Ida-Know

 

Wow, I really haven’t written since heading to the Oregon coast?  The truth of it is that there isn’t much of a story; after my delightful visit with friends in Oregon and a surprise treat of coffee and Danish the next morning with T&D, I high-tailed it back to the mountains.

And so you find me in Eagle, Idaho, at the Hi Valley RV Park, yes another RV park, but that seems to be the only way I have enough internet connection to actually post anything.  This is also an unexpected second stop in the Boise area and, wanting to be close to the city, there isn’t a lot from which to choose.

I took a leisurely drive from the Oregon coast to Boise, stopping in the delightful town of Sisters for one night and another night at Idlewild Campground in Burns, Oregon, where we woke to snow.  The forecast called for a "40% chance of rain" at 8:00 AM and, since it was snowing at 7:30, I decided to make a hasty retreat before the "100% chance of rain" hit at noon.  And so we were snowed out of the mountains yet again.

I was beginning to wonder if I would ever feel warm outside; I was quite sure that my Spring Fling started an entire month too early.

My first stop in Boise was a planned stay for five nights at a VRBO in the Harris Ranch neighborhood.   After three solid weeks in Beagle without even a hotel, it was a welcome treat.  Even more so with the fenced backyard so that when my bout of food poisoning hit me all I had to do was crawl to the sliding glass doors and let out the dogs.  Yes, it was bad.  I was extremely grateful to be in a house (and a delightful one at that!) rather than in the Beagle.

Having lost a few days to sickness, I extended my stay two nights so had an entire week to get to know the neighborhood (fell in love) and more of Boise (still think it’s the best next stop for me.)

Despite the snowy weather still approaching the mountains, I was looking forward to being back in the Ketchum/Sawtooth National Recreation Area part of the world.  So we set off on a Thursday morning in the freezing weather, thinking I was well covered with both a Plan A (a campground just outside of Ketchum) and a Plan B (a disbursed camping area on the other side of Ketchum.)

This brings us to lesson # Whatever:  Shoulder season camping requires a lot of research into what is open and, even if your research reveals that it is, you cannot count on it, so best to leave yourself lots of time because maybe, just maybe, neither Plan A nor Plan B will work.

And so it was.  The charming looking Boundary Campground, despite the Forest Service website listing it as “open” was in fact closed until the Friday before Memorial Day.  Plan B’s disbursed sites flat out gave me the creeps:  They were deep up a canyon along a small river, with lots of trees, no cell service, and muddy snow everywhere.  I turned around.

Time for Plan C:  I remembered the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, a place I had camped at last year, and figured it would be open year-round for snowmobiling and snow-shoeing, and, if it wasn’t, I planned on camping in the Ranger Station parking lot for the night.

But it was open and I nailed a gorgeous site alone in a field with the creek about twenty yards away and a view of snow-capped mountains out the front and back window of Beagle.  Add in the fact that it is the only spot in the NRA with some amount of Verizon service (as verified by the Ranger) and that camping is free this time of year, it was a camper’s heaven.

(Yep, that's Beagle & Wurzig in the distance!)

I had hoped the weather would hold out long enough for me to stay four nights but, alas, the snow she did come again.  And I was just darn tired of being outside in the cold.  On Day 2, when the altitude began to make me nauseous, and the weather reports in all the mountain towns I had hoped to visit showed well-below freezing nights and snow/rain during the day, I did a hasty retreat back to Boise.

Having been thrown off my schedule innumerable times now, I just need the world to hold still for a few days so I have five nights here.  It’s a lovely park in the Eagle area of Boise, lots of walking trails, a dog run for the noses and I have a nice, wide spot with very quiet neighbors.  Plus a pool and jacuzzi; if it ever gets above 50, I might take the plunge.

So now when people ask me where the next stop is, I just reply, “I dunno.”  I can tell you this, my next reservation is May 17^th at Farragut State Park in northern Idaho and after that every night is booked until June 26^th at which point I need to high-tail it back home.

Hopefully there will be some good stories between now and then because this one was a real snooze-fest!  But thanks for reading anyway.  :-)

-K