2008 – Week 6

Tuesday, June 3, 2008:
Rain again, and we decided to hunker down in the RV Campground in Boise. I did more laundry and walked Daisy plus finished my blog for the week. Susie worked on her book and took pictures of her drawings in preparation for publishing her blog. We had wifi internet access, but for some reason it was difficult to download some, but not all, of the photos. I gave up on a few photos and published what I could. Susie gave up, and I don’t blame her. We eventually went to dinner at a Romano’s Macaroni Grill and then Susie tried her blog again. No better, so we went to bed and read for a bit. Not a very exciting day, but Susie needed the day off, and we hope she’ll be better in the morning. We drove a total of 17 miles, to and from dinner.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008:
Overnight the wind shifted to the northwest and the temperature dropped to 50. I took Daisy for here walk and fed her. Susie and I took showers, had breakfast and cleaned the grit from the RV. With the strong sun, the temperature climbed to the mid-60’s and with the RV protecting us from the wind, it felt quite a bit warmer. We left the RV Campground at 10:00am, filled up with gas and headed into Boise to see the house her mother and father, Janet and Ed, rented while living in Boise. We then drove 31 miles north on ID21, following Mores Creek, to the town of Idaho City. The drive along Mores Creek is wonderful. It has cut its path through volcanic rock with cliffs about 200 feet high in certain areas. As we neared Idaho City, we saw the evidence of gold mining done by dredges. The dredges sit in a pond, dig its way upstream throwing the river rock over the stern. We saw one of these dredges in 2006 about 50 miles north of where we are today. We had lunch in Idaho City at “Calamity Jane’s”, an old time café that Janet and Ed frequented when they were enroute to/from their mining claim on the Grimes Creek. I had an ice cream cone at the shop next door. Idaho City has changed quite a bit since we were last there 2 years ago. The National Forest Service has established the town as a base for fire fighting in the area, and there are some new retail buildings. Not all of this is for the better, but when we walked through the old part of town, the old buildings and historic artifacts are still there. We departed town, drove west to New Centerville (Centerville is about 2 miles north, but you’d never know it) and then north to Pioneerville, all in Idaho. This was a distance of 12 miles, most of which was on graded dirt roads. We pulled into the location where Janet and Ed camped while panning for gold and took naps. After the naps, we took a stroll down to the campsite we had used in 2006. The US Forest Service has been doing some clearing of dead wood and burning the piles. One was still smoking, but no visible flame. We also so a large military aircraft flying low over the area and suspect that it was the USFS looking for fires even though there has been an unusually large amounts of rain over the past few weeks. As night fell, we realized that the “house” battery for the RV has failed. There is no place to get a replacement in Idaho City, so we’ll make a stop in Butte MT as we continue our trip north. By 10:00pm the lights had pretty much faded to the point we could no longer read.

Thursday, June 5, 2008:
When we awoke this morning, the good news was that there was no snow, but the bad news was that the outside temperature had fallen to 41 degrees. The skies were a beautiful blue with only a few clouds. I took Daisy for her walk, and as soon as I get into the sun, I realized it was starting to warm up. Susie and I had a cup of coffee and talked about her late Mother and Father before going over to Grimes Creek and watching the water flow downstream. It was an emotional time as was to be expected, but not overwhelming. We drove back into Idaho City expecting to have breakfast at “Calamity Jane’s, but it was closed. We scratched our heads for a few minutes and headed to the “Gold Mine”. It was a good breakfast, but did not have the emotional attachment of “Calamity Jane’s”. However, it was large enough that we didn’t need lunch. We departed Idaho City, heading north on ID21 to Lowman ID where we joined the South Fork of the Payette River that took us almost to Stanley ID. As we approached Stanley we had numerous views of the snow-topped Sawtooth Range in the Sawtooth NRA. We saw them without the snow in 2006, but they are much more visible and exciting with the snow. At Stanley we traveled north on ID75 and US93 following the Salmon River. Twelve miles east of Stanley, in Sunbeam ID, we saw the remnants of a dam that was built in 1909-1910 to provide a source of electricity for a goldmine 10 miles north. Unfortunately for the Owners, the quality of the gold was poor and the company went bankrupt in 1911. The Idaho Dept of Fisheries blew it up in 1934 to allow for better fishing.
We continued north, following the Salmon River downstream, on ID75 and US93 through the town of Salmon. As it was 5:30pm we were looking for a campsite for the night, but rejected 3 because of the clientele. We found the BLM Twin Rivers Campground off of US93 and stayed there. It is between the town of Salmon and the ID/MT border. I heard thunder in the background so we’ll see what that brings.

