AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

Well I think it's more like how Mike calls mine gold. All I can see is...brown haha

 

ive been loving my $100 OEM FJ Trail editions... I’ll leave the expensive wheels and wide tires to the EXPO AF people. If I had front mud flaps I would barely have any on the truck.

 

I'm gonna have to go with Monte on this one, I liked them better silver. But you did a great job painting them brown!

I was driving north on 54 north of El Paso, TX along White Sands once, super boring stretch of road and straight for miles. It was mid-day, and all of the sudden I was in a shadow that shot over and ahead of me, then I heard the booming of the blades. Dang military copter buzzed me, scared the crap out of me and my wife, but it was pretty cool.

 

, hahahaha (not sure your taste counts though...'cause 3rd gen, )

Awesome.

 

We Take Up Residence in Idaho's City of Rocks
July 2, 2019.

There's nothing better than a night with temps in the high 40's a light breeze, and a river gurgling along below camp. Coupled with our position at the bottom of a valley, there was no reason to get up for sunrise, and it was nearly 8:00am before we finally poked our heads out of the tent to take in our beautiful surroundings - the creek below, the hot springs to the west, and pinnacles to the east. And, we did it mostly because we knew that it wasn't going to be long before it got even hotter than the previous day, and we wanted to get a move on before we were sweating it out under the mid-day sun.

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Opting to skip breakfast given the mosquitoes, we figured we could spend a few minutes exploring the ghost down on the east banks of the Bruneau River before heading out, so we crossed the bridge and checked out the old stone buildings - most of them reduced to their rubble foundations, but one still partially standing, even it's roof resisting disintegration after all these years.

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And then, it was back up the road and out past the old Chevy pickup as we made our way to the top of the canyon, where we were greeted - as one is - by a cow hip guarding the road.

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Taking our cue from the cow hip, we kept moooooo-ving, making our way back along the poorly maintained road as quickly as we could. Having come this way only 12 hours earlier, we didn't stop much - though an Idaho Centennial Trail marker and some red wildflowers were enough to get us to pull over as we ticked the miles away, eventually hitting a well-graded gravel road.

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Travelling along the gravel road - Balanced Rock Road - we hoped that there'd be something cool to see - so as the road ended at a paved intersection, we figured it was time to air up for the several-hour cruise to our next destination - Idaho's City of Rocks National Preserve.

Tires full, it was only a mile or so down the road that we ran into Balanced Rock! Now, it seemed a little strange that it wasn't actually on Balanced Rock Road, but we'll just chalk it up to Idaho being a little on the weird side - I mean, given what we know of the good folks who live there.

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From there though, it was smoothing sailing with only a quick stop for food and fuel - the Tacoma racing along towards City of Rocks, happy to have full tires and a full tank of gas. And so, it was early afternoon when we arrived at City of Rocks, a place we'd been excited to see since Ben @m3bassman had posted some photos of a trip he'd done with Will @willhaman21 earlier in the year.

It was an extra-nice surprise to find that the roads leading to the reserve were dirt as we pulled into the northeast entrance.

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Side note: we'd later find that they'd recently sprayed Magnesium Chloride on the road for dust control - the compound pulling water from the surrounding air to keep dust particles down - and in the process, sticking to every surface it touched. Liquid rust, as it were. Needless to say, the truck was getting a good undercarriage wash when we got home.

For now, unaware of the extent of the evil, and excited for the views that were expanding in front of us, we continued on - our first stop the deliciously-stacked Breadloaves, surrounded by wild iris.

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As we made our way to the visitor center to check in and get the run-down on any aspects of the park that we shouldn't miss, we stopped a few more times - the City of Rocks rising up around us - the sights irresistible.

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A relatively small park, we arrived at the Visitor Center right around 3:30pm and introduced ourselves to the employee behind the desk. "How long are you staying?" she asked. Our answer of a day to day-and-a-half seemed to catch her off-guard - "Oh, you'll have plenty of time to see everything!" she told us. :smile:

We started with a reasonably cool, but nonetheless replica, covered wagon outside the front door. City of Rocks it turns out was on the old California Trail and had been used as a natural stopping point along the way - it's splendor a worth place to rest weary feet and stock.

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From there, a short hike at the end of a dirt road that we were warned was "steep and single lane," but was in fact just as well graded as any other road we'd travel in the reserve gave us an overview of the rocks, and a nice blooming wild onion and prickly pear cactus as well.

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It turns out that City of Rocks is a National Reserve, not a national or state park, not a preserve or recreation area, etc. What that means is that it's a combination of federal, state, and private land, run by the state - and as a result, there are several pieces of land within its borders that are private and unexplorable without permission from the landowner. Circle Creek Ranch, built in 1882, is one of these places - some 320 acres that's still actively grazed and still contains the ruins of the old stone homestead.

