Smiley Creek, Idaho in the RV-10 (Just Do It)
 

We let the plane catch a quick breather after Oshkosh before heading to the high country in Idaho. Idaho has some of the best back country strips in the world. RaNae and I have been trying to fly into Johnson?s Creek but fires in the summer of 2007 have kept us from getting in. There are a plethora of TFR?s in the area. I have a great DVD called ?Flying Idaho? which is sold at whitepete@cableone.net according the back of the DVD which discusses and shows the approaches into many of these back country airports. So, last Saturday I put the DVD in and picked Smiley Creek as our destination. We packed our tent, inflatable mattress, camping gear and the dog and headed to Idaho. The flight from Salt Lake City was only 1 hour 15 minutes. The weather was hot in Salt Lake nearing 100 deg. so we quickly climbed up to 10,500 ft. where the air temp was in the low 60?s and had a beautiful flight up.

Mutt Muffs for CB (When will Bose have noise cancelling dog headphones? These actually work great and I saw at Oshkosh they make a O2 system for their nose.)




Smiley Creek off in the distance.

Smiley Creek is located in the southern end of Idaho just north of Sun Valley and south of Stanley. The airstrip is maintained by the state of Idaho and was absolutely perfect. The strip is at 7100 ft., was over 4000 ft. in length and was in great condition. We landed around noon and the winds were blowing around 10-13 mph. The normal approach into this airfield is on runway 14. This area is right in the middle of the Saw Tooth Mountains. The meteor showers were going to be occurring this weekend too and I threw in my telescope to look at Jupiter and anything else that was up. When we landed there were around 5-6 planes that were either camping or just parked there. We were able to use one of the supplied tie downs and took our camping gear into the camping area by the river. This is a perfect place for plane camping. The high temperature was 72 that day. We set up our tent and just relaxed the whole day, read books, talked with other campers and made grilled cheese sandwiches on my little camping stove. Life is good!

Final for runway 14

Our stream 30 feet from the tent. Great background sounds for sleeping.


Grilled cheese and gourmet tomato soup


View of Smiley Creek airport from the Smiley Creek Lodge

A little smoke came in Saturday night from a fire that was 50 miles southwest of us. It actually scared one couple off. They thought there might be a TFR over the airport in the morning. But I wasn't too concerned it if was still that far away and the smoke was gone by 10pm.




You can see why they call them the Sawtooth Mountains

The night temperatures dropped to 34 degrees. You could see every single star in the sky. The Milky Way was as clear as I have every seen it. (I forgot to take some time exposures, shoot) We went out and watched a few shooting stars and looked through the telescope as long as my hands could take it and then called it a night. Jupiter was beautiful. The next morning, by the time we were up, I think I had counted at least 5-6 planes that either took off or landed. People come into the airport in the morning and have breakfast across the street at Smiley Creek Lodge. We borrowed the courtesy van which is $5.00 + $0.30/mile and drove up to Pettit Lake where CB (our dog) swam with a couple of other dogs and we walked the shores of this great lake. From there we drove to Stanley and had lunch at the local bakery where they serve breakfast all day on Sunday and I had oatmeal pancakes, yummy. We drove up to Redfish Lodge and Lake where it was very busy. We didn?t stop here and decided to head back to Smiley Creek and get a chocolate malt at the lodge where they have an ice cream bar inside. Another couple said they visited the fish hatchery and had a great time but we had to get back at 3:30pm so Gordon (the manager of the airport) could head home. We packed up around 5:30pm and left at 6pm.

The courtesy van we called, "The Blue Bomber"


Pettit Lake



Redfish Lodge and Lake




Bathroom facilities were great.

The RV-10 had no problems getting off the ground in about 1200 ft. with a density altitude over 10,000 ft. I may have been able to made it off sooner but kept it on the ground a little longer since I had over 4000 ft of runway. If I remember correctly, I had 21.7 inches with full power on take off. When you land and taxi be cautious of the metal covers that cover the sprinkler holes. They are 1/3 and 2/3 of the way across the runway all in a line so as long as you are in the middle you will be just fine. There was a gentleman there with a Maule that said he hit one last year and it flipped up and cut through part of his horizontal stabilizer. If you know about them it is no big deal. This trip may have been one of our favorite in the plane yet. We will be back for sure. The facilities at Smiley Creek are fantastic. There are hot showers, flushing toilets, campsites with picnic tables, and the courtesy van. What more do you want?

Ready for takeoff


View of camping area and lodge



Gordon says he opens everything up the weekend before Memorial Day and closes it down the day after Labor Day. So if you want to get up there this year, go now! I am still going to try and hit Johnson?s Creek and Big Creek before the year is over if someone will pray with me for a little rain and get those fires out. I guess it has been pretty bad for them.

We dodged a couple of small rain showers and saw rainbows everywhere.



Talk to you all later.
Scott, RaNae and CB

You've convinced me!
 

Wonderful write-up and photos. Thanks for sharing them. My 100# malamute saw the photos and is now bugging me to build a -10 so she can go next year.

Between the semi-luxury camping set-up and the dog, I'm beginning to understand why Paul wants us to build a -10!

Awesome
 

Inspirational. Going to have to share with the wife tonight. :) Excellent photos and nice write-up. DJ

Note to self: BUILD FASTER!!!

Scott, you look like you are having way too much fun with the -10. Keep the pics and stories coming!

Hey Scott,
AWESOME trip report :) .

Since the wife doesn't fly and the kids are 'too busy' I think I'll have to make this trip with just me and our Yellow Lab in the RV10....he can sit up front and navigate :D .

Thanks for taking the time to write this up AND to post the beautiful pics......makes me want to keep the RV10 and move back to Salt Lake City again!