tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76402650372226650042024-02-02T15:59:26.288-08:00River and RanchSummertime under a big blue Idaho sky. Four lives spinning together on river and ranch in the heart of flyover country. This is a novel on horseback with a woman riding the mountain trails of her ranching childhood. This is a novel in a raft, floating the remote Salmon river with a man trying to leave a past behind, looking for something better. It's a novel of wild places. It's a novel of family - coming home again!JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-37804594027301185172024-01-15T09:30:00.000-08:002024-01-15T09:30:46.901-08:00I See Them Everyday - Imagination is a Wonderful Thing!In my mind's eye, Cale and Lane are fully formed. They are living the lives I created for them. Further, I am amazed at how people, places, and things (and events and little dogs and big horses) have accreted onto the continent they are walking.</br>
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I am quite happy with this world of river and ranch that I have created.
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Editing awaits my return.</br>
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sighJJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-60750211265995343572021-04-22T06:10:00.000-07:002021-04-22T06:10:59.917-07:00Lost Trail Hot Springs <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ06AonoKHs_FmBQJzCQf1qFVEhuLqG8hcjBUOx5v-rJxIfJqQQi75A9DsbD4bFs9aXmprrcR6POyJVE3UnRTUgb4z3jYc7dat9ZWdo5m3DlHrqXkL0M3gBdAtzOE9YWoZtJIfMc-NArk/s2048/DSC_0051.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ06AonoKHs_FmBQJzCQf1qFVEhuLqG8hcjBUOx5v-rJxIfJqQQi75A9DsbD4bFs9aXmprrcR6POyJVE3UnRTUgb4z3jYc7dat9ZWdo5m3DlHrqXkL0M3gBdAtzOE9YWoZtJIfMc-NArk/s320/DSC_0051.JPG"/></a></div>
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<p>Lost Trail Pass started as THE SPOT I wanted to get to.</p>
<p>As this trip unwound, all of the 'other' places emerged and competed quite well for my small mind and its capacity. Lost Trail offered the requisite hot springs (which I had never visited), the history, and the book relevance.</p>
<p>While the spring is piped up and concrete-lined, the resort fit what my 'mind's eye' had imagined, so I was happy. I wandered the grounds and enjoyed being at a ground zero spot from my book River and Ranch. It is rustic. It is nice. It is simple. The way it should be. I do not know what the pandemic has done to it in the time since my visit, but the spring is not going anywhere. The owners might be in turmoil (I hope not), but it does seem reasonable to see how life as a resort owner could be difficult in this neck of the woods.</p>
<p>This is a spot I would buy, if my own set of minimal conditions were to ever be met. I digress.</p>
<p>The history, on the surface, is Lewis and Clark. Yet again, this pair is top of the list because they were aware of what they were doing and so kept journals and awareness of location and surround. As usual, it's not just the 'winners' that write history, it's the people with paper, pen and ink, and an alphabet, or a knowledge of writing. So much of this place is layered with simple events and footprints that no one will ever know about, simply because these events were never recognized as 'worthy' of recording and the original 'occupants' lacked the recording necessities. Importantly, they likely did not view themselves as occupants, rather they were 'passers through' and this was just another hot springs <i>en route</i> to where they were going.....</p>
<p>I like it. I like everything about it. Go check it out. It is a neat place inthe midst of a great setting.</p>
JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-31451559973051100272019-07-22T08:27:00.000-07:002019-07-22T08:29:11.050-07:00Jackson Hot Springs - History and Hot Water
<p>While the constant high overcast derived from smoke from megafires was a constant disappointment, the terrain and up close views provided an awesome road trip. Once again (like the first road trip) no big panoramas, but lots of details and neat places right in front of my face.<br />
Like Jackson Hot Springs, in Jackson, Montana. About as close to the middle of nowhere and still be on a tarred road as I have ever found. <br />
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Love those vanishing point highway views<br />
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I do believe Lewis and Clark mention this hot spring in their journals<br />
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A little weathered, but still standing!<br />
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The lodge was officially closed for renovations, including a new lining for the hot pool. This is a shot of the pool prior to the TLC that the new owner was planning on giving it.<br />
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<p>I was there in summer of 2018. A new owner had just arrived and was in the process of installing a new floor in the main building.The pool was not open, nor was the lodge, but they were there working on renovations, so I just parked and walked in. And found a great spot in the middle of wide open Montana.</p><p>
So next time you are in the mood for some hot water, find Jackson Hot Springs and enjoy the water, once you enjoy the experience of going through the big wide open spaces to get there. It's the journey AND the destination right?</p>
JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0Jackson, MT, USA45.3685929 -113.4095161999999845.3630154 -113.41960119999999 45.374170400000004 -113.39943119999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-65888740247670690172018-12-09T16:58:00.001-08:002019-07-17T09:48:45.520-07:00Easley Hot Springs - a great Idaho spot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<img title="main pool at Easley Hot Springs" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRNKTvBEC0ye1DljSjZ9cNBhqXaE5i8DAN8bbC3RDp9qpzC03VaFxV7qaF70OY-5UvfEuCuXCsW6TvHV-Lo-mMvf1qS_ur0wi9jy8t4dLplL2Za59QgwNZOtDNMZna-ZHAzHcVX5PphjU/s320/Easley-Hot-Springs-1.jpg" width="320" height="213" data-original-width="1072" data-original-height="712" />
</a><p>All the unexpected and unplanned for Idaho hot springs turned out to be one of the big surprises of the road trip I undertook this past summer. Each hot spring appealed in a different way. Easley is one of those places I would consider plunking down at for a couple of days and doing day trips from the camp ground followed by a session in the pool or the hot tubs further up the hill. Wonderful.</p>
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</a><p>Easley Hot Springs was the first one I arrived at. I successfully battled the urge to keep on going so I could get to my destination. Except I did not have a destination. I had six unplanned days of glorious nothing. So I turned left and went up the short gravel road to a marvelous hot springs tucked away in the middle of nowhere on the way to Galena Summit, just a few miles past Sun Valley.</p>
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</a><p>I found three wonderful people, a little dog, and a hot springs. Loved it. I hung out and talked to Pat Ed and Stacey for a long while. Not sure how things worked, but Stacey looked to be my age (50 something) and Ed and Pat were his parents. They were all sitting in the pool room doing their thing waiting for the day's business to walk in. I think I was the first one to come through the door.</p>
</div>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0Easley Hot Springs, ID 83340, USA43.780462 -114.5431141999999918.2584275 -155.8517082 69.3024965 -73.234520199999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-19342800896718612922018-12-09T16:28:00.000-08:002018-12-09T16:28:42.055-08:00Driving a Canyon Edge from Lowman to Banks, ID<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH8kzGxp9cwjbb_SwsZwfR1S36GhJbrb1DUtU4kgZMxx_XVLROAj__iDRbzD3g6-Rdt1ESBeclBSvavf_RWZfmgWrDJdpB_R92hkQOn_85gscBSjADafWP-qt14xpEiiHrSWf4LRXGWWU/s1600/Looking-Down-at-Payette.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH8kzGxp9cwjbb_SwsZwfR1S36GhJbrb1DUtU4kgZMxx_XVLROAj__iDRbzD3g6-Rdt1ESBeclBSvavf_RWZfmgWrDJdpB_R92hkQOn_85gscBSjADafWP-qt14xpEiiHrSWf4LRXGWWU/s320/Looking-Down-at-Payette.jpg" width="180" height="320" data-original-width="747" data-original-height="1328" /></a>I found this picture on my phone and it turned out to be the best one I took showing what a drop it is from the high edge of the canyon that the road is perched on, all the way down to the river that presumably carved out the canyon, which the more I think about it geologically is really an oddity. This canyon should be much wider instead of the slot canyon that it is.<br /> Regardless of the tectonic forces that made it, I find the Banks Lowman Road to be an amazing and accessible drive along a canyon edge unlike any other I have found in the US.</p></div>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0Banks Lowman Rd, Garden Valley, ID 83622, USA44.053644736397885 -115.8295444423828344.008010736397885 -115.91022544238282 44.099278736397885 -115.74886344238283tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-73423225497220774962018-11-24T08:34:00.000-08:002018-12-07T06:07:33.239-08:00Western States Road Trip, 2nd Ed. - Hot Springs, Unknown Mountain Passes, and Wide Open Spaces<p>Back in the day, we took our middle kid out to Utah State in Logan, Utah to start her college career. That was the excuse for my first research road trip in support of the River and Ranch series of books I am writing. Three years later, the youngest child decided on Univ. of Utah in Salt Lake City, so I had a chance to do another research road trip through the same magnificent spaces.<p>
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Initially, what I hoped for were big picture views of landscapes fading off into the far away distance. Unfortunately, smoke was my constant companion, so hardly any of those big vistas scrolled past my wheelhouse on this solo road trip across the back roads of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota.
