Wisconsin Tacomas and bad financial advice

Outstanding! Is everything running as it should be now?
Perfect bike for that trip btw.

 

That has to be a photoshop. The windshield isn't cracked.

 

It soon will be!

 

I want to see the after trip pics!

 

So after the hot springs we headed south and west. Sort of plan was to get to Oxbow ID and explore the Hells Canyon area some. Passed through a fun town that celebrates the 4th for five days with a parade everyday and events throughout the week. Hard to get through but fun to see the enthusiasm. Finally on hwy95 heading out of town there was a Road Closed sign, but literally nothing else. Hummmmm, what was that about? Unfortunately there was a huge landslide blocking 95 and we were stuck. Ended up in a mile long line of trucks and cars along the Salmon River. At some CBpoint I talked with a guy who was riding his mnt bike around. He showed me a route we could take. “Why are you in this? Go here. You have the right to that can do it”. Climbed up out of that mess and to the top of a saddle where we could see into the salmon river drainage on one side and the snake River on the other. Very cool.

 

At that point we met a couple of Toyota guys and one suggested going down to the Kirkwood Ranch on the Snake River as we were at an intersection that led to the trail. Sharon was all in. Very high stakes shelf road. Very narrow. Went from 5400’ to 1100’ in five miles and most of the drop was in the last two miles. This was a really technical climb. Switchbacks were multi point turns. Sharon was scared! When we got to the bottom there were a couple of built sxs’s patked at the gate. Guy was impressed and said he hadn’t seen a truck down in there in years

 

Did you point to the kangaroo and tell him this isn't no truck...it's UTE?
(that's what I would've done.)

 

I'd love to see Gaia gps data for that descent.

 

you could just get fabricated spindles too
https://www.drt-fabrication.com/product/2005-2023-tacoma-fabricated-spindles

or since its pearing, he could just fabricate his own lol

 

we were out on the boat and had some ducks that wanted to be friends


After the ducks finally left some geese went by and a while later there was a snapping turtle. Dunno what the occasion was but usually don’t see that much when we are out on the water.

 

I never mapped this but when I get home I will do it for you. Send me a pm as a reminder as I know I will forget

 

After getting to Kirkwood Ranch we realized we could not camp down there. Sad, as that was what Sharon was excited about. Once we got up and out of there we proceeded back down to the Salmon River on the other side of the land slide and continued on to the Oxbow ID area on the Snake River. Found a guy selling fresh fruit on the side of the road… YUM! Fresh apricots and pluots from Hood River OR. Found a fantastic site on the reservoir of some dam on the Snake River.




Very different country but still bug free and beautiful. Sharon took a swim in the morning before we left

 

That looks amazing! Thanks for bringing us along on this adventure Pat.

 

For any engineering nerds out there (looking at you @McSpazatron) this is some pretty interesting information about the construction of the historic Blackhawk Bridge over the Mississippi from the perspective of a structural engineer. Many of us have crossed this bridge on the trips to Wyalusing.

https://youtu.be/CF2yEcFXguQ?si=IRL83X7Vo0abGjIh

 

Yesterday was a pretty easy day. We wandered along the north west side of the snake River working our way towards Washington



We found a small burger joint in Elgin OR for lunch. Wonderfully wonderful and ice cream! Once we got to Washington we wandered up to see Palouse Falls as Sharon had never seen them and them again along the Snske River to a dispersed camp site.





This was a cool place that the State provides for free camping along the river. Up stream of Goose Neck dam. Fun to see a tug and barge go through the locks as well as a couple of trains through the night. Today we stopped at Whitman College and left my daughter a fun note she will find in the fall when she gets back

 

I feel asleep watching this video. But still lots of interesting info.

 

Yeah, not enough trucks...

 

That's Awesome!