AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

I'm late to reading these things as always, but having been to Oatman, I find it egregious that you didn't even have one picture petting one of the 5000+ friendly donkeys that infest the place.

 

And he didn't even get to see the shootout!

 

Seem like a good one?

$100 NEEWER 66"/168cm Carbon Fiber Tripod for Camera with 360° Panorama Ball Head, 1/4" Arca QR Plate, Portable Bag, Compact Travel Tripod Monopod for DSLR Video Camcorder, Max Load 26.5lb/12kg, N55C

https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-centi...qid=1598965010&sprefix=tripod,aps,185&sr=8-52

has the twist lock legs, converts to monopod, 66" height and 26.5 lb rating. From what I've gathered over the past day looking at tripods, this one seems to check all the boxes at just under $100.

 

Hard to say. It's been my experience that less expensive usually means lower quality however, periodic use would probably be OK and only with a lighter weight camera (5-10 pounds, definitely lighter is better).

 

Lost Souls - Dead Ends #2

We were awoken early - just after 6:00am - to the sound of rock trucks speeding down the road near camp. Apparently one of the local quarries started work early, and three of the drivers were trying to make good time to their destination!

Dan @drr - already an early riser - was the first out of his tent, Echo excited to get a new day underway. As they headed out on a walk, I putzed around in the tent - a little photo processing and reading - until I heard Mike @Digiratus climb down around 7:00am. The sun was just hitting camp at this point, casting everything in a nice light.

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Having had nearly no time to turn myself around between trips, all my meals were extremely simple this time around - cereal for breakfast, tuna sandwiches for lunch, and hot dogs for dinner - so in almost no time I was done with my morning meal and wandered off myself to have a look around the nearby creek.

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Balanced Zen Cairn, courtesy of Dan.​

As had been the case the previous day - and would be throughout this day as well - spring was in full force and effect, the sun streaming through the little starbursts of this Spirea (?) specimen as it reached skyward for pollinators.

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Back in camp, everyone was getting ready to go - well, except Echo, who just wanted to stay and play all day! - and after packing up the cabs and stowing the tents, we rolled out of camp just as the rock trucks were returning for their second load of the morning.

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Open doors ruin photos. Seems familiar .​

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From camp, the first few miles of the morning were an uphill trek - bringing us to the Idaho-Montana border between Copper Ridge and Canuck Peak. The view there was reasonably spectacular, and I took a few minutes to soak it in before continuing on behind the rest of the gang.

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Soon, we were back down in a valley on NF-4354, the tree tunnels thick with growth and the views fewer and further between than our location of just a few minutes earlier. Still, plenty of sun made it down to the forest floor, and spring wildflowers were joyously straining against their roots, showing off for anyone who happened by.

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And then, we were climbing again - up towards Garver Mountain - views of what lay ahead peaking out above.

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Still a few minutes behind everyone else - as I stopped to smell the wildflowers - I was out of the truck when I heard Mike over the CB, as he let us know that, "We've reached the end of the road guys." Just as had happened the previous day, time had taken its toll on what was once clearly a reasonably well-travelled logging road, and was now completely overgrown and impassable.

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Once again, the paper atlas' came out - this time for Montana - and Mike and Dan poured over them for a re-route while Zane @Speedytech7 and I were entertained by Echo who couldn't have been happier to find the perfect stick here in the woods.

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Unfortunately, where our planned route would have taken us on dirt well into the afternoon, it seemed that the only workaround into Yaak was to basically head back down the mountain and onto pavement that would take us into town. This did, however, allow us to make good time with the miles, and before long we were on the outskirts again, the road windy and the views of the Yaak River splendid as it meandered its way through the countryside.

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It was in this slalomy stretch of road that a solitary little building stood in a small clearing to our north. Intrigued as I saw the sign at the peak of the gable end, I ducked off the end of the line of Tacomas and had a quick look around.

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Turns out that this "Federal Building" was in fact just that - a building that fell under federal jurisdiction and housed the mailboxes for the surrounding community, along with a little table for addressing letters, and a few Missing Person posters. What a lucky find!

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That luck didn't last very long. Less than 15 miles up the road - just where we'd planned to turn off the highway and back onto dirt - we were greeted with what was becoming a bit of a recurring theme for us on this trip - another dead end road, in this case closed to motor vehicles to protect wildlife habitat.

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With no options except continuing on the highway that we were already on, we got the trucks turned around and back underway. It was only 11:15am at this point, but being as we were in (fake) Mountain time, some of our phones told us it was 12:15pm, and that made us hungry. So, happening upon a nice little pull-out and camp site along the side of the road, we pulled over and found some shade in which to park the trucks so that sandwiches could be assembled, and company could be enjoyed.

After an hour or so - our usual lunch duration - we all started to get ready to go, when Dan let us know that he was having a bit of an issue starting his truck. He'd had a similar issue earlier in the morning - a wiring issue with the dual battery system he'd recently installed in his truck. It seems that the battery terminals he was using were a bit loose - even though they were as tight as he could get them - and in fixing that issue, one of the crimped connections to his Blue Sea Systems ML-ACR had pulled itself apart. A bit of judicious smashing with a cold chisel and his connections were good enough for the time being, allowing us to get back onto the highway towards Lake Koocanusa.

Expecting "just another" lake, my first glimpse of Lake Koocanusa nearly took my breath away. The turquoise blue of the water reminded me of the lakes we'd seen on the Icefields Parkway in Canada, and some of the glacial lakes that @mrs.turbodb and I had hiked to in the Cascades.

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Once again, it was a blessing to be at the back of the pack, and I called ahead to let the gang know that I was going to pull over for a moment for a picture. That was no surprise to Mike - his reply, "I knew you'd want to do that," letting me know that he totally understood!

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Fancy this - a nice overlook to get a perfect shot.​

At over 90 miles long - about half in British Columbia and half in Montana - Koocanusa was a joint project between Canada and the United States, when the Libby Dam was built on the Kootenai River in 1972. It's name comes from the combination of the Kootenai River, Canada, and USA - the winner of a naming contest that was held for the lake. (wikipedia)

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Having reached the west side of the lake only a few miles from the Canadian border, we turned our trucks south and followed its banks for a reasonably long while before Dan mentioned that we might find some good camping to the west on some of the USFS roads that forked off the main road.

Still early - it was only 2:00pm or so - I wondered why in the world we were looking for camp already, but I reminded myself that this trip was really about hanging out with a bunch of buddies, and so I followed along as we headed up into the mountains.

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Perhaps predictably, the road we were on didn't get us to the camp site we were looking for - one with a northerly view, where we hoped to see the NEOWISE comet as it made its once-every-6800-year pass of our little slice of space. Instead, it dead ended at an old logging platform, the remainder of the road lost to time; our third dead end of the day!

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Around we turned, back out to pavement and up another side road that had a promising look to it, and even more promising - a sign to Zeigler Lookout. Alas, the road to the lookout was gated (surprise!) about five miles before the lookout itself, so we continued on the main road as it got narrower and narrower and ... well, you get the drift.

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Eventually it became clear that even our skinny 1st gen Tacomas were too fat to continue, and we looked for a spot to turn around. Yep, it was now five(!) times that we'd been foiled in a single day. Suddenly, starting to look for camp at 2:00pm was starting to seem like the right call, and to better our chances at success, we split up into groups of two - Zane and I heading up one fork and Dan and Mike heading up another in search of our home for the night.

Ham radios allowing us to stay in communication regarding our findings, Zane and I climbed up the eastern face of a ridge, tantalizingly close to its highest point where we'd have a spectacular view to the north. Then, just as we were within a hundred yards or so of the perfect spot, the road crested at Lost Soul Divide and started heading back down the mountain.

We stopped to report the situation and admire the view to the east.

