MFRE is proud to announce the building of a new 18 foot Briggs Wooden Dory. Willis McAleese, our head fishing guide, is building the Dory with a stitch and glue process. The dory will be designed after the Briggs dory, which is specifically made for big water boating in the Grand Canyon and the Main Salmon River. The MFRE warehouse in Stanley has been converted with plastic tarps to keep the warmth up, as it is still in the teens at night and snow flurries are still happening. MFRE has a Middle Fork Salmon trip on May 17, so we hope to have a hull on the new dory by then. Not sure what to name her. Maybe we should have a contest?
Hen Wen will have a sister, and she will be self bailing, and beautiful. Middle Fork River Expeditions hopes you can come see her this summer on the Main Salmon River. The Middle Fork of the Salmon is too rocky for a wooden boat, but the Main Salmon is the perfect river for these boats.
We have a lodge to lodge dory trip available on the Main Salmon River. We know these boats are so much more beautiful to ride in verses the ugly rubber rafts we have. Only thing is they do not bounce off of rocks so the guides have to know the river and be skilled oarsmen.
Riding on a dory on the Main Salmon is a trip thru time. You feel the nostalgia for the 1800’s at the time of Lewis and Clark and this river of history. It is like floating on a gondola in Venice, but you have the backdrop of the largest roadless wilderness area in the US.
So come on out and celebrate a new dory on the Main Salmon River this summer. You may even have the opportunity to name her. After all, a boat cannot be named until you get to know her.
See you in Stanley or Salmon this summer.
Yours for river adventures,
James Ellsworth, owner, MFRE
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