November 17, 2019. We have an unbelievable four bars on Roger (still gonna call it Roger out of habit) out here in the middle of nowhere so I have been catching up on the blog! On our way here, we stopped and saw the Flintstones!

This is the ultimate BLM boondocking experience. This one doesn’t even have a campground, just find a wide (hopefully level) spot in the road. There is a primitive campground down at the bottom of the gorge but, trust me, you don’t even want to see that road! More beautiful sunsets and a sunrise.

November 15, 2019, we arrived at Bruneau Dunes State Park. Big sand dunes, couple of small lakes with a thousand ducks and geese, and an observatory (closed for winter) all tucked in the brown hills next to the Snake River just south of Mtn. Home. The brown hills are pretty boring but I must admit the sunsets are fabulous. The one at Bruneau Dunes was the most beautiful I have ever seen. It didn’t matter which direction I looked, the clouds were backlit everywhere. In one direction, it looked like a Monet painting. In another, a Van Gogh. I took many pictures. Here are a few.

We came to Mtn. Home to visit Alan’s daughter Nicole and her family (husband Jim, grandson Kent). Granddaughter Makayla joined the Idaho National Guard (!!!) and is just finishing up boot camp in North Carolina (or maybe South?) so we didn’t get to see her.

We stayed one night at Bruneau Dunes, then parked in the church lot near Nicole and Jim’s home (thank you, Pastor) so we could visit. We went to an art show and dinner. Dinner was fabulous. A place in Boise called Tucanos. They had a huge salad bar but the main feature is the meat. Servers come by your table more or less continuously with skewers of meat. All kinds cooked many ways. You choose whatever you want as many times as you want. Not for vegans!

November 15, 2019. I have to say that the BLM is very unimaginative in naming their campsites. This one, called “South Fork Payette River” was (drum roll please) on the south fork of the Payette River. The Payette River has south, middle and north forks, all eventually joining before dumping into the Snake.

It was another challