The Out-of-the-Way Shower

 

When researching where to stay once we left Stanton Crossing I discovered a city-run RV park in the town of Gooding.  The highlight of this park were showers at the fairgrounds next door.  By the time we left I had decided we wouldn’t stay at the park (too close by) but I couldn’t ignore the opportunity for a shower.  So I drove nineteen miles out of the way just for a shower.  

All along those nineteen miles I kept thinking this is stupid.  Once there I had trouble finding the shower and restrooms and had to ask the lawn mower man.  That’s it on the right.

Inside it was a well used restroom as one would imagine for a fairground.

Okay, this will do.  

I turned on the water...instant hot water with some force behind it.

Oh yeah!  This was NOT stupid!

And it was free.

Feeling renewed and refreshed, I fixed lunch there and dug out some clean clothes.

Then I stopped at a hardware store we had passed by to top off the propane and fill my little tank that runs the heater.  We’ll be going through the nothingness of Nevada so best play it safe.

I hit up one thrift store in Gooding and two in Jerome after we backtracked some but no books of interest.  

But I did meet Hemi in the last store.

Beans was not pleased with the foreign cat smell on my fingertips. 

...hissss...

And so it begins.

Walmart store in Jerome.

Five Months, Twelve Miles a Day

 

When we first pulled in to Stanton Crossing campground my first thought was well maybe we will stay a couple three days.  Well we stayed a whole week.  It was that nice even if there wasn’t much to do or explore.  I was running low on drinking water so we had to eventually move on.

I did talk to the campground host lady on the way out.  I commented to her how nice and quiet it was with so few staying.  She said it gets packed during hunting season which I guess is coming up soon.

I stopped at the rest area at the junction of highways 20 and 75 to get rid of trash.  I got into reading the informative signs some of which told the story of the early wagon trains coming through this area in the mid 1800’s.  It said it took them five months traveling at twelve miles a day to cross “the great American desert”.  Most everyone walked alongside the wagon except for the very young, the elderly and the sick.  The area isn’t a desert in the sense as you think like where we go for the winter in Arizona.  It is actually the Great Basin, a vast ocean of sagebrush for the most part. I don’t think they were referring to the grassy plains before the sagebrush land as part of the “desert”.  Those plains would be much easier to pass through than that of fighting their way through the sage.

Tough folk they were.  We of nowadays wouldn’t survive the ordeal. 

Hunting Beaver

 

The Big Wood River runs by the campground and I took a walk along the shore thinking of rattlesnakes basking in the sun.

My thoughts were disrupted by finding beaver evidence.

Here he has fallen a tree and for what reason?  Usually it is to get to the slender branches up top but this tree was untouched.  Destructive rodents they are.

This is one of the larger trees felled, hopefully my hand gives you an idea of its size.

I wondered where they had built a dam from all this logging they did.

I went upstream and I went downstream.  No dam, no ponds.

I was impressed by the clarity of the water in Big Wood River.

The cleanest I have seen so far on this year’s travels.

So clear was the water I could see trout swimming about in the deep holes.

No beaver though.

I looked up some images of beaver in action for you.

Contrary to popular belief, beaver cannot control the direction the tree will fall 

and sometimes it falls on them.

A Nice Campground

A comment was left on an earlier post about this looked like a nice campground (thank you Vicki) and it has turned out to be just that.  My first impression was that it would be like an homeless encampment like I’ve seen elsewhere, but doesn’t seem to be the case. There are a couple or so trailers here but their owners are never around.  Only these two and a guy in an old RV over where we first started out are the only ones here active and because of that it is very peaceful and quiet.

  The large fifth wheel trailer and truck is in the spot designated as “camp host”.  It is a solo lady who looks to be as ancient as I am.  She has Idaho plates but also a sticker on the side from last years stay at a BLM long term winter stay in Arizona, like we do.  At any rate, her camp host duties are zero.  She stays inside her trailer most of the time.  The guy in the SUV is a thirty-something guy living out of his car.  He too has Idaho plates and the two visit occasionally.

I took these pictures while up top on the roof fixing the water leak.

Off to the left you can just make out the other RV.  We were first over there near him.  He has a pit bull dog which was a bit unnerving to have so close by.  At least he was on the other side of a wire fence from us and the owner had the beast on a rope. It didn’t bark at me but it sure eyed me with some serious intent.  I was glad to leave them behind when we moved.

