trying to string a steelhead rod at nine degrees below zero is a bit of a problem you have to make about four grabs of that monofilament line and then it seems to slip out of those numb fingers [Music] ah finally made it the gentleman holding the rod will just quit reeling in we might make it to the end of the rod and this gentleman is loaded for bear or i should say goose he's going goose hunting steelhead fishing steelhead fishing and uh his partner is blowing up the goose decoys of course you have to be quick and get that plug in the back end they all go flat [Music] you fasten the legs to them and stand them up on the nearest sand bar and just hope that a goose flying over will stop and investigate this is everett spalding he is a salmon river and snake river guide this is the idaho queen number two it's a 40-foot very powerful diesel-powered boat with this we will be going another 30 miles up the snake river above copper river camp it's skipper dick rivers he's been on this river for over 20 years he knows every rock and today it's just a little bit chilly if you're ready let's go [Music] the idaho queen starts its trip above the camp the mists rising from the river [Music] are turning a pink in the morning sun and the ice-covered rocks along the banks are cold black but an unreal look at the effect here it's almost ghostly [Music] dick will be stopping from time to time to drop off mail and supplies to the ranchers who populate the canyon during this the winter months they're continually wiping the windshield inside and out the spray from the waves outside make ice and on the inside it's steam and the rock walls look down upon us to make a turn and find a lone figure waiting on a sandbar this is a rancher he's waiting for his winter supplies to come in he has his pack train and with these horses he will pack the supplies up over the mountain and back to the ranch that is hidden maybe six miles back in a canyon [Music] we'll get to our unloading of supplies in a moment a photographer's job is kind of easy especially when you take pictures of other people working hundreds of tons of supplies will be shipped up the river during the winter season blocks of salt for the cattle and sheep horse feed sacks of grain fence posts roofing it's a strange collection but it is the supplies for the ranchers in the canyon [Music] the sure-footed mules of the pack drain it will carry the supplies up to the main ranch possibly hidden back in a canyon from the main river the coffee and the river are both steaming together and probably for the same reason the tremendous temperature changes here the outside air temperature about nine degrees below zero and the river is comparatively warm and hence the strange effect of the steam [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the idaho queen powers its way up through the wild white water of the snake river this is hell's canyon and it's well named the waters of this mighty river hide rocks and boulders that could be very dangerous to the amateur boatmen a flock of geese take off and move up the canyon ahead of us many geese and ducks winter here in the canyon [Music] it takes a steady hand and a lot of knowledge to put a boat 40 feet long up over these rapids every week you must know the bottom of that river like the palm of your hand the white water of the snake the spray we move up the tracks in the snow along the river tell their story a raccoon is passed back and forth this way in search of food while down river a little ways a coyote has been watching him [Music] they call chuckers on the oregon side and three hunters move on but now those chuckers are wild they just get a quick look and they are gone so it's back to the boat unsuccessful and the last man picks up the ladder [Music] it's frozen to the side of the boat a rancher tells us there are some geese just up the way around the bend boys make their way off across a small horse pasture alongside the river and are almost attacked by these inquisitive horses you stalk a goose and you're going to get maybe one or two shots down he goes [Music] a broken wing and it takes one more to finish it this man would rather come up with a smart old canadian goose than a deer the rest of the geese fly on up the canyon [Music] the idaho queen swings in and makes a landing dick river seems to be able to land this boat almost any place he picks and it's a big boat and there you have it about a nine pound canadian goose a prize trophy believe [Music] the canyons are now filled with deer from the high country and ray kieran has a legal deer tag now he doesn't take a big buck which he could have very easily taken he's going to pick on a small deer there are two kinds a bragging deer and an eating deer and he just missed a good eating deer but the second shot did a job he picks his spots quite well down off of the rock slopes comes his trophy it should be well tenderized before it gets to the boat [Music] the other deer move up and away there are literally hundreds of them in the canyon now well kiernan picked his spot very carefully he doesn't believe in carrying deer very far it rolled almost to the boat again the idaho queen swings in to pick us up [Music] to haul a deer out of these rocky crags would have taken hours that was the easy way we'll be back after this time out not only is this winter weather hard on the wildlife and cattle in this country it's also pretty tough on the people who live here [Music] 93 miles up the river from lewiston we make our turn around we make our turn in the mists and then start back down the river now the signal for the boat to stop is a white flag and at the vanpool ranch we found the white flag in harris hill this cowboy here with both hands frozen goes out to the hospital at lewiston he will be in the hospital at six o'clock tonight a monarch of the snake river canyon look at this gigantic mule deer buck he's found his wintering ground up here in these high rocky cliffs and there he stays [Music] his coloring blends perfectly with these rocks you can see his white rump patch and that's just about all you can see as he moves up into his wintering ground while down on the lower country the does are watching us move by [Music] and in their characteristics spring-like jumps move up and away from us in a five-mile distance here we counted over 500 head of deer [Music] down the river the boys have picked a likely looking sand bar to do a little fishing in have you ever fished in a pair of gloves ray kiernan likes it anybody would like it with the weather the way it is bill gregory uses no gloves at all and look at the ice on this rod guide eventually you have to break the ice off to let the line slide through the guide but it takes about three casts and bill isn't quite sure he got a tap a tap and then he is sure that rod takes off with that violent bend that tells you you have a steelhead [Music] a steelhead is a rainbow trout that has gone to sea when he first leaves the ocean he is bright and silvery color but once he gets back into fresh water he takes on the coloring of a rainbow trout with the red stripe down his side a 12 pound rainbow trout he has the same instincts and can put up the same kind of a fight with that extra weight of a salmon [Music] this fish has traveled well over 500 miles from the ocean he's headed back up the stream or he was until bill short-circuited him here with that strange-looking lure you better keep a good hold on him bill he isn't about to give up yet [Music] it's a prize any fisherman can be proud of when you land one of these babies on light tackle you're a good fisherman you take one and move on down the river and the idaho queen we're headed back toward lewiston idaho now under the hands of your skipper dick rivers he hauls passengers up the river during the summer mostly he has room for 22 passengers aboard the idaho queen number two and he plays the controls well like a piano player those are the throttles when he needs power he has plenty of it the rock walls go flashing by you have now the speed of the boat with the speed of the current also added notice the narrowness of this river it narrows down to 60 feet in one place the high rock walls of hell's canyon go flashing by this is no place for an amateur boatman believe me the boat flashes on down through the white water and the wash piles up on the rock walls behind us this is the mighty snake river [Music] taken many trips up the snake river on the idaho queen but i must say that this one was one of the most spectacular the swirling mists of the river and the rock walls towering above you to a photographer hills canyon is ever changing and yet this mighty canyon carved by the snake river will remain the same forever until next week this is don hobart wishing each of you good fishing good hunting and good luck [Music] you