Trinity Mountain Camping Trip

Friday morning I met Fern at the Flying M for breakfast. I had oatmeal and blueberries with brown sugar, butter, and cream, and Fern ordered her usual granola and blueberries with yogurt. You know, there's something about eating oatmeal for breakfast that makes me feel like I'm benefiting from more than just artery-scrubbing oat bran. It's like I'm imbued with the wisdom and goodness of the ages. Now that I think about it, maybe I was brainwashed by the Quaker Oats commercials and Wilfred Brimley when I was a kid. Well now I'm confused. If I can't trust my own feelings about something as simple as oatmeal then who and what can I trust??

Well, it was very delicious. And may I mention the blueberries. There's nothing better than freshly thawed but never dehydrated blueberries on top of oatmeal.

All filled with goodness, with coffee beverages close at hand, Fern and I left town and headed southeast on I-84. The nice folks at NPR helped pass the time as we drove down the freeway. At Mountain Home we took an exit north. The first hills of the trip slowed Fern's loaded down Corolla, but the peppy car handled the terrain with little difficulty in 3rd and 4th gear.

Around that time I played DJ, spinning tracks from three albums I recently purchased at the Record Exchange (yes, some people still buy whole albums in solid form-but only at sale price). The first "record" I put on was one of the Sunday's. I proceeded to have multiple "Desperado" moments-moments of musical ecstasy during which my whole being was fixated on a voice like a Siren dancing over the most intricate, beautiful melodies. If I was driving I'm sure I would have steared us right into the rocks. Next, for a constrast, I inserted the latest Nine Inch Nails album into the stereo. Again, the music cut right through. I've had some of the greatest listening experiences with NIN, and Friday morning, at the beginning of our weekend adventure, I had one of the best best yet.

The narrow, paved rural road we followed to get to Anderson Ranch Resevoir wound through some of the most beautiful farmland, pasteurs, and hills in Idaho. We even passed by a lonely cowboy on his horse. I thought of Mom and how she'd love to meet a guy like that.

After a few miles, we were taken by surprise as the road appeared to drop off the face of the Earth. The road turned right and descended abruptly along the edge of a sheer canyon walls. I was proud of Fern for not peeing her pants at the moment we began descending. She overcame her fear and drove carefully and slowly down the road. It helped that the view was absolutely stunning. We had to stop to take pictures. Back in the car and on our way down, a doe and her fawn pranced out of the woods in front of us. The fawn looked just like Bambie, with spots, long lashes, and all. We scrambled to take a photo but it was too late, the mother and daughter disappeared over the edge of the mountain. How they managed to not fall to their deaths, I don't know.

The road bottomed out and we crossed Anderson Ranch dam. Signs warned that slowing or stopping on the dam were prohibited. I could understand why security might be tight there. If someone managed to break the dam, an enormous amount of water would rush down the river into two more resevoirs; and if those dams gave way, Boise would be completely washed away. There is A LOT of water stored in those three resevoirs.

The next leg of the trip was a windy road perched a couple hundred feet above the resevoir. We passed a sign that said "Slide Area-Travel At Your Own Risk". I explained to Fern that this meant that if a 10 ton boulder fell on our heads, the highway department could say they told us so. I don't think she appreciated the way I chose to elaborate.

Several miles of careful driving along the resevoir and a few more miles up a mountain road got us to our destination, a camp site in the wilderness just south of the Trinity Mountain. Neither one of us had ever been there before. We scoped out the campgrounds and quickly settled on a spot that offered conveniences like a picnic bench, steel counter top, fire pit with grill, and a short walk to the outhouse. A stream was another short walk away.

We set up camp and ate a lunch of cold Winco fried chicken, mixed fruit, and baby carrots. Fern began to work on a bag of chips (polishing off bags of chips runs in her family, she says). We were anxious to head out on our mountain bikes. The surrounding wilderness was beautiful and the map indicated some promising routes to follow. The ride we ended up doing was perfect. We followed fire road #101 into the mountains to the west of camp. In all, we climbed around 1,500 feet and road approximately 6 miles. The road was smooth and sandy and quite pleasant to ride on. The descent was super fast and fun. Throughout the ride our bear bells softly clanged to scare away any oversized fuzzy predators.

