Our wandering path
Yellow Pine: Pioneer perfection
A view of Yellow Pine.
Yellow Pine, Idaho, is rooting into in my heart.
It’s a modern pioneer town of about 50 people, 70 miles from the nearest town, carved out of the wilderness on the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River as a stopping point for miners. Its post office opened in 1906.
Every time we visit, we learn to love it a little more: its remoteness, its natural beauty, its unique residents, and its quirky rituals.
West to East chronicles: Day on the Niobrara in Nebraska, Soybeans on Iowa 3, Grounded in Northern Illinois
A trestle over the Niobrara River on the Cowboy Recreation and Nature Trail, a rail to trail near Valentine, Nebraska.
A trestle over the Niobrara River on the Cowboy Trail, a rail to trail near Valentine, Nebraska.
September 15 – Day on the Niobrara in Nebraska
We wake up at a Conoco parking lot for truckers in Valentine, Nebraska, to the sound of one rig idling. Last night, the lot was partially filled with about a dozen semi-trailers. Shouts of Cornhusker football fans on game night rang from a bar next door. We’re here for a second time to enjoy the Niobrara, a National Scenic River. In 2013, Judy, Nate and I rented a Roadtrek for the first time. I was skeptical about living full-time in a 21-foot vehicle and wanted a trial run. Our float down the lazy river on a hot July afternoon near Smith Falls State Park was one of the highlights of our 10-day vacation. After that, I began to serious consider the possibilities of wandering full time. Our plan today is to hike on the Cowboy Recreation and Nature Trail, which stretches 189 miles from Valentine to Norfolk along an abandoned Chicago and Northwestern rail line. Our segment begins several miles east of Valentine at a signed turnout on U.S. 20. We double back toward Valentine, enjoying a view of the Niobrara from a trestle 150 feet above. The river, originating in Wyoming and fed by the Ogallala Aquifer, drains a region where the Rocky Mountain forest we’ve traveled for weeks gives way to box elder and bur oak, and where western short grass, the mixed-grass prairie of the Sandhills and eastern tall grass intersect. We travel in afternoon sun in northern Nebraska, crossing the 100th meridian and moving into greener ranch country above the river. An hour of solitude on the plains on Nebraska 12, at last interrupted by a passing vehicle.
Iowa soybean fields turning yellow.
September 16 – Soybeans on Iowa 3
Leaving Ponca State Park in Nebraska, on the bluffs of the Missouri River, we pass a flooded riverfront campground and boat launch. Late-summer runoff, unusually heavy, is pouring in this unchannelized stretch of the Missouri River. As we enter Iowa at Sioux City, hay fields are out and corn and soybeans are in. I follow the lead of William Least Heat Moon. Our “blue highway” through western Iowa is Iowa 3, a more intimate alternative to four lanes on U.S. 20. I stop at a roadside stand near Cherokee to buy sweet corn and tomatoes, summer staples of my boyhood in central Illinois. I ask the seller about yellowing leaves in soybean fields. Was it because of heavy spring rains? No, the bean fields always turn yellow at the end of growing season. I was red with embarrassment. I left soybean country for Arizona 40 years ago, returned to Illinois many times, but never in September. I’d lost touch with the harvest cycle.
The Epic Van getting a ride on a flatbed tow truck.
September 17 – Grounded in Northern Illinois
Sadly, there’s no time for rail trails in Iowa. We blow past the Hawkeye state. Judy and I gather groceries in Dubuque for a family reunion dinner in Freeport, Illinois. The Epic Van stammers a bit going up a hill in Dubuque on the way to the Mississippi River bridge. East of Galena, birthplace of Ulysses Grant, a bit of stammering turns into a whole lot of bucking and wheezing as we travel through steeper and steeper hills along U.S. 20, a route used by truckers. Near the top of hills, I edge onto the road shoulder as we slow under 30 mph with the pedal to the metal. Something’s not right, either with the transmission, or fuel system. (We filled up on biofuel about 50 miles ago.) We’re only 40 miles from Freeport. Surely we can limp in. Twenty-three miles from town, defeated, we turn off on a gravel road across from a herd of cattle and dial for a tow truck. It’s 3 p.m. Just before sundown at 7 p.m., the flatbed hauling vehicle we requested arrives. My cousin Jeanne and her husband, Dick, come from Freeport to rescue us. We load clothes and perishable food into their vehicle, and head back to pared-down dinner and lots of catching up on family comings and goings.
West to East chronicles: Holed up in Spearfish, Black Hills rail trail, Harsh realities in the Badlands
Walmart walking: The way to get in some steps on a rainy South Dakota day.
Walmart walking: The way to get in some steps on a rainy South Dakota day
September 12 – Holed up in Spearfish
Hard rain and winds whip The Epic Van at Walmart in Spearfish, South Dakota, and the forecast calls for no letup all day. We’re reduced to our least favorite option for getting in 10,000 steps a day, the Walmart walk. Raincoats will be cumbersome indoors, so we dash to the entrance. Under fluorescent sky, we begin our walk through blue and yellow signage with constant reminders of Everyday Low Price! (The tariff war with China must be making a lot of this stuff more expensive.) We’ve tried spicing up the walking routine, which we’ve done several dozen times over the years, by going Pac-Man, gobbling every aisle in a store. It’s dizzying. Gets old fast. The Spearfish store has an unobstructed perimeter walk around the box, old-school Walmart design. Updated stores are partitioned to funnel shoppers into the maw. We take a drive in the rain, scouting a section of the Michelson rail trail near Lead, South Dakota, and seek wi-fi at a Pilot truck stop in Rapid City to watch the Democratic presidential debate and camp.
