Stuck in the Snow! Washington Basin
For most of us, the night passed peacefully. It was reasonably warm and calm, the creek flowing through the meadow gurgling rather than rushing by. I mean, there was that one UTV that revved its way by camp around 1:00am, but what can you expect on the 4th of July, really?
Unfortunately for Mikey @pizzaviolence however, the action in his tent
more than made up for the rest of us. Riggs, who'd been feeling a bit under the weather the previous day had an accident around 2:00am. Luckily, according to Mikey, it was mostly contained to the towel on which Riggs was sleeping - unlike the second accident that took place around 2:05am as the first was getting cleaned up.
Sorry Mikey!
Luckily, we were in no rush the following morning - we had only a short drive into Stanley, where we planned to meet up with Will
@willhaman21 and Angie who would be joining us in their 3rd gen 4Runner for the rest of the trip - so we took it easy, everyone having a leisurely breakfast as I explored the meadow in my
now indispensable Muck boots. Teeny-tiny eggs for breakfast anyone? ?
We finally broke camp around 10:00am and hopped on the highway towards Stanley, Ben
@m3bassman promising to keep the speeds slow given our aired down state. Apparently, despite his assertions otherwise, Ben's slow is still
Idaho slow (where the speed limit is 80- vs. 60-mph) because I was soon left in the dust as I toddled along at 49mph.
No matter, we weren't going far - not even to Stanley - before stopping at one of my favorite views in the state, an overlook of the Sawtooth Mountains.
Still much earlier than we needed to be, we decided to hang out - basking in the glorious views and plentiful wildflowers - while we watched the highway for Will and Angie.
Right on schedule, or perhaps maybe even a little ahead of it, we saw their 4Runner cruise by and called out on the CB for them to give us a second to catch up. Begrudgingly - as you can imagine is generally the case when we run into other folks we know in the middle of nowhere - they did, and we caravaned our way into Stanley for a round of introductions and reunions, smiles all around.
A quick top-off of everyone's fuel tank and we were on the road again. While this first part of the day may have gotten off to a slow start, we were all looking forward to what the afternoon had in store - we were exploring a place none of us had ever been before, a place that promised splendiferous views and avalanche levels of excitement (literally).
We were headed to Washington Basin.
Of course, we didn't want to encounter all that excitement on empty stomachs, so we pulled over just a few miles up the dirt road to explore a historic ranger station, and raid our pantries for sustenance.
For 21 years, this station as worked by Bill Horton, who kept a daily diary of his experiences and chores.
Bill Horton said:
June 23, 1915
Rode to top of summit to boundary Laidlaws sheep. Gone over this a.m. and came back to cabin for dinner. Supervisor Benedict came from Hailey. Rode over the telephone line we are going to build to Redfish Lake with Mr. Benedict. Stopped at Clarks and had supper.
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Grazing 6 hours</span>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Redfish Lkae Tel Line 4 hours.</span>
Sept 11, 1915
Guard Gilman and Kaulter left here to work on the fire line and Redfish Lake trail. Rode up sheep trail to foot of Summit. Saw one band of Bill Newmans sheep going to Stanley to pasture. Saw a smoke on Jacksons reserve. Rode up there and found a fire. Someone had camped there and left their fire and the wind carried it to a bunch of Sprice timber. Rode back to newmans camp and got a bucket and shovel and went back. Dug a trench around the fire and packed water and smothered it out. It burned about 2 rods square and burned about 3 big spruce trees. Think it was a hunting party that left their fire as there were chicken feathers around the camp and automobile tracks. Think I have it all out as I can not see any smoke but will go back in the morning.
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Grazing 2 hours</span>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fire suppression 7 hours</span>
Hot and with little shade, our lunch stop was much shorter than Bill's stay at the station, and we were back on the dusty road - headed up towards Washington Basin's scree fields - a little after 1:00pm.
As the miles ticked by, Ben came over the CB to let us know that he'd talked to a ranger who'd been up the road just a couple weeks earlier, and he suspected that we'd soon be stopped - not by snow, but by an avalanche that had covered the road. Before that though, we had a reasonably-sized (but not difficult) water crossing to contend with, Ben making his way through before I even pulled up to the end of the line.
Will was up next, having a bit of fun as we snapped pictures from both banks.
Mikey followed, his 2nd gen on stock wheels/tires/suspension having no trouble at all as he piloted through.
Deciding to have a bit of fun, it was at this point that I asked @mrs.turbodb to pop out of the truck and take over the camera duties. See, on our previous
trip to Death Valley with Ben, he'd blasted through the Amargosa River, putting on quite the show. Now, it was my turn. I put it in gear and pressed the skinny pedal.
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I didn't get going all that fast, but even at 15mph or so, when you've got the right depth of water, the effect can be dramatic. Everyone loved it, I think. I know I did. :mudding:
It wasn't far from this water crossing that we hit the obstacle that Ben was sure would be the end of the road - an avalanche that had flowed thousands of feet down the mountainside, carrying thousands of tons of trees right along with it. These trees - now over the road - were what the ranger had suggested might stop us in our tracks.
But not today! Luckily, someone with a chainsaw had...
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Don't miss the rest of the story, and all the remaining photos that don't fit here (due to max post size). Hopefully that can change in the future, but until then...
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