Chapter 3, Idaho to Oregon

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Beginning August 8 2007
Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/Ches.Alli/Chapter3

After a long exhausting drive from Encampment, WY to Montpelier, ID along I-80 and then US30 we were faced with the decision of going to Maple Grove Hot Springs ( http://www.maplegrovehotsprings.com/ ) a day earlier than our reservations. Maple Grove is in south eastern Idaho north of the town of Preston. We drove past the gate and camped on the Bear River Reservoir in a spot that had obviously been used for partying. After a while you come to expect pieces of toilet paper and beer can tops all over free camp sites. Some folks never learn to pick up after themselves. The next morning, we drove 500 feet to Maple Grove Hot Springs 45 minutes before they officially opened and spent the time exploring and chatting with the owner's mother-in-law who was out and about. The property skirts and is split by a little traveled public dirt road. The west side of the property drops down to the river where there appeared to be large masses of dark algae growing along the bank. Then a gapping mouth appeared in the middle of the mass. The “mass of algae” was a squirming pile of carp trying to get to the warm water expelled from the 145° hot pool above. When the owner, Barb arrived to open the office, we were ready to hit the pools. We were able to barter both of us working 1 ½ hours per day for staying in a camp site and using the facility. We spent our trade time perfecting the hole already well underway in preparation for a new hot tub. Ches slammed a digging bar into the earth to create a straight side and Allison shoveled. Proper tools would have made the job easier and we were relieved when our work time ended and we could get in the sun sheltered therapy pool again. By this time the weather had gotten quite hot, as hot as it had been in Medanales - as much as 100 degrees each day. The owners have put an amazing amount of work into making Maple Grove a pleasant place to visit and continue to make improvements. The few camp sites are not level, but the rock lined soaking pools overlook the river are clean and there is a community kitchen and even frozen food to purchase if you forgot to bring your own. They did have a very slow satellite wi-fi that allowed us to send off our last travel log ( apologies to those of you who received chapter 2 labeled as chapter 3, whoops.)

After two nights at Maple Grove, we moved on to Lava Hot Springs. They have two sets of pools there run by a nonprofit foundation, in a very small, but pleasant town. One is a series of beautiful large soaking pools on one side of town. On the other side is a huge swimming pool with a slide and a very high diving board packed with kids. Running through town over “lava rocks” is a fast clear and cool stream filled with people of all ages on tubes. With temperatures closing in on 100 degrees we opted for the stream. We appreciated the chilly water and as people on inner tubes were cast into the eddy we were playing in, we pushed them back out to the rapids. Lava Hot Springs is a fun spot for everyone and a place we would like to visit again. We ate at a Thai restaurant in town where you have to ask for hot versions of the dishes and a “3” heat is like a “1” in Santa Fe. It was a nice treat though and we were able to get in the van and drive another hour before setting up camp in the Caribou National Forest near Pocotello for the night. We discovered “Fred Myers” the next day. Sort of like a Super Walmart, but a lot better - especially since they carry organic produce and many of the brands of food that we like to eat such as Lundberg rice cakes and Bob's cereals in a whole separate natural foods section. It was the best natural food store since we left Santa Fe. Add in a camping department and a nice clothing section where Ches could replace his 20 year old bathing suite ( marked down twice) which had just ripped at Maple Grove and we were in shopping heaven. They even sold diesel fuel so we could fill up. If only we had known spending over $100 in the store would have saved us .10/gallon on fuel! Fred Meyer has it all. We called our friends Gus and Jenney who live in Boise and arranged to meet Gus near Stanley to camp for the weekend.