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A little bummer we couldn't walk around inside, we continued on around a self-guided, driving loop of the park. Definitely the American way, hahahaha. Next up were Chicken Rock and Camp Rock - a popular stopping point along the California Trail, where emigrants wrote their names and the date of their stay using axle grease!

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We continued west, pausing only momentarily at Twin Sisters - the formation that would tower over our camp once we settled down - and out of the park, to continue the loop.

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The ghost town of Moulton, Idaho sits just west of City of Rocks border and not much is left - a single building in the middle of a pasture, all we could find. This town was a farming community - farmers having settled Junction Valley in the early 1900's to dry farm. Perhaps predictably, the town wasn't long lived - by the 1920's the farms had failed, due to drought. Nice dovetail joinery on the log cabin though!

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Back in the park, we headed out on our second short hike - this one to Window Arch. I was really looking forward to this one, in my mind an arch along the lines of Druid Arch that I'd seen earlier in the year as part of the trip to The Needles in Canyonlands. I probably should have done a bit more research though - this arch was much smaller (but still cool, and fun to play around on :smile.

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Like Druid Arch, the surroundings were spectacular - we found ourselves in the middle of the granite formations that made up the heart of the city, the perfect place to lose yourself with some bouldering gear and a bag of chalk.

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Now early evening, we decided it was time to head to camp - I'd reserved a site online - for a bit of relaxation and a favorite dinner of tacos and guacamole! As we made our way back to Twin Sisters, we passed Elephant Rock - the elephant figure shown plain as day in the evening sun.

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As we pulled up to our spot - campsite #4 - at Twin Sisters, a surprise! Tents were already setup in "our spot." And what's this? - someone else's name on the reserved sign. Uh oh. I checked the reservation. Yep - I had a confirmation email, my credit card had been charged. And then, I noticed - we'd reserved spot #64 - as far away from Twin Sisters as you could physically get, a site that I'd looked at but - I thought - only in passing. There'd clearly been a snafu somewhere along the way - either in the web site, or between the keyboard and monitor.

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Luckily, we'd noticed that across the street - so still in the area we'd planned to stay - the Twin Sisters group site was free for the evening - it's occupants not scheduled to arrive for another 48 hours. So we headed over that direction for what turned out to be an even better site than the one I'd thought I'd reserved for the night.

Spirit of the law for the win!

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Nestled into the rock, we did a it of exploring around camp - who wouldn't with boulders to explore around, an on!? The setting sun's rays, warm and long across the valley floor.

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Then, it was time for dinner, before pulling out our chairs to enjoy the pleasantly warm air - a hint of a breeze refreshing after our long, hot day - for an hour of reading and sunset views before heading to bed.

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The middle of summer, it was late - for us - when we finally called it an evening and climbed into the tent. Here, unlike our spot the night before - the mosquitoes were rare (though I think we later realized the noseeums were not) - and I nearly finished the book I'd planned to read for the entire trip!

But we were happy and looking forward to what the next day would bring - some exploration to the north, and - unbeknownst to us at the time - a trip to the "moon."

 

Thanks Man.

 

I grew up in Pensacola where the Blue Angels consider home base. My entire childhood consisted of watching them either practice or perform at NAS Pensacola or Pensacola Beach.

I have the same wheels and got them for the same price!

 

@turbodb - Thanks for the great suggestions of visiting Eastern Oregon, I’ve been up to Steens Mountain a couple times, but never tried to drive from Fields west to Hart Mtn, and now all I have to say about it is Wow! We used some of your suggestions for the tour, but we took some of our own that were definitely fun and amazing. There are a lot of unused roads out there which made it so much better, as we really did not see anyone the entire time we were out there until we got closer to the headquarters... and that landscape, it is so amazing! Anyway, just wanted to thank you again for the suggestion. Here’s a couple photos I posted about it too:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/eastern-oregon-back-again.618552/#post-21168003

 

Glad you got out there and enjoyed it! Just looked through the trip report and it looks like a ton of fun.

Did you go through Flook Lake? Or was it still full of water?

 

I really wanted to see Flook Lake but we didnt! That north area of the refuge had heavy rains and lightning and we thought the better of it and stayed south. Such a cool place though, we did have a great time!

 

From City of Rocks to Craters of the Moon
July 3, 2019.

Hoping for a colorful sunrise framed by City of Rocks' formations, I was up early - right around 5:00am - greeted by clouds on the horizon and a showing that was at best, "meh." You can't win them all, and I was quickly back to bed for a couple more hours of sleep.

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Still, we were up earlier than we'd been the previous mornings - because we had no idea how long today's adventures into the Sawtooth National Forest would take - and we figured it would be a good idea to evacuate our adopted camp site reasonably early, regardless. As we looked around, I was glad we'd explored most of the reserve the day before - the morning clouds having spread across the sky, casting a flat light over the landscape.