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The gems in this trip were small things in small moments. Post-trip, after a few months of looking at the pictures, I've come to realize that these small bits are every bit as good as the big views that I initially wanted to find. Every single one of these unexpected little surprises brought as much joy to the trip as a big picture view could have.
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So here, in one longish post, are the bits and bites of going home the back way, starting in Salt Lake City, Utah and working clockwise through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota.
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<p>In reference to the title of this blog entry, here is a list of hot springs and a list of mountain passes in the order that I found and or drove over them:
<ul>
<li>Easley Hot Springs, on the way to Galena Summit; super nice place and great people,</li>
<li>Weir Creek is a little gem in the Lochsa Canyon. Little known, so one has to hunt for it a bit,</li>
<li>Warm Springs Creek (used to be Jerry Johnson's) newish name but springs s/b the same,</li>
<li>Lost Trail Hot Springs at the base of Lost Trail Pass on the MT side; also close to Chief Joseph Pass,</li>
<li>lodge in Jackson, MT., middle of nowhere. Remodeling lodge by new owners in September 18 when I visited. Pool looked great!</li>
<li>Kirkham - a roadside pullout, close to Lowman, ID; lots of springs leaking out of a hillside,</li>
<li>Thermopolis, Wyoming - entire town built around a very large hot springs and numerous smaller springs. Neat place,</li>
<li>Hot Springs, South Dakota - also looked like another town lost to times past that is also built around a hot springs,</li>
<li>Note that Riggins Hot Springs is on the map just upstream from the town of Riggins. Sadly, it is high end, private, by reservation only.</li>
<li>There is also <a target="blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolo_Hot_Springs,_Montana">Lolo Hot Springs</a>, which is near the famous Traveler's Rest, a Lewis and Clark landmark. I believe this hot springs is open to the public, but I went by it in the dark of the night and did not stop.</li>
</ul>
and
<ul>
<li>Galena Summit,</li>
<li>White Bird Hill - don't let the name fool you, it's a big one!</li>
<li>Lolo Pass - Lewis and Clark passed through back in the day,</li>
<li>Lost Trail Pass - also felt Lewis and Clark's footprints,</li>
<li>Chief Joseph Pass,</li>
<li>Grimes Pass,</li>
<li>Teton Pass - between Driggs and Jackson,</li>
<li><a target="blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togwotee_Pass">Togwotee Pass</a> - top of Ten Sleep canyon. Great drive!</li>
<li><a target="blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_River_Pass">Continental Divide / Powder River Pass</a> - this went on for 10+ miles before reaching the true pass.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Where does my memory go first?</h2>
<p><img style="float:left; margin-right:2px;" title="view from cliffside road looking hundreds of feet down at the South Fork of the Payette" border="2" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaHk-j92s9oGbjNlbUoT_pR-REDAcTxB3NtofhG9nsGq8deq_WihWldCUKDLiFwh4rIKfoFyxWZl2LBDIMac4TBfXKpzY6HDE2TBrRrPMnIWz7WDvdlm2Np5WcpIQXGj91KI3NU5geG7I/s320/Lowman-Banks-Road.jpg" width="212" /> The <strong>Banks Lowman Road</strong> (Idaho Route 17) above the South Fork of the Payette River is my Number One place. As a Salmon River whitewater guide about 30 years ago, I crossed this route a couple times while it was under construction. One of those times our loaded down, four door, four wheel drive, truck towing a huge (and overloaded) trailer met up with an even bigger, fully loaded logging truck in the middle of a one way stretch of Grimes Pass on the edge of a precipice. This is still one of my favorite memories. We all got out and watched while the (very nervous) driver backed the truck and trailer up and crammed it into a wide spot on the gravel cut bank. He kept his door open the whole time while doing so, in case the trailer went over the edge, dragging the truck down with it. I had not been back since that eventful summer day in 1989. The road is much improved now, but is showing lots of wear and tear and it still features little to no shoulder, nor does it have any guard rails. As the picture shows, the view over the edge is magnificent. On the Banks side of this valley there is a road way down below right along the river. I was way up high on a cut along the top of the valley, so it was kind of neat to peer over the edge at times being able to see the river and then later on being able to see this road and a few houses down in the valley. This road is really cool and well worth the drive.
</p>
<p>As an added bonus, you emerge (or start) at the downstream end of the South Fork near where it merges with the North Fork. The handful of houses that make up Banks is at this intersection. Banks is the home for one of my favorite fictional characters, Bob Lee Swagger. Some of you may know this Vietnam vet from the movie starring Mark Wahlberg, but that movie is based on a great book by Stephen Hunter, in which the MC is from Banks, Idaho.</p>
<div style="float:left;">
<p><img style="float:left; margin-right:2px;" border="2" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5t8vKKcpBL726ZSaPNlttKAuy6E7EWhQxYAa9wh3t8HZuqbfdoB6lFkSFJUfSTRPEWmr0ERdUc1gnnhTad9GO3XjiQgR-TYCWL-J9zzyi2pzYhs4hNtLyWfS_tgNOySBY69ngLnaD0Mc/s320/Lochsa-Canyon-River-and-Road.jpg" width="320" />Number Two is the entire length of <strong>Highway 12 going up the Lochsa River Canyon</strong> from Kooskia all the way to Lolo Pass. This remote and gorgeous stretch of empty would be number one on my list, except for the fact that I have been up and down this stretch a couple of times over the past 30+ years.</p>
</div>
<div style="float:left";>
<p><img style="float:left; margin-right:2px;" title="Thunder Basin Grasslands big empty" border="2" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPakX6ohrWrE84yp_xCKGeUfUJ9n9ETUXdkw-P-coWl-ejvviLTDv140QTV6uTHOamMGdWIUdYqCHgdtSG-OCEx42KKj-vbxwekkk2Zp0Cq66y0qOT4h59Jq5GcXr9OTST0-0b7qVAv3w/s320/Thunder-Basin-Empty.jpg" width="212" /> Number Three is <strong>Wyoming 116</strong> starting at Upton and going through the <strong>Thunder Basin Grassland</strong>.