Where Tom and Judy’s path met on our first shuttle hike on the Mickelson Trail, a rail-to-trail near Lead, South Dakota.
September 13 – Black Hills rail trail
As we cruise toward a rail trail in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the sun shines brightly for the first time since Idaho, eight days ago. Judy and I are doing our first shuttle hike, on the Mickelson Trail, a 108-mile biking and hiking route between Edgemont and Deadwood. If you are looking for ease of travel through steep terrain, nothing beats the gradual up-and-down gradient of a rail line. (This rail trail features smooth, fine gravel, though not all do.)
I start at Dumont trailhead at 9:30 a.m. and head north toward Lead, South Dakota, while Judy parks at the Sugarloaf Trailhead and hikes south toward Englewood to meet me. I stroll in a sweatshirt at 5,000 feet, climbing gently through Ponderosa pine, aspen and birch, dotted with slopes of knee-high emerald grass. I pass through open valley at Englewood, a railroad ghost town once named Ten Mile. In 1890, the town was a bustling junction for three lines: the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Black Hills & Ft. Pierre Railroad, and the Spearfish line, popular with tourists.
I meet Judy on mile seven, just before noon as temperatures warm up in the valley. In a half-mile or so we’re back under cover of the Black Hills forest for our return to The Epic Van. Our half-day shuttle hike worked perfectly. We’ll do it again.
A chicken pecks at the dirt floor of the “soddie,” whose original layers of sod (visible on wall) were shored up with boards a few years after it was built.
September 14 – Harsh realities in the Badlands
We begin our morning in Wall, South Dakota, parked on motel row on Main Street. Our plan was to camp last night in Badlands National Park at Sage Campground, but it was full. At least we drove out of the park under the glow of the harvest moon. After laundering and shopping (fixings for buffalo stew), we roll back to Badlands park. On the way, we stop at Prairie Homestead, one of the best-preserved sod houses in the United States. You can walk inside to examine earthen walls, cottonwood beams and a precious few milled planks used to build it in 1909. This was one of the last stretches of the Great Plains opened to the plow. Homesteaders, relying on about 13 inches of rain a year, said: “The government bet you 160 acres of land against $18.00 that you will starve to death before you live on the land five years.” The signs for hundreds of miles along South Dakota highways should lead to Prairie Homestead, instead of the drug store back in Wall. Later, we take a short, steep hike up to Saddle Pass, on the Badlands Wall, a 50-mile barrier that separates upper mixed-grass prairie from lower prairie to the southwest. I looked toward the White River bluffs in the distance, thinking about how grasshoppers, prairie fire, hail, sub-zero temperatures, blizzards and social isolation crushed homesteaders, forcing 80 to 90 percent of them to abandon their dreams in the Badlands.
West to East chronicles: Ivan Doig’s Montana, Business agenda and proselytizing and Going senior with yoga
The rolling Little Belt Mountains, where author Ivan Doig grew up.
The rolling Little Belt Mountains, where author Ivan Doig grew up.
September 10 – Ivan Doig’s Montana
Our rough outline for West to East travel has us in the Black Hills of South Dakota in four days. We should travel directly there, but the lure of the Little Belt Mountains is too big. Today is a drive-by, a 280-mile loop through low-slung, rounded mountains of pasture and forest. It’s a day to ponder the lives of the “lariat proletariat,” mid-century sheep and cattle hands and their families who eked out a living here. Ivan Doig describes it all wonderfully in This House of Sky. (Thanks to David McElwee for introducing us to Doig in a Dahl family holiday book exchange.)
Our drive-by begins at 11 a.m., taking us from the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin rivers at Missouri Headwaters State Park to Townsend. Then we travel east on U.S. 12 to White Sulphur Springs, which figures in Doig’s childhood. (It’s still a town of many drinking establishments; the springs warm a motel pool.) At a ranger station, an employee suggests a visit to Neihart, Doig’s birthplace. That would extend our day trip until dark. Instead, we travel on U.S. 89 and dip into the Little Belts, about a mile high, driving a few miles north of Sheep Creek before looping back. As we travel east on U.S. 12 along the southern edge of the Little Belts on the way to Harlowton, Judy reads from Roadside Geology of Montana about Madison limestone formation, lignite (coal) bands and the Crazy Mountains. She’s OK with reading from Roadside this afternoon, though sometimes I test her limits. We reach downtown Billings by 6:15 p.m., honoring Montana ranching with a ribeye and filet at Jake’s. We bed down at a nearby Walmart.
Judy and Tom Southern, a historical interpreter at Little Bighorn, who may soon be another full-time nomad.
September 11 – Business agenda and proselytizing
Just as we launder clothing and clean The Epic Van on a 12-day cycle, we pick a place for a half day of business every week. Today’s agenda: shopping, blogging, prescription pickup, scheduling a family visit in Illinois and RV dump. We begin at 8:30. I shop for groceries; Judy reminds me to get more mouse traps. She’s bagged two since Idaho; peanut butter was licked off one trap last night. At Walgreens, I learn a prescription called in two days ago isn’t ready, and cancel it. Our RV dump app led us to a wastewater treatment facility without facilities for us. Business half-days often turn out to be close to an eight-hour shift. Traveling southeast on Interstate 90, we turn off at Little Bighorn Battlefield at 4:15 p.m. The visitor center and roads that overlook the 1876 battleground close at 6 p.m. Immediately, a man on a bicycle says hello and really wants to see The Epic Van. We can’t say no. Judy has invited about 200 or so curious folks into The Epic Van during the last five years, but no one was more enthusiastic than Tom Southern, a volunteer historical interpreter for the park service. He was smitten with the functionality of The Epic Van and the dream of full-timing. I predict he will be a road brother soon. Judy and I hurried through the visitor center, bought A Terrible Glory, Custer and the Little Bighorn, by James Donovan, then drove along grassy hillocks and coulees of the battlefield, viewing river plain where 7,000 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho camped, and Last Stand Hill, where Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and about 210 men of the 7th Cavalry were surrounded and killed. A park service vehicle herded The Epic Van and other stragglers out of the park at 6:15 p.m. We saved the day from routine, working overtime to witness history and proselytize for life on wheels.