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Before heading north, we enjoyed a quick cereal breakfast with the last of our homegrown blueberries and entertainment from the local "wildlife." And then, we were off.

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Now, the previous day at the visitor center, I'd noticed a photo of a log cabin in the reserve with the Twin Sisters in the background.

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Named the Moon Homestead, there was no other information about it's location. Curious, I suggested that we go looking for it, and @mrs.turbodb was game, so we turned around and set out on foot. Eventually I found the spot, but alas, the building was gone - perhaps burned in a wildfire, or removed for liability reduction. Either way, a fun hour of detective work, and an unsolved mystery.

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With that, we headed north once again, making our way through what we'd see the day before, and towards FR-562 and the unknown - at least mostly. We did know that the camp site we'd technically reserved was up this road, and we knew that the road was covered in impassable snow a couple short months earlier - but besides that, we figured we'd see what the mountains had in store, hopefully leaving the area by 5:00pm so we could make it to Boise and our next adventure a few hours after dinner.

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A short way up FR-562 and we quickly decided it was time to air down. Though dirt, the roads in City of Rocks were in great condition - the necessary result of having to cater to family camping. But, as we climbed in elevation, passing the last of the reservable camp sites, the road quickly became one less traveled. We found a nice bluff overlooking the rocks below and aired down as we took in our surroundings - now void of the crowds we'd seen the day before.

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Then, we continued our ascent - climbing up some 2500' over the City of Rocks - into the Sawtooth National Forest and eventually to the top of Graham Peak, where we once again got a view of the valley below - and a sister valley to the northeast, not part of the reserve, but with similar rock formations that looked worth exploring in the future!

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We explored leisurely before heading back to the truck and continuing on our way through the maze of roads that wound up, around, and through the forest - in and out of trees, across wildflower filled meadows, and to several spectacular viewpoints. Even destinationless and meandering, it turned out to be my favorite part of the trip so far.

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Then - as we neared 8600' - snow! We'd figured we would hit it, but we weren't sure if it'd stop us in our tracks. The first few drifts didn't - they were shallow enough that we could plow right though. But then, only a quarter mile before the end of the road, a 3' deep drift across the road spelled the end of the line for us - this wasn't something we were going to tackle as a solo truck, that was for sure!

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Having reached the end of the maze of roads along the ridgelines, I think it was me who suggested we take a break for lunch. Somewhere in the shade, I suggested - the clouds now starting to clear and the temperatures already in the high low 90°F's. So we started making our way back, investigating and rejecting a few shady spots that were also quite wet and buggy - before we ultimately got to the road that would lead us out of the forest and back into town. And what a road it was! Every other road we'd been on was in what I'd call "reasonable" shape. Less traveled for sure - and we were clearly the first of the year - but still obviously traveled the previous summer. FR-606 on the other hand, was different. Headed straight down the ridgeline, it was clearly a road - at one point. One that I'd be hard pressed to tell you the last time it was traveled - the grass and shrubs growing freely, even in the tire tracks.

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There were no spectacular views as we descended over 4000' in just over 6 miles - the land in front of us now was rolling hills and farmland - but the excitement of pointing the truck "down" and just seeing what lay ahead was its own kind of fun. A couple gates along the way marking the various property lines before we popped out in the outskirts of Oakly, Idaho to a small herd of horses and foals - still lunchless.

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Back in town, we took full advantage of the city park - eating lunch to a fireworks display put on by a group of the town's "under 8" kiddos; ahh, the days of small towns and kids risking their digits! As we ate, we discussed our next steps - the plan had been to go from City of Rocks to the Sawtooth Forest, and then make our way back to Boise - arriving after dinner - but we were way too early for that. If we left now, we'd get there around 5:00pm - likely earlier than Ben @m3bassman or Kirsten would even be home from work!

So, we hatched a plan to visit a place that we'd driven by several times - always in the dark - and never stopped. A place that seemed to always be "on the way to somewhere else" - Craters of the Moon National Monument. It was a couple hours away, but we figured that we could spend an hour or so there and then show up in Boise at just the right time.

Aired up, we headed north and east, making reasonably good time despite the headwinds - and arrived at Craters of the Moon a little after 4:30pm in the afternoon.

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Reminiscent of one of our first trips to Jordan Craters in Owyhee Canyonlands, Craters of the Moon was mostly barren landscape. I say mostly, because unlike Jordan Craters, there were several areas where enough time had passed since the last flow that various trees and shrubs were starting to cover the barren land.

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Craters of the Moon it turns out is even smaller than City of Rocks - at least as far as driving is concerned - and we were able to complete the entire loop, along with three short-ish hikes, in a little over an hour. That was plenty of time for the both of us - the spot a little crowded for our tastes, especially given what we'd experienced at what we thought was a better site - Jordan Craters.