Friday, June 6, 2008:
Well, the thunder and dark clouds brought some rain, but not a lot. We left the campground at 9:50am and continued north on US93 to Lost Trail Pass (elev 7,014 feet) at the border of ID/MT. The snow line was about 6,500 feet, and we experienced snow showers at elevations below that. We turned right on to MT43 and crossed over Chief Joseph’s Pass (elev 7,264 feet)
There was snow there, as the picture will show. This area is the location where there is much concern and dispute about the route of Lewis & Clarke over the Bitterroot Mountains and the Continental Divide into the Bitterroot River Valley after they had found the headwaters of the Missouri River about 40 miles east of present day Butte MT. It was a tough enough trip in a vehicle with an engine on a finished road; it must have been terrible with packs, horses and very steep terrain during late August and early September. There are some ski slopes in this area that look very rugged. We continued east on MT43, stopping at the Big Hole National Battlefield where the Nez Perce Indians and the US Army had a terrible battle with the US Army killing numerous women and children in addition to warriors. The US soldiers were the same ones who discovered the Custer disaster at Little Bighorn and almost suffered the same fate after the Nez Perce rallied. If US Army reinforcements had not arrived, they might have been killed. We were unable to tour the battlefield as much is underwater due to unusual snowmelt and rains this year. We moved on driving through this beautiful valley with mountains on both sides. There were more cattle than we have ever seen in any of our trips. MT43 follows the Big Hole River north, east and then south, but we left it to go north on I-15 north to Butte MT to try to get a new house battery. We stopped for lunch in a rest area and were hit with a sleet storm for about a half-hour. We arrived in Butte, found a battery and went to the Visitor Center to determine whether we should stay the night in Butte and tour the city and surrounding area tomorrow. Butte still has an active open pit copper mine with trucks that carry 240 tons of rock each. In addition, numerous underground mines underlie the city and has an abandoned pit mine known as the Berkeley Pit. Mining stopped in 1982, and the pumping of Pit and mine shaft was stopped. The water in the pit is very acidic and must be treated before it is discharged from the Pit. The current estimate for that to begin is 2021. The water depth in the Pit is more than 1,000 feet and increasing. We are in a RV park, and Susie was able to download her blog using a direct connection rather than wifi. I guess her transfer demands are more than wifi can provide. Oh, the temperature is supposed to fall to 29 degrees tonight.

Saturday, June 7, 2008:
I don’t think it went down to 29 last night, but 35 might be a good guess. We took showers and called all the kids before leaving the KOA for the Visitor Center where we caught a tour bus through the City of Butte. There were some signs of greatness when copper was king, but that was in the early 1900’s. It was a two hour trip and the biggest attraction to me was the Superfund site and the measures being taken to prevent the pollution of the ground water. The tour guide was enthusiastic about all ARCO, the purchaser of Anaconda, was doing (all on its own according to him) to solve this problem. Nothing was said about the EPA. Anyway, it was a great way to see the city, and before we left, we went to the bakeshop that Susie had seen during the tour. We traveled for a few miles before stopping at the Flying J for gas and propane. During that process it began to snow and so we made lunch before heading off to the town of Anaconda. As we traveled to Anaconda, the tops of numerous mountains are snow covered, probably above 7,000 feet. Great things were written about this town, and there were a few wonderful old buildings, but the feature was the 582.56 foot tall stack that remained from the refining operations of Anaconda. This stack has a 60-foot interior diameter at the top and the largest outside dimension of the octagonal base is 93 feet. The reason it was so tall was to disperse the pollutants beyond the local area. Does this sound familiar when discussing the height of powerplant stacks in the Midwest and acid rain in New England? We left town and headed to Phillipsburg MT where we pulled into the only RV Park. It is a beautiful valley but would be better if it weren’t in the mid-40’s at 7:00pm. It seems that I complain lots about the weather, but the locals say this is really unusual and what is this global warming stuff. Of course when we talked to Kimberly and Meredith on the East Coast, they tell us how hot it is there. I can see a slight glow through the clouds that must be the sun. Oops, it just disappeared. I am sure we’ll have the heat on a bit tonight. We went to diner at a local restaurant and learned that while the area is all green now, by mid-July it will be brown and the forest fires will create a haze that makes it hard to breath. It is very difficult on the young children. This area runs off a 3 month tourist season plus a bit of help from a nearby ski resort and employment at a nearby prison. Less than 50% of the roads are paved, and there isn’t a clean car or truck in the area! The fog has started to settle in, and visibility is completely restricted.

