Pappy's September Adventure: Plan B

[pappy]

Moving on. After the Magruder I headed south. This put me on the Salmon River. As I'm driving down the graded road, dodging trucks with float boats, I see a developed "campground." It's on the river, with a vault potty, and a fire ring. Nobody there, and just big enough for, well, me, if I park right. So I park the truck visible from the road, right in front of the fire ring. This spot is MINE for the night. Later, a young couple in a Subaru pull in. This spot did have access to a beach on the river. How romantic. So they unload their junk, and set up camp in some trees on the beach. Then, move their car to the road where it's closer to their camp.

Bottom line, this site ROCKED. I spend two nights there, and take advantage of the second day to do some housekeeping, and relaxing from the trail.

Crossing the Salmon River.

My camp. You can see the beach. There was an access "road" between the truck and the large pine.

The beach.

 

[pappy]

Keep in mind that fuel is obtained largely from hillbilly, er, frontier towns. I pulled into Yellow Pine and started looking for a gas station. Um, still looking ... and still looking. Finally I come to the general store that has gas nozzles coming from two giant above ground tanks. It's closed. I walk across the street to the cafe. It's closed, but signed that they were down the street at a meeting on the fire.

As I was talking with Shawn on the phone this fella drives up in a UTV that had "FIRE" on the front. I hang up, and flag the guy down. Yep, everybody was down at the fire station, but he would call the store owner to come get "a traveler" gas. As we are waiting, he asks me if I'm doing the BDR. I say yes, headed south. He says "not today." It seems the fire has closed the route from Yellow Pine all the way to Lowman. He also suggested several times that the BDR route was rough, and proceeded to give me a route that would avoid the fire ... and repeated telling me it was paved. I had the distinct feeling he didn't think the current BDR route was best.

So, he drilled into me that I was to drive down to the fire station in town, and turn right. Follow the river down stream on the graded road. Got that? Down stream. (this was the east fork of the Salmon River). You will come to another fire station at a river junction. You take that river upstream. Got that? Upstream. (This was the south fork of the Salmon River). It's paved he says.

Anyway, I've about had enough of the smoke, and the detour around the fire will take me to Columbia, ID. I'm getting a motel for the night. Or, so I think. I start UPSTEAM (got that?) on the south fork of the Salmon River ... and it's gorgeous. Drop. Dead. Gorgeous. So, I proceed UPSTREAM on this narrow, one lane, paved road. My Forest Service app showed several campgrounds along the way. I stop at the first, and wasn't impressed so I back-track down to a pull-off that was large, and more than acceptable.

Along the way. Note, I'm going UPSTREAM.

I think this campsite is more than acceptable.

The South Fork of the Salmon River.

 

[pappy]

Note that because of the detour to Columbia I didn't need gas in Yellow Pine after all. But, because they were nice folks I went ahead and filled up the primary tank, and the jerry can on the bumper. Ten gallons total ... at $5/gallon. Ya, that's a lot. But, I'm in the middle of nowhere, and they were very helpful.

 

[mesa man]

Thanks Pappy! I really appreciate your adventure posts/pics, It's usually better than reading a story in Toyota Trails! Inspiring!

 

[pappy]

The next morning I pack up and continue up the canyon. This was the first morning in a long time I had blue sky. It was mixed with low clouds/fog, but it made the view in the canyon even nicer. On the way I do pass other campgrounds. Most were not worth it. One was very nice. I could have stayed there, and had the campground to myself.

The road does get a bit potholed, but they had equipment out there fixing the issues. When I got directions I was told to take a right at the stop sign. It will be the only stop sign I come to. Got that? The only stop sign on this detour. That sign was at Warm Lake, and from there it was a cruise into Cascade for fuel, then a jaunt over to Lowman.

Fog. Blue sky. South Fork of the Salmon River.

 

[pappy]

Oops. Forget something. On the way from the Salmon River to Yellow Pine I had a bunch of smoke. As I crested Elk Summit I had some rather official road closure signs and a big bulletin board. Ya, fearing the worst, I get out and look at the board, and the map. It's a fire closer notice. It took me awhile to find where I was, but, the fire was to my north, and the BDR trail skirted the western side of the closed area (whew). I was already on the southwest side of the fire closure, at the arrow in the pic.

Old school bus along the way.

Who knew these old school buses were powered by the invincible Toyota F engine. (Don't say it.)

 

[pappy]

In addition to the huckleberries, I also grazed on service berries.