Still, there were some dramatic sights that we were glad to have seen.

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And it's always cool to see how lava cools in it's various shapes and tunnels.

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With that, we called it a day and headed west - a 3-hour drive plus a short stop for dinner before we'd reach Boise to hook up with Ben, Kirsten, and Mikey @pizzaviolence and get ourselves a good shower before heading out the next morning on what's apparently becoming a 4th of July tradition - a trip to some cool places in their home state.

We pulled into the driveway a little after 9:00pm - the sky still light and everyone happy to see us. As I set up the tent in the driveway, @mrs.turbodb took the first shower - a welcome cleansing after 3 days in near 100°F heat - as the rest of us caught up on our adventure so far. The stories continued from her point of view a few minutes later, and it was after 11:00pm when we finally called it an evening and climbed into the tent - all of us looking forward to our 9:00am departure time the next morning.

The plan was to get as high as we could - twice - in Idaho. Something I was behind, 100%...

 

Craters of the Moon is definitely worth seeing but because of it's size it's best as a side trip. I spent about 2 hours there in 2016. I did get there at sunrise and had the place to myself. I thought the path up the hill was interesting to see the contrast between the crushed rock where people walk and the more pristine surface off the pathway.

 

Stopped at Craters of the Moon about 10 years ago on the way to Glacier NP. Agree with being a side trip it was a quick stop on the way.

 

Behind the scenes on my trip...

 

Deadwood Res. & Dagger Falls - Idaho (Crowdaho) in July
July 4, 2019.

We always seem to get our trucks reasonably level when we're out in the woods, but something about the level driveway we'd parked in made for an extremely easy night sleep. Or maybe we were just tired from our previous three days - gallivanting around the southeast parts of Idaho.

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At any rate, we were up late (for us) when Ben @m3bassman opened the garage door at 8:00am - our planned departure time giving us plenty of time to get dressed, eat breakfast, and get the tent put away. In fact, it was still a few minutes before 9:00am when Ben and Kirsten loaded up Venice and Milo and climbed into the green truck, and Mikey @pizzaviolence got Riggs buckled into his 2nd gen. We were off!

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Our plan for the day was to hit a couple of spots that weren't in our Idaho itinerary the previous year, but that should offer some nice views and plenty of spots to enjoy a relaxing night in camp. Plus, they'd keep us close to Stanley, Idaho - where we would be picking up another truck each of the next two days.

As we headed north, it wasn't long before we reached our turn-off for FS-555 and decided that now was as good a time as any to air down. We weren't going as low as normal - since we expected reasonably well graded FS roads, and a bit of pavement over the next few days - but even taking the tires down to 20 psi would smooth out the bumps and make the trip more enjoyable and easier on our trucks.

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Aired down and headed up the road, we made good time - a requirement (we thought) as Ben had warned us that we had some 120 miles to cover each day - a very full itinerary! We were glad to be in the tail-gunner position - the hot, dry roads making for dusty conditions that we avoided as best we could by hanging way back as we made our way towards Deadwood Reservoir.

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It was just after noon when we reached the dam - no water flowing over the spillway, despite the high water levels in the reservoir. Still, it was cool to see the water rushing through the outlet tunnels, and as we took a few photos, we noted how run down the dam itself looked - at least compared to the larger dams we've seen recently on some of our trips.

Still working though, I suppose!

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As we cruised around the reservoir, I think we were all surprised by the sheer number of people we encountered. With the water levels high, there were fewer spots accessible around the reservoir, and every one of them was packed tight with campers enjoying the warm air and cool water. And the road - heavy with traffic - was a constant source of dust.

We eventually found a spot where we could pull off the road for lunch and to let the dogs stretch their legs, before continuing on - hopefully away from the hustle and bustle of this popular area. Our route took us east, through the Salmon River Mountains - a beautiful route with easy trails - thankfully relatively light on traffic, though thick with dust.

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Our speeds high, we made great time - arriving at Dagger Falls just after 2:30pm. A favorite place for boulderers, we found it interesting that the "falls" - really more like rapids - had a fish ladder along their eastern escarpment. This ladder, completed in 1960 allows migrating salmon and steelhead upstream over a distance of 175 feet, and at a cost of $107K.

A waste of money? Perhaps - or maybe the falls are more pronounced when the water flow is lower (or higher).

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Regardless, Ben, Kirsten, and Mikey enjoyed a Dagger Falls IPA overlooking the rapids and then we ventured upstream a couple hundred feet to check out a bridge into the National Forest Wilderness. The bridge itself wasn't anything to write home about, but we all got a good kick out of the sign posted on the far side.

Fair notice, hang gliders!

