TRIP 21 | Friday-Monday, May 24-27, 2013

When I got home from work on Thursday evening Carolyn had everything packed and ready to go. We loaded the car and took off for Wallace, ID, arriving at 11pm. All week I had been looking at the forecast for Wallace for the Memorial Day weekend. The forecast was dismal. It was supposed to rain every single day, but I was still excited to go. I'd take what I could get.

GPS track of Jewel Gulch loop

We woke up Friday morning to crystal blue skies. What? Where's the rain? We decided to head out on an ATV ride while the weather was good. Our destination was Jewel Gulch. We've attempted this ride twice before, but were turned back the first time by my machine overheating and the second time, last month, because of snow. This time I was determined to make it and even carried a small chainsaw in case we were blocked by trees across the trail.

Tree numero uno

We had only ridden a quarter mile up the trail before we hit the first downed tree. I had a GoPro mounted on the front of my ATV to record the ride and I used the video to capture this picture and the next few.

Tree number two

Typical view of the trail

While the trail is called the Jewel Gulch trail, it only heads up the gulch a half mile or so before climbing out of the gulch and heading up the ridge. I think this would be a good trail for Eric and John to ride on motorcycles.

Tree number three

Another tree

Eventually we ran into a part of the trail that had recently been cut out, but only to the width of a motorcycle. That someone would intentionally cut out a trail to block ATVs really bothered Carolyn, but I didn't care. I cut the trail wide.

Widening another motorcycle cut

Trail turned into singletrack

Eventually the quad trail we were following abruptly turned into singletrack. The left side of the trail drops off steeply down a hill. We had to back up a couple of blocks to a place where we could turn around.

Turning down the Beefcamp Trail

We backed up, turned around, and headed down the Beefcamp trail in order to make a loop out of this ride.

Yet another tree

And another

Going to investigate

I could see a whole bunch of trees across the trail. I went to investigate and found a giant ponderosa pine. It was far too big for my little saw so we turned around and rode back up to the ridge and back down the Jewel Gulch trail.

Two Mile Creek

On the way back down the ridge we turned off on an overgrown trail that took us down to Two Mile Creek. From there we popped out of the canyon only a block or two from the start of the Jewel Gulch trail. Finally, we had completed a loop! We rode from Osburn back to Wallace. We weren't home very long before the skies clouded over and it began to pour. We went to our favorite sandwich shop for lunch.

Winch on Carolyn's ATV

I spent much of Friday afternoon installing a winch on Carolyn's machine. When I tested the controls, they worked in reverse, even though I followed the schematic. In addition, the remote would only activate the winch in one direction. When stuff like this happens, I've found it best to stop working and start fresh the next day. On Saturday morning I swapped the motor wires to fix the reversed controls. Figuring out what was wrong with the remote took more debugging. It turned out one of the sealed connections on the back of the port where the remote plugs in had a cold solder joint. I fixed it and Carolyn's winch now works great.

Drive up Pine Creek

Saturday was overcast. In the morning we drove to Smelterville for groceries and then a mile farther to Pinehurst to get a Yamaha part. We decided to drive through the town and up Pine Creek canyon to see what we could see.

Old mill foundation

We passed several old mines and eventually stopped near the end of the road to let Gypsy run around. 

Gypsy exploring

56 miles over Moon Pass

So far on Saturday, it hadn't rained and the weather was getting nicer. Mid afternoon we took off up Placer Creek. We turned up Dry Creek Gulch for Slate Creek Saddle. It's a much more fun ride to Moon Pass compared to the normal wide dirt road.

No farther

We climbed and climbed but eventually hit snow just before we reached Slate Creek Saddle. We turned around and went all the way back down to the Moon Pass road and took the road up and over the pass. 

Last tunnel on the Hiawatha Trail

Today was the 2013 opening day for the Hiawatha Trail. We rode all the way to Pearson, which is the end of the Hiawatha Trail. We parked our machines and walked on the trail to this last tunnel. The long gone town of Pearson was named after two Pearson brothers, who mined nearby at the Lucky Swede mine. After the devastating fire of 1910, they spent the next several years logging all the downed timber that was salvageable.

Chipmunks

Love 'em.

Tunnel #30

From Pearson all the way down to Avery, the old Milwaukee railroad route is now the road for car and truck traffic. We rode a couple of miles through tunnels and over high trestles.

Road up Rye Creek to Arid Point Lookout

While crossing a trestle we looked down on the road Eric, John, and I took last 4th of July up to Arid Peak.