Tom rockin’ his side plank at The Hub (senior center) in Sheridan, Wyoming.
September 12 – Going senior with yoga
Our plan was to camp and hike a little in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains near Buffalo, Wyoming, for two days. It’s much too rainy for that, and it’s a bit too cold, mid-50s, for park yoga, even if we found a pavilion for shelter. From the Walmart parking lot in Sheridan, Wyoming, I call The Hub, a senior center with a trendier name, and ask if they have a room or wide hallway to roll out two yoga mats. There are classes in the exercise room until 11 a.m., but we’re welcome to use the space afterward. The Hub is modern and well-appointed with a busy café and a spacious exercise room with large windows overlooking a park. It’s a luxury to have a level floor to move through our hour-long routine. We thank several employees for their welcome and leave a small donation After lunch and a shower in The Hub parking lot, we roll on Interstate 90 to Spearfish, South Dakota, through patches of rain.
West to East chronicles – Lodgepoles get in our way, Our beautiful Idaho 75 and Hiking and hunting on the Nez Perce Trail
Downed trees along Idaho 75 during a thunderstorm.
Downed trees along Idaho 75 during a thunderstorm.
September 6 – Lodgepoles get in our way
We peek at steam rising from Kirkham Hot Springs before leaving for Stanley, Idaho, a likely spot for an RV dump and groceries. At noon, we rush to fill our water tanks at Redfish Lake under a sprinkle and depart as thunderstorm clouds bulge. Pounding rain and hail strike as we travel north on Idaho 75. Wind gusts of 40-50 mph tug at the Epic Van as two Lodgepole pines, about 30 feet tall, snap and fall in front of our vehicle. We skirt them and decide to wait out the storm in Stanley. There’s a flash flood warning and red flag (high-wind warning) until 6 p.m. on the road to Salmon, according to Judy’s weather app. We decide to stay at the edge of the Sawtooth Wilderness tonight. We tour the visitor center at Redfish Lake, site of the world’s longest, 900 miles, and highest, 7,200 feet, spawning route to the Pacific for Chinook salmon. Less than 100 natural Chinook, and a few hundred hatchery Chinook, made it back to Redfish Lake last month. Once, thousands of spawning Chinook gave the lake its name. On an interpretive nature walk, we walk along a terminal moraine, an indicator of glaciers that formed the lake. A boardwalk leads over marshy terrain, flush with willows and beaver dams. In the distance, 57 peaks in the Sawtooth Mountains rise over 10,000 feet. We end our afternoon with a short hike along Fishhook Creek trail, amid Rocky Mountain fir, lodgepole pine and sagebrush. A couple from Idaho Falls leads us to a pocket of calm water on roaring Fishhook Creek, pointing to native fish idling. At 6 p.m., we find a spot at nearby Sunny Gulch Campground. Overnight low is forecast at 37. The furnace is set for the first time this summer, 55 degrees, our sleep comfort number.
Stripped lodgepole pine trunks in the Indian Trees Campground, a reminder of Native Americans here in the 1800s.
September 7 – Our beautiful Idaho 75
Today we’ll be tracing the first 100 miles or so of the Chinook migration route north to Salmon, Idaho, on pavement. At 8 a.m., Judy and I begin a gentle descent in morning fog along the Salmon River. Judy reads the first chapter of The Enchanted Hour, the Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction. We see a man with coffee mug lounging in a hot spring. We agree that this stretch of Idaho 75 is among the most scenic we’ve wandered in five years. We stop at Sunbeam Dam, the only one ever built on the Salmon. It was partially demolished in the 1930s to reopen salmon travel. We leave conifers, dipping under the cloud layer to a soft brown contours and green fields, then stop at a buffalo jump, a ledge used by Shoshone hunters. (Bighorn sheep also live here on rocky cliffs.) There’s a sign for a farmers’ market in Challis. We grab squash, green beans and fresh eggs. We leave Idaho 75 in Salmon for the road through the Bitterroot Mountains and Lost Pass. At 4 p.m., we arrive at Indian Trees campground, near Sula, Mont., for chair time. On a tall, tilted Ponderosa pine at site 10, there’s evidence of Bitterroot Salish. In spring, as pine sap flows, they stripped away portions of bark, using the tree’s cambium layer for food. Many wide Ponderosa pines in the campground were peeled from 1835 to 1890.
Terry, a hunter from Darby, told us people were definitely stalking game where we were hiking.