The dust we kicked up on the descent stuck to the sweat we worked up on the climb, so naturally we needed to clean up when we got back to camp. We ended up spending an hour or two in our swimwear down at the stream. First we cleaned up and relaxed in the shade with books and beer. Then we took to the water and played around. I've always enjoyed disrupting the flow of water, so I immediately decided to build what I called "The Great Channel". With two lines of rocks shaped in a V, I caused part of the stream to rush through a small opening-the channel. When the engineering marvel was complete, I celebrated by sending a few "rafters" down the channel. It was loads of fun.

Then Fern and I hiked in the cold water up the stream several hundred feet or so. On the way we were able to discover several "breams" (a name we made up for small "beaches" of sand at the bottom of the stream. [get it, "b" from "beach" and "ream" from "stream"?]). Also, the stream was home to wee flowers that belonged to some sort of water plant. While almost all of the green plants lived under water, a lot of the little white and pink flowers were able to bloom just on the surface of the flowing water. Very beautiful indeed. Finally, its worth noting that in several places cold water flowed out of the side of the banks. Also, I never did find a gold nugget.

When we returned to camp a new phase of the trip began. We didn't know what to do with ourselves. First, we enjoyed a nap in the tent. Then we just kicked some dust around. Next, we went for a walk down the dirt road. Dinner took no time at all. Thanks to Fern's snazzy new propane stove, it took less than 10 minutes to prepare our chilidogs. Dinner was quick, which left us with more time to wonder what we were supposed to do to entertain ourselves in the wilderness. I decided that we needed more beer, so I drove Fern's car five miles down the road to a "resort" near the resevoir. I spent nearly twenty dollars on a six pack of Michelob's finest dark beer. The drive to the resort and back was actually a lot of fun. The road was windy but safe and I used the opportunity to hone swift but safe driving skills.

Back at camp, Fern and I broke out our beloved smashmitten materials, our rackets and birdy. On average, our smashmitten match was "subpar", but we had some sessions that were so good, so amazing, they seemd miraculous. After smashmitten had accelerated our bodys' absorption of alcohol, we sat down and enjoyed a few games of Boggle. We opted to skip building a fire and headed off to bed fairly early, around 10pm. Of course all of our neighbors in the campground stayed up later. At the far end of the camp we had obnoxious hicks who insisted on playing their bass-heavy truck stereo hours into the night. On either side of us were small yelping dogs and small whining children. By the sound of it you'd think it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience; but actually none of the noises were that unusual or unexpected, and they did stop before it got too late (or early). Despite having to wrestle with my sleeping bag a couple of times to keep out the cold, I slept pretty well, considering.

Early Saturday morning it was so cold that I decided to keep sleeping in the tent until it warmed up a bit outside. We got up and made breakfast around 9:30 or so. Breakfast was "Little Sizzlers" and pancakes with blackberry syrup. Mmm mmm good! I was proud of myself for avoiding any major disasters while cooking the pancakes.

The biggest adventure of the trip was next. We packed up camp and loaded it in the car. We drove north on the main road towards Trinity Mountain. Before the road got too steep and trecherous, we parked, ate some lunch, and began riding our mountain bikes. For a second day, I was impressed with the quality of riding and the scenery we were experiencing. We certainly had to work, and we dealt with some intermittent heat, but by and large, it was one of the nicest mountain bike rides I've ever done. The second half of the ride was much harder than the first. We had already expended a good amount of energy before the road became steeper, rockier, and more exposed to the sun. Soon we began to wonder how much more rugged climbing we'd have to do before we came to our ideal destination-a mountain lake. We soldiered on for another couple of miles and another thousand feet of climbing until we came to a spot that offered some brilliant views of the mountains around us. The mountain side below us was filled with wildflowers. I didn't mind too much that we didn't make it too a mountain lake. I relished the feeling of being so high and having arrived there by my own power. I could understand how mountain climbing could be addictive.

The ride down the mountain took no time at all. I let Fern take the lead. She descended so quickly, there were times I wondered if I was going to be able to catch up to her. She rode faster than I've ever seen her ride a mountain bike before. And I know she had a lot of fun. We were both all smiles when we arrived at the car.

I drove us back home. On the way I had some good moments listening to The Killers and early Cranberries. By the time we arrived back in Boise, we were both dying for a shower.

And here we are at the end of my story. I never know how to conclude a blog, so I'll just do so with awkward silence....beginning now.........