My Trails

Where’s spring?

No charge from my solar panels!

One day before my time expired at Blacksmith Canyon, we were hit with a snowstorm. It only dropped two inches but it was enough that it would have made packing everything a mess. I decided to push departure for a couple days to let things melt and dry out.

Thursday morning dawned bright and clear but very frigid. I didn’t get packed until well into the morning because I was too much of a sissy to brave the cold. Then it was off to town to dump, fill with water, find a place to fill both propane bottles, stock up on groceries, do laundry, and eat at Taco Bell. By then it was well into the afternoon so I rented a movie from Red Box (LaLa Land) and parked at the Logan Walmart for the night.

Next morning bright and early I got on Interstate 15 and headed north. This was the longest day Minnie and I have ever driven together. We travelled 367 miles. Minnie didn’t seem to mind the trip today near as much as she did some in the last few weeks. The roads were wide and smooth, there were no bad hills to pull, the traffic was light, and there was little wind to speak of. I just wanted to get over the Rockies and try things on the east side.

Near Continental Divide in Montana.

We hit the Idaho border early in the morning and crossed into Montana just after noon. Even though we went over the Continental Divide twice the elevation was only about 7000′. The interstate follows the old trail that cowboys drove cattle from Montana to Utah back in the 1800’s. The road is mostly gentle grades and follows a wide green valley for most of the way. A sign at a rest area told that it was made by tectonic plates and a fault line and some other volcanic action too complicated for me to comprehend. You have to expect lots of earth action when you get this close to Yellowstone.

I’m only about 5 miles east of Butte, Montana at a recreation area. There is still some snow here but should be gone in the next few days. I’m not sure how long I’ll be here – no more than a couple days, probably. Minnie did good but I need a rest.

No swimming!

The temperature hit 80 degrees here in Northern Utah today. With all the snow still high up in the mountains, this warm weather has turned the snow into raging rivers below. The stream beside Minnie has become a class 3 rapids, creating waves of water tossed by the boulders, and running so fast and furious that it is muddy! It looks like a perfect place for an adventure kayaker.

Oops!

This morning Minnie told me she felt like something was missing. When I walked around back I saw immediately what I had done. I remembered putting the gas cap up on the pump at the Maverick station when I filled up Wednesday, and also remembered not putting it back on. The station is only 7 miles away, so Honda took me back there quick as a wink. The manager told me he saw it there on the pump this morning, but when I went to look, it was gone.

The town of Logan is only 10 miles away, and they have everything there. I found a new cap at Walmart that only set me back $12. Now I just have to devise a way to remember to put the cap back on after filling with gas. Every since I broke the little plastic cord that lets the cap dangle while you fill, I have set it up on the pump. I’ve done it dozens of times but my luck ran out. I’m thinking I will put my keys on the cap while I fill or place the cap on my driver’s seat before I pump. What are some other ways I can remember?

The only drawback I have found to this place so far is that the neighbors across the road love to shoot guns. Usually camping places are off limits to shooting but maybe Utah is different. The steep walls in this canyon make the gunshots echo like the bullets are flying over my head. Maybe after the weekend they will run out of ammo and go back to work.

I road several miles up the canyon road this afternoon. It is a good thing I found this spot because it was 7 miles untill I came to more dispersed camping. Even though this is national forest, all the land for a long way was privately owned. When you get to more camping the road turns to rough dirt and there is no cell service. It would be OK for a couple days but not someplace to stay for an extended time.

This warm weather has me thinking that I can travel north again, but a look at the forecast tells me to hold still for a while.

Grass, trees, and a river!

Driving up into a picturesque valley of the Bear River Range in the Wasatch – Cache NF, I found this pretty little campsite. I’m still in Utah but getting close to the border of Idaho. This camp looks like a wonderful place to stay for a few days. I have been consistently moving north and looking for someplace warm to let the approach of summer catch up with me. For some reason this idea has not worked out well. I think I may be doing it backwards!