September 8 – Hiking and hunting on Nez Perce Trail
We depart camp near U.S. 93 on the sanitized thoroughfare to Lost Pass, but seek hiking and history on the ancestral route of Nez Perce. I rely on Forest Service ranger stations for local maps, but none were available. We look for road signs on U.S. 93 for the Nez Perce or Lewis and Clark hiking trails. At a trailhead, a map shows where the Nez Perce trail overlaps with a parking spot. We begin our hike at Chief Joseph Pass campground, at 7,200 feet. It’s cloudy and about 60 degrees. We hike on the Continental Divide Trail in Rocky Mountain firs and lodge pole pines, past a network of cross-country ski trails. We reach Gibbon Pass Road, one of the most historic paths in Montana, tread by animals, aboriginals, explorers, fur trappers and pioneers. At an overlook, we gaze toward Indian Trees camp and the road to Sula below. Back at the trailhead, we say hello to Terry, a hunter in camouflage from nearby Darby, Montana. I ask if anyone hunts around the ski area. He nods yes. Judy and I will be buying something bright orange to hike during hunting season. We spend an hour or so at Big Hole National Battlefield, which honors between 60 and 90 Nez Perce killed in 1877, many of them children and women, in an attack by U.S. soldiers and volunteers led by Col. John Gibbon. Thirty-one soldiers and volunteers died in two days of fighting. We travel east on Montana 43 along the Big Hole River toward Butte. Our day ends under steady rain just off Interstate 90, at Headwaters State Park, near Three Forks, Montana.
Hiking the Oregon Dunes: A lesson in ecosystem destruction
A view of the Oregon Dunes. Vegetation is taking over just past the water line.
Our hike through the Oregon Dunes was a lesson in how man can screw up nature, wrecking perfectly functioning ecosystems, probably beyond repair.
We’ve hiked other dunes in Indiana, Michigan, Oregon, Colorado and the gypsum sands in White Sands, New Mexico. So I was expecting to be slipping and sliding my way up and over shifting peaks. Instead, other than a few, small patches of sand, we were trudging over stable trails, under the shade of tall trees, hemmed in by bushes. What the hell kind of dunes were these?
Well, they’re dunes altered by man’s ignorance.
Selma to Montgomery: Marches, lynchings and sweet voices of hope
The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where the march to Montgomery began.
In March, we drove through Alabama, just a week before the anniversary of the 1965 civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, and we paused to witness the racial struggle still happening in our country.
We walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and as we reached the crest, I could hear the voice of one of the marchers from the spoken history at Selma’s Interpretive Center. She saw Sheriff Jim Clark and his goons waiting for them: “I knew we were going to get beat.”
We followed the road the marchers eventually took to Montgomery, the fields where they slept, now marked with plaques, and made our way to the newest twinned museum and monument, the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, which traces the direct line from slavery to lynching to forced labor to today’s mass incarceration, and the searing National Memorial to Peace and Justice, which documents the unprosecuted, officially sanctioned, serial lynchings across the south.
And we attended Sunday services at Montgomery’s First Baptist Church where we saw community sadness, solidarity and struggle, along with hope for the future.
Sedona hikes: West Fork, Boynton Canyon and Courthouse Butte
The West Fork Trail near Sedona, Arizona, meanders beneath tall sandstone walls.
Sedona has an embarrassment of rich hiking trails. Earlier this spring, we took three:
West Fork Trail in Oak Creek Canyon
Distance: Two miles (You can go farther if you like.)
Time: About 1 hour, longer if you meander, take photos or play in the water.
Elevation gain/loss: 100 feet
Difficulty: Easy
We’ve been on this trail before, and it never disappoints. It’s an easy trail along the Coconino sandstone cliffs that crosses back and forth over Oak Creek. You can tiptoe over boulders, downed trees, or splash right through. Much of the trail is shaded by Ponderosa pines, Douglas firs, box elders, cottonwoods, walnuts, maple and oaks. And wildflowers grow in abundance. There are lots of other hikers here, but it’s cool, relaxing, with the constant sound of running water. In the book, 100 Classic Hikes: Arizona, author Scott Warren says the trail extends up to 6 miles, becoming overgrown and eventually just following the creek bed, with an elevation gain of 200 feet. We’ve never ventured that far.
Boynton Canyon
Distance: Six miles round trip
Time: About 3 hours
Elevation gain/loss: 350 feet
Difficulty: Easy
The Boynton Canyon hike snakes up the side of a canyon overlooking a resort then follows a drainage through sandstone walls. The trail meanders through manzanita, oaks, pines, and cypress and, when we visited, lots of wildflowers. We got caught in a brief rain shower that left everything sparkling with drops of water.
Courthouse Butte Loop
Distance: 4 ¼ mile loop
Time: About 3 hours
Elevation gain/loss: 250 feet
Difficulty: Easy/moderate
The Courthouse Butte Loop circles the large formation and provides amazing views of the red-rock country. You climb along slick rock and through rocky washes on the mostly exposed sides of the formation. Even though we were there in early spring, it was warm, so be sure to bring plenty of water. And your camera, because you won’t believe the panoramas from every side.
Note: Remember to take plenty of water, snacks and proper clothing. Even in Spring, it can get very hot.
West to East chronicles: The road to Salmon
Tom and Judy luxuriating in Kirkham Hot Spring, near Lowman, Idaho, a terrace that flows into the south fork of the Payette River.
Judy and I are renewing our nomadic creed for our longest road trip since we began our Epic Van journey in 2015. We pledge to use best practices learned over nearly 100,000 miles of wandering to make our journey from Oregon to Maryland, and back to Arizona, our most rewarding adventure yet. For us, best practice revolves on slow rhythm and simplicity: wake up rested, stop for a few minutes every day and appreciate our natural heritage and neighbors; witness our history, through trails, landmarks, museums and roadside oddities; read something from a book and share one together; improve healthfulness through diet and hiking, and blog about it a little bit more! So here goes, ongoing installments of West to East chronicles (starting from the bottom, most recent on top):
Tom and Judy luxuriating in Kirkham Hot Spring, near Lowman, Idaho, a terrace that flows into the south fork of the Payette River.