Unfortunately, we started seeing smoke from forest fires that day. It is so disorienting to be driving in smoke you can smell - you don't know if you are in danger or not, if you should go forward or backward. We stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument and asked about the fires. Just as we got there around noon the winds shifted and brought in a little cooler weather and blew the smoke to the north. Everyone seems so nonchalant about forest fires here - they seem to be a way of life. Fires are all over Idaho and the West - no escape but to the coast which would push us a good week ahead of schedule. We took some time to eat lunch and explore the monument, which is another interesting place to stop. The campsites were nestled among the lava heaps and trails spun off in every direction. In a bit cooler weather it would be a great place to camp, like being in another world but we still had tons of daylight left so we decided to push on. We passed through Hailey and Ketchum as we got back into the mountains. Way too many beautiful people in their beautiful cars shopping in beautiful shops clogging their beautiful town. Ches, not feeling so beautiful, had to flee north as fast as he could. About 20 miles or so north we decided to take a break at Russian John Hot Springs, a small volunteer made lava-silt pool sitting on a hill above an unmarked turn off the highway. After you finish soaking, you pull the plug and refill the pool for the next person. We set up camp nearby on the Wood River, in a primitive site. Our neighbors were a couple with two small children from Salt Lake City, vacation camping, bicycling, and fly fishing for the week. They have plans to stop working building missiles for NASA in a couple of years when their youngest child is a bit older and sailing around the world. (We are meeting people all the time who are doing similar stunts as ours).
Friday, we drove over Galena Pass, stopping at the top to scramble up the ridge and find the old dirt road over the pass and two bicyclists pumping up over the ridge - the county planner and a trail planner from an organization in Oregon. They were GPS mapping the area to begin plans for a multi-use trail that would allow bikers, hikers and horseback riders more access to off-road areas. In this area their were lots of bicyclists and bike trails and we had an interesting conversation with these planners about the interaction between motorized and non-motorized trail users. They were very positive about the cooperation between these groups in their area. We saw a number of bicyclists on the steep mountain roads. It's incredible what people can do if they want! Dropping into the Salmon River Valley, we gazed in awe at the majestic Sawtooth Mountains. We were on our way to meet Gus at his wife, Jenney's parent's land on Fishers Creek, a tributary of the Salmon River. We drove up a gravel road past swank houses to the homesteader property bordering National Forest Land. Gus arrived shortly after us and we set up camp, and took a bike ride past beaver ponds and through a landscape fire ravaged from previous years. Fires were to the west of us in the Sawtooth Mountains but the smoke was blowing away from us. The next day we biked to a spot where Gus could walk upstream fishing and we could get in the cold Salmon River. On Sunday, we broke camp and headed towards Boise for an evening at Gus and Jenney's home. Along the way, we stopped in Stanley to check out the craft fair where we learned how dutch ovens can create delicious meals (which we did not partake in, but which smelled yummy). We thought we would check out another hot spring, but it was too hot and smoky and one of the many fires had started at Bonneville Hot Springs where we had planned on stopping. We opted to swim at a humongous reservoir/park outside Boise. In the city, the temperature was 104°, but we enjoyed seeing Gus' abundant garden and visiting with him, Jenney and Gussie. Of course we had to stock up on groceries and Gus told us where to locate the co-op - it is very nice with reasonable prices and they gave us the member discount since we traveled over 200 miles to get there. It was the best co-op we had been to in terms of layout, selection and prices.
Monday morning, July 23rd, we woke up to another hot smoky day and pushed on west to Oregon along I-84 to Baker City where we picked up State Road 7 and then US 26 for a beautiful drive though canyons and up into the mountains. The weather cooled off and the smoke cleared. Not bad. Eastern Oregon is very dry compared to the western part of the state but the mountains there are mostly Ponderosa forests. It is wonderful area to drive through going through small towns in the green irrigated river valleys and steep canyons leading to the mountains. By the late afternoon, we found a primitive campground in the Ochoco National Forest. The next morning we drove to Bend to look around town and do laundry but found it so hard to navigate and find things that Ches copped a mood and looked for the first road out of town. Bend is yet another western town whose success is leading to its unraveling. Just like Santa Fe, Boulder, Ketchum, the list goes on, uncontrolled growth leads to clogged roads and urban sprawl. We are learning which towns area easiest to deal with for things like shopping, laundry, fuel, etc. At any rate, we drove on to Sisters which although it is very touristy, it was small enough to easily locate a visitor center and then to walk around town and visit the library which had beautiful quilts on display in honor of the quilt show that had gone on the weekend before. From there we drove on to a small natural lake (Suttle Lake) with a picnic area and beach. A swim and dinner on the shore made for a splendid evening. In the last hours of daylight we crossed from Poderosa forests over the Cascades to make a camp along Whitewater Creek, a steep fast flowing river full of boulders and logs swept by the torrent. Heaven forbid, we were in the rain forest. What a rapid transformation! We awoke to a whole new world of unfamiliar flowers trees and shrubs, and deep shade, or should we say darkness. A little unnerving for us from New Mexico.
We were headed for Breitenbush Hot Springs (http://www.breitenbush.com/), which we had first heard about at Valley View. It is a worker owned hot springs commune, an interesting place with three rock lined pools, four tiled pools, a huge lodge with a dining hall where they serve organic vegetarian meals, camping, and cabins. It is on the Breitenbush River in the Cascades. We spent the day there but since we had our kitty with us they wouldn't let us camp. After dinner there we headed to a primitive camp site in the surrounding national forest directly across the river from Breitenbush. As it turned out there were the ruins of very hot spring tubs across the river that had once been part of a logging camp, long since gone. To cross the very cold river someone had tied a rope from our side to the dilapidated spring side to aid in walking in the fast shallow current. The river would numb our legs and feet but still, the hot water in the springs was almost too hot to get into. We liked this place so much we ended up staying there three days. It was time to move on when Friday night some drunk teenagers descended to whoop it up in the river and springs and dump their trash in the campground.