Last week, I fought cold temperatures day and night while I bravely boondocked a snowbank surrounded parking lot in the Uinta NF near Strawberry Reservoir. Snow covered many of the hills and meadows in the area and most of the side roads were not even plowed. Each night the temperature would dip into the 20’s. I never unloaded Honda and spent a lot of time burning propane inside Minnie. I didn’t feel like the only crazy person because another Class C was parked beside me all the time I was there.

This is the road where I stayed last time.

Parking lot

Strawberry Reservoir is over 7200′, and even in this first week of May, winter is still very much in command of this high-altitude lake. I walked down to the visitors center one day and discovered it still closed for the season. There was a boardwalk close by to the center with signs telling about the foul in the marshes. Other than a few walks I spent time reading, watching TV, video games, Netflix, and renting a couple movies on Amazon. One night I rented the movie “Lion”. It was good.

Looking northeast.

My new camp is along the Blacksmith Canyon Fork River. I’m only 7 miles from the town of Wellsville where I found a free dump and water at the the Maverick service station. Three miles before I entered the canyon I passed by a large grocery store and McDonalds. I am tucked in out of the wind, and the elevation of 4900′ should make the nights about 20° warmer than Strawberry Lake. I should have everything I need for a few days. I might even unload Honda and go exploring tomorrow.

Still cold up top!

The last time I visited Great Basin NP, I found a nice, free camping spot about 5 miles from the park. The wind for the past few days has been blowing too strong to make travel pleasant, so I decided to hold up at my previous discovery until the weather returned to more normal. The road I’m camped on is called Strawberry Creek and I have good and bad things to say about camping here.

I’m only a couple miles from Route 50, but it is far enough in behind some hills that I have no cell signal. There is a nice little creek beside my site, but a fire last fall has left the trees and meadows blackened to charcoal. I’m at high enough altitude that the temperature hardly gets out of the 50s during the day and nights are well below freezing. Last night I listened to rain and wind for several hours. This morning dawned clear and bright, but still windy.

Above me is Mount Wheeler. Last year I road Honda all the way to the top at over 10,000 feet. There is a campground near the top but I doubt if anyone is up there now. Looking up at all the mountains around me confirms they are all buried under deep snow. I won’t be making any side trips on Honda this time. In fact, I’m not even going to unload him.

I’m hoping that in a few more days I can continue to drift north. I have no objections to staying at one place for a few days but I would like warmer temperatures and cell signal. I’m still not sure whether I will go up through Nevada or scoot over into Utah and travel Interstate 15 north. By the time I post this maybe I will have made up my mind.

Pretty but crowded!

I left Ash Fork early and headed west on Interstate 40. Already the wind was blowing strong from the south, broadsiding Minnie with gusts after gust, causing me to hang furiously to the wheel with white knuckles. I don’t like wind. If I could wait it out, I would gladly stay put, but the forecast was for high winds all week, so I gritted my teeth and vowed not to go very far today.

I checked out a spot near Chloride, AZ, and another by Boulder City, NV, but they were both too hard to get into. I thought I would be staying overnight at a Walmart in Vegas and then I remembered RV Sue telling about a campground near Alamo, NV. I looked it up and Google told me it was only 1.5 hours away, so I headed north on Highway 93 to Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge. Don’t ask me how to pronounce it!

The campground is free and the sites are scattered along a picturesque lake. Those two things make it very popular. So popular in fact that I thought every site was filled when I drove in. At the very end of the road I saw two motorhomes parked in what I thought were two spots. On closer inspection, I noticed there were three signs designating sites, so I asked a lady if it was indeed an open spot between? Yes!

I was going to look around at Hoover Dam for a bit but the crowds were wild. I was subjected to a search of my RV, then had to drive across the dam and a mile up the hill to find RV parking. It is something to see if you are turned-on by concrete in large volumes, but I had had enough of the dam traffic by then and turned around and left. The whole place has become so commercial and expensive. Parking is $10 and gift shops are all over the place. I fled with my wallet intact.

I probably will move on tomorrow. It is a pretty campgrounds, but I’m too close to another RV and trees block my solar and dtv. I know of a site near Great Basin NP where I stayed last year so i will move there tomorrow.