September 5 – Blah camp turns to wow
We do yoga at Cascade Lake under layer of clouds in late morning, our first shelter from sun since we arrived in Idaho seven days ago. We’re headed for Salmon, Idaho, about 240 miles east. After lunch and blogging in Cascade, it’s already 3 p.m. Getting to Salmon isn’t happening. I see a cluster of camp symbols on our atlas, east of Lowman. We’ll pick one and have chair time before sundown. Led by intuition, I pass by several shaded campgrounds, confident of bigger stands of trees ahead. Wrong assumption. It’s 5:30 p.m., time to settle into to Kirkham Campground. Seems there’s more pavement than trees. Circling for a camp site, we see a day-use area and discover a HOT SPRINGS sign. We rush to park and pay, slipping into bathing suits we seldom use. We descend from the day use area into a cluster of terraced pools emptying into the south fork of the Payette River. We choose a partially shaded pool with smooth recliner-style rocks to support us. Water temperature was perfect, warm, about 110 degrees, but not sweaty. All that for $7.50 a night.
A plane taking off from Jackson Creek Airport five miles up the creek from Yellow Pine.
September 4 – Bryant Ranch and Henry Ford
We stay an extra day in Yellow Pine so Judy has a web connection to find out if she will be exhibiting at the Tempe Festival of the Arts in December. Unfortunately, Periwinkle Polka Dot, which sells upcycled clothing for girls, is wait-listed. Judy and her business partner, Tami, may have to sell on Etsy for the holidays. Judy, Ann and I hop on ATVs for a visit to Bryant Ranch. We stop and say hello to Barry, who’s tying down his plane at Johnson Creek Airport after doing some business in McCall this morning. There have been about 20 takeoffs and landings already, a lot of air traffic for a day after Labor Day.
We climb a road to Bryant Ranch and the White House, perched at the southern end of the airstrip, an alfalfa field the family donated. The White House and occupants almost took a direct hit from a plane crash not so long ago. Our friend Teri gives us a tour of their family home, a two-story home, built in 1925, furnished with the first bathroom plumbing in Johnson Creek. (A Lennox wood furnace, original equipment, still warms the home.) Teri points to a photo of a 1920s Fordson tractor, a rare prototype model given by Henry Ford to H.H. Bryant for his alfalfa field. Decades later, the tractor was donated to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. (Henry Ford married H.H. Bryant’s sister, Clara Jane, in 1888.) Teri says family members still use the home as a timeshare in spring, summer and fall, but never in winter. We return to Yellow Pine, say goodbye to Jeff and Ann and leave at 3:30 p.m. for the 65-mile drive back to civilization in Cascade, via the South Fork of Salmon River. The one-lane forest service road, repaved in sections and with roadbed improvements, is a lot easier on The Epic Van than the 40 or so miles of washboard to McCall. By the time we get to Cascade and resupply with food and fuel, it’s sundown at our overnight camp at Cascade Lake.
Jeff and laptop on the perfect Yellow Pine, Idaho porch.
Sept. 3 Jeff and Ann’s porch
Jeff and Ann fell in love with Yellow Pine on a backroad motorcycle adventure. Jeff, a paramedic and former director of an emergency medical-transport company, and Ann, a nurse, with specialties in emergency-medical response and search and rescue, worked in Denver, where they raised two daughters. Jeff came to know central Idaho when he responded to a large fire in 2006, which threatened Yellow Pine. Jeff and Ann rolled into town on motorcycles in 2007 during Harmonica Festival weekend, agreeing to stay and treat anyone who needed medical help. They found the remote town intriguing and began scouting for a place to live. Like Judy and I, Jeff and Ann decided to leave city jobs in their late 50s and begin a new chapter in life. While Judy and I have completely disconnected from work, Jeff and Ann are always on call in Yellow Pine for medical emergencies, from April to November. Fortunately, they take time off in the winter to pursue their passion for trail bikes in the McDowell Mountains near Phoenix. Although they ride boldly in their four-wheel-drive Sprinter and we wander with tenderfeet in The Epic Van, the four of us immediately hit it off. The crowning feature of Jeff and Ann’s home, which they built, is a broad enclosed porch on south and west. It’s the perfect place to share a lifetime of work and family stories and bask in deep solitude. Jeff asks, “How’s your Zen doing here?” It’s usually very good on the road but it’s off the charts here.
A hard-cider bottle marks the hole at the Yellow Pine Golf Course. Sparkly balls help you find you misplaced shot among brush and downed branches.
August 31 – Game trail and golf in Yellow Pine
We begin our morning in Yellow Pine, Idaho, camped at the home of Jeff and Ann Forster, friends we met camping at Cochise Stronghold in Arizona during our first year in The Epic Van. Ann was our guide on a three-mile game trail circling Yellow Pine, population 50ish. The town, at 4,700 feet, is a flat surrounded by steep mountain ridges in the Boise and Payette National forests. We pass above the outskirts of town to the north and say hello to Sherry Gordon, who spends hours removing noxious thistle near her cabin. On the edge of town, we stroll past an outfitters’ home and horses and say hello to Margaret Libby, who wants to finish home remodeling before cold weather sets in.
On the eastern edge of town, we walk through a sunny forest floor as Yellow and Ponderosa pines filter midday heat. Along the southern edge of the game trail, Ann directs us to the “Bathtub,” a granite bowl in the riverbed scoured by spring runoff. It’s near the confluence of Johnson Creek and the East Fork. We watch amateur prospectors sifting gravel in a sluice box, then climb up to the trail finish our walk along the East Fork. Clear, sun-sparkled water rolling over smoothed granite is tinted pale green.