Before we hit the coast we spent a day in the Willamette Valley. The fruit and veggies here are magnificent. Check out the photo of what we purchased at a working farm's roadside stand (http://picasaweb.google.com/Ches.Alli/Chapter3 ) along with our other photos), where we could pick our own Red Haven peaches for 80 cents a pound. We stopped in Corvallis to go to the farmers market where we had lunch and went to the food co-op. What a nice town that is, the home of Oregon State University. It's green and has a vibrant downtown and farmer's market. We wanted to stay there the night at a county campground next to the fairgrounds but it was closed for the upcoming fair. Instead we drove on over the coastal range to another county campground closer to the coast and spent our time watching kids learn how to bike and listen to our neighbor continually admonish his son for unknown reasons with the punishment of sitting in the car to stew. The next morning we finally made it to the coast at Waldport.

We meandered up Oregon's coast spending a day at Yachats exploring tide pools. In Waldport we saw more living things in the tide pools. Anenomes and starfish are amazing to see. Starfish are not all spread out like a star all the time. They are very lumpy and strong muscled. Anenomes will close fast if touched and are a wonderful green. Newport - a working coastal town well worth spending time in with the absolute freshest fish you could hope for to eat - hook and line caught. We ate 2 meals at Local Ocean it was so reasonable and delicious hook and line caught fish. We went back to Beverly Beach to camp at a State run campground with a short walk to the ocean. With over 300 sites, it was a busy place - too much chaos for us - but being that close to the beach was worth it. We walked up to Otter Rock and sampled wine at a local winery. The beach is incredibly windy and quite a workout and shin splinter, but every so often you find a protected spot to rest and watch the waves. No shells on the beach just rocks and wood.
The next day we progressed about 30 miles to another campground on Sandlake where we could walk along an estuary and a 1.4 mile trail through forest and back to the beach. Every day we'd watch the tide come in and go out and see people crabbing and hunting mussel, cockleshells and shrimp. The license costs $9 for 3 days for out of state residents. We stopped at Oceanside and Cape Mears. This is one of the nicest areas we saw along the coast. Oceanside is a very picturesque small town on a steep hillside and a rocky coastline. We had coffee and a walk along the beach.
We made quick stops in Tillamook at the Blue Heron and Tillamook Cheese Factories. Ches went to the visitor center to get maps while Allison toured the factory. Gobs of people milling about, eating ice cream, looking at ceramic gifts and standing in the que waiting to sample cheese. Yuck! After spending time in the National Forest there were just too many people. Although the Brie at Blue Heron was tasty and looking at how cheese is made at the Tillamook Factory was interesting, there was no opportunity to question whether the cows are rGBgH free or if there is some kind of acid fallout from the factory, or any other embarrassing questions. We can say the dairy cows we saw were pasture fed and were picture perfect. So off to find another camp site for the weekend. We were told of Nehalem Falls State Forest Park ($10/night) when we stopped at the library in Garibaldi Bay. The library was a teeny makeshift room that was part of City Hall and the librarian was excited that Ches brought in the laptop because they had just installed wireless the day before. We also found out about the Health Food Store in Manzanita, although we found organic produce at other groceries as well. It's a great time to get Marion, Black or Blue Berries. They are delicious, inexpensive and plentiful. Marion or Salmon berries are growing everywhere like trees and out of control, but they are not all ripe and are hard to get to. Our campsite was in the midst of tall cedars and firs, alder, birch, maple, service berry and ferns. The river is warm enough to take a swim and newts and crayfish abound in the water. Some kids here are catching the newts to count and release. Last year they caught 1,100. So we have had a lazy day of napping while it threatened to drizzle and sitting on the river rocks watching newts and crayfish. The dark damp forest made us a bit homesick for blue sunny skies. On Sunday the 5th we drove further up the coast to Astoria and a rather bad farmers market there. Astoria is nestled on the side of steep hills in a dramatic location at the mouth of the mighty Columbia River, but it is a rather odd town, gritty and unappealing. We drove over a huge narrow steel bridge, towering over the river, as scary as any, and into Washington State. Oregon is an amazing state full of contrasts from east to west but one constant is volcanic rock every where we went, from dry scrub to rain forest to rocky coastline. Although its reputation is hip and urbane, at times we thought we were in West Virginia on windy roads, with rednecks and litter, and forests that never saw the sun.
We've covered a lot of ground in the past several weeks and are just finishing up this chapter. Check out the photos for a quick review of where we've been. You'll have to copy and paste the url in your browser since we cannot make the link work.
Stay tuned. Love Ches and Allison

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Photos

Hot pool
Brightenbush Hot springs, Oregon