On the other side is a densely treed area to camp in with numerous spots most of which never get any sun.

Some like this but I need the sun for the solar panels and be warm.

It looks heavily used in there but no one is in there presently.

There are two long drops in the campground.  That is the only improvement.  There is no water, not even picnic tables.  It is pure boondocking camping.  In fact the camp host doesn’t even have to maintain the pit toilets.  One day an Idaho Land personnel person came by and serviced the toilets.

The most impressive thing about this campground is how clean it is.  Usually this type of campground where it is free and has no amenities is heavily abused and littered.

What a nice fungi.

In spite of all the available spots to camp here, after touring about one late afternoon these people just had to stop and stay right behind us.  Why?  Why must people do this to us?!!

They left early on the morning.

Sorry, I just have to grumble at this type of behavior all the time.

Okay there is one bad thing...the flies.  There is a good crop of them and they are annoying in getting inside every time I open the door.  Pesky things they are.

Found It!

 

It is cold.  Too much shade. 

I walked around the campground and found a better spot in full sun and moved there.

Ahh...this is nice.  Thanks Dad.

This is the panel I covered the problem window years ago.  Since I could not figure out what part of the window was leaking I covered the entire window as it wasn’t used anyway.

It wasn’t until I got up on the roof that I discovered the leak.

Gee, wonder how long that has been that way?

I peeled and scraped away the cracked silicone sealant.

Now it has a new bead of better caulking around it.

That is my step stool down there.  Yep, it is a long way down.

Fun stuff hanging over the edge upside down on a rounded roof.

25 Cent Camp

 

This campground was less than ten miles away from my Mexican lunch.

It is Stanton Crossing and run by Idaho’s Land something. It is free with a ten day limit. 

I found a spot off by ourselves, parked, stepped out and found a quarter on the ground.

The camp had a name now.

We moved down here but it wasn’t far enough to escape the nasty weather.

The first day it rained and was cold.  Very cold.

Back at Sun Valley was worse so we had that going for us.

I got the heater up and running.

Beans sits in front of it at times. 

 I petted her after this photo was taken and her butt was too hot to touch!

Silly cat.

Being cooped up inside all day I got to looking for something in the overhead and discovered things wet.

Water was coming in around this window...somehow.  This has been an ongoing problem and years ago I blocked off the entire window from the outside.  So I had this to deal with when it is nicer out.

Errands and Eating

 

We left Sun Valley in the morning and stopped at Hailey to fill the water tank.  Then on to Bellevue.

Bellevue had a pet store where I could get Beans another bag of high priced grain free gourmet kibble.

I checked out three thrift stores - no books of interest.

Next was grocery shopping but it isn’t a good idea to grocery shop when hungry so I went to the Mexican restaurant next door first.

Their special for the day, on the big screen behind the gentleman, 

was a carne asada burrito so I went with that.

The plan was to eat half and save the other half for dinner.

Well that didn’t happen; I ate it all.

Sooo good!

At the checkout in the grocery store this sign amused me.

On to our next home site.

We Have to Evacuate

 

It is time we leave Sun Valley.

This is way too cold for me.  I might die.

Its okay though as there is a sixteen day limit to stay here and we will have been here thirteen days when we leave.  The forest service guy has been by twice already checking plate numbers against dates.

I just don’t want to end up like this.

Time to move on.

Soon the snows will come and the ski runs will be in full swing.

Sun Valley is quite popular among the skiers world round and has some history to it.

They can have it.  

Beans and I will be warm in the desert while they are freezing.

Corral Creek Canyon

 

A four mile long dirt road takes you up into the canyon.

Corral Creek itself.

At the end of the road is a parking area at a trailhead.

Gee, I have some socks that must be close to 10-15 years old.

A small dam built by beavers.

These amaze me.  How do they know where to build and where not to build?

This is an old sheep corral, probably where the creek and canyon got its name.

It is no longer in use.

Nowadays the sheep are herded on down the streets of Ketchum from their summer grazing lands high in the mountains.  It is an annual weeklong festival taking place in the first week of October.  From there the sheep will be loaded up and trucked to their winter grazing areas in Utah and California.