A golf tournament, which benefits the community of Yellow Pine, is scheduled a half hour after the Boise State football game ends. Those who celebrated a big victory over Florida State at the Yellow Pine Tavern join a dozen or so golfing pairs gathered near a tent at the first hole. The only rules: Best ball and one club-length limit when moving a golf ball from an obstructed lie. The 18-hole course is on Forest Service land where “the fairways aren’t fair and the greens aren’t green.” Only minor alterations – patches of compacted gravel for putting surfaces and tee boxes marked with rocks – have been made.
Legend has it that distances for the holes were determined by how far a softball could be thrown. Bonafide golfers who loft shots can avoid some of the rocks, tree branches and brush surrounding the putting surface. (I couldn’t.) Jeff, Ann, Judy and I laughed our way through the round. An ATV loaded with beer, soda and meatloaf sandwiches kept us refreshed. It was a Labor Day event we will never forget.
Teri, (clockwise, from left) Ann, Diana, Tom, Chuck, Barry and Jeff, at the great taco picnic on Jeff and Ann’s lawn.
September 1 – Red and blue picnic
Lorinne, barkeep at the Yellow Pine Tavern, a favorite of locals, came by with a question about submitting her state liquor-license renewal to Boise. She came here from Berkeley, a blue-state woman in a relationship with Doug, a red-state man and outfitter. They share a love of camping and navigate political differences over President Trump. Ann and Jeff mention that guests for tonight’s taco bar/corn roast will be similarly split.
Judy and I cook the groceries we brought from McCall, while Jeff and Ann prepare table and settings for an evening picnic on their lawn. We welcome Chuck and Teri, a couple who love to hunt and fish together. They left Boise to live at Bryant Ranch full time. Barry and Diana, own Wapiti Meadow Ranch on Johnson Creek, a vacation destination with cabins and guided fishing tours. Barry, a former commercial pilot and outdoor tour operator, flies to McCall, about 50 miles by road, taking off from a park-like grass airstrip nearby. Fifteen minutes in a plane to run errands is more enjoyable than a couple of hours on washboard road, he says. We learn about the history of Bryant Ranch and family ties to Henry Ford, enjoying conversation with grilled Mexican street corn, roasted chicken tacos, coleslaw and black beans. At the end of the evening, we tell Chuck and Teri we hope to see them again at a winter reunion of townies at Sue and Steve’s place in Yuma, dubbed Yellow Pine South.
Elliott the Elk sticking his nose in a truck window for a pet. (From IdahoNews.com)
September 2 – Elliott the Elk and Deputy Dave
Dave, a Valley County sheriff’s deputy, stops by to say hello. “Did you hear about Elliott on social media?” We say no. Elliot the Elk, domesticated as a calf, was hanging out too close to forest service campgrounds in Bear Valley. Two lariats could not hold him, but a net cannon brought in by fish and game employees did. Elliot’s capture coincides with the start of archery season. Dave reported cars parked everywhere along forest service roads as bow hunters stalk elk up mountain. Labor Day weekend is a stressful time for Dave, who pursued violators of forest service rules near Deadwood Reservoir. “Too many flatlanders think they can go anywhere.”
Tom hiking the Rail to Trail along the Weiser River near Cambridge, Idaho.
August 29 – Rails to trails on Weiser River
I’ve been looking forward to this day since we left Arizona on July 15. I finally get to use my new TrailLink app, $29 a year, and walk a piece of the Weiser River National Recreation Trail, 84 miles of bike and hike trail along an abandoned Union Pacific Railroad line in southwest Idaho.
Judy and I get up at 6 a.m. to avoid a forecast high of 95 and find our segment of the trail between Cambridge and Midvale. We begin at 8:30 a.m. under the shelter of high clouds with temps in the 70s. We immediately lose the rail trail, wandering onto a farm-service road that leads to a cobbled flood channel of the Weiser. We backtrack to the rail trail, at about 4,600 feet, and the flowing portion of the Weiser, sluggish in August. We stroll south for several miles on packed gravel, walking along tall grass, sagebrush and farms above. We see grouse, pheasant and a coyote. Judy takes a photo of bear scat. On the way back, a cattle herd matches our footsteps for several hundred yards, escorting us to the border fence. Were they looking for a snack?
We get back to The Epic Van at noon and eat lunch. In McCall, Idaho, we get Labor Day weekend groceries. Judy shops for more yarn. We spend the night in Crown Point camp at Cascade Lake, off Idaho 55. I mention our hike along the Weiser rail trail to our camp host, who lives in Boise. She looks at me incredulously. It’s WEESER, not WYSER.
A bear paw and vials of Chinese medicines in the Kam Wah Chung in John Day, Oregon.
August 28 – Kam Wah Chung: historical treasure
We reluctantly depart our paradise in Dayville, Oregon, at 10:30 a.m. As we drive along the John Day River valley past lush alfalfa fields and bulky cattle, we organize our day. Shade will be our most important priority with temps expected in the low 90s. We find sheltering cottonwoods to post our nomadic news, call family and have lunch at a park next to Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site. It’s almost 2 p.m. We really need to make some miles to reach a camp near Ontario, Oregon, but it’s almost impossible for us to leave a heritage site without exploring it. We go to the interpretive center and sign up for a tour of one of the oldest and best preserved Chinese mercantile stores in the West. The partnership of Ing “Doc” Hay and Lung On and their remarkable store, which served as a house of worship, pharmacy, general store, library, gambling and opium den, music hall, mail-order outlet and hotel is fascinating. Their devotion to community is worthy of a separate post. We did get to Ontario, Oregon, but had to give up our plan of camping along the Snake River, settling for a Walmart. We called to confirm that RVers are welcome.
Tom dining at the Fish House Inn and RV Park in Dayville, Oregon.