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This was a place that Ben thought we might camp for the night - but it was still extremely early and even here, we were going to be sharing the campground with several other campers - so we decided we'd continue on to find a more typical dispersed spot. But not before some shenanigans from the front truck.

Ka-chow!

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The roads through the Salmon's were mostly wooded, but every now and then they'd break out into a grassy field, with 360° views - hard to resist for a group of folks who were way ahead of schedule anyway!

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We didn't pause long at any given site however - trucks pulling trailers and boats headed both ways along the road, prompting us to continue on. In fact, as had been true most of the day, there was so much traffic that Ben and Mikey didn't even stop as we passed what was perhaps the epitome of the #insta-overlanding boom that we find ourselves in these days - I mean, you can't get much more over-land than an airplane, can you? LOL.

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From there, we bombed down to ID-21, where we immediately set out in search of a camp site. We wanted something secluded, but with a view. Near the creek, but not too buggy. Warm, but with some shade. You know, as always, we wanted it all!

To find it all, we split up - Ben and Mikey investigating a road north, @mrs.turbodb and I checking out one to the east. Initially, I was sure that ours was going to be the winner - after all, we crossed the river twice and found the ruins of an old gold mine...

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...but it was not to be - our road eventually whittled its way down to an ATV-road, and there wasn't any great place to setup three trucks and have the dogs run around. Plus, Ben called out on the CB that he'd found what he thought was a great candidate - on the edge of a meadow, views and fishing plentiful.

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It was a great spot, and even with the extra miles we'd tacked on for the day, we were setup before 5:00pm, just as an afternoon rain shower passed overhead. Luckily, the awning on Ben and Kirsten's CVT Mt. St. Helens provided a nice dry spot for the 30 minutes or so that we needed to stay dry, and after that we were all back out under the sun, a few downed trees providing more wood we could burn in a several-hour long camp fire.

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I'm not sure exactly what time we hit the sack, but it was dark, and that was enough for us - all of us happy for the comfort of our tents and looking forward to what the following days had in store.

Little did we know that we wouldn't even need to wait until daybreak for the first of that excitement, the 4th of July with more excitement in store...

 

The crazies do like to light up the skies around these parts on and around the 4th of July...and it seems to be encouraged by the state government. The law says it is illegal for any aerial fireworks, but all the stands that pop up seasonally sell them and have you sign a waiver promising not to use them in the State ...and we wonder why we burn up each year??!!..truly mind boggling to say the least...

 

Stuck in the Snow! Washington Basin
July 5, 2019.

For most of us, the night passed peacefully. It was reasonably warm and calm, the creek flowing through the meadow gurgling rather than rushing by. I mean, there was that one UTV that revved its way by camp around 1:00am, but what can you expect on the 4th of July, really?

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Unfortunately for Mikey @pizzaviolence however, the action in his tent more than made up for the rest of us. Riggs, who'd been feeling a bit under the weather the previous day had an accident around 2:00am. Luckily, according to Mikey, it was mostly contained to the towel on which Riggs was sleeping - unlike the second accident that took place around 2:05am as the first was getting cleaned up.

Sorry Mikey!

Luckily, we were in no rush the following morning - we had only a short drive into Stanley, where we planned to meet up with Will @willhaman21 and Angie who would be joining us in their 3rd gen 4Runner for the rest of the trip - so we took it easy, everyone having a leisurely breakfast as I explored the meadow in my now indispensable Muck boots. Teeny-tiny eggs for breakfast anyone?

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We finally broke camp around 10:00am and hopped on the highway towards Stanley, Ben @m3bassman promising to keep the speeds slow given our aired down state. Apparently, despite his assertions otherwise, Ben's slow is still Idaho slow (where the speed limit is 80- vs. 60-mph) because I was soon left in the dust as I toddled along at 49mph.

No matter, we weren't going far - not even to Stanley - before stopping at one of my favorite views in the state, an overlook of the Sawtooth Mountains.

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Still much earlier than we needed to be, we decided to hang out - basking in the glorious views and plentiful wildflowers - while we watched the highway for Will and Angie.

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Right on schedule, or perhaps maybe even a little ahead of it, we saw their 4Runner cruise by and called out on the CB for them to give us a second to catch up. Begrudgingly - as you can imagine is generally the case when we run into other folks we know in the middle of nowhere - they did, and we caravaned our way into Stanley for a round of introductions and reunions, smiles all around.

A quick top-off of everyone's fuel tank and we were on the road again. While this first part of the day may have gotten off to a slow start, we were all looking forward to what the afternoon had in store - we were exploring a place none of us had ever been before, a place that promised splendiferous views and avalanche levels of excitement (literally).

We were headed to Washington Basin.

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Of course, we didn't want to encounter all that excitement on empty stomachs, so we pulled over just a few miles up the dirt road to explore a historic ranger station, and raid our pantries for sustenance.

