Search results

That Kelty adjustable is good pole for this purpose. Pricier than many others, but worth it. It's a nice balance between length and compactness, sturdy without being too heavy. The adjustibility is useful at times, and so far I have not had any problems with the mechanism. In the attached...

Does anyone have an idea of how much a bobtail compact-truck Wildernest weighs? My son is considering taking the 'nest off his S10 (to improve gas use), and is wondering how many friends he needs to invite over to lift it. Also, any suggestions on how to remove it, and how to best store it...

In Washington, I took Flowery Trail past the 49deg North ski area, and then a county road over another pass to Gifford on Lake Roosevelt (Columbia River). Here there is a small free ferry across the reservoir. Then it was across the Colville Indian Reservation to Nespelem. With more scattered...

We then took a side trip north to Priest Lake. I tried to drive to the Granite Ck falls, but had to turn back at the 'shoe tree'. This route continues on to Metaline Washington. We had a good hike to Upper Priest Lake from the Beaver Ck campground. That night we had the campground to...

We camped just north of Salmon at BLM Morgan Bar, a site on the Salmon river, complete with sun shelters. We encountered snow showers at Lost Trail Pass (7000'). I opted not to visit another Nez Perce battlefield, Big Hole, some 15 miles east of the past on MT 43. We had a swim and lunch at...

Continuing on to Stanley (ID 21) we stopped for a soak and lunch at Bonneville Hot Springs (free). With high water it was hard to find a soaking spot in the pools down by the creek, but we had the old bathhouse and its tub all to ourselves. Stanley was not all that inviting this early in...

Back on US95, I took the old 95 road down to White Bird on the lower Salmon River, with a stop to hike a bit at the White Bird Battlefield. This is one of many Nez Perce Indian sites in the two states. We camped at a BLM campground, and drove a bit into the hills on the west side of the river...

I had been planning on driving through the Blue Mountains, possibly from Tollgate to Troy OR, or from Pomeroy WA south, but with news of snow over the Memorial weekend, I just drove a bit into the hills south of Pomeroy before continuing to Lewiston At Grangeville I decided to explore up the...

I just completed a two week camping vacation in Idaho and Washington. For various reasons I stuck mostly to paved routes, with just a few side trips on gravel. A number of potential routes were still blocked by snow. We even encountered fresh snow on two passes (Lost Trail US93, Loup Loup...

Unfortunately the Pyromid portable grill is no longer in production. It's as compact, and very fuel efficient (normal 'fill' is 9 briquets). One hint from that system - line the grill with a large enough sheet of foil, and poke some ventillation holes. This simplifies cleanup considerably...

RVs have their main entrance on the passenger side, and hence the awning. Newer camp sites designed for RVs may be layed out with that in mind. The layout of older rustic sites is likely to be determined by the lay of the land and trees. I use a tarp that could be put over either side. But...

Here's a sunset shot from Deadhorse Pt. These are shadows on the rock wall below the narrows of the point, which I call the 'deadhorse men'. We camped at the state park, and walked around the point at sunset. paulj

Here's a link to an interesting site - an unofficial web site for a forest district office. Cle Elum is on I90 on the east side of the Washington Cascades. http://threedouglass.com/index.html I chose to put the link in this section because the home page has a couple of notes about spring road...

Your picture with the rock in the forground and a point in the back reminds me of one I that I call the 'Goofy Train' . I think we both got Deadhorse Pt (the Utah state park) in the background, but my angle is from further east (closer to Moab). paulj

Several years ago I explored this area in mid May, and crossed a number of those late season snow drifts. That is until I took a big one at speed, and got stranded with 3 wheels off the ground! OK, this was in a RAV4 which does not have exceptional ground clearance. After digging around a...

I've applied the thick 3M film to the headlights of both my RAV4 and Element. Once applied it's pretty much out-of-sight, out-of-mind. I don't know if I've ever had rock hit on the lights, but haven't had a crack either. It's been a while since I applied these, but I think the brand I ordered...

If you feel you need a bit more strength, use oak for the 1x2s. paulj

Truck stops are a good place to find 12v 'cooking' items. Surely they must sell coffee grinders, right next to the whole bean coffee dispensers! :) RV shops (Campers world?) have compact kitchen gear, but not that much is 12v since they can get 120v from the campsite. That leaves you with...

Or how about a bolt-on grinder? These are mandatory if you want to compete in chuckwagon cookoffs (worth 4 pts out of a tough 80 in one competition). http://www.cowboycooking.com/antiques.html

The base of the grinder is stepped so you can set it over anything from 2 1/2" to 4 1/2" in diameter. It fits over tea cups and coffee mugs. I tried various options, and settled on a 8' ramekin because the combo was easy to hold and steady on my lap. paulj