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Lake Koocanusa from Lost Soul Divide. A camp site here would have been spectacular.​

Mike and Dan on the other hand had a bit more luck. The hadn't found anything with a view, but they did find a nice little place at the end of a logging road with plenty of wood and a location that would guarantee us privacy through the night.

At 5:30pm, guided by Mike on his Ham radio, Zane and I pulled into camp. Three hours and numerous dead-end roads, I think we were all ready to be done. Gathered in our chairs, we sat around chatting and laughing as the light waned. Mike made guacamole which lasted all of about 2 minutes, and then broke out a second avocado to make some more!

And then - as if the guac wasn't enough - Mike offered to make us all Tacos for dinner! Yep, he'd been working on a new recipe and we were the "unfortunate" individuals he "forced" to try them out. We were all, as you can imagine, delighted.

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Our bellies full, we recounted the events of the day and the craziness of the trip so far. I'm sure too that we chatted about trucks, life, and probably many other things as the stars came out and started tracing their way across the night sky. Our position meant no chance at NEOWISE, but that was just fine - it'd be there the next night as well if we could find a spot with a bit better vantage point.

Once again, the rest of the gang outlasted me as I headed off to bed at 11:30pm, feeling like the oldest dude of the bunch. But hey, I headed to bed knowing that the next morning would bring something special - something we'd all been looking forward to since Dan had mentioned it on our first night of camp...

...but hey, that's the beginning of another story.

 

I don’t know if you posted, I couldn’t find it. Curious how much miles are on your rig?

btw me and the wife love your adventures.

 

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying the stories - always nice to hear .

Mileage on the truck now is something a bit over 150K. Maybe 153K and change. Which is crazy. In 2017, it was 60K - which had taken me 17 years to put on the truck. Been quite an adventure the last few years. No complaints from me .

 

We Saved the Best for Last - Dead Ends #3

As we'd gone to bed the night before, it had been decided that we'd do a group breakfast the following morning. These are always extremely tasty affairs of bacon, eggs, and potatoes - this time, supplied entirely by Dan @drr. (Thanks again Dan!) By definition, these mornings are always a little more chill, since it takes time to get everything together, and no one wants to rush the eating part.

By 8:00am, Mike @Digiratus was cooking up potatoes, I was waiting for the last minute to make eggs, and Dan was busy with the bacon. Zane bounced between all three trucks, clearly in need of a clipboard for supervisory duties. Plus, I think he looked after Echo, which frankly was probably more work than any of the rest of us.

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It was probably 10:30am before we finally wrapped up breakfast and rolled out of camp, back down towards the west side of Lake Koocanusa, to continue our southward journey towards Libby, MT.

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We'd covered three quarters of the length of the US side of the lake the previous day, so it wasn't long before we passed a sign for Libby Dam - the reason the lake existed in the first place. All keen to check it out, we pulled into the parking lot and had the overlook to ourselves. Built in 1972, the dam is 422 feet tall and generates 600 megawatts for the Bonneville Power Authority.

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'Lotta water held back by a bit of concrete!​

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Interestingly, water can be released from different levels of the lake, controlling water temperature downstream.​

Continuing to make a lazy day of the morning, we hung out in the shade for a while before jumping back in the trucks to continue south. This was just fine with me, since it was a lot cooler in the shade than it was in my A/C-less cab! So, it was just before noon when we pulled into Libby in order to fuel up and grab a few minutes of LTE service in order to catch up on life and for Dan to download a few map tiles for the next leg of the adventure.

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LOL, doors.​

On our way out of town, a truck scale called our name - and we found out that the Redhead was no longer the heaviest truck in our midst. At least, not today.

• Dan (@drr) - 5740 lbs
• Mike - 5720
• Me - 5400
• Zane - 4980

Back on the road, much of the day would be on pavement as we made our way west towards Troy on US-2, and then south towards Noxon on MT-56 and MT-200. The highway made for dustless travel, all four of us travelling in a caravan much of the time. Well, except when I was passed by an F-150 as I slowed to miss a couple deer crossing the road.

