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Owyhee River, ID – Tuesday September 22, 2015

On our way to Owyhee State Park we had a little adventure.  We have driven through Boise, Idaho a bunch of times and we either stay at a rest stop or a couple of state or COE parks south of Boise. This trip I was looking for something north Boise because we are going to be dropping down into Nevada from here.  Using ultimatecampground.com I found this state park.  What I didn’t research enough was the road to the campground.  Owyhee State Park is on a reservoir and the road to the base of the dam is pretty good, mostly a narrow one and a half lane road.  It follows the river for 22 miles and we saw a quite a few people fishing in the river.

The challenge comes when you reach the dam.  The road Y’s, right to dam office and visitor’s center and left to dam and campground.  This is a true Y with no place to turn around, remember with the car behind the motorhome I cannot back up.  To the right has a bridge 50 hundred yards down the road, I was not to sure I wanted to take my motorhome across.  It is not a huge motorhome but is 32 feet and weighs 22,000 pounds.  Left is a narrow road to the dam and campground, even has a narrow road sign.  We went left.  Narrow is 10 feet wide cut into the steep hillside with at least a 10% grade for the last quarter mile of a half mile stretch to the top of the dam.  Just past the top is a 50 foot wide parking lot and a two door out house.  At this point the narrow road continues on 3.5 miles to the campground.  I could see the road cut into the hillside and after 3 or 4 minutes of looking and thinking I decided this is a good place to turn around and camp on the river.  I talked to a guy in this parking lot, he said it is a scenic drive out to the campground but he wasn’t sure he would drive a motorhome out there.  I unhooked the car and after jocking back and forth a couple of times I got the motorhome turned around, car hooked up and headed back down the dam in first gear.  Found a great spot in the valley and on the river with enough view of the southern sky to watch SYFY’s Face Off.

Campsite by the river:
Today’s drive:
Sent from Harry’s iPad

Fishing – Friday September 18, 2015


This is the last of my trout fishing for 2015.  I got these at Lake Morton this morning.  The large one weighed in at one pound.  These are amazing fish when you consider when I was a kid the fish around here were all in 7 to 8 inch range.

This weekend we are going to see Brian in his lead role as Sweeney Todd at the Renton Civic Theatre Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Monday we will leave heading south until Thanksgiving.  The first major stop will be Lake Tahoe for a weekend with Richard and Vicki and then we’ll move on toward Roswell and Carlsbad Caverns.
Stay tuned.

Kelly Butte Fire Lookout – Wednesday September 9, 2015

Took the day and went for a hike with Dennis and Mike to Kelly Butte Fire Lookout. It is located off FS Road 70 the Greenwater Road.
Beautiful sunny day with just a hint of fall color.
This is the trail, 2 miles 1200 foot altitude gain.
 Overhead picture of the lookout, the blue line is from my InReach GPS tracking system.
Kelly Butte from a distance.
Little closer.
Can you see the Lookout?
Beautiful morning for the mountain.
Some of the Fall color.
Dennis and Mike on the way up.
Had to get a picture of Dennis and the mountain.
Just some cool rock.
First view of the Lookout.
Finally some pictures of the mountain from the tower.
Nice hike on a really beautiful day.

Ranger Creek, WA – Wednesday September 2, 2015

Inside morning temp was 55 and outside temp 47, rained most of the night, mostly light however it dripped off the trees and made a lot of noise.  We have used more water than normal so we will head home this morning.

When I went outside to start picking up this morning I found we had more water than we had yesterday.  The MH has two 50 gallon water tanks and for some reason the front tank must have had some pressure in it yesterday so the two tanks could not equalize, I can only see the rear tank.   We were down to 1/8 on the propane tank so we headed home.   I need to rebuild the arbor on the front of the house before we head south on September  21st.

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Ranger Creek – Tuesday September 01, 2015

Inside morning temp was 55 and batteries died in outside unit

Thank TED Radio Hour on NPR.
One of the dates I have been looking for is when did the government change GPS system so we could actually use it.  Before May 2, 2000 GPS’s had  random calculation which would only give you a location within 3 football fields of your actual location.   This is when turn by turn GPS systems became a reality for all of us.

I listen to TED Radio Hour on NPR where Guy Raz interviews people who have done TED Talks as a follow up to their talk and grouped together under a topic, I.e. “Making Mistakes”.   1984 was when the first TED Talk occurred, I didn’t know they had been around so long.
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Ranger Creek – Sunday August 30, 2015

Inside morning temp was 58 and outside temp 50.
Rained heavy all night, large puddle under motorhome this morning.

Tanya and Mike stopped by this afternoon.  They have been camped on the other side of Mt. Rainier at Cougar Rock,  They had significant rain the whole time they were at Cougar Rock, however with tarps and skill they still had a good time.  It was amazing to see them today.  They are both GREAT people.

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