Carolyn on the trestle

Another view from the trestle

Old telegraph wires above the railbed
View from the railbed

This is looking down from the old railbed to the North Fork St. Joe River. The dirt road below used to be the road for vehicles from Avery when the railroad was still operating. Now the road has deteriorated into a motorcycle and ATV trail.

Cabin at Lucky Swede mine

From the trestle we turned around and headed back up the Moon Pass road. We explored various trails and turnoffs from the main road. One trail climbed steeply on an off-camber trail up Lucky Swede Gulch until we hit the remains of the Lucky Swede mine.

Lucky Swede mine dump

A book said the Pearson brothers drove a tunnel a mile deep into the mountain, but brought out very little ore for their efforts.

Gold Hill

We saw a lot of groups of people camping for the Memorial Day weekend. On our way down Moon Pass we saw a large group of dirt bikers head up a trail. On our way back we turned up that same trail to see where it would go.

Up Bougin Creek

We rode a mile or so up the trail through a few snow patches until we were blocked at the snowline and had to turn around and head back to town. The whole ride was 57 miles with 13k' of climbing. 

Downtown

Sunday turned out to be the nicest day of the Memorial Day weekend. Before church I took Gypsy on a long walk to the end of town, up the hill by the pool, past John's place, to the residential end of town, back to our house.

Thompson Falls dam

Our next door neighbors invited us to their place on the North Fork Coeur d'Alene River for steaks in the evening. Since their place is about a third of the way to Thompson Falls, MT, we decided to drive over Thompson Pass to the falls after church. It was a beautiful warm day. This 1915 dam was built at the site of the falls to build up enough headwater for a power plant.

Salmon fish ladder at the dam

Another section of the dam

There are actually three different dams blocking the river at some islands in the river. I bet this part of the Clark Fork River would have been hairy to navigate back in the day.

Bridge to the island

The island in the river is now a park (this photo was taken from that island). This old bridge has been restored for pedestrian use.

1915 powerplant

Old tailings in Murray

On the way back over Thompson Pass we stopped at the tailing piles along Prichard Creek to let Gypsy out and run around. The tailings are what's left over from a 1930's gold dredging operation. We finally made it to our neighbor's place on the river. They have a dog that looks exactly like Gypsy. Their dog likes walking leg-deep in the river but Gypsy was hesitant and stayed along the shore. Eventually after seeing the other dog in the river, Gypsy would walk in the river, too. We grilled out steaks and had a delicious dinner before heading back over Dobson Pass to Wallace.

Painting the upstairs bathroom door

We woke up to a cloudy day on Monday, but compared to the miserable forecast of rain, it was a pretty good weekend. Our next big project at the house is to redo the upstairs bathroom the way we remodeled the downstairs bathroom. The house is going to be full of guests this 4th of July so we're going to have to wait until later in the summer before we start the demolition. Meanwhile, I painted a couple of fresh coats of paint on the upstairs bathroom door. I also installed heating wires in the valley of the roof at the back of the house to prevent large ice dams from forming.

Ninemile Canyon to Burke Canyon loop

Later that morning we took off on a loop out of Wallace up Ninemile Canyon.

Carolyn crossing the East Fork Ninemile Creek

Cable at the Interstate mine

Interstate mine tailings

Graves on Custer Peak

We climbed high on the shoulder of Custer Peak looking for a route over the peak and down into Burke Canyon. We passed by an area with 4 or 5 marked graves, but the markers had no writing. I wonder who they were?

Blocked again by snow

We kept climbing Custer Peak until we hit snow. We walked to the end of this logging road.

Seam of the Hercules mine

We wrapped around Custer Peak into Burke Canyon passing by the location of the Hercules mine, one of the earliest and most successful mines in the area. By WWII, however, the ore in the mine was tapped out. Ore was originally discovered in the seam high on the mountain. Eventually, drifts were driven at various levels up and down the mountain. That's Tiger Peak in the background.

Hercules mine when it was in production

Paige, Dr. Evans, Jane and Fox

We left Wallace for home at 4 pm. We were looking forward to getting home because Paige, Chris, Jane, and Fox would be there. Chris just graduated from USC's dental school on the army's dime and is now officially Captain Doctor Chris Evans, DDS. They're heading to Germany on their first assignment in July. Meanwhile, Chris heads to Texas in a week for officer training. Paige and the grandkids will be staying with us until they leave for Germany.

As usual we stopped at Cafe Rio in Coeur d'Alene for dinner. While we were eating Eric called to say he passed his motorcycle class and license today. He's going riding with me, John, and Lonnie in the Dirty Face Dual Sport in a couple of weeks and he needed to get a street-legal license.