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For 21 years, this station as worked by Bill Horton, who kept a daily diary of his experiences and chores.

Hot and with little shade, our lunch stop was much shorter than Bill's stay at the station, and we were back on the dusty road - headed up towards Washington Basin's scree fields - a little after 1:00pm.

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As the miles ticked by, Ben came over the CB to let us know that he'd talked to a ranger who'd been up the road just a couple weeks earlier, and he suspected that we'd soon be stopped - not by snow, but by an avalanche that had covered the road. Before that though, we had a reasonably-sized (but not difficult) water crossing to contend with, Ben making his way through before I even pulled up to the end of the line.

Will was up next, having a bit of fun as we snapped pictures from both banks.

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Mikey followed, his 2nd gen on stock wheels/tires/suspension having no trouble at all as he piloted through.

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Deciding to have a bit of fun, it was at this point that I asked @mrs.turbodb to pop out of the truck and take over the camera duties. See, on our previous trip to Death Valley with Ben, he'd blasted through the Amargosa River, putting on quite the show. Now, it was my turn. I put it in gear and pressed the skinny pedal.

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I didn't get going all that fast, but even at 15mph or so, when you've got the right depth of water, the effect can be dramatic. Everyone loved it, I think. I know I did.

It wasn't far from this water crossing that we hit the obstacle that Ben was sure would be the end of the road - an avalanche that had flowed thousands of feet down the mountainside, carrying thousands of tons of trees right along with it. These trees - now over the road - were what the ranger had suggested might stop us in our tracks.

But not today! Luckily, someone with a chainsaw had come through ahead of us - a nice path carved through the trees, the smell of Christmas all around. We continued - cautiously - grateful for the opportunity to explore further.

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With only the bright blue sky as our limit now, we wondered if anything could stop us on our quest to reach the top of Washington Basin. Suddenly, we had a new problem - Ben had planned to meet Kyle @KP907 and Nicole somewhere along this road, possibly later this evening - the assumption that we'd be reasonably close to the highway, blocked by the avalanche. Ultimately, we needed have worried - Kyle and Nicole weren't able to get off early, and we ended up meeting them the next morning in Stanley - but for now, as we passed through burned forest, we wondered just how it would all work out.

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The further we climbed, the more pleasant it got outside - the temperature dropping, patches of snow appearing on the side of the road. Of course, the views also improved - as tends to happen with elevation. It was still early - not even 3:00pm - when we stumbled upon this fabtacular camp site; unfortunately, too early to stop for the day.

Of course, on the edge of a cliff and with amazing views, I filed the spot away in my internal rolodex, hoping that we could return - either this trip or another - to enjoy this special place.

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We pushed on. Up and up. Not the highest road in Idaho - we'd hit those later - but up over 9000' before reaching the namesake of the area we were exploring - a basin under Mt. Washington.

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This place too provided a possible camp site - the view not quite as nice, but the draw of "no cliff," attractive to some. And, there was an old mine to explore - rusty equipment and deep holes full of ice and snow sprinkled around the hillside.

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In the end though, we continued on - excited to find the end of the road - wherever that may be - to see if it presented an even better spot. Because - you know - why settle when you're in paradise? :biggrin:

It was less than a mile when we reached our goal. The views at the end of the road were better than we could have imagined. All around, mountains rose above and below us; the sun shown down on us. Alas, flat ground in this spot alluded us, and a reasonably unanimous decision was made to pick one of the other spots we'd seen earlier in the day.

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First though - we'd passed an offshoot that we decided warranted exploration. It was a bit snowy, but appeared to wind its way up to a idge that might provide us with the best of all worlds - flat, cliff-less views high up in Washington Basin.

Happy to snow bash, Will headed up first while the rest of us watched from the end of our road. Shortly, we saw him get stuck in a drift, followed shortly by revving, bashing, and then silence. We waited. Two minutes passed, then five. Eventually though - after about 10 minutes - we heard the familiar sound of his 5VZFE starting up, and then a minute later he came over the CB to tell us that he was through and continuing up the trail, having dug his way through the drift.

It was then that things went a little sideways - literally - though not for Will. Mikey, having seen Will get through the drift, pushed forward himself, his stock tires not quite up to the same task of keeping him on the trail. He was stuck.

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Luckily for him - though the rest of us may have suggested it was lucky for us :!) - this was just the kind of thing that we reveled in - rescuing a truck, with no real danger involved. We got started by digging - three shovels moving snow off of the trail - the frist step to almost any snow-based recovery. Soon after, traction mats hit the ground, along with snatch straps - hooked to Will's truck, to aide in the escape.

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And then, the moment of truth. Really, it was moments, as we leap-frogged the traction mats up the trail each time Mikey made it a few feet further. But, with some digging and careful tugging, Mikey was free.

