Idahohoho

Wednesday

I avail myself of the campground’s nice shower in the morning, because you never know when you’ll have access to another shower. [in this case it turned out to be a very long time!].  Up the hill, around the bend and boom!  stunning beauty smacks me right in the face!  The road snakes southward along the edge of the series of reservoirs along the Snake River Canyon, aka Hell’s Canyon.  The campground was immediately below Oxbow Dam.  Now I am above the dam and driving along the Oregon side of Oxbow Lake.  There is not a hint of a breeze, so the water is glassy smooth, reflecting the mountains and trees perfectly.

There appears to be free camping at some of the boat access spots.  There are campers and trash bins and portapotties.  Nothing says camping allowed to me more than portapotties and trash bins in the middle of nowhere and the absence of a No Camping sign!

This wonder of beauty went on 30-ish miles.  Somewhere in there we gain enough elevation that Oxbox Lake levels out to become the river.  Seems like a good place to put a bridge across the river, so the road finally crosses into Idaho, then up a hill past the next dam (Brownlee) which creates the next lake.  Finally the road veers up a canyon away from the Snake River, towards what passes for civilization in Idaho.

Stopped in New Meadows in a failed attempt to find wifi.  It is just a dusty little crossroads town, but I’ve always kinda liked it.  That distinguishes it from the next town – McCall – which I have always loathed.  It’s quite scenically located on the edge of a little lake, but it’s oh so swishy and fancy and so darned pleased with itself.  The library charged for wifi, which perfectly fit my personal narrative of the overall suckitude of that town.  There was a little coffeehouse with wifi that was not tooooo annoying :).

That evening’s web research lead me to one of the most perfect campsites I have ever had anywhere.  The next two towns down are Donnelly and Cascade, both along the east side of Cascade Lake (the map says Lake Cascade but that doesn’t sound right to me).  There are a couple of Forest Service campgrounds on the west side – take a right at Donnelly and follow the signs for 7 miles.  I do this.   It’s Wednesday, and I score the perfect spot, right on the lake.  I swim and fiddle around and enjoy reading and computing in my trusty lawn chair right my the lake.  Come to think of it, I did not even get driven inside by mosquitoes.  Snake River last night, Cascade Lake tonight.  I am on a roll.

It is not a busy lake tonight, in fact there are long stretches of silence where all you can hear is the occasional bird and a bunch of really loud cows across the lake.  There have been three or four bovines that have been bellowing their heads off for the whole time I’ve sat here.  I swam pretty hard, so I feel righteously worked out, and kinda bone chilled … in a good way.

An older yuppie couple comes paddling by in an inflatable canoe/kayak, and beach it a couple of hundred yards up the beach at another campsite.  They made it look so easy that even I could do it!  I quite love being able to bust out my bike on when the evening calls for it, so I can easily imagine how much I would enjoy busting out an inflatable boat … must investigate this …

Thursday

I hang out in the morning because it’s hard to leave such a pretty place.  The site is posted as reserved tonight through the weekend anyway, so I don’t really have a choice about moving on.  I backtrack across the lake to resume my trip down SR 95.  Breakfast in Gramma’s in Cascade.

The last few miles before the town of Burns is a dramatic canyon of the Payette River, tributary of the Snake.  I take my left at Burns on SR 24 to hit a hot springs or two and boom! I’m in yet another dramatic canyon.

My campsite neighbors last night had mentioned the town of Crouch.  I’ve driven this road before but couldn’t place the town, and it turns out the reason that it’s about two miles off the highway.  So you see it on the map, but unless you make the turn you don’t actually see the town.  Both other times I did not make the turn, but I did this time and quite liked it. There’s a post office, a market, and 2-3 restaurants, and that’s it!   One of the restaurants has wifi, so here I am, sittin’ on the porch sippin’ my bottomless iced tea, watching the locals and doing today’s wifi research.  Since the temp is about 15 degrees hotter than I would like it to be, sittin quietly in the shade is a pretty good way to spend the afternoon.   It’s hard to leave again!

Today’s research was thorough, but wasted as it turns out, because Kirkham CG and the associated Kirkham Hot Springs was nearly deserted on this Thursday afternoon!  It was crowded and crazy the other times I’ve been here.  I drove past today expecting the same,  but then I realied that it was nearly empty, so I u-turned and came back to snag the next nearly perfect site in my three-day run of great sites.   Well, the actual campsites at Kirkham are no big deal.  The river is pretty, but the road is very close, and the trucks decelerating around the curves are pretty loud.  What makes the place extra special is the extensive hot springs.

There’s hot water springing out of the ground all over the place around here.  There’s a modest little pool right in the campground, between sites 14 and 15.  But down the hill is a pretty big area about 60′ wide with various amounts of very hot water bubbling out of the ground at 6-8 different places.  It makes lovely hot waterfalls and pools ranging from too hot for comfort to the very cold river.  Just excellent to have it next door all night.

Friday

A little soak in the morning, then on to The Bakery in Stanley.  Managed to get there before it closed at 2pm!   Stanley is the anti McCall – awesomely scenic, yet still folksy and comfortable.  The library wifi is a great example.  It’s basically a tiny one room affair, but the wifi tower is set right in a window facing onto to a grassy yard with a couple of picnic tables, so you don’t even have to go inside to use it, you can sit in the shade in the grass and do your e-business.  very nice.

I pass all the interesting campsites I had researched, and eventually end up at my fourth consequtive nearly perfect spot.  It’s an Idaho Fish and Game FAS – Fishing Access Spot.   This has nothing but a sign, but it’s completely legal camping, free, next to the Salmon River under the cliffs across the river.

Saturday

The drive to the town of Salmon was longer than I thought, so I was seriously ready for food by the time I got there.  There was some kind of charity race going on, so there was very slow traffic and a general difficulty getting around.  But Yelp pointed me to a funky little downtown bistro, looked like it used to be a cowboy bar but now is a chick place, pretty much all women, with gourmet pretensions.  My stomach was set for breakfast, but I made to with a sando and coffee that was actually quite good.

Continue following the Salmon River up through the town of North Fork, take a right, and Montana here I come!