5/18-20/17
Current Location: Palisades Reservoir, eastern Idaho
We awoke Thursday morning with our eyes set eastward for the first time in a long time. First we decided to get some exercise. After putting off a hike of Mount Si for a day or so to hopefully get some improved weather, the morning was still decently overcast and the forecast for a big high pressure was a little delayed. Oh well, we’ll still get the exercise. Mount Si sits in the foothills of Seattle not far from where we were staying in Issaquah. I (Eric) had hiked it once nearly 13 years ago on my first visit to Seattle and gaining 3,000’ in less than 4 miles was an eye opener to say the least. In that instance the top was shrouded in fog and clouds. Last year when Lara and I were vacationing in Seattle we decided for a round of exercise under complete rain and clouds. As mentioned, we had hoped for clearing skies, which we got down low but just as we poked out of the trees at about 4,000’ the clouds nixed our views once again. Again, we settled for a great workout on a really solid trail.
We stopped for some lunch and then pointed ourselves up and over Snoqualmie Pass and left the gray, clouds and rain behind crossing into the dry side of Washington. The speed at which we went from Cascades, snowy, clouds to sunshine, farms and rivers was impressive. We didn’t complain.
We had eyed at meandering road along the Yakima River between Eilenberg and Yakima seeing there were small campsites along the road. On our drive down the two lane road hugging the river the hillsides and mountains reminded me of a dry version of Iceland. There were bright green slopes broken by small rows of cliff bands. There were almost no trees in sight and the river widened but still kept its crisp pace. We checked out a few campsites along the river and settled on one that was not the most fancy but it was quiet (read: entirely empty) and had a spot directly on the edge of the river. Other than a passing car or two in the lot, no other soul decided to camp there or even spend any measurable time. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the sun, drying out things like the mattress and bench cushions from perceived dampness and watching the fishermen float by in their dingys.
The fish must have been having a feast because as we drove down the road we stared at the river banks wondering what the brown cloud of dust was hovering along the edges. It only took a few seconds to see that there was some massive awakening of mayflies, like…epic proportions. And please note that the word epic is not used significantly on this blog even though we’ve seen some pretty sweet stuff. This was Discovery Channel worth clouds of insects making their way up stream, both flying and getting pushed around by the winds. Thankfully at our first stop along the river we noticed while kind of gross to see and be amongst they really weren’t terribly bothersome. When a large mass of them would get blown in your direction or move past the van you’d definitely want to keep your mouth closed but they didn’t bite and didn’t really hang around. On one particular part of the drive we went through a cloud of them at about 35 miles per hour and I am not surprised I haven’t been sought for crimes against animals because it was audible ping, ping, pings of the windshield. So we decided to settle in our buggy site and any time a big swarm would come by we’d hop in the van for a bit. By sunset the bugs were mostly gone and we had this section of the river all to ourselves. Another night falling asleep to the sound of spring runoff cruising by.
We decided to follow some rural highways for the next couple days with only intermittent interludes onto interstates (alliteration!). Central and eastern Washington were truly gorgeous. Farms, rolling green hills and fresh crops everywhere. We headed to Palouse Falls State Park for a midday break and were surprised the terrain stayed nearly identical to the last few hours right up until the crack in the Earth lent itself to the river and impressive falls that give this remote state park its name. We wandered the short trails around the top of the falls for a while and made some lunch.
We had internet-scouted some camping spots an hour away or so and headed down to meet up with the Snake River. I knew of the Snake from our forays into Grand Teton National Park and had heard of its praises in Idaho but never really made the connection that the Snake progresses from Yellowstone, south around the Tetons, back north weaving through central Idaho and into Washington to eventually meet up with the Columbia and head to the ocean. It was only after 20 minutes of map fun did I put all this together. Here, being so far from its source, the Snake is hundreds of yards wide and part of the lock system used to get goods up from Portland. We found a tiny pull out along the river with free camping only a 1/2 mile from the Little Goose Dam. Just after setting up shop, we finally saw the two barge-one tug boat stationary in the middle of the river start to move towards the lock. We hurriedly made our way up the road to the lock to watch the whole system work. Although we didn’t have a great view, dams do tend to have some pretty tight security, we got to see the doors close, a sliver of the boat rise up in a surprisingly quick time (10 minutes or so?) and the front door open and away went the barge only inches from us on the upriver side. A cool sight to see!