 

[pappy]

Just when I think I'm winning, I come to this. Some kayakers told me the road was open, and they were taking folks through with a pilot car. But, that was two days ago. Bottom line, I made it to Lowman with no issues and proceeded south on the BDR to Pine. But, ... (come-awn, you knew that was coming, right?)

This is what all the fuss was about. The picture doesn't do the smoke justice. It was a huge plume.

 

[pappy]

I came to this gate. Ya, no big deal. Lots of gates on public land. Just leave them as you find them, right? I blast through, and come to this nasty washed out culvert. The entrance was steep, and I did drag the back bumper as I pulled forward. The exit was no big deal. Well, it turns out the road was closed because I came to another open gate like the one I went through. Only, it had a big road closed sign. I appears the sign had been violently tossed aside and stomped on. There was paper on the gate post so I figured I had better read it. According to the Forest Service, I did a very bad thing and should not have gone through the open gate at the north end. Shame on me, but, too late. I wasn't going back.

 

[krazykat69]

Thanks for great pictures and stories. Never been to that part of the world.. Glad you had a good time.

 

[pappy]

Some nice campsite on some river I don't remember.

Any wonder why I have warped rotors?

Right after I dropped down to the Middle Fork of the Boise River.

Driving up the Middle Fork of the Boise River.

This is just for Ali. Hot springs.

​

 

[pappy]

So, Idaho was about done. Once I dropped down to Glenn's Ferry the scenery drastically changed. I went from conifer lawns to sagebrush. It was time to hit the Great Basin Desert.

My last night in Idaho.

 

[pappy]

What the heck is this? A redneck-bubba cattle guard made out of old intertubes? Yankee ingenuity at it's best. Put a patent on that.

 

[Mauser]

What the heck is this? A redneck-bubba cattle guard made out of old intertubes? Yankee ingenuity at it's best. Put a patent on that.

View attachment 2449172

I've seen cattle guards like that. Believe it or not they work. I have also seen them painted on the road. Cows are dumb.

I'm glad you had an enjoyable trip. Good to see you around again.

 

[pappy]

On to Nevada. While the Idaho BDR was slow, the Nevada BDR was fast. NV was much shorter, and it went over flatter terrain. In Idaho I was lucky if I did 120 miles/day. In Nevada, it was close to 200 daily miles. Some was at 45 mph on graded county roads. Other times it was 6mph on a BLM road.

Official start and end of the ID and NV BDR's. Jarbidge, NV.

I believe this was looking down into Jarbidge Canyon.

First night was in the mountains just south of Jarbidge. This would be my last mountain camp.

All the rest of my camps would be in the desert.

What goes up, must come down. Resurfaced rotors are in my future.

 

[pappy]

After pulling into Jarbidge I headed south to find a place to camp. This was more mountains and the hunters were out. Every dispersed campsite was taken, and they loved to hunt with their horses.

I ended up taking a small road to a trailhead. Before I got there I found a great spot in the aspen. Nobody around. Why? Because they were all up the trail on horses. In the evening two hunters came down. The third horse was loaded with elk. After them, a big truck with a horse trailer. Uh? I would not have had the stones to drag a trailer up that narrow, one lane, eroded track where I was camped. These folks were camped back at the junction, which was not even a mile away. I would have rode up instead of loading up the horses and dragging them up.

The next day I stopped in a Forest Service campground to have lunch. While there I met a family in a Tundra. They had very muddy Maxtrax mounted to the side of the truck shell. That of course prompted a conversation. Turns out they were doing the NVBDR south to north and were just finishing up. Work had been impacted by COVID, so this guy loaded up the family and went on an adventure. He wasn't out of work, but work was goofy. Anyway, the Maxtrax. There was a note on the BDR map about an area that was "impassable when wet." He confirmed. It's wet, and it's impassable. He got major stuck with nothing to winch to. So, another detour.

 

[pappy]

The influence of New Mexico reaches all the way to Tonopah, Nevada.

First Joshua tree.

 

[pappy]

This place was weird. Just, weird.

 

[pappy]

My one duck into Death Valley. I have never been to any section of Death Valley that was in Nevada. At least, I don't think so.

Rhyolite, NV ghost town.

 

[pappy]

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. I thought this place was fascinating. Of course, I think water in the desert is fascinating. Water was gushing out of the ground in several springs and flowing little creeks across the desert.

Burros. I also saw lots of wild horses.

Big Dunes. A play area.

I didn't see any tortoise.