Tundy, house and beetle build thread...and exploring.

Blasphemy

 

When you are older your feet will hate you.

 

Heading down to the Magruder Corridor Trail a little later today! Should be a cool drive. 110ish miles of the "wildest, most remote country".

 

Welp...



Magruder was basically a paved road. Not much of a challenge. Cool scenery but a bunch of fires making the views hazy.

 

Now I want one.

 

Well she's bigger. Got her wedged in there but now I have to figure out my storage bins again since they don't fit or block the vents.

 

I need to check this thing out!

 

We expecting anyone else this weekend?

 

Hopefully @Blackdawg isn't working on Saturday and he'll join us.

Trying to see if anyone else is up for it. I'll try and find a place to camp as it gets closer. Not sure if camping is allowed in the valley near the start of it.

 

Yeah let me know where we can meet up. Gonna try and skip out early Friday.

 

@aero3685 have you been keeping track of your average daily cost? Not including the fridge...
Fuel, food, propane...
I realize some days you spend more than others...But what has the average cost per day been so far?

 

Haha ... nope. Never been one to keep a ledger of sorts for expenses. Propane, I have a full size tank, so that'll be minimal...felt pretty heavy last time I was messing with it, so I'm guessing that might be a 2-3 month refill. Food is also somewhat cheap, gas is the biggest expense. If I get bored while I have some service I'll try and pull it up and see what I've spent other than the water tank build and new fridge.

 

My new Diff for Frankenstein gets in on Friday..So i may or may not roll up in Frank haha or Igor.

Either way i think i'll be there.

You can camp at the trail head. Plenty of room. Not sure about a fire ring..

 

@kashtyaatsi
I'll plan on being at the trailhead early on Friday... maybe Thursday. Somewhere near these coordinates, or to the west on the Morrison Road from there.

44.842714, -109.317302

 

Updates!


Idaho! I forgot the potatoes.


I think I’m getting old… trying to remember where I left off, and where I went from there.

Ok, we were last at Glacier NP. It was a nice camp spot I found, but the drive into Glacier took quite a while. I headed to the soutwest, I cant remember if I was heading somewhere in particular or just that direction.

I pulled off the road for a nice lunch spot along the river and decided it was a pretty nice spot, so I set up camp there for the night. Part of the reason I liked that spot was the crystal clear river that had a little bit of flow and some wavy areas for the paddleboard. I got it out and hit the water for a few hours. I accomplished my goal of staying on the board through the rapid section! Its strange how quickly you adjust to the 50 degree water that felt like ice when I first dipped my toes in. I also got some laundry done, a nice perk of being next to the river.



It seems like I am just jumping around the country from one body of water to the next, which is fine by me having all this refreshing water around.

I ended up in Coeur d’Alene, and camped on the cliffs of Pend Oreille. It was a bit windy and wavy here for the paddleboard so it was just a nice relaxing time.



The city park in Coeur d’Alene is a really neat area, lots of shops and walking areas, the marina with float planes, and the waters edge has steps into the swimming area. I drug the board out and it was then that I realised using it on choppy/wavy water is quite a task! My knees were quickly worn out but I did somewhat get the hang of it.

Next up, I camped southeast from Coeur d’Alene near a hike to Crystal Lake. As usual, horrible views! While in the area, I met a few locals that gave me great info for the rest of my time in Idaho as well as tons about Alaska!





I continued my scenic route down towards the Magruder Corridor. Dent Bridge was appearing majestic.



As well as the Clearwater River, which was just as refreshing!



And yeah, all the time in Idaho, I forgot to stop for some potatoes. There has to be some special plate, right?

 

The Magruder!


After all the waiting, it was time to hit one of the trails I wanted to do. Maybe it was the fact that it crosses one of the most desolate areas in the lower 48; maybe it was the thrill of the historic slaughter that gave the trail its name, probably a little bit of everything.


The area was originally home to the Nez Perce Indians, then some guys named Lewis and Clark hiked through the area. The road got its name when Lloyd Magruder, a successful merchant was on a return trip with $25k. He hired men to guard his money and while on the return trip, the hired help murdered Magruder and the rest of his party; rolling their bodies off the cliff. They killed all of the animals and burned the rest of the gear and went on the run. They ran to California where they were caught and returned to the Idaho Territory. Three were hanged and ones life was spared due to testifying against the others. This was the first trial in the Idaho Territory.


I continued on the Magruder by myself… I didn’t want to test my luck hiring any guides to see me safely across.


Magruder Corridor by Brandon M, on Flickr


The area has been victim to multiple forest fires over the years and most of the 100+ miles of the trail you are surrounded by burnt trees.





I drove up to top of Burnt Knob Point where I shared the views with three fire fighters from the Teton area. They were keeping an eye on one of the multiple fires that were currently burning in the area, likely started by lightning in the last week.




The fire that they were watching.




I finished the trail without incident, only had to cut one large tree out of the road. Not bad for the 100+ miles in a burn area with a ton of trees just waiting to fall over.


I cruised up to Missoula to pick up a Dometic dual zone fridge/freezer to replace my Indel B which was a fridge or freezer. The Dometic was a little larger so I had to do a little bit of work to get it to fit, but its in there! It’ll be great to be able to freeze meat and veggies and of course… ice cream.


I had no issues with the Indel B over the year and a half or more that I have owned it. They make a dual zone unit, but it happened to be sold out for over a month, so that would not work!





I originally had the Indel B TB51 http://www.truckfridge.com/tb51/

And replaced it with a Dometic CFX-DZUS http://amzn.to/2uvHaHG


And I found a decent little spot along the path along the river in Missoula to get this update posted!





Next on the list, exploring a little bit of the ID/MT/WY border before heading over to another well known trail, the Morrison Road!

 

$700 in gas/food since starting.. a month. I've been mostly buying groceries but went out a few times for food/beer. But, I've been driving a bit more than I should be... started out a bit too rushed which is why I am now looping back around. Working on hanging out longer at cool places vs jumping around so much. Of course the end of this month will be plenty gas heavy with the whole Alaska thing. There and back I figured $1500 on gas alone; I think.

But I think I am done needing to buy or modify stuff, so that'll be nice (those few purchases obviously not in that number).

 

So roughly $23.00 a day, and that's the initial take off fee, which I expected to be high...
You're totally within the budget I set aside for myself.