BEAUTIFUL IDAHO

 

‘Twas a LONG Day, but a promise is a promise.   I had told my friend that we would catch up with her on our NEXT LOOP, and Kathleen has to work until late on Friday so staying here in Cascade THREE days and decided to just drive to Clarkston WA, across from Lewiston ID for lunch.  Of course Debra offered us her extra bedroom but then we wouldn’t have TODAY to recuperate before packing up and driving down to Boise!!  We were SUPER thankful that we were not pulling the COUGAR when we drove over a couple of passes and back through an amazing thunderstorm!!

Four beautiful canyons, four full Spring run-off rivers, four hundred miles round trip.  We are parked on the Payette River on Hiway 55.  It goes into a mammoth lake complete with a mammoth DIG!!  We saw the signs leading 10 miles out on a dirt road - maybe today, or maybe NOT.  That is the great thing about living in a trailer, the daily choice to stay put and relax or run off and SEE THINGS.  I understand that there is a thermally heated pool and hot tub here at the Cascade Rec Center just across the highway and very inexpensive. 

The lovely little village of McCall reminded us of Estes Park, Lake Tahoe, or the mile-hi city of Prescott AZ.  Lovely homes on THEIR lake.  We had flown over this area on our several trips to Moose Creek fly-in camp ground in 6199 Juliet, but this was an opportunity to get an up-close view. 

McCall is a college town, and vacation destination.  The main street and surrounding hills are complete with vacation homes, boutiques, antiques, and a VERY UNIQUE street crossing system.  They have flag holders on the sign posts, and you grab a flag to cross and deposit it on the other side when you complete your crossing.  Remember the crossing guards when you were in grade school with their red flags. I am sure that is a lot cheaper than installing lights on every corner.  Human nature being what it is we DID NOT see anyone using the flags and crossing at the prescribed corner, but jay-walking wherever they felt like it!!

Dropping down into a valley of ranches and the town of New Meadow we joined Hiway 95 for this portion of the trip and the river on this canyon was the Little Salmon.  We also joined the procession of big rigs as this is the main North-South Highway from the Mexican border to the Canadian one.

GOD BLESS the truckers who bring the goods to where they are needed.  What would we have done without them during the lock downs last year.  It takes a disaster to realize our need to be thankful for the sacrifices truckers and their families make on a daily/weekly basis.

The creeks feeding into the Little Salmon and then the SALMON RIVER included Lawyer Creek and White Bird.  The Lawyer for which the creek was named was an English-speaking Nez-Pierce chief who negotiated treaties for his tribe.  I had read recently that several tribes kept children, orphans after their parents were killed in a raid, to replenish the losses they suffered in inter-tribal conflicts as well as those raids. Perhaps that is how this chief had learned to speak English before any missionaries even arrived.   This was also the section of the highway where we stopped to trade driving stints at an Historical Marker telling of the hydraulic mining in Idaho and the short lived BOOM in Florence, 12 miles east by air or a circuitous dirt road, where millions of dollars worth of gold was collected in just one year.  But then it was GONE, and so were the residents and the buildings have disappeared in the last nearly 200 years.  So we did NOT drive to it OR through it!

There were several railroad tressels visible from the highway – some very long and very high above the creeks/rivers feeding into the Little Salmon and the Salmon. We noted large piles of used railroad ties so assumed that those sections were historical and no longer active rail lines.

The White Bird confluence led to a long and high and easily driven wedge from the side of the mountain with three lanes so the slower moving trucks would have a lane, but passing was allowed in the opposite direction except on the curves. Coming back we were able to see a totally different view of the hills and mountains to the east on this section of the highway.

The town of Riggins was the RAFTING CAPITAL of Idaho and all of the businesses were associated with that lucrative? Activity.  Growing up in Colorado we were not familiar with this recreational option, of course we were part of the Builder Generation, before Recreation became the industry that it is now.  Hiking and Fishing were our summer pursuits, but only on three-day weekends or week long vacations, often with my aunt and uncle and grandmother. 

The fishing on the SALMON River must have been exceptional because even on a Thursday the parking was bumper to bumper along the highway, and every turnout was completely filled.  The State Highway Department, or perhaps Game and Fish, had thoughtfully supplied porta-potties in several popular places along that section.  There was also a fish hatchery just upstream.  Do you think they actually added fish to the river near there?

All of these rivers included canyons of rocks and trees, blooming spring flowers and some dying pine trees.  We were attempting to pinpoint the ROCK FALL from last summer that closed Highway 95 for a week below Grangeville and caused us to have to detour into WA and OR   There were several places that showed recent rock falls, but I guess the Box Truck sized boulders last summer had to be blown up to be moved according to Kathleen.  Big news as it is a busy road, just not at 8 PM in a rain storm.

Grangeville is the edge of the huge farming valley and the canolla fields were bright yellow.  Silos and barns dotted the landscape, and the towns appeared to be bustling.  There were not as many closed shops as in other places after the COVID-19 shutdowns last year.

Another canyon down to the Stillwater River which we followed into Lewiston past the ubiquitous Indian Casino!  We crossed the SNAKE River into Clarkston via a different bridge and enjoyed lunch with our friend before the trek home which was punctuated by FOUR rain storms, the last with lightning and thunder.  We changed drivers under a gas station awning after removing all metallic items and leaving them on the console in the pickup, just as a precaution as the storm was right over head!

A LONG DAYs journey to be followed by a REST DAY!!

 

PS.  Kathleen agreed that a drive to the mountains for her was a great idea but she could not spend the night as she had Nursery at her church at 8:30 service.  BUT even so we stayed two more days in Cascade enjoying the breezes off the river and the vision of SNOW on the mountains above us!!  On our Sunday trek to Boise for church and lunch with Kathleen we even checked the OIL CHANGE off on our preventive maintenance check list.  We had managed a tire check in Clarkston WA at the CostCo there,  so we are “lookin’ good” in the PM department as our Idaho adventure continues.  We have several points of interest for the next weeks / months here in Idaho.