We intentionally left Wallace late so we'd hit Snoqualmie Pass around 9pm, hopefully late enough to miss all the holiday traffic returning to Seattle. Wrong. Ninety miles from Seattle we hit stop and go traffic on the highway snaking over the mountains. We made it home by 11 and Paige and Chris were waiting for us. It was great to see them. We had a blast in Wallace this weekend!

TRIP 20 | Friday-Tuesday, April 19-23, 2013

On a rainy Thursday night Carolyn and I loaded the truck with Allison's furniture, all of their wedding presents, and a few things to take to Wallace. The truck was loaded far higher than the top of the cab. We covered everything with a tarp and a cargo net. Allison and Tate are in Cabo San Lucas on their honeymoon. We're all meeting in Las Vegas on Saturday at Tate's parent's house for a wedding reception on the Litchfield side of the family. On Friday morning we left Redmond in a huge downpour and drove to Provo. Gypsy the dog came with us. We listened to the news radio all day as the police in Boston tracked down and captured the fugitive bomber. That evening my brother David came down to Provo and helped me unload the truck into Carolyn's parent's basement. We also worked on shielding his Stratocaster guitar using some soldering equipment I brought with me. My parents came over, too. It was a busy night.

Cove Fort

The next morning (Saturday) we took off for Las Vegas. We left Gypsy with Carolyn's parents. On the way down Carolyn saw a sign for Cove Fort and we pulled off to investigate. It wasn't open yet but an older missionary saw us wandering around and he came over, opened everything up, and showed us around. The fort was built by President Hinckley's grandfather in 1867 on assignment from Brigham Young.

Inside Cove Fort

The fort was a way station for travelers heading to and from southern areas of Utah and Arizona. The fort was never attacked.

Pawn Stars TV show location

While we were heading to Las Vegas, so were Paige, Chris, and the grandkids from South Pasadena. We needed to meet somewhere so we picked the location of the History Channel's TV show about the pawn business. Paige wrote about it in detail on her blog.

Watching the grandkids

We all drove to the Las Vegas temple where Carolyn and I took over Fox and Jane. While Paige and Chris were at the temple, we took the kids to the Clark County Museum. Fox loved it because it had trains, wolves, and a lot more.

Prototypical Fox

This is typical Fox, a toy in each hand.

The reception

We reunited with Paige and Chris at our hotel in Henderson. All of us put on our suits and dresses and drove over to Tate's house. Tate's dad has a restored 50's truck that was decorated in the driveway. Each guest took an Instax photo in front of the truck and the photo was pasted into the sign-in book. Around back was the party. Paige wrote many more details about it here.

The bride

Here's Allison looking beautiful in her wedding dress. We are so happy that she has married a great young man from a nice, strong family.

Their first apartment

On Sunday morning we loaded some more furniture Tate's parents had given them in the truck and caravanned with Tate and Allison in their car all the way back to Provo. In Provo we loaded up the truck with everything we brought from Redmond. It was a quick stop and we were on the road again for Rexburg. Gypsy was with us again. In Rexburg we drove to their new apartment complex where they picked up the key. They were so excited. It was cute. We unloaded their car and our truck and went to a storage unit and collected their remaining things they had stored after the last semester ended. By now it was late and Carolyn and I stayed in a hotel. Gypsy spent the night in the truck.

Still winter

On Monday morning we headed off for the next leg of the trip home, destination Wallace, Idaho. We weren't far out of Rexburg when we hit snow on I-15. There was snow all the way to Missoula. I'm tired of snow. Let's get summer going.

Anaconda stack

Shortly after I-15 hit I-90 we turned off a few miles to the town of Anaconda, MT. Anaconda was a smelting town for nearly a hundred years until the smelter was suddenly closed in 1980, leaving the town with thousands out of work. The Anaconda smelter stack still remains. It was built in 1919 and is 515' tall. Supposedly the whole Washington Monument will easily fit inside the stack.

Frozen Silver Lake

We continued through the town, passing an LDS chapel that looked like it was built about the same time as the Norwood, Cincinnati chapel. We took a scenic backroad for about 50 miles before rejoing I-90 at Drummond, MT. We passed by a couple of lakes that were still frozen over. Hard to believe that the day before we were in the hot climate of Nevada and Arizona.

GPS track up Jewell Gulch

We finally arrived in Wallace on Monday afternoon, after driving 2,500 miles the last few days. After unloading the truck with the few things we brought for the Wallace house, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and go on an ATV ride. We pulled the ATVs out of storage in the garage. We've kept them on trickle chargers all winter and they started right up. We put on some protective gear, gassed up, and drove the ATVs to Osburn to head up the Jewell Gulch trail. We tried this trail last Labor Day, but my machine overheated and we had to turn around.

