Running south on route 93 from Montana we cross the border at the Loss Trail Pass, 7014 ft, into Idaho for our next segment of chasing the Geocaching containers. Driving down the Bitterroot Mountains and the Salmon National Forest is all what your tourist brochures brag about. Beautiful scenery at every turn.
Then we come into the Craters of the Moon National Monument. The temperature at this time of day (1430hrs) is just around 108 degrees F (me thinks 38 C). It's a campsite for the next 2 days and for the first time since I've had the Goatmobile the air conditioner comes on and stays on. Found a 50-mile bit of gravel road that I was hoping for the stray 4-legged animal but the only thing that showed any interest was a Desert Fox laying in the shade of a horse watering troth. Did find three vertical stone column's over a space of 20 miles that meant ……………
Back to the Craters of the Moon, once the sunset, the wind dropped, the temperature was in the high 80's, and life took on a new meaning. It was so peaceful, quite, bug free and the cuppa of red wine with the hummus, give me that lap pool with the 50-inch telly and I could stay here forever. Spent another day traveling the gravel roads around the Crater Monument. Spotted 3 adult pronghorn antelope with young and another adult later in my travels.
Tomorrow its south on Route 93 into the Sawtooth National Forest Geocaching as I go. And it is the Sawtooth National Forest with 4 Geocaches within its bounties'. The first 2 were accessible but number 3 & 4 meant that I was going to have to cross a very deep and muddy hole. In me younger days this would be doable but when you are 30 miles from anyone, alone and in the Goatmobile some how common sense (very little) comes into play. We turn around find a decent campsite, breakout the cardboard box of the finest red wine available, chew beef jerky and crank up the speakers listening to Madama Butterfly (Puccini) and Rinaldo (Handel).
Man I have the grizzly's, black bears, and elk dancing the mambo with a bit of Elvis thrown in. While resting me cuppa on a very old pile of elk scat……….
Awoke the next morning to a coyotes giving his best at 0500 hrs to his neighbors. Down the gravel road to the first Geocache for the day and with a final count of ten and setting up camp on the old pony express trail for the night. Well the campsite did not last the night out. Heard too many noises that were not in my sound card. It was up and out of there to a more populated area where I could rest a lot easier.
One thing about being in a hot dry desert environment, you don't sweat, which of course means we go a lot longer between showers. My normal 10-day no shower routine can now stretch to 15 days, which lessens my carbon footprint generating more water to make beer.
If for any reason you do follow Route 93, there is the Mt. Wilson Back County Byway, which I didn't take, it has all those dots along its path which tells you that it has all the views and wildlife that anyone could wish for. Another place that is not advertised on Route 93 is the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge. It sits on a lake and there is camping. Following 93 down to Las Vegas, 110-degree temps hit you along with long straight boring bloody road. The good thing about Vegas is once there you are heading north, north to cooler climates, north to mosquito's and Alaska.
We follow Route 95 out of Las Vegas up to Hawthorne where temps have been 110 again and even at night 100 is the norm. Even sleeping naked you are wearing too much. From Hawthorne its north to Fallon Naval Air Station where there is a RV site, showers, free laundry, air condition spaces to mellow out…………While at Fallon took route 50 to Sand Mountain. A very, very big pile of sand in the middle of nowhere. The road driving in was firm but once there, believe me; thinking that you can drive anywhere is going to be a very big mistake. Even the parking lot was a bit soft for the Goatmobile. Back out to Route 50 to 116 to the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge for a quick auto tour, hot as hell but doable.
Continue north on Route 95 and you are going to enter into the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. There is only one sign indicating a campsite along with some other sites. Turn right and follow the dirt road into the canyon and up to 6000 ft plus. The scenery is just incredible and if you are looking for a campsite why it's just another 15 miles of gravel. I decided to just camp out at the top of the pass for the night. The sun was shinning, wind at 5-10 knots, wine in hand along with another New York Times Best Seller. This peaceful scenario did not last long, first the wind picked up, next rain, thunderclouds and finally lightning. Being as I am sitting by myself at 6000 ft and being the only piece of metal around, it was everything into the Goatmobile and down the hill I went and finding a spot with my neighbors for (cows) the night.
Next day has me crossing the state line of Oregon and spending the night with old friends from Midway Atoll, Hawaiian Islands.
Next day we continue north Geocaching and spending another night at a National Forest. After a proper cup of coffee and lies abound I head north following the path of very little guidance. Route 3 it is going north into Washington State. Route 3 and 129 provide more twist and turns then the good lord allows. Matter of fact there is a huge motorcycle rally in August for bikers that make that particular trek. I am assuming that there will be plenty of beer, comradeship, and BS. At the bottom of all the turns and twist's is Brogan's. Great place for ice cream sundaes and a Geocache. They have been there since the turn of the century and will remain for another 100 years. The temp at the bottom of the gorge had to be a 100 plus, even though there was free camping my thoughts were onto a state park just out of the gorge and a hot shower.
Next morning we find ourselves heading north via routes 129,12,261 and 21. Western Washington is wheat, wheat, and more wheat. Thinking that I had seen farmland in North Dakota, nothing prepared me for Washington State. It just goes on and on from one horizon to another. The only saving grace is that it is not flat and the roads do have a bit of life to them. It's the town of Wilbur that has me stopping for the night with a bit of blue grass music to soothe the nerves from a long day on the road.
We are onto the border this last day of the month for July, mileage for the Goatmobile is 17,500 miles, and we have British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska ahead of us.
Aloha
Norm