</p>
</div>
<div style="float:left;">
<p>
<img style="float:left; margin-right:2px;" border="2" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeFatkVV-SJycAXhI4D4FC3qdv9neHMX6Z8OA69XIi5Kfgv0QqPx25R4JvkSDjHORwT3yA6B7Wy_SaV1ijbuuhxY8JzO1uZQ9xgSvSIEoeRD115CGOxlzrSRHuH7FvrTPsDwRE1PIiuhQ/s320/Ten-Sleep-Tunnels.jpg" width="320" />
Number Four is the spectacular drive and the set of tunnels <strong>Highway 20</strong> goes through heading north on the way up <strong>Ten Sleep Canyon and Pass</strong>.
</p>
</div>
<div style="float:left";>
<p>
<img style="float:left;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipiMbsep5MrxvKM5a7o1Wj2XSNdXN8RgE7cnaEHWyitVwJbZlE-5jo3Z4yRy51oGG5CP8FaGVapKcY3jxa1Ba9qEKYUdVAT6LzcCh-jhYT2CxjPkBt_mMJ3zpZ0Cdf4HYTkDf1-xgm0Vg/s320/Wind-Cave-National-Park.jpg" width="320" />Number Five is the southern part of the Black Hills heading towards <strong>Wind Cave National Park</strong> and Hot Springs, South Dakota.
<img border="2" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5O-pqruohYfA4MffHqfESWMbWrazDnKx4fAbgKw3g2wlE1xQzmK9a0o-P4tnD1NyxIj_WSWSi4j7yUJG1cHMKEU2G5qySWY52Aj6obrWjhPxTTb4SOCK3Xt_RHbStdDV7Tq7vO8Dndls/s320/Wind-Cave-buffalo.jpg" width="320" />
<img border="2" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhps7JSBWcWHGtm7UUA7ZAfJwPK8KH3DjATuB4DegKX-qY2yvLemeHFt9rT1wYkPacz58CdYy6U036uUnAyfeixxI7O1yzOCS2mFiqzy_2qEug5AzvIzPYC3D99yWlvLpYQob58TF5tVzQ/s320/Wind-Cave-prairie-dog.jpg" width="320" />
</p>
</div>
<p>
The hot springs I came across were the big, unexpected and unplanned for pieces of the trip. Easley, Lost Trail, Kirkham, Jackson MT. (not Jackson Hole, WY), Thermopolis, WY., and Hot Springs, South Dakota. All great spots in their own different ways.
</p>
<p>
Other than scenery, what was the surprise of the trip? How nice the Motel 6 was in Rexburg. Tom Bodette left the lights on for me.</p>
<p>
Best breakfast of the trip?<img style="float:left; margin-right:2px;" border="2" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgupXcgjAdzr6NpD6mcU5TYfe7QxoZy3OiwCxbTTLayoywQueOVOeeuCliy3qFALzbvUaGcCWgFRTi0dRVHAaZFBdIhOZiANCsvr4h-TXruKKvQ4LyciHYgkQuw0zqmNg5c-HqFJc7tneE/s320/Bighole-Bagels.jpg" width="320" /><strong> Bighole Bagel and Bistro Café in Driggs, ID.</strong>, just east of Rexburg and at the base of Teton Pass. Really good breakfast bagel loaded with all sorts of good stuff. Breakfast in my hand pretty much. Really good coffee made for the start of a great day. Definitely coming back through here around breakfast time someday. I hope.</p><p>From what I was told by others, Rexburg is a pretty uptight conservative Mormon stronghold, so not much pleasure to be had in Rexburg. My own eyes seemed to confirm that, I barely even saw a gas station there, much less a coffee shop, but Rexburg was a sleepover town in which I arrived lateish and left earlyish, so I'll save judgment for another trip.
</p>
<p>
<div><img style="float:left; margin-right:2px;" border="2" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV8OH0Tb_32stukq8GNwfu8V8x5f6GC7owJt0vXEEkwwWGNRX5Lb4_9GTG1ZFXCg5rz_-qBf68238htoE2hEE81b7WnQpLuq0Ue9xKI3OUSxYSJwZiXusJfzcdFjAcd1QmRsSQ0p2zWnQ/s320/Galena-Lodge-Bella-Huckleberry.jpg" width="320" />Huckleberries were high on my wish list. I found them in two places: the very interesting and remote Galena Lodge on the way to Stanley and Roadside Java at the edge of Meadows Valley. Bella came out from behind the bar and the mountain bike rental counter and scooped up an epic huckleberry ice cream cone. Thankfully, we were up high on the way to Galena Summit and it was cool and foggy, so I had plenty of time to eat the cone. Tasty. Galena Lodge looks like a really cool place too, by the way.</div>
<div><img style="float:left; margin-right:2px;" border="2" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrDEhe07l2L9X18XoOqfByETouv-Ui83VSrs4eyymWcKD89F4RrZGWADYviziLwsyI4aKlDNyB66q54bBQpj7MhydIcxz9aNr7-1S1U8DGFSrp3ZbayxThQa_MJKYlWrzsGvk5jMuO3c/s320/Stephany-Roadside-Java.jpg" width="299" />Stephany at Roadside Java made a great huckleberry shake for me. She and I and her husband (? maybe bf) stood around for a half hour talking about this and that. A great chat over coffee and a shake with strangers in the middle of Idaho. Loved it.</div>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Surprises along the way</strong>, you ask? I was surprised at how big Cascade Lake and Lake McCall were. I was surprised at how small McCall (pop. 2991) and Driggs (pop. 1660) were. I was absolutely SHOCKED at the price of real estate in Hailey, part of the loosely defined Sun Valley. By the way, there is no Sun Valley. There is a valley, a ski area, a couple of towns, the Big Wood River, and likely a few more geographic objects, but nothing named Sun Valley.