Start of the trail

The trail starts off climbing the side of working quarry. This trail is popular with dirt bikes and mountain bikes, too.

Puddle 

My GoPro mounted on the front rack captured this shot of splashing through a mud puddle.

Steep and sloppy

Moving a fallen tree off the trail

Snow and we're still climbing

A mile up the trail we hit snow but kept going. I was surprised how much traction these machines have, easily climbing steep snow covered trails.

Snow on the branches

Being in front, I hit all the low hanging branches and knocked off the snow onto the ATV and me. 

Covered in snow

Carolyn

Following behind me, Carolyn stayed nice and dry. She was afraid of getting cold so she put on everything she had available, something like 5 layers.

Turn around point

We had hoped to loop around and come down Twomile Canyon back to Osburn, but eventually the snow became so deep that it didn't seem prudent to keep going and risk getting stuck. My GoPro's lens is covered with snow.

Pass me if you can

We've turned our machines around on the fairly narrow trail and are about to head back down.

Osburn, ID 

We rode the three miles back down the trail to Osburn and then on the road to Wallace.

Work surface

Back at the house we setup a work surface I made and brought with us. Previously, there was a tall particle board cabinet with a microwave on top. Carolyn suggested I build a table with a top that matched the rest of the countertops. When we were here in February I wrote down the measurements and built the table back home. The top is fir floor boards like the rest of the counters and the base is made of cherry, mortised and tenoned together.

Lights

Carolyn also brought some lights to hang on the front porch.

Basement

Carolyn purchased all new bedding and pillows for the beds in the basement room. She also installed more lights to brighten the room up.

Sixth Street

On Monday evening we walked to City Limits restaurant at the mouth of Nine Mile Canyon. It feels like Wallace is just coming out of the grips of winter.

Train station

Back side of the City Limits restaurant

The restaurant is in some old mining building constructed over Nine Mile Creek. The food is delicious. 

30th Anniversary

We woke up Tuesday to our 30th anniversary. Carolyn dug this picture out of the archives. It's been a great, glorius, exciting, and fulfilling 30 years and now we're really empty nesters.

Power switch

Last fall I installed a 12v-to-5v DC/DC inverter so I could power my GPS and phone while on a day-long ride. When nothing is connected, the inverter only draws a few milliamps of current so I hardwired it into the machine's power bus, not worrying about the standby current draining the battery. However, this morning I decided to add a power switch after all.

John's KTM

Early in the afternoon Carolyn and I went up to John's house to retrieve his motorcycle and a list of gear to bring back to Washington for the Dirty Face Dual Sport event at Lake Wenatchee in June. When I opened the dark cavern-like basement under his house and turned on the lights, there was a sparkling Kawasaki and KTM sitting there. I felt like Howard Carter peeking through a hole into King Tut's tomb for the first time. When Carter was asked, "Do you see anything?" He responded, "Yes, wonderful things." That's how I felt.

Oops

We left Wallace around 4 pm towing John's trailer behind the truck. We stopped in Coeur d'Alene for Cafe Rio tacos (it was Taco Tuesday, afterall) and headed across eastern Washington. Around Cle Elum we started seeing highway signs announcing that Snoqualmie Pass was closed for blasting. Besides the overhead lit signs, there were trucks parked on the side of the road carrying more lit signs. Then we passed several rows of orange construction signs warning us to slow down and prepare to stop. We eased onto the end of a miles long row of stopped cars and trucks. A few minutes later a car slammed into the back of a brand new boat, still in its shrink wrap, on its trailer. The driver of the car must have been texting or something and veered off at the last instant. A four foot piece of fiberglass from the boat's corner pierced the windshield, just missing the driver. The car side swiped the corner of the boat and surgically peeled off the whole outer skin of the car, exposing all the wiring and gears in the doors and fenders (like the body exhibit). How the driver missed miles of signs and the miles of stopped traffic is hard to comprehend. Glad no one seemed hurt and sad for the family with the damaged boat. Meanwhile, Carolyn, Gypsy and I had a pretty good time walking around on such a beautiful evening in the mountains. We heard the blasting and were stopped for about an hour. Eventually, the highway was opened and we made it home around 9:30 pm.

We drove approximately three thousand miles over the past 5 days. It was great to be able to help Allison and Tate, participate in the reception in Las Vegas, see Chris and Paige and the grandkids, and spend 24 hours in Wallace. It was a really fun road trip.