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It was a great time all around, Mikey's apologies for getting stuck easily set aside, as this was quite easily the highlight of our day!

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Truck freed, it was officially time to decide on a camp site. Really, there were two possibilities - the lake in Washington Basin, and the cliff across the gorge from Croesus Peak. Ultimately, we decided that the lake was disqualified - the stagnant water and possibly tainted mine tailings a hazard for the dogs - so it was back down the trail to the overlook we'd seen earlier that afternoon.

Score!

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Along the way - to free ourselves from the dust that trucks in front of us were kicking up - we made a short stop to explore a couple of old mining cabins, one perhaps still used as a hunting/snow cabin given its reasonably good condition. It's always fun to run into these places, to wonder about the history behind them, to wonder who crossed the threshold and what caused them to eventually abandon the place.

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The dust settled, we pointed the truck downhill, and a short time later pulled into camp right along with everyone else. Perhaps predictably, I immediately setup as close to the edge as possible. For me, it never gets old.

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Even with the excitement of digging out a truck, it was still before 7:00pm when we had firewood gathered and chairs setup around the warm flames. These long summer days were a huge boon - something I think we all wished could persist year-round, but that we nonetheless were grateful for on this beautiful day.

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Plenty of wood, the campfire twinkled late into the evening, everyone having a great time. Dinner of steak and potatoes, with s'mores for dessert capped off what was a great day. A day that presented us with opportunities we never thought we'd have. A day that got us high into the Idaho mountains - a preview of what was still yet to come.

 

Traction mats, you say?

 

Getting High in Idaho
July 6, 2019.

I went to bed hoping that our position on the ridge would result in some stupendous sunrise photos, but as morning rolled around, it was clear that ridges around us had been inappropriately placed by the Earth, and that all I was going to get was a little bit of orange on the horizon and a view of Croesus Peak out the window.

Thanks a lot, Earth.

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Like the previous morning, our plan was to meet another truck before setting out on our next adventure, but this morning we were set to meet much earlier in Stanley - 10:00am - necessitating a much earlier departure from camp, our last view of what had been one of my favorite camp sites coming just before 8:00am.

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Heading back down the hill, chatter on the CB was high. Ben @m3bassman, Will @willhaman21 , and Mikey @pizzaviolence were calling out all kinds of weird things in search of their buddy Kyle @KP907 on the off-chance that he and Nicole had found a place to camp up the Washington Basin road the previous evening. I turned down the volume and @mrs.turbodb and I enjoyed the scenery.

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Honest ranching here.

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We arrived in Stanley right on time, performing the same dance we had with fuel the day before, and then headed out west on ID-75, with a second, 2nd gen Tacoma now in tow.

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One might say "of course," but with several non-1st gen Tacoma's, it wasn't long before Will - who was now tail-gunning for the group - called out over the CB that Angie had noticed the rear tire on Mikey's truck was dangerously low. We weren't sure what caused it on the way down the mountain, but something had clearly started a slow leak, and we immediately pulled over to the side of the highway and set to work installing the spare - a quick change with the help of a mid-torque Milwaukee Impact Wrench, seen here working the lug nuts off by itself while Mikey lowered the spare and the rest of us just stood around watching.

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Tire repaired, it was time to get back on dirt - this time on Yankee Fork Rd (the Old Custer Motorway). That meant airing down for Kyle (and Mikey's spare), so we pulled over and joked that perhaps the rest of us should also let out a bit of air for what was clearly a gravel highway fit for Civic's.

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Driving comfort at an all-time high, we proceeded upstream, past millions of cubic feet of dredge tailings until we found ourselves at the Yankee Fork dredge - the largest in-tact dredge in the lower 48 states; 3-4 times larger than Tony Beets dredges on Gold Rush. Built between April and August 1940 (fast!), the dredge is 54 feet wide by 112 feet long, requiring 8 feet of water to float on its pontoons.

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Each of the 71, 8 cubic foot buckets, weigh in at a cool 2,000 lbs - capable of processing 26 cubic feet of material per minute.

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Active for only a few years, the dredge was in service until 1942, then out of service during WWII, and back in service for a few years until 1952 when it was finally shut down for good and eventually donated to the state of Idaho, destined to become the mining museum we were experiencing today.

Inside, two older gentlemen who had worked on the dredge were giving tours, and we soaked in the stories of the winch room, control room, trammel, sluices, and engine. As a fan of Gold Rush, it was - I have to say - a pretty cool experience!

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Our tour complete, we continued north to what we hoped would be just cool - the old gold town of Custer - where we planned to eat lunch as we explored the ruins. As it turns out, the good folks of Custer had fully embraced the attraction of a reasonably well preserved ghost town, and the whole place was a little too touristy for my tastes - the antiquities laid out along the road, every one of them labeled, regardless of the obviousness of the item.