We settled in back at our camp, wandered down to the water to let Rooney swim for a bit, skipped some rocks, watched all kinds of birds come and go, including a flock of huge pelicans and generally enjoyed the sun. That evening we made our fiesta Friday tacos and watched sunset while playing dice. Living in a van down by the river…again.
We awoke to some short rain showers and packed up, continuing on our rural exploration of eastern Washington. We eventually crossed into Idaho leaving the general confines of the Snake River (don’t worry, we’ll be back shortly). We headed south along highway 95 through both dreary rain showers and beautiful canyons. We eventually climbed to McCall, Idaho and, needing a break, made a stop to sample some breweries there. Thankfully we had camping options just south of town along the Payette River.
McCall had an interesting feel to it, very mountain town along the edge of a large lake but without, what seemed like, any particular outdoor activity to draw visitors. However, it appeared where they lacked any singular activity, they boasted year around adventures from skiing to snowmobiling and lake activities to hiking. It is definitely a place I think we could spend a while both in and out of town. As the day started to clear up we headed south as the canyon narrowed and the water picked up speed dramatically. We found the campgrounds we were eyeing up were pretty tiny but the Big Eddy campground had only one of its six sites taken and site number 3 on the edge had a nice flat parking spot only feet from the rapids and namesake eddy of the Payette River. There was another large group only about 100 yards away and they were having a pretty good time around the campfire but we couldn’t hear a peep as the river roared past us.
We spent some time sitting on the rocks poking out into the river and watching the rapids up stream. Naturally I had to find some large driftwood/logs and return those to their rightful place in the freezing and bouncy water. The two lane highway was nearly as close to our campsite as the river but again, the Payette did its job quieting all the manmade sounds as we fell asleep. Yup, you guessed it…in a van, down by the river.
We were within striking distance of Boise so we researched some runs in the foothills outside of town and headed that way in the morning. It was Sunday and we didn’t exactly get a break-of-dawn start so it was not surprisingly crowded at the trail system/park we pulled into at about 10am. The trails were exactly what we were looking for and reminded us a lot of the trails in Golden. We got in a 5 miler as the sun warmed the day and Rooney was quite happy that at various points in the run he had a creek to cool off in. We grabbed some lunch in Boise and headed further east with a brief 30 miles or so on I-84 before peeling back off onto the “blue highways” as William Least Heat-Moon iconically wrote about. Side note here would be that Boise seemed like a cool little city. It was not large but a quick drive through the downtown had a great feel to it. Everyone was spending their Sunday enjoying said sun, whether that be on the trails, getting lunch on a patio, biking, etc.
We hopped onto US-20 pointed towards Ketchum & Sun Valley. This road really surprised us. It quickly gains this huge high plateau and becomes really remote. It’s almost a straight shot for 50 miles or so but the terrain undulates with constant range and farms to the south/right and the ever-present southern edge of the Sawtooth range to the north/left. For some reason the complete lack of telephone polls, wires, really any fencing or infrastructure gave it that great open road feel. We cruised at 60mph with the windows open and sun shining. Eventually we got to the turn north towards Sun Valley and passed through a few small towns along the way. In Hailey, just a half hour or so south of Sun Valley we stopped at a brewery (you expect anything less?) for some snacks and a sample or two.
We were in need of a shower after a few days of activity and travel plus the clothes bag no longer fit in its cubby, a clear sign that quarters were going to need to be procured in the near future.
Because we were going to do a hike or run in the morning we decided to push it one more day and found a super easy camp spot in the national forest just outside of Sun Valley. Oh, and this spot was right along Trail Creek, so once again…we Chris Farley’d the evening.