Salmon River in Idaho Informal Exchange With Reporters at the Conclusion of the President's Raft Trip.

THE PRESIDENT. The best 3 days I have ever had. It really was great.

Q. What were the high points, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT. We saw mountain sheep a part of the time. We saw a golden eagle, saw a lot of—[inaudible]—and caught a lot of fish. We had a contest today. And I got 59 trout. We came in a little ahead of the others. The scenery was just.—

Q. Did you get hung up on any rapids at all during the 2 days?

THE PRESIDENT. No. We had a little trouble on one waterfall.

Q. That was Tappen Falls. We were there.

THE PRESIDENT. I thought maybe they changed the name by now. [Laughter]

Q. Did you go in the water at all?

THE PRESIDENT. I went swimming.

Q. Didn't you?

THE PRESIDENT. I thought everybody did. We went swimming last night.

Q. But you didn't—

THE PRESIDENT. By accident, no.

Q. You didn't stay in long, did you?

THE PRESIDENT. I stayed in a good while.

Q. Bradley stayed in 17 seconds. [Laughter]

Q. Have you missed what has been going on in the world?

THE PRESIDENT. I talked to the Vice President on the phone this afternoon, got a report on several things. [Inaudible] I have gotten a Presidential briefing every morning at 7 o'clock from the State Department and also from the CIA. So, we had good radio communications from the outside world. Everything seems to be quiet.

Q. Did the Interior Secretary lobby you at all on the wilderness issue up the river?

THE PRESIDENT. Well, he gave me a lot of information about it. But we will have to discuss it very carefully. I think one of the best things about this region is that right through the part we went, it ought to be preserved and not destroyed. But back off from the river, where we saw flying in from the plane, were very good productive timber regions where we ought to harvest timber and let the country benefit from it. So, I like a good balance between preserving the natural beauty, unchanged, on the one hand, and harvesting growing timber in appropriate areas, which is what he is working on, and I agree with him.

Q. Are you satisfied, Mr. President, that your self-proclaimed moratorium on world crises held up?

THE PRESIDENT. SO far, it has.

Q. Is it calmer now in Nicaragua? What do you hear?

THE PRESIDENT. I have gotten reports from several countries around the world. I won't go into that now.

Q. Are you going to come back and visit us again?

THE PRESIDENT. I would like to.

Q. Are you going to try the river up the other direction, now that you came down the easy way?

THE PRESIDENT. I would like to do that. I don't know if that was the easy way or not, but that was good. We have got rivers this wild in Georgia, but not as large and wild. Of course, the scenery is just—[inaudible]—which is really something.

Q. What do you plan to do in Grand Teton?

THE PRESIDENT. Just going to take it easy for a while.

Q. You better watch out, there are some grizzly bears over there.

THE PRESIDENT. IS that right? I am looking forward to seeing some of them.

Q. Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT. We caught three dolly vardens, which you can keep, but the rest of them, we aren't going to keep.

Q. Jody caught some.

THE PRESIDENT. Yes, our two boats today caught 111.

Q. One hundred eleven?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes.

Q. How many did you catch?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't know. Our boat caught 59. That was I and Chip and Amy and Rosalynn.

Q. I think your wife caught more than you—

THE PRESIDENT. She always does.

Q. She was fishing that time when you were overseeing the repair of the sweep.

THE PRESIDENT. Good luck to you all. We will see you later.

REPORTER. Thanks for the trip. I have enjoyed it.