Sunday, June 8, 2008:
Well, another morning of low temperatures, rain showers all night and fog. It was 46 degrees and when I walked Daisy, I saw new snow on whatever mountains I could see and not at an elevation much above the RV Park. Time to reconsider! We spent a long time in the internet and realized that there was rain everywhere without much hope of improvement where we wanted to go (north to Glacier NP). A high level meeting was called of all the occupants in the RV, and we decided to forget about Glacier NP and head west at least until we arrived in Spokane WA. The clouds began to break, and we realized that we had driven most of these roads in 2006. The weather became warmer and the blue sky was more visible as we traveled west. We’ll spend the night in Spokane, visit a few AAA “Gems” before heading to the southeast corner of the state. My guess is that we’ll do the south edge of the state, turn north to see the San Juan Islands and then visit the northern portion before making a decision on whether or not to go back to Glacier NP. We have seen it before, but we’d like to see it in the sun.


Monday, June 9, 2008:
Well, we found a new campground amenity. I had seen the water tower when we moved in but hadn’t paid any attention to it. However, during the night when all was quiet Susie heard a loud hum and shut the window nearest the tower. This morning I investigated and think the 3 pumps are used to fill the tower plus maintain pressure in the system. I also noticed the sign on the fence that said it was US Property so now I’m not sure what it serves. We also have a very active set of train tracks just beyond the water tower so we have all the amenities normally for in RV Parks. It rained a bit last night and is very cloudy this morning. We left the campground and headed o the City of Spokane to visit Riverfront Park, especially the historic carousel. It was designed and built by Charles I. D. Looff of Coney Island NY.
It began operation in 1909, went into storage in the late 1960’s and then purchased by the City for installation in Rivefront Park that was the site of the 1974 Expo. Also in the Park is a very enlarged version of a Radio Flyer wagon. The handle of the slide is used as a children’s slide. We biked along the Spokane River and saw the Spokane Falls.

This was very impressive as the river flow at this time of the year is flowing heavily. We returned to the RV just as the sky darkened and rain threatened. We drove to Manito Park, a city run floral park. This 90-acre facility was established in 1904, and must be a joy to the residents of Spokane. Because of the ever-changing plant seasons, its look changes daily. We were able to see everything, and Susie went to visit the Japanese Garden just as the skies open up. Jamie and Daisy stayed in the RV. We left Spokane and were headed to the nearest campground located in Chaney WA. It was thundering and rainy so we decided to head further south through the palouse farming area
to the town of Colfax. The rains cleared and the clearing northwester followed. The RV was difficult to drive and we were happy to arrive safely in Colfax. When there we called our camping friends, Barb and Dick Strevy, who we had met at the Big Pine Camping area north of Moscow ID in 2006. We wanted to take them to dinner, but they were in the process of eating pizza so they picked us for the RV Park, and we almost finished the pizza with a beer chaser. We made plans to meet for breakfast after Dick had called work and told them he was taking the day (Tuesday) off so we could tour the area with them. Back to the RV at 9:30pm. It was cold and raw, with a low temperature of 39 degrees expected.