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<p class="full-width-container">https://www.youtube.com/embed/VwTbvKazx7k</p>



As we reached the little town of Noxon, Dan mentioned that there was another dam here - appropriately named the Noxon Dam - where he'd previously done some of his engineering work. Well - there was no way we could pass up a stop at his old haunting grounds! Dan led the way, and we made short work of the road down to the overlook.

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Where the Libby Dam had been primarily concrete, the Noxon Dam is an earth-fill dam - a mile long stretch of fill that's 260 feet high and 700 feet wide at its base. Generating 488 megawatts, it's the second-largest capacity hydro plant in Montana. (info sign at dam)

From Noxon, it was back on the highway, and then to the lesser-traveled old MT-200 where some of the views were striking. It sure seems to me that highways of yesterday optimized for pleasurable travel - at least, much more than todays thoroughfares do.

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Vermillion Creek.

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Striking cliffs along the Clark Fork River.

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It was right around Thompson Falls that we headed back onto dirt and started looking for camp. Our goal this evening was similar to the previous - if possible, find a site that had a northwesterly view, giving us a chance to see NEOWISE - an uncommon comet that was gracing the night sky during our trip. Tonight we had a second - and perhaps even rarer - objective as well: find a site with cell reception so that Dan could get on a short work call to support his team.

For a while we wound our way up into the mountains - still generally heading south, but with a lot of east-west switchbacks thrown into the mix. Largely following some high-voltage power lines, the clear cuts made for some nice views ...thought he crackling of lines above us at these places was a bit disconcerting.

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At the top of the ridge, Mike set off on an offshoot to see if he could find a nice spot to camp. We'd checked several others to this point, but they'd mostly ended up at the power line towers, and none of us really wanted to call somewhere like that home for the night.

Luckily for us, Mike's side road turned out to be just the ticket. Rougher than the road we'd been on, it led down and then out along the ridge and away from the lines. A clearing - made for some sort of radio reflector - was the perfect spot for us to setup camp.

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Can't complain about a view like this.​

It was only 3:15pm at this point - probably earlier than any of us had thought we'd stop - but I don't think any of us minded a bit of extra hang-out time after the nothing-like-we'd-planned trip we'd had the last several days. Plus, with our big breakfast, we'd skipped lunch, and that meant we were hungry. Mike, Zane, and I all pulled out some sort of mid-afternoon-sandwich-snack while Dan sat on his tailgate, the perfect place for a conference call!

Just as Dan's call was wrapping up, I figured it was time to head on up the reflector to get a bit of a different view on camp and our surroundings. Sure, a drone probably would have been safer to get these shots, but where's the fun in that (and who's going to buy me a drone)?

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We also set about getting the fire ring set up - a job that Zane and Dan tackled with gusto, having outvoted my, "let's cut down a dead tree for wood," suggestion. Of course, their votes - to use a few of the dozens of dry rounds already on the ground made a lot of sense, so who was I to complain?

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Even Echo got in on the firewood gathering.​

As it had been an early arrival to camp, so was it an early start to the final camp fire of the trip. We sat around for a couple hours before the sun got low on the horizon, casting a warm yellow over camp and off into the distance.

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Eventually that yellow turned to orange - not the awesomest sunset we've ever witnessed, but - nothing to scoff at, either!

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With the sun down and the camp site higher than we'd been any previous night of the trip, we all pulled our chairs just a little bit closer to the fire as we prepped our dinners. Once again, meals were cooked over the fire and we all enjoyed a final night of Mike's salsa to boot!

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As evening turned to night, the new moon set to the south west and we waited. Waited for the night sky to darken, and NEOWISE to make an appearance.

