July 26-28 2013 Lochsa River, Idaho

All the campgrounds in McCall were full for the weekend, so we headed up to the Lochsa river to a nice forest service campground.

White Bird Battlefield was the site of the first battle between the army and the Nez Perce Indians. This is the Nez Perce ancestral land. It was given to them as a reservation in a treaty.  When gold was discovered on the land they USA made a new treaty and took away 90% of the land and forced the Indians to move. Some refused to move and the army was sent to move them. There was a battle right here and the Indians won. Of course after than the army came  back with vengeance and either killed or forced the remaining Indians to move to a reservation in Oklahoma.  This is also the White Bird Grade, it is a very steep grade, and in the left of the photo you can see many switchbacks. The current road was built in the 70’s, it is still steep, but does not have switchbacks.

We got a great campsite in the Western Gateway to the Wilderness campground on the Lochsa river. The foliage is very thick here, so the sites are very private. They all have a secluded campfire picnic area too. Here is John chasing off mosquitos with a cigar. I spent some time in the lawn chair reading.

A pink flower, a beetle that  blended with the rock. It has really long antennae, but it was on the run, this was all I got of him. The thimble berries are ripe and all over the campground. I picked a bunch, and made whole wheat, oatmeal, walnut, thimble berry muffins.  In the campsite next to us was Ken Duncan, a kayaking friend of John’s from Fort Collins and his family up here boating the Lochsa.  We had no idea they were here, it was a lucky coincidence. John joined them for a day of kayaking today.

Before he left John removed the shade over the bed. One of the cords in it was broken. It took forever to figure out how to get it off. I spent 4 more hours restringing it. It has 4 cords that crisscross in the nite shades at the top, then crisscross again in the day part of the shade,  crisscross again and then attach to the bottom. They are great, you can raise or lower them to any level. But very frustrating to try to fix. We spent another hour getting them rehung and they didn’t work. We will try again tomorrow, or just buy new shades when we get to a big city again. . .

Ken’s family kayaking on the Lochsa.  Tina, Ken, Danielle and Ty Duncan.

After the shade day I went to the swimming hole on the river and refreshed. John was already refreshed from boating. The next day we both worked on the shade and voila it works now! You can pull down the bottom day shades or the nite shades and they stay where you pull them. Guess we won’t have to buy a new shade.

We rewarded ourselves for fixing the shade with at trip to the historic Lochsa Ranger station. The building is called the composite building. It was built between 1927-1933. It is actually 4 log cabins put together. The first door on the end is the commissary, the next one is the tool room- pictured here.

Then the rangers office and the mess hall. The normal crew was 24 people, but during fires there were up to 200 to feed. The cook was busy. The ranger had his own house with a kitchen for his family.

An ad for a ranger in the early days of the forest service. John is walking to the Boulder cabin. It was originally on Boulder creek where it was the first headquarters for the Lochsa ranger district, but they took it down when they built the highway through here in 1926. They labeled each of the logs and floated them down the Lochsa to the present location and restored it.

The barn and corrals. The original ones burnt down in the 1934 fire. The staff was able to save the rest of the complex. The station was a resupply post for the other facilities in the area, so they did a lot of packing, they had a string of pack horses and mules here.  After our tour of the ranger station we took a hike on the Boulder Creek trail. It looked on the map like it would follow the creek, nice shaded and we could swim if we got hot, but it switched back up the side of the mountain and was hot where there was no shade. I love how lush it is in northern Idaho.

After the hike we took a swim in the river. When we got back I was relaxing, I was cold from the river and asked John to bring me something with sleeves to wear and he brought out my snuggly he gave me for xmas. It was not what I had in mind, but it was quite cozy.

July 25, 2013 McCall, Idaho

 

Idaho potato license plate.  We hiked in Ponderosa State Park that has a ponderosa old growth forest. There were huge ponderosa pine trees.

Lily pond at Ponderosa state park. A DC 3 parked in the trees in McCall.

Air tractors for fire fighting at the Jump base. New birthday chacos.

Dinner on the deck at the McCall brewery over looking the lake. Sunset on Lake Payette.

Composite flower, spyria, pine drops, wintergreen, a deer, skunk cabbage, pine drops and a twin berry.

Huckleberry(they are ripe!!), pine drop, rams horn louse wort, Indian paint brush, white monkshood, pearly everlasting, geranium, twin flower.

spotted lily, seed head, buckwheat, Indian pipe, wild onion, white monkshood, wintergreen and back lit foliage.

July 22-24, 2013 South Fork of the Salmon River, Idaho

With the group gone I had to entertain myself. I checked out the trail across the river and found this miner’s home ruin. It was in the 90’s, so I did not try to hike until after sunset. I spent the day soaking in the cool river, napping and reading. Not so bad.

Miner’s home ruins. Lush foliage by the river on the trail.

The setting sun turned the river gold. I found this skull next to a burnt tree. Ominous looking.

Golden water. The next day I drove up the east fork of the south fork of the Salmon river. Phew. John said there were lots of forks in Idaho. I as going to drive to Yellow Pine, a tiny town 15 miles up the dirt road. I forgot to check the mileage when I left. I thought I had gone way too far and turned around. I checked the mileage on the way back and I think I was almost to it. Oh well.

Another fire started up the east fork. the real reason I turned around, this smoke was hard to breathe. I found this memorial on the way back for a helicopter crash, it killed the pilot and 3 repelling fire fighters in 2006. Very sad. These people risk their lives so that fires like this one don’t burn me up.

A beetle eating a flower, a gone by scarlet gila, the fire scarred trunk of a ponderosa pine, a thistle, thimble berry, penstamen, deer horn clarkia, and a seed pod.

Fireweed in front of a fire scarred tree- fire weed is one of the first flowers to come back after a fire, golden rod, ladies tresses, ladies tresses close up, st john’s wort, cinquefoil, and lichen.

The Audubon guide book of the Rocky Mountains says about Idaho: there is an enormous core of remote wild country—deep river gorges, high granite ridges and cirques, and dense forests. coniferous forests blanket about 45 percent of the state. We are in the middle of that and it is beautiful.  The only problem is that lots of it is on fire now. Boo.

Back at the bus, I started the next masterpiece.  Smoke in the air around the campground.

Smoke in the air around the old burn. The completed first piece for the next masterpiece.

I cooked homemade mac and cheese  for dinner after the crew returned. Dinner at sunset-which this time of year is 10 pm. Wet boat gear drying in the back ground. On the way out on the 30 mile, narrow one lane, steep and windy road we ran into about 25 big trucks with fire support, not all at once. At this spot we could not back up, it was steep and there was a sheer cliff on our side of the road. They had to back up so we could squeeze into the tiny pull off where they are and they went by.

The bus at the McCall RV park. Very nice park, trees, green, lots of room, excellent private bathrooms with slate tile on the floor, walls and counters, wild animal metal art on the walls. The log cabin lodge at the RV park.