Because seriously, no one knows what a wheelbarrow is.

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From Custer, the real highlight of the afternoon was about to begin. Ben had promised that this trip would be all about getting as high as we could in Idaho - and our first opportunity was going to be a trip to the Twin Peaks Fire Lookout, at 10,394' above sea level.

That meant we had some driving to do, and as we'd done in the past, we held back a bit in order to cut down on the dust and enjoy the back-roads with our windows down. Every now and then however, we'd catch up to the rest of the group, prompting a break at an interesting looking spot along the side of the road.

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Homestead Station was just one of these places, described as follows in the Yankee Fork Herald in 1880:

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From there, it wasn't long before we found ourselves on North Peaks Road - first through the forest, and then through the tree line, making our way up, up, up. "We're really doing this." piped up Mikey over the CB - the switchbacks through scree fields a little out of his comfort zone.

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Of course, though they were through scree fields, the switchbacks were plenty wide - nothing like what I'd experienced the previous year heading up Fisher Mountain on The Re-Tour - and we all made it to the top with no trouble at all. And there, we soaked in the views - I mean, how could we not?!

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Here we were, getting high - the road the second highest in all of Idaho - on a beautiful day.

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Eventually, we decided that it was time to keep moving. The plan had been to camp further up the road, but we could see from the lookout that it was covered by a 30' snow drift just a couple miles further along. As such, our camp plans for the night were up in the air and we figured it'd be good to get moving in case we had trouble finding something. So, it was back down the switchbacks the way we'd come.

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As always seems to be the case, we never moved quite as quickly as we planned, and there were a couple of old USFS cabins that we stopped at on the way down the mountain. The older of the two was built pre-1888 and was an early prospector and trapper way-cabin - Twin Peaks Cabin - according to a sign posted by the Forest Service. That put it at over 130 years old - a feat for any building, much less one subjected to the harsh conditions and 19th century building tech! I guess there's something to the saying that they don't build them like they used to.

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As we continued back toward the highway, it was decided that we'd head towards our next (and last day's) destination - Railroad Ridge - to find camp. That would help us get an early start - something @mrs.turbodb and I were keen on given the ~11 hour drive home that awaited us after we summited the highest road in Idaho.

That decision lasted all of about 15 minutes until we saw a promising looking road leading off of our road and into an adjacent canyon. So easily distracted, this bunch!

Alas, exploration of the road and it's main offshoot didn't result in the stunning camp site we were after, and so we continued on, a little water play from Will and Mikey as we made our way out.

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And with that, we were back to the original plan - head south towards Railroad Ridge, through Challis, to find a camp site for the evening. It was by far our latest evening of the trip - nearly 7:00pm when we turned off the highway and set off across the valley and into Spar Canyon, the sun highlighting not only the dust that rose up behind our trucks but also the mountains in our mirrors.

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It took a while - Ben and I splitting up and relying on the distance provided by Ham radios - before we found what we could only refer to as "a spot to camp." Clearly a staging area for ranchers, it was flat, reasonably sheltered, and big enough to fit our five trucks.

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Now nearing 8:00pm, we all set about deploying camp and starting dinner - our assumption that the day's excitement was done and it would be routine from here. We couldn't have been more wrong. Within minutes, the wind was whipping around camp, ominous rain clouds bearing down from the east. As the drops started to fall, everyone retreated to shelter - some into vehicles, others into tents, and a few brave souls under awnings.

Thankfully, the rain passed reasonably quickly and the warm temperatures meant that everything was dry as a bone within another 5 minutes or so. The wind - still strong - made dinner prep interesting, everyone resorting to their own strategies for keeping the flame lit on their stove. Some with more success than others; I'm not sure I've ever seen someone cook with the tailgate up! ::

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And then, as I was warming our dinner, a scream. Or maybe a yelp - I can't say for sure because I didn't hear it - but after a couple other folks in camp asked if it was @mrs.turbodb, I decided I'd better go check - she'd headed off to use the facilities (aka bushes), and I thought she may have tripped and could use my help.

Well, it turned out tripping wasn't the problem - not by a long shot. As she came scurrying out of the bushes, all she could say was, "There's a rattle snake!" And it took several attempts for me to coax the fact that she was OK and hadn't been bitten, thankfully.

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From there, things did calm down quite a bit the rest of the evening. The wind basically stopped, allowing us to start another splendid camp fire. The sunset, while not one of the more colorful ones we've seen on a trip was nonetheless beautiful, and Mikey baked a camp fire cake (lemon blackberry) for Angie's birthday.

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It was nearly midnight when we all called it a night and retreated to our tents. All of us glad for the day we'd had, and looking forward to the next, where we'd not only reach the highest road in Idaho, but also revisit one of the creepiest places any of us had ever experienced.

But that's a story for another day.

 

EPIC!!!