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Alas, the appearance was far, far, less prominent than we'd expected - so faint that it was hard to see even with Mike's binoculars. The rest of the night sky however was splendtaculicious! The Milky Way was out in full force, and our middle-of-nowhere location meant that there was little in the way of light pollution for 360°.

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The perfect night for a star trail.​

With Dan and I getting an early start the next morning, and Mike and Zane following a few hours later, we called it a night around 11:00pm - each of us retiring to our tents in one of the most beautiful places we'd been all trip. Little did we know, the adventure wasn't over yet!

Epilogue

Dan wanted to get an early start the next morning - setting his alarm for 6:00am - so he could get home for some family obligations. What I didn't realize at the time was that he set it for 6:00am Mountain (fake) Time, while I'd kept my phone/alarm on Pacific (real) Time. So, when I woke up at 5:00am and snuggled down in my covers for one more hour of shut-eye, you can imagine my surprise when I heard Dan unzipping his tent and getting going.

It took me about 9 minutes to realize what was going on, but once I did, I was quickly dressed and we were out of there by 29 minutes after the hour. That's right, it was 5:29am Real Time. Three minutes after sunrise.

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Now, we happened to notice the previous evening - after we'd made it to camp - that the route Mike had planned was in fact the road next to which we were camped. And, if we kept going on that road we would - theoretically - end up at I-90 and be able to point our trucks homeward.

But, not a quarter mile further down the road from camp, trouble. That's right - as if we hadn't gotten the message already, there was a dead end. Treefall over the road and overgrown underbrush meant that we weren't getting out this way - at least not quickly.

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I was out in the lead at this point, and called back to Dan that he should turn around where he could and we'd have to go back out to the main road - where we could take a slightly more circuitous route down to the freeway. He acknowledged the plan, and I added that he shouldn't wait for me on his way out, since I knew I had to air up, would want to stop for photos, and of course, would be travelling at grandpa-speeds even once I hit the highway. We said our goodbyes and safe travels over the radio, and with that, we were caravans of one.

The trip down out of the mountains - especially early in the morning - was a great one. The light, the morning mist, and the cool air all made for special views out over the rolling hills to our south. At no risk of holding up anyone but myself, I tried to capture the feeling.

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Soon, I reached the bottom. The end of the road as it were. Or the beginning of the next. Whatever it was, I was headed west for now, but I'm sure it won't be long before I pass this way again - in the opposite direction.

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Thanks Mike for coordinating a great trip, and Dan and Zane for allowing me to tag along. Great hanging out, as always!

 

Some amongst us are a bit more of the risk taker type. Lol

 

I have three similar photos and wonder which people prefer (and why, if you'd like to share). Only the lighting is different across the three. Note: I've uploaded these to TW, so the quality may not be as high as normal flickr-hosted images.

#1 - pre sunrise


#2 - sun on mountain


#3 - sun on tent

 

I’m not sure which I’d prefer. Definitely a warmer image but I think it depends what you want the focus to be to decide.

 

Nice trip along the Cabinet mtns. If memory serves, I think there is at least one USFS road that goes across into Idaho, from somewhere around Trout Creek, or Noxon.

They were repairing the bridge over there this summer, should have been done by the time of your trip, or did you guys take Swamp creek rd over to TF?

I haven’t been myself but my stepfather told me of one. My mom still lives over there, this pic is from outside the USFS office, stopping by to visit her. Back when the truck spent most of it’s time at their house. I stored it there and used it for a outside rig. This prior to the second trip with the Arctic Taco-Serenity in the spring after a deployment to McMurdo, back down to Moab:

I’ll ask a friend of mine from over there. I only spent a winter over running a tow truck with him back in 02’ (kinda cool that we can reuse that term). We only had a few calls up in the forest before everything was closed from snowfall.

Definitely the better time to take a trip like that, not much of anything except snow machines moves around up in the high country.

Winters are pretty cranky, kinda dark, not too cold, lots of snow overnight, then some rain in from around 10-3 and back to snow . I think we had about 5’ of snow that winter ❄️, wet, heavy stuff, lots of black ice. Not as much fun in a tow truck, spent a lot of time getting back up after falling on my ass getting out of the truck, we hate black ice.