</p>
<p><div>
<strong>Best recycled memory of the trip?</strong><br /> <img style="float:left; margin-right:2px;" border="2" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSMRDIqwgoh5XSs89rmJrLvO-4MnmJcZVs_mtYuZZFTJOhJEvpDUtVxgQegN52zR50tLwNre4XHluTAguqSFI5BBmhtCjq-XoEQCwcjWuEr3MsXIpIRQWQw4MRVCZi2JpVb3g4O33CaDE/s320/Big-Empty-Lochsa-Sign.jpg" width="320" /> There's a sign at the bottom of the Lochsa Canyon (Highway 12) warning the driver that there are no ‘services’ for the next 88 miles. That sign was there when I drove by it as a river guide back in 1989. Glad to see somethings never change! <img style="float:left; margin-right:2px;" border="2" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM3I2CO5-voOuy4qO_HbXBreLfsXz5RZUbmnhRJRkXqb52QGEo0rIM1eVs3KxhTbrQq6wcTe05_HMadJL68xlB-jPcrT8_eIo9wsLm4Z3puY0aODBzVSC1KPxWA5t1syXJI4pUG05wozk/s320/Cougar-Canyon-Lowell.jpg" width="320" /> Further up the canyon was the empty Cougar Canyon Service Station, right in the middle of Lowell, population 24 (or maybe 23) as the sign attests.</div>
</p><p style="float:left;">
<strong>First place I would go back to, you ask?</strong><br /> Hot Springs, South Dakota and the nearby Wind Cave National Park.</p><p> The Black Hills might have offered the most distinct ‘look’ of the whole trip. Very cool and definitely something I want to see more of. Hot Springs, South Dakota is a tiny little town that (I read) was one of the favorite hangout places for Theodore Roosevelt, back in the day. The two block long downtown had a neat vibe and looked to be centered around the hot springs, the only one of the entire trip that I did not stop and at least look at, thus the desire to return and fix that mistake.
</p><p>
I decided that in order to fight the disappointment of the smoky skies, I would stop at every roadside distraction or surprise that I came across. There would be no rush to ‘get there’. In that spirit, the biggest unexpected cool thing was the small detour I took that ended up at the Rapid River Fish Hatchery. Super cool. I arrived at feeding time, just as the staff started driving around and spraying food pellets into the various pools full of millions of various sized salmon, all growing and biding their time until their release into the Rapid River and hopefully out into the Columbia and the salt water beyond.
</p><p>
Best animals of the trip? Critters were not a big part of this trip. I hardly even saw any roadkill. The first animals I saw were buffalo in the meadows going through Grand Teton Nat'l Park. A couple days later, Pronghorn antelope were alongside the road as I drove along quiet WY 116 through Thunder Basin Grasslands. A few hours later, I was on the road in Wind Cave National Park, south of Custer and just outside Hot Springs, South Dakota, and that is where I saw more buffalo and prairie dogs, my favorite little beasts on the whole trip.
</p><p>
First road trip dinner you ask? A meatball sub from Subway. All twelve inches, in the absence of the food sheriff. Tasty. I ate it standing up behind the van in the parking lot on the outskirts of [xx] I think. Not too memorable. Tasty and I was sick of sitting, so it was a good first road trip dinner. This was also when I gave up the hope of clear skies for this trip. The land of fruit and nuts and Canuckland combined to pump mass amounts of smoke into the atmosphere. If there is an upside to being in gray light the whole time, it was that I could not smell it at all and my eyes didn't water. It must have been way high in the sky by the time it drifted over Idaho.
</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-87987193557863418252018-11-02T08:23:00.001-07:002018-11-02T08:23:09.052-07:00Nancy Hatch duPree - grandmother to Afghanistan<p>One more research gold nugget, that continues making me love the simple act of pulling loose threads in my loosely defined areas of interest. As usual, I poke around in the dusty, unvisited halls of non-fiction, peopled with stories and truths lived by others ahead of me, in places I have never visited, seeing things I have not yet seen.</p>
<p>Their experiences, fully lived by them, become the story altering gold nuggets of fascinating places, people, and objects, that I love to find.</p><p>Nancy Hatch duPree is one of those gold nuggets.</p><p>She is from the generation prior, and as such had to content herself with the low ceiling that most women encountered. An early life ultimately landed her in Kabul, Afghanistan as the wife of a diplomat.</p><p>I think.</p> <p>She managed to loosen that shackle and fall in with an archaeologist. That match worked quite well and led to her blossoming as a writer, explorer and swashbuckling woman back in the day, in the society that Pakistan and Afghanistan had prior to the Soviet and Taliban blood stains.</p><p>Her writing and life experiences proved quite fascinating. Her words led me to the hoopoe, a bird of which I had never heard, and now is part of my book series. As is <a href="https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/remembering-nancy-hatch-dupree-1-nancy-in-her-own-words/">Nancy Hatch duPree</a>.</p><p>Look above and follow that link. It goes to a fabulous interview that Nancy H. duPree gave to the writer who interviewed her. The site it is on, Afghanistan-Analysts, is nearly as fascinating. Both are discoveries I stumbled upon, that have changed my plots for the better.</p><p> I hope.</p><p> Also that <a href="https://www.google.com/search?ei=zmfcW8P0OvPHjgTZ4bnADA&q=hoopoe&oq=hoopoe&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i67j0i131j0l8.4325.5602..6646...0.0..0.153.851.0j6......0....1..gws-wiz.......35i39j0i131i67j0i10.UUwxAzZsxu8">hoopoe</a> is a fascinating bird. Too cool to pass up.</p>
<p>Enjoy your research! I hope it leads to your own loose threads that become the pleasant foundations of your creation with the written word!</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-67525441749038358202018-10-07T09:42:00.001-07:002018-10-07T09:42:31.156-07:00Of Hot Springs and Canyons - Research Road Trip, 2nd Edition<p>Another road trip happened this summer, four seasons after the first epic dance with long distance driving. On the downside, this trip, like the first one, was marred by smoke from fires, mostly in Canada I'm told, but also from the epic ragers that were flaming in California.<div style="clear: both; float:left;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJdlM8I0UXHpLLlhIafyCQEKLiUqfqkrNyW39swPlEeDWR7uyxx30HdHjcLMs3hZxHWRUDp8xTKeUIRss84qFnRDmoXe67jOj3As09PPZk3nTeKUNMJmNyQaUhIueHHmFlIiWkinTNOQ/s320/Rattlesnake-Warning.jpg" width="320" height="314" data-original-width="1016" data-original-height="996" /></div> So that makes two trips in a row lessened by atmospheric smoke drifting in the wind, hundreds of miles from where it originated. ah well....such is life in dry western states late in the summer. oh - and rattlesnakes, too. First time I've seen a sign like this in any of the freeway rest stops I've ever stopped at. </p>
<p>Once again, the pleasure is in the details, as well as in the hot springs and canyons. I didn't plan it like I ended up doing, but the trip evolved into more of a road trip through Wyoming than anything else. Day One began with dropping my wife off at the Salt Lake City airport. I then missed a turn and started out driving west on I-80, along the Great Salt Lake. <b>Very cool.</b> Literally. I was shocked at how cool the temps were. Also there was water everywhere, even as I drove through the whitest, brightest desert light I've ever seen. No trees either. I took the first exit I came to (Kemmerer I think), which was highlighted by a giant smokestack off in the distance. The picture I took was overexposed and did not turn out. Did I mention how bright and white the light was?</p>
<p>By the way, this was a trip to drop off our youngest kid at the University of Utah, which turned out to be an unexpectedly cool place. I like Salt Lake City. Turns out it is actually a bit smaller than Madison. In my mind, SLC was a metro area more akin to Chicago than Madison, but I was wrong. It's a smallish feeling city. We stayed at an AirBnB in the Sugar House neighborhood. Lots of oldish one story brick bungalows. Nice. Unexpected. In retrospect, I guess I was expecting more of a stark severe Mormon influenced desert town. What I found was a hip neighborhood, full of coffee shops, people pedaling to work, and the aforementioned bunch of brick bungalows. Reality was MUCH better than anticipated. SLC is well worth a visit. btw, I think the UU campus is gorgeous, with much less Mormon influence than I was anticipating. Campus is built on a hillside, maybe even a mountainside. Fairly rugged, not much flat space at all. Like SLC, I found UU reality much better than I imagined.</p>
<p>And then there's Logan. The first trip, four years ago, delivered our middle kid to Utah State University in Logan. Really like this town and the campus, which is at the mouth of a canyon. It looks to me like the school is built on top of the outwash field that has come flooding out of the canyon over the years. I think. Bottom line is that the school is perched a couple hundred feet above the rest of this small city. Great view. Great campus. Great program if you are looking for biological engineering. We all really like Logan.</p>
<p><div style="clear: both; float:left;"><img border="2" title="Top of Snowbird" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnZEIje76kqaIgeG0LTYuMyeYVqbNH57AfdQl28o8CKB7bBSWNtTusli_lAwZLOIVRyRz9g4lE0scvQNMS4XBaxC-_LgvH86RYmtQXEq5JNOY5LCuRLb7rDhee68Y1teGflMKnSMI0TU/s320/Top-of-Snowbird.jpg" width="320" height="213" data-original-width="1501" data-original-height="997" /><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img title="midway down the Cirque Trail" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaZ2Kx9MS-owRT1BFlfdC1imBXAYZFDU1QRDuXo5qLhkwgRJ1QKdK014Wrjaa1yGKtWRwbOWeG7gVOEMuuPj7nrrm-T3GKkT4l0Qg9is0NfVe9n7T8TeLgNfPWhu50uoWnf9k-HScmlfM/s320/Down-the-Cirque-Trail.jpg" width="213" height="320" data-original-width="997" data-original-height="1501" /></div></div>After a hike down from the top of Snowbird, a roughish ride to a half empty Porcupine Reservoir, with both kids dropped off and after dropping my wife off at the airport, it was ‘me’ time, which meant six days of roaming back roads, empty spaces, and small flyover towns. Love it. On the sixth day I had to be in New Hampton, Iowa for a project. So this trip really worked out well. New Hampton is right on the way back to Madison. In fact, Highway 18 through Iowa, is close to New Hampton and runs right into Madison. Small world.</p>
<p>Like the first edition of this road trip, the point of the trip is three fold. First, I like road trips through flyover country. I only stay in small motels in small towns. I only eat at ma and pa diners in the same small towns, and I drive the small roads, the non-freeways, the kind with two way traffic and crossroads. Second, I always enjoy returning to places where good things happened at earlier points in my life. Sometimes nothing has changed (Hwy. 12 thru Lochsa Canyon), sometimes it has gone all wrong (neon, casinos, and ugliness of Missoula). The fourth I might add is the driving time to listen to entire CDs that I never have enough time to listen to. Fifth, I stop wherever I see something cool, which never happens on a freeway with wife and kids.</p><p>This trip was every bit as good as the prior edition, but for entirely different reasons. I stopped at hot springs and I went on a different route. All good. Can't wait for the third edition!</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-61557489234472265362016-10-25T13:36:00.002-07:002016-10-25T13:38:07.646-07:00A small spot in a quiet valley for a giant historic figure<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<p><a style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMfbCoei5e7MXne2fhKYfasq4JNY9QkZf6MWk4qK_ZAcnEXkwFujsgfU5JWSlP61BBB2ZvxThxcD6GMBb9giQ85WnphLJJQC15rmVBCR3yimTMW8ycep2DEbAcp6SINCPxjVuignBva90/s320/Sacajawea-Monument-1.jpg" width="320" height="213" />
</a> I stood at this spot for quite awhile and imagined all that could have transpired here back in the day. Imagine a 14 year old girl, kidnapped and horsebacked across a 1000+ miles of wilderness and forced to start a new life. She is then sold to an old nasty frenchman, with whom she has the 'life issue' (to be charitable to old nasty frenchman) of having a young child. Lewis and Clark show up out of the blue looking for a guide who can get them to pretty much the spot she was taken from. It all works out and years later Sacajawea shows up back at this very place and is reunited with her tribe and her family. All this happening after guiding a group of men across unknown terrain for that same 1000+ mile journey with a new baby on her back.</p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><p><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9cFm3WCwW6x4St7Mqvoo5Qh9q_9yzXMrk_ekjf9LzaJetPE5ZWLSMyvmvEItyp8JsM3OP_8s4L7G_uCsuP_eeaWhMhMkKBLaHcBzooGd23lcT97fobyFH2CUL6PYIIiWICHkweeCZEHw/s320/Sacajawea-Monument-2.jpg" width="273" height="320" /></a>Today the Lemhi valley is a quiet spot. Forgotten about in back of beyond Idaho, sitting at the base of the climb to Lemhi Pass. It is pretty even in the heat of a semi-arid summer. Cows are all over the place. So are chukars. Huge scree slopes are all around as you start the climb up through the Agency Creek drainage. It's easy to imagine the presence of those many historic figures passing by, maybe even on the very piece of earth on which you are standing. As for Sacajawea history does not know what happened to her. No one knows where she is buried. No one is sure when she was even born. At least we know where this young woman, responsible for who knows how much of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's success, was born. A granite monument with words etched in stone makes note of this place. Something for the ages.</p></div>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-5328904128538259612016-03-31T14:00:00.000-07:002016-03-31T14:01:49.828-07:00Rivers That Flow North<div><p>It's always a trivia question that no one ever gets. 'The Nile' is one rare answer. The question is 'Name a river that flows north?'.
Here are some more answers. River and Ranch is set in an area of the country that happens to feature not one, not two, but three river that rise in the south and FLOW to the north. Without further ado, here are three answers to that difficult trivia question.<br /><br />
1) The Lemhi river flows north. It rises near Gilmore Summit (elev. 7,150 ft amsl +/-) and flow generally north where it joins up with the Salmon River in the middle of Salmon, Idaho.<br />
2) The Bitterroot river flows north. It rises in the small waters flowing out of the mountains in around and behind Lost Trail Pass. Trivially speaking everything on the Idaho side of that pass flows south and goes to the North Fork of the Salmon. But the snow that melts on the Montana side flows downhill to the NORTH and ultimately adds a load to the Bitterroot, which ultimately enters the Clark Fork (of the Columbia river - more trivia) in the valley just outside of Missoula, Montana.<br />
Finally, the Big Mama of rivers that flow north - the Middle Fork of the Salmon.