August 27 – Missed Barnhouse, found camp gem
Our agenda: Finish yoga in Springfield, Oregon, by 9 a.m., tour lava fields near McKenzie Pass at midday, fix our broken waste-disposal nozzle and wash salt off The Epic Van in Redmond by 5 p.m., and camp somewhere near Mitchell, Oregon, before sundown. We cruise in our air-conditioned bubble as shadows lengthen and temps in the 90s linger. We’re bound for Barnhouse campground in Ochoco National Forest. There’s no sign for a camp along U.S. 26, but there’s a Forest Service road to the south. I take it, but we can’t connect to Mr. Google to confirm the location. Judy worries that it’s getting dark in the Ponderosa forest. How do I know this is the road to Barnhouse? I smell it, I declare. Judy is unimpressed. We turn around after three miles. (Later, we discover our turnaround was two miles short of Barnhouse.) It’s almost sundown when we arrive at Fish House Inn and RV park, a quaint oasis in the heart of Dayville, Oregon, population 145. David, our camp host, gives us an overflow spot for $25. It was on the front lawn, and we had it to ourselves. If you are visiting John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Fish House camp is the place to overnight. Rate with hookup is $35 a night.
Two catwalks lead visitors above portions of Sweet Creek near Mapleton, Oregon.
August 26 – Heading east: Waterfalls to Walmart
We go east on Oregon 126 toward Mapleton, crossing a bridge on the Siuslaw, then doubling back on the river to find Sweet Creek. We hike up past waterfalls lined by alder and maple in filtered sunshine and temps in the 70s. Jumpers plunge into pools, but exit quickly to sunbathe on basalt banks.
We walked back to the trailhead with Janet Runger and a friend. Janet displays her assemblage art at Crow’s Nest Gallery & Studio in Toledo, Oregon. We promise to visit her gallery next year.
On our way to Eugene, we realize that the beep in The Epic Van may be from a dying carbon monoxide monitor instead of a low battery. By the time we buy it, it’s nearly 6 p.m. We face the nomad’s dilemma. Too late for chair time at camp. Do we pay $30 just to snooze comfortably at a county park or camp at a Walmart in Springfield? Most Walmarts welcome RVers, but when we called this one, the assistant said no. There are no signs prohibiting overnight parking. By 10 p.m., we were the only camping rig left in the parking lot. That’s very unusual. Luckily, we slept in peace.
Camp tea, which we perfected with friends Jen and Reg in the Redwoods.
August 25 – From morning to starlight
We finally do all-day camp. It’s Sunday, our fourth day of sun and temps in the high 60s. Outdoor-loving folks under 35 and middle-age parents and their kids go back to the city. There is much less energy. Old-timers are lounging and hosts are manicuring campsites.
It’s a well-rounded day of yoga, blogging, reading (The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren), walking the Captain Cook Trail with Judy and seeing some tide pools, putting together Swedish meatballs on cauliflower, sparring with Judy over the proper placement of logs during a five-hour campfire, enjoying tea with scotch and gazing at constellations with the help of SkyView Life. It was the perfect finale to our Cape Perpetua visit. It’s definitely a four-star camp, our highest rating.
If you don’t have time to camp, stop at the visitor center, walk a few minutes through old-growth rainforest and behold a nearly 600-year-old Sitka spruce.
Dinner by sunset at Ocean Beach, near our campsite at Cape Perpetua in Oregon.
August 24 – Half-day camp and sunset dining
When we stay for more than three nights at a camp, we spend at least one them for all-day camp. Saturday was our day to park The Epic Van.
Unfortunately, we hear beeping about 10 a.m. Must be a low battery warning. That will require some early evening drive time.
We agree on half-camp day: a ranger-led tour at the visitor center on trees and forest as inspiration for art. (Didn’t know panic comes from the Greek god whose sounds from the woods frightened man and beast.) I take a short hike to the top of the cape on Saint Perpetua trail, about 800 feet above camp.
We make the most of the two hours of recharging. We refuel, pick up some beer, dump our tanks, get lots of firewood and finish with sunset dining at Ocean Beach. Never would have seen it without that beep.
Tom hiking on the Alder Dune trail.
Aug. 23 – Can’t get enough dunes
I love to walk in dunes as much as Judy loves chair time at a warm California beach. I’ve sunken my Keens along with Judy into the towering peaks of Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, the sand and woodland of Indiana Dunes National Seashore, the scorching heat and ripples of Imperial Sand Dunes Recreational Area near Yuma, Arizona, and my favorite, the endless snowy gypsum crests at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.
Our hike today begins a few miles north of Florence from the Alder Dune day use area. It’s a four-mile round trip to a viewpoint on Sutton Creek with views of lumpy sage-tinted coastal dunes. The trail cuts through a sandy scrub-woodland zone. Salam and beach pines dominate; visible sands dunes are rare. To build roads and expand commerce along 100 miles of dancing sands on the central Oregon coast, the Forest Service introduced European beach grass in the early 20th century. For more on the unintended consequences of imported grass and broom, look for Judy’s upcoming post on Oregon dune history.
Aug. 22 – One happy Down Dog customer
We go south, traveling along wind-carved Sitka spruce, sheer basalt bluffs and sun-sparkled parcels of beach to the grassy sand dunes of Florence. We make phone calls to Arizona, wish Judy’s sister Nancy a happy birthday, and find a comfortably warm yoga spot at Miller Park.
I’m very happy with beginning yoga from our new yoga teacher on Down Dog. She does a great job of describing positions and giving points of emphasis on better form as we roll through a session that focuses on core strength. It’s more aerobically challenging than our old app, but in a good way. Great lower back stretch, too.