Great trip write up, that would have been a blast in the fall before hunting season.

 

#2 - sun on mountain

It makes the mountain the focus of the image and gives the most focus on nature and why you are out there to begin with. It also captures one of those moments that is just breathtaking that not many people get to experience...not even those who go camping. You've got to be somewhat of an early riser to capture that moment, which makes it more rare. The lighting on the truck and tent (and surroundings) is all consistent. This one is definitely the one I would post if I had taken the 3 photos.

The first photo would be my second choice. Its got a peaceful feel to it and everything seems to be uniformly illuminated. The truck is the most in-focus and therefore probably the "center" of the photo. We are on a truck forum, so there's that.

The last photo is the worst (in my humble opinion). It's busy and I'm not quite sure where to look. Of course, I want to check out everything, but the lighting is uneven. The entire tent isn't lit up. Neither are the plants next to the truck for that matter. It's kind of cool to capture the effect of a sunrise as it is happening, but this is the least pleasing to the eye.


They are all cool photos though. But those are my thoughts (since you asked).

 

#1 pre-dawn my favorite time of the day!

 

tough call, all great photos, but I am in the same camp as Inbonestryker,
Predawn is the best part of the day:

 

Here was my current thinking.
#1 - I technically like this one the most, I felt like it was the most balanced, exposure wise.
#2 - I wanted to like this one the most. It's what I setup the shot for. But, felt oversaturated to me. I'm going to try reprocessing to see if I can get happier with this one.
#3 - This was an afterthought as I took the photos, but after I took it, I thought it looked best on my little camera screen. After the fact however, I don't like how the sun has spilled onto the mid-ground hills. Turned out to be my least favorite.

Thanks everyone who replied. I'm still interested in more feedback as folks have it. @Digiratus, you especially, since I feel like lighting is "your thing."

For now, here are my two favorites

#1 - pre sunrise (no change)


#4 - sun on mountain (#2 with less saturation)

 

It's all about the light. Light changes everything. And in some scenarios, it does it moment to moment.

I once spent an evening on a ridge top with roughly the same angle of view to the mountain as this only a few miles closer. This was back in our slide film days. I got to watch the upper snow pack change colors from white to yellow to orange to red to purple. Still one of my most memorable photography 'moments' ever.

Of the 3 above, #2 is the most interesting, though, as noted, the mountain is a little over saturated. In #4 the upper portion of the sky and mountain top are better but the process lightend the entire image. I prefer the darker mid-ground of the intervening hills and valleys of #2.




While I like your truck, and I realize this is a truck forum... but please tell me you took a few without the truck blocking the view of this magnificent scene.

 

Could this be the most photographed truck’s butt on TW?

 

I'm a fan of pretty even color saturation, I think the niggling slider settings in each picture could make them what you want. It's a you have to be there to know what it looked like though. I was taking smoke pics the other day and decided to sit outside and look at it while I edited just to see how off base my brain was between what actually was. I can make any picture look the way I want it, hell you could make #3 look like #1, you know that though, only difference would be the sun spilling onto the truck. So it comes down to what you want, vs what actually was, vs what you think will do best on the gram.

 

Thanks Mike. I actually lightened the foreground in #4, in addition to the desaturation, to try getting a more consistent exposure, since that’s what I liked in #1. I’ll try darkening it again.

And yes, of course I have lots of Rainier unadulterated by the truck.

I do like the butts, I cannot lie.

Actually, I sort of miss the OEM look of the back, but the bumper isn’t bad either.

100%

i feel like it looked most like #1 and then #2, but I don’t like how #2 looks on screen with the dramatic contrast difference.

I’d love to see the photos you were working on. I took a few in the Bay Area the other day. It was crazy here. This picture is of the Cal campanile at 10am. No editing, iPhone shot.