<br />
3) Way down in central Idaho but quite high up there is Bear Valley creek, just outside of Stanley. It's a little thing flowing through meadows full of flowers. Once the snow melts. But while the snow is melting it is a big thing that combines with Marsh Creek and creates the Middle Fork. 100+ miles of north flowing beauty.<br />
</p>
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</div>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-25959407301545600802016-02-24T07:26:00.000-08:002016-02-24T07:29:42.703-08:00Road Trip turns up old TV reminder<div><p><img style="float:left; width:40%; border-right:5px; border-bottom:5px;" alt="Idaho Highway 28 Petticoat Junction" title="are you old enough to remember this TV show?" src="http://www.riverandranch.com/images/Petticoat-Junction.jpg" />Not quite what I was expecting to see in the middle of nowhere. So of course I stopped turned around and went back to look some more. Between kids, wife and my parents I've fallen into the trap of "just getting there". Once there we'd be stuck staring at hotel room walls or worse, boredom would set in. This trip I promised myself to remember the journey and NOT the destination. So I stopped all the time, drove slowly and looked at the small things. First off, I was amazed at how empty this stretch of road was. Once Idaho Falls was in the rear view mirror, I don't remember passing or being passed by any cars for hours and a good 150 miles. Midweek, midday, school in session. Quiet and empty. Flyover country.</p><p>Seeing this water tank and windmill was a great pullover. I wonder what ever happened to the old show? Someone must have the tapes. I wonder why reruns for this haven't happened. Beverly Hillbillies was the same time frame. I think.</p><p>At any rate, this is one more thing to pop into the book and a fun reminder of TV culture from way back in the day.</p></div>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0Leadore, ID 83464, USA44.6802005 -113.35809144.66891 -113.378261 44.691491 -113.33792100000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-13565519549656228512016-01-25T09:45:00.000-08:002016-01-25T09:49:22.658-08:00Book Research Surprise<p>The main point of this trip was to get back to one of my favorite places on the planet. Just for me. A reunion with place. Maybe some memories too. The second big reason was 'research' for River and Ranch. It did not disappointment. One of the big takeaways was the presence of Lewis and Clark. Lemhi Pass, Tendoy, North Fork, and the road up Agency Creek bore reminders that L & C had passed by way back in 1804-ish.
<img style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" border="0" src="http://www.riverandranch.com/images/Salmon-Idaho-Lewis-Clark-Sign.jpg" />Driving that road was an especially powerful reminder of what the Corps of Discovery accomplished. Agency Creek is possibly the steepest road I've ever driven up, especially the last pitch that tops out on the pass. It winds around for about thirteen miles, once you leave Tendoy. Doing this route while following a guide who had never 'quite' been there, with the beginning out of sight below you and the end unknown somewhere above you, like L&C did is a whole additional layer of difficulty.
<img style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" border="0" src="http://www.riverandranch.com/images/Salmon-Idaho-Lewis-Clark-First-Camp.jpg" />This is old land. It's been lived in for awhile now. Waves of people have washed over it. Seeing Lewis and Clark all over the place and experiencing the terrain they covered by foot without a road, while I did it in the comfort of car and trails made for compelling research and stands as a testimony to the strength and fitness that this group had hundreds of years ago, in conditions much more difficult than what we have now.
</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0Lemhi Pass, Idaho 83468, USA44.9740931 -113.445048319.452058599999997 -154.7536423 70.4961276 -72.1364543tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-37968019509994445752016-01-19T18:27:00.001-08:002016-01-19T18:27:24.919-08:00Leadore Idaho<div><span style="text-align:center;"><img border="0" src="http://www.riverandranch.com/images/Leadore-Idaho-First-View.jpg"></span>
<p style="text-align:left;">Leaving Logan, Utah on the first day of my 'research trip' as I called it, I was quickly reminded of just how much more wide open, desolate, grayish space there is 'out west'. Leadore was the only big town outside of Salmon, once I left the Idaho Falls area. As you can see, it looks kind of like a ghost town. I drove some of the back streets and saw zero people outside. The entire town looked abandoned. It's not, at least according to what I read. In fact there's even a high school in this town, small as it is. Two hotels, four rooms each. One hotel owner is a wood carver of some repute, again according to what I read.</p><p>I billed this as a research trip for River and Ranch. Leadore was one of the 'must see' stops. Didn't know quite what to expect, but seeing zero people outside everywhere I went was a surprise. Maybe they only come out at night.....</p></div>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-59718252916618499112016-01-13T06:56:00.000-08:002016-01-13T06:56:04.627-08:00Road Tripping in a Special Slice of Big Empty<div><img style="float:left; padding-right:0.75%; padding-bottom:0.75%;" src="http://www.riverandranch.com/images/Heading-to-Salmon.jpg" />This is the 'lead in' to Salmon. My return started with a drive from Idaho Falls. Heading northwest, half is uphill to the crest at Gilmore Summit and then it's coasting all the way down the Lemhi river valley into Salmon. By the way, the Lemhi river is one of the few that flow north, the Middle Fork of the Salmon is another.<br /> Gilmore Summit is over 7,000 feet, why it's not a 'pass' I don't know, but if you're into big wide open spaces, it ranks well up there. I think the road image up top sums it up pretty well. I drove it midday, midweek, in late August - admittedly a quiet time, but still, once I left Idaho Falls and hit Hwy. 28, I think three cars passed me going the other way in over 100 miles. That's one of my indicators for being in big empty. I even bought a case of bottled water along with the last tank of gas in Terreton, the last town before things empty out. Just in case.<br />
Like most other road trips through remote places, there's history along the way, the land for the most part, has already been lived in once or twice. Also like almost all other empty space, by definition, there are few, if any, people living in these places. Hwy. 28 followed this rule pretty well too. <img style="float:left; padding-right:0.75%; padding-bottom:0.75%;" src="http://www.riverandranch.com/images/Highway-28-memory.jpg" />There were a few gravel roads that could have led to ranches I suppose, but I did not see any occupied houses, only shells of houses. Long empty, appealing in the sense of wondering who lived there and why would they choose such a desolate spot. These houses always seem to have the window casings removed, assuming they ever had windows with frames. Maybe that's another requirement for 'big empty', remaining houses must be scavenged for reuse elsewhere.<br />
Anyway, I made it to Salmon, with Highway 28 turning out to be a wonderful prelude to small town places in the heart of flyover country. The reality of this place and space fits well with the feel I want the description of this road to have in River and Ranch.
</div>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-6918632253824888712016-01-11T09:10:00.002-08:002016-01-11T09:25:58.084-08:00Viola Anglin and the Tendoy General Store<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://www.riverandranch.com/images/Viola-Amblin-Tendoy-General-Store.jpg" /></div>
<p>
It makes for quite a breadcrumb trail. First go to Idaho. Then go to Salmon. From Salmon go south-east out of town on Highway 28. You're now in the Lemhi River valley and you're going upstream. The country empties out real fast. You're heading towards the Gilmore Summit, elevation 7,186 feet. Be careful. Don't blink, or you'll miss Tendoy, it comes up fast as you zoom along old Highway 28. Tendoy's not really a town anymore. It's a wide spot. One of the neatest wide spots I've ever encountered, make that 'lucky enough to encounter'. There may not be any more spots like this left in the country.<br />
Try and time your drive such that you arrive in Tendoy on a weekday during morning business hours. If you do that and you are lucky, having lived a good life, you'll find the Tendoy General Store to be open for business with Viola in charge of the counter. That's me and Viola in the picture at the top. Summer 2015. She was pushing 96 and that was summer of 2015. Still running a classic general store in Tendoy, Idaho. Viola is a rare piece of history. She is one of the few remaining people from this bygone era, much like WWII vets. Thankfully there are bits and pieces of Viola's story recorded for posterity, including this audio gem with <a target="_blank" href="http://mtpr.org/post/tendoy-store">Viola talking to Montana Public Radio about her life in Tendoy</a>. Thank you for crossing the border MPR and spending time with this walking talking Idaho history book!<br />
Discovering Viola Anglin remains my favorite piece, by far, of research for River and Ranch. This person, this bit of truth and reality, is every bit as interesting as anything I conjured up in the writing of River and Ranch. I feel fortunate to have met her.<br />
<a target="_blank" title="circa 1995" href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2026&dat=19950512&id=rIokAAAAIBAJ&sjid=g9AFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4131,1411724&hl=en">Moscow-Pullman article on Viola and the Tendoy Store</a>
</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-47732274056140869652015-08-17T09:12:00.002-07:002015-08-17T09:12:50.414-07:00Fire Season in IdahoSome years it's worse than others. But every year there's always something burning up. This year is looking to be a big year just about everywhere. While I do not remember too many burns that made it all the way down the canyon to river level, I do remember looking up and seeing burned over patches on both the Salmon and the Middle Fork. Biggest memory of all though is watching a huge chunk of burned tree, like a Ponderosa pine, tumbling down the canyon. We could hear it long before we could see it. The last pitch ending in the river, we finally saw it and realized what it was. This big old chunk of tree landed with one end in the water right across from us on the other side of the river. The skid down the canyon also brought along a hail of stones and debris, some of which made it across the river with enough velocity to put three holes in the raft in front of us. The image of the tree tumbling down the canyon is one that has stuck with me for a long time.....<br />
<a href="http://www.localnews8.com/news/Smoke-fills-skies-across-eastern-Idaho/34736264">Local Fire report</a>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-66341844894925181622015-04-30T08:23:00.000-07:002015-04-30T08:23:16.826-07:00Z is for Zoo<p>I know. I know, What a let down. Final day of the challenge and all I can do is come up with probably the plainest and most expected of all the "Z" words. There's zabra, which actually comes close to fitting my theme. There's zaffre, which also comes close to the theme. There's even a zarf, which I could have worked in.</p>
<p>For "Z" though, zoo fits best. The Vilas Zoo is one of the wonders of Madison. It's in the neighborhood where one of my River and Ranch and New Grass Growing MCs grew up. It's worthy of use in fictional world building, and it's also worthy of mention in reality.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Vilas_Zoo" target="_blank">Henry Vilas Zoo</a> sits on 50 acres of land donated by William and Ann Vilas in 1904. They specified that the 50 acres be used "for the uses and purposes of a public park and pleasure ground". The park was named in honor of the Vilas's son, Henry, who died at a young age from complications related to diabetes. The family stipulated that the park always be admission-free. It seems to me this is a charitable and magnificent way to honor the loss of their young son. He must have liked animals and running around outside, as most little kids do.</p>
<p>This ends April 2015. I'm sure May will bring plenty of surprises! Maybe even a few pleasures and likely even a few necessities.</p>
JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-65273148659613855392015-04-29T09:13:00.000-07:002015-04-29T09:24:40.648-07:00Y is for Yankee Fork of the Salmon River<p>
<a href="http://www.simplot.com/sustainability/story_detail/restoring_an_idaho_gem_the_yankee_fork_of_the_salmon_river" target="_blank">The Yankee Fork</a> of the Salmon River meant I was getting close. Over the years of my life in Idaho as a guide on the Salmon, I remember driving by the Yankee Fork and never stopping. I remember feeling anxious to get to the guide shack in Salmon, so I always blew by the Yankee Fork. I remember an old broken remnant of a dam that the water was always piling up on and that's about it. Below is a great shot of the old Sunbeam Dam, courtesy of <a href="http://blog.ospreypacks.com/tag/idaho/" target="_blank">Osprey Packs</a><br />.
<div style="width:480px;"><img style="width:100%;" src="http://blog.ospreypacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/DSC_0049-1024x680.jpg" /><br />
The dam was just upstream from the Yankee Fork. It was built to provide water for the mining operations on the Yankee Fork. The <a href="http://www.legendsofamerica.com/id-bonanzacuster.html" target="_blank">early history of area</a> reads much like any other prospecting-based exploration of an unknown area. Eventually gold was discovered and mining began in earnest. That mining, especially in the WWII era, is a fascinating look at what humanity can do when it puts its mind to it. In 1939, the New York-based Silas Mason company was basically looking for gold. As fate would have it, they decided on a 5.5 mile stretch of the Yankee Fork as the site for their mining efforts. They then commissioned <a href="http://yankeeforkdredge.com/" target="_blank">Bucyrus Erie to build a dredge</a> <i>in situ</i> on the Yankee Fork, which when complete would provide the main means of mining that stretch of the Yankee Fork. Have a look at that dredge and how small everything else is around it. Tragically stupendous. Ultimately Simplot (see the first link top of the page) got left holding the bag. I'm unsure of their liability or how they came to assume it.</div>
</p>
<p>Wow. People can do the strangest things.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-65605293822214116842015-04-28T08:19:00.005-07:002015-04-28T08:19:54.557-07:00X is for Xenotime<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenotime" target="_blank">Xenotime</a> is a rare earth phosphate mineral. According to Wikipedia, the rare earths dysprosium, erbium, terbium and ytterbium as well as metal elements such as thorium and uranium (all replacing yttrium) are the expressive secondary components of xenotime.</p>
<p>Much of Cale and Lane's Special Forces careers have been involved with China and preventing China from overrunning and destroying rare earth resources outside of China. Part of the plot in River and Ranch is centered on a south China "pirate" and his grandfather. They have built up a lucrative empire based on illegal mining of rare earth bearing ionic clays found throughout Guangdong province. As their empire has grown, they have become more protective of it. They send groups of saboteurs out to destroy newly discovered economic deposits of rare earth minerals in order to maintain their near monopoly on the "heavy" rare earth minerals.</p>
<p>Xenotime is one of those minerals in which the rare earths: dysprosium, erbium, terbium and ytterbium can reside.</p>
<p>What makes this interesting and hopefully fiction-worthy is the real life aspect of this. The entire rare earth topic is factual. China truly does have a huge problem with the illegal strip mining of ionic clays in Guangdong Province. The Chinese government has even gone so far as to create an industry group GRAD, intended to unite and control heavy rare earth oxide production in Guangdong Province. At least part of the intent of this industry group is to rein in the out-of-control and illegal strip mining of the rare earth bearing clays found throughout south China.</p>
<p>Zho Ming and his grandfather have hijacked GRAD and run it as a cover for their ongoing illegal efforts mining and selling heavy rare earth oxides to desperate and unscrupulous industrial clients. While Zho is fictional (as far as I know), the illegal strip mining and reselling of heavy REE oxides to western industrial clients is literally ripped from the headlines.</p>
<p>The real crime in all of this is the pollution that is being generated from the mining and processing of these ionic clays bearing the heavy rare earths that are so lucrative and in such high demand. China is rapidly creating its own cesspool of unlivable places, where no living thing can survive. No clean water, soil so polluted nothing grows and more. Much like the USA did in its infancy unfortunately. Or like the current mountain top strip mining for coal in West Virginia. Who are we to throw the first stone after all? Many of the miners doing the actual work in Guangdong Province are doing nothing more than trying to support their family. A truly interesting problem in many tragic ways, both for the earth and for humanity.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-27260565882454378792015-04-27T08:19:00.002-07:002015-04-27T08:19:35.639-07:00W is for Whiplash on the Main Salmon<p>Mile 89.9. A wall, strong eddy lines, a tough entry, and no clear route through it. At the right level Whiplash has everything needed to be the toughest chunk of whitewater on the Main Salmon. In my years guiding on the Main, I never saw Whiplash come out and gobble boats. Kind of glad about that. There's plenty of stories about what that drop can do.</p>
<p>For Cale, one of the main characters in River and Ranch, Whiplash is where things get started. For him, the river is high enough to bring Whiplash out (generally >6.0 feet on the Corn Creek ramp) and it gobbles him up. Raft and passengers are spared. Not him though. His time in the water at Whiplash changes his life, and that is what River and Ranch is all about. Except for all the other "stuff".</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-71894202696538904402015-04-25T17:01:00.001-07:002015-04-25T17:01:41.045-07:00V is for Veil Falls<p>Dimly remembered, but a check of Google tells me it is still there. A check of the Middle Fork guide which I have managed to hang on to all these years informs me it is mile 80.7. I remember the iron stains (I think it's Iron anyway) on the walls of the hollowed out space beneath the falls. The Veil Falls I remember was wide and whipsy, almost like the wind was blowing it as it fell.</p>
<p>While the Middle Fork is in the midst of large wilderness areas with little accessibility, the country is not pristine. It's been lived in for a long time. First by Sheep Eaters and later by gold miners, homesteaders, fortune seekers, settlers and hermits. Earl Parrot comes to mind.</p>
<p>Veil Falls is in the same stretch as Big Creek, Waterfall Creek, and Elk Bar more happily remembered places on the Middle Fork, and all worked in to the stories running through the pages of River and Ranch and New Grass Growing.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-77386110110060280582015-04-24T10:03:00.000-07:002015-04-24T10:03:23.426-07:00U is for Ursula aka Sula<p><a href="http://www.visitmt.com/places-to-go/cities-and-towns/sula.html" target="_blank">Sula</a> is a tiny little town up at the high (southern) end of the Bitterroot Valley. It is reputed to be the spot where the first white child was born in the area, a girl named Ursula Thompson, sometime around <a href="http://www.losttrailhotsprings.com/d_info.html" target="_blank">1887</a>. Back in the day when she was born it was known as Ross' Hole and is famous for being the spot where Lewis and Clark first met and talked with the Flatheads.
</p>
<p>Today Sula is mostly a wide spot in the road, maybe a population of 10. I don't know if it ever was much more than that. Regardless of size it has a cool legend for its name though.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-60972107037832985472015-04-23T08:30:00.000-07:002015-04-23T08:30:03.420-07:00T is for Tendoy<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendoy,_Idaho" target="_blank">Tendoy</a> is a tiny little town 12 miles past the middle of nowhere on Highway 28. It is the closest collection of buildings to Lemhi Pass, which is where Lewis and Clark first crossed the Continental Divide, no doubt peering down from the Montana side and seeing only more mountains on the Idaho side.</p>
<p><a href="http://mtpr.org/post/tendoy-store" target="_blank">The Tendoy Store</a> might well be the biggest draw in Tendoy. Viola Barrett Anglin is the longtime proprietor. 63 years in fact. Discovering the podcast linked to above from Montana Public Radio proved too compelling to avoid. Viola and the Tendoy General Store are real and they also exist in the world of River and Ranch.</p>
<p>This is a remote part of the world and getting emptier. The US Post Office is shutting down some of the <a href="http://colossus-of-roads.blogspot.com/2011/12/on-route-28-idaho.html" target="_blank">small town post offices</a>, which are at the core, in general stores, of why these wide spots in the road exist.</p>
<p>To my regret, back in the day when I was living out there I never stopped in at the Tendoy General Store. I don't even remember it. I hope to fix that this summer when I am back there for the first time in 25+ years. I hope Viola is still there. I hope the store is still there. I even hope the Post Office is still there.</p>
<p>Good stuff. A fertile base for fiction and imminently worth paying attention to in reality.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-47234029973066916312015-04-22T08:39:00.000-07:002015-04-22T08:39:01.348-07:00S is for Sharkey Hot Springs<p><a href="http://www.hotwaterslaughter.com/hotspring/sharkey-tendoy-hot-spring" target="_blank">Sharkey Hot Springs</a> is another one of those many places I never knew about or even heard of when I was living in Salmon. It's on my list of places to check out when I go back to the area this summer (after 20+ years away). I can only imagine what this was like back in the day when Sacajawea or Lewis and Clark were here. No concrete lined soaking pools, jsut hot water oozing out of the ground and flowing away.<br />
Next time you are in the middle of flyover country, stop in and check it out! <a href="http://salmonidaholiving.com/play/area-attractions/sharkey-hot-springs-idaho/" target="_blank">Sharkey Hot Springs</a></p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640265037222665004.post-2416498528146574952015-04-21T07:53:00.001-07:002015-04-21T07:53:33.447-07:00R is for rare earth minerals<p>Finally. Today we arrive at one of the most relevant letters in the alphabet when it comes to the plot of River and Ranch. Of course "River" fits the letter and so does "Ranch", but the Salmon and sidebar-T both are covered in many other places. "R" evens fits "rafting", which is another big part of this series.</p>
<p>However, I think those pale next to today's intended phrase for "R" - rare earth minerals, at least in terms of being an unexpected core piece of this fiction AND of the reality for this part of the American West. For me, the actual real-life presence of rare earth minerals on Lemhi Pass is one of the big surprises in fiction I have ever come across. This combination of reality and fiction to match it, has never happened to me before.</p>
<p>Rare earth oxides, the processed results of rare earth minerals, are at the foundation of numerous objects in the military world, but they also provide crucial parts in the civilian world. In both cases, the most common objects are magnets, smaller, lighter and stronger magnets that allow for continued miniaturization of all manner of products from hard drives to wind turbine rotors.</p>
<p>In reality, this is a very interesting time in high tech R&D and the closely related and crucially necessary process of discovering material sources. The downsides are two in number - the presence of thorium and the absence of domestic processing. How the slowly revitalizing domestic mining industry handles these issues remains to be seen.</p>
<p>All in all the Last Chance vein, found high up on Lemhi Pass, for me, is one of the most fascinating stories I have ever come across in the category of "high tech".</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com1