Judy is mildly irked by the testerone-fueled one-upsmanship of teenage guys swooping up and down a skateboard park on scooters. “We own this place. Get down to the park,” they tell a friend by phone. (Are they saying something about acid? Oh, dear!) “We’ll be here all day.” I remember summer days of freedom when I was a teen chasing a good time in central Illinois, but often came up short. Give the guys a break, I say.
Our Cape Perpetua campsite is surrounded by green.
Later Aug. 21 – Finding perfect camp at Cape Perpetua
We head south on the Oregon coast along U.S. 101, enjoying sea islands, rolling surf and gentle rain. Problem is we’re noticing scores of recreational vehicles and camp trailers as we scout for a five-night camp south of Lincoln City. We’re putting our faith in unscripted travel to the test during peak season. We roll into Cape Perpetua campground in the Suislaw National Forest on Wednesday at 4 p.m. There are five open sites, confirming my hunch that pleasant sites without hookups for power and sewer are available on weekdays. (Our camp filled by Friday night.)
It’s too rainy to get the chairs out so I cook ahead, putting together a ginger soy pot roast with quinoa, carrots and green beans. Judy reads aloud from Heart Earth by Ivan Doig. The forecast is sunny for the rest of our week.
Whalen Island Campground, where we lingered and watched the gulls in the mist.
August 21
We liked camp so much at Whalen Island Park in Tillamook County that we spent the whole morning.
From our bed, we watched steel grey clouds descend into the Sand Lake estuary and listened to raindrops tapping on our windshield.
Sea gulls landed on the opposite shore but didn’t seem to linger. A camp host said the gulls cry out if eagles, ospreys or red-tail hawks are patrolling above. Kayakers are nice to watch, too.
We often see campers roll out at 7 or 8 in the morning. We seldom do, having the luxury of time. The best moment of the day sometimes occurs before I finish my tea and leave The Epic Van.
Camp fees at Whalen Island are $38 a night, including RV dump and fresh water. I’d give the place three stars.
Summer weekdays are especially nice. It gets crowded on weekends.
August 20
Judy and I pledge to do yoga more regularly on this trip, but morning temps were in the mid-50s, too cold for our Arizona-acclimatized bodies. We figured it would be warmer in Tillamook, Oregon, by late morning, and it was. We set up mats on a tennis court and opened our new, cheaper yoga app, Down Dog. (Our old favorite, Yoga Studio, raised its annual subscription rate to $100. Down Dog is $35 a year.)
Our session was doomed from the start. First, clatter from construction on a home nearby made it difficult to hear our new instructor. Second, intermediate yoga on Down Dog was more impossibly pretzel-like than our old yoga app. Then, a woman sits down for lunch nearby and tells us she’s a yoga teacher. Flooded with insecurity, I stiffen and stumble, unable to follow unfamiliar commands from my virtual yoga teacher as a real one looms. Nate called. The midday sun roared out. We quit in the middle of our planned 60-minute session. It was the first time since we began doing yoga together four years ago that we rose from the mat in defeat. Later at lunch, Judy downloaded a beginner yoga session from our new app and discovered a feature to slow the speed of spoken instruction. Breath in, let your heart rise. Breath out. I must present my yoga spirit to the world,
One of the cool squirrel bridges over the streets in Longview, Washington, where we attended Squirrel Fest with the Dahls.
whatever the place.
August 19
We crawl out on our estimated 8,000 mile journey, departing Longview, Washington.
The friends-and-family phase of our journey from Arizona, through Death Valley and Yosemite, over to Carmel, Calif., and north along the Pacific coast is complete. (See Judy’s post for how she got her mojo back for details.)
I wake at 8 a.m., run 2.5 miles and walk a mile on the Lake Sacajawea loop, breakfast on Leslie Dahl’s fine homemade granola, sort surplus books that must be sent back to Arizona because of two recent visits to Powell’s City of Books in Portland. (Meanwhile, Judy is preparing to ship a record-setting stack of gifts bound for six locations.)
We hit the road at 11:15 a.m. By the time we finish mailing at UPS and the post office, refilling propane, dumping waste water, buying groceries and having lunch in the Safeway parking lot, it’s 2 p.m.
Our original destination, a camp near Lincoln City, Oregon, about 150 miles away, conflicts with mandatory afternoon “chair time,” which begins at 4 p.m. Our revised destination is Big Eddy Park near Vernonia, Oregon, about 35 miles from our starting point. We register and park by 3:50 p.m., then lounge under red cedars and big-leaf maples. It’s sunny with temperatures in the mid-60s. Beers are out. Dinner prep is under way. A new north-African stew recipe featuring ras el hanout, amaranth, chicken, sweet potato and red peppers met with Judy’s approval, and mine. Everything is glorious at Big Eddy, except the $5 “transaction fee” for one night stays with no reservation.
How I lost, then found, my mojo
When I lost my mojo, even this beautiful road view in Death Valley left me listless.
For the first time in five years, I lost my mojo. Then I found it.
Actually, since we started this amazing adventure, it’s been pretty smooth sailing, and complaining about any small problems just seemed in bad taste, seeing as how most people our age are still working, and we’re living the endless-road-trip dream-life. I mean, come on, stop sniveling, you ungrateful assholes.
But this summer began as the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad summer (with some fabulous, very good, extra great moments).
Nomads and the civilised look at each other with disapproval and misunderstanding. Why would anyone want to wander the wilderness and live in a tent? Why would anyone want to live in a box and obey unnecessary masters?
Ali, Mostly we’ve found people think it’s really cool. Many tell us they dream of being able to wander the world. Are you a nomad?