Local Bread on the River!

Store Front in Salmon, Idaho.

This past spring the Odd Fellows’ Bakery opened up here is Salmon Idaho. Craig McCallum has been the driving force behind the bakery since its infancy. He spent much of last winter working to get store construction finished, as well as building the wood fired oven. It was exciting to watch progress and see the doors open in the spring of 2010.

All the bread that the bakery serves is baked in the wood fired oven. They build a fire right in the oven. When the optimal temperature is reached the ash and coals are swept out and the oven is ready for action. They offer a variety of different specialty breads, sandwich breads, muffins, scones, and much more.

Wood Fired Oven.

Fresh Sesame Seed Bread.

Their delicious bread fits into our river menu in several different ways. We like to serve at least one loaf of their bread on sandwich days at lunch. Dinner breads are also a great fit. Last summer the Odd Fellows’ Garlic Bread received great reviews on our trips. The whole garlic cloves baked into the bread, creates a flavor that is hard to beat! I remember one comment about the garlic bread at Lower Bull on the Main Salmon, something along the lines of, “this is the best bread I have ever had.”

More Fresh Bread.

With the bread baked from natural and some local ingredients, supporting a local small business, helping build a sustainable local community and economy, and the plain fact that the bread is delicious, it’s a no brainier to serve it on the river! We are proud to serve Odd Fellows’ bread on both our Middle Fork of the Salmon and the Main Salmon trips.

Craig McCallum, one of the proud owners of Odd Fellows' Bakery.

Seth Tonsmeire

2010 Facebook Winner

Jessica enjoying a day on the Main Salmon.

photo: Seth Tonsmeire

To reward people for being a fan WRO on facebook, we gave away a free 6-day Main Salmon river trip to one lucky fan! Jessica Winans was the winner in last years facebook giveaway.

Jessica and Galen on the Dwyer creek hike, Main Salmon.

Jessica is a teacher at Montana State Western in Dillon Montana, where she teaches geography. She joined our Main Salmon trip on August 9th last summer for her free river trip prize. Jessica and her boyfriend Galen (who also joined the trip) are both avid rafters and were great to have along. Galen is also a kayaker, so he brought along his playboat.

We are looking to giveaway a Middle Fork or Main Salmon trip for the 2011 season sometime this winter! So make sure you "like" our facebook page, and stay posted for how you could be the lucky winner!

Good luck to everyone in the next giveaway.

Seth Tonsmeire

Winter Wonderland!

Emerald Lake Yoho National Park

photo ~ Seth Tonsmeire

Winter has definitely shown up here in Idaho. With winter storm advisories for the central Idaho area the last few days, the snow has started to pile up. We have accumulated over a foot of snow in the mountains the last couple days. La Nina is treating us well so far. Lets just hope it keeps coming and builds a great snowpack for the up coming river season!

Marble Creek in Kootenay National Park

photo ~ Seth Tonsmeire

Myself and a friend took a short trip up to Canada this last week to check out some National Parks. It turns out the camping season in Canada is coming to an end with recent sub-zero temperatures. We did some hiking around in several different national parks, it was a winter wonderland up there. Also we soaked in some great natural hot-springs which were awesome, but definitely no better than our Idaho hot-springs. I wanted to share a couple photos that I took on our recent trip. Hope you enjoy!

Bull Elk in Banff National Park

photo ~ Seth Tonsmeire

Cool Icicles up Johnson Canyon Banff National Park

photo ~ Seth Tonsmeire

I also just finished up a short video edit of a snake battling it out with a toad from this last summer. Check it out on the video gallery!

Thats all for now.

Hope you are having a great day!

Seth Tonsmeire

Jarbidge Falls Oil Painting

copyright Booth Malone

For those of you that don't know, my father Joe Tonsmeire went to school at Auburn University. While attending Auburn he became part of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He made many lasting friendships while at Auburn and within Phi Delta Theta. With his passing in 2007, some of his college/fraternity brothers set up the Joe Tonsmeire Leadership Scholarship Fund. This scholarship will be presented to a student each year. That person will be selected based on traits that resemble those of Joe Tonsmeire, a true leader for one. Booth Malone was one of those college friends. Since his college days, he has become a renown oil paint artist. He painted a portrait of my dad running Jarbidge Falls in 2006. The painting turned out amazing. He is selling prints to raise money for the scholarship fund. My family went to Auburn this last weekend to be a part of the unveiling of the painting. Booth presented the original to our family and a print to be left hanging in Phi House. He is selling prints for $200 and there are limited prints with only 125 printed.

photo: Purcie Bennett

The photo that the portrait was painted from, was taken by Purcie Bennett. A long time WRO client and friend. There is also a short video on our webpage of his run through Jarbidge Falls that day.

Also, I figured I would share a poem that my sister wrote about our dad:

With the pace of a mountain goat and the heart of Lion, he never stopped living – he’d rather die trying;

From the top of McKinley or thru raging falls, he’s riding the range and shooting the stars;

The River it called and the trail it began, and the wind always whispered to this special man;

A figure of love, and passion and grace, blue dancing eyes and a smile on his face;

I wonder now what we should do or should say; I’ll follow his tracks and cherish each day;

Well the River it called and the trail it began, and the wind always whispered to this special man.

-Amy Tonsmeire

We returned from Alabama to the first snow of winter on the ground at our house. There are still yellow leaves on the trees, but it is starting to feel like winter is just around the corner.

Hope you are having a great day!

Seth Tonsmeire

Missouri & Texas meet Idaho

New friends are easy to come by one the river. Thanks for such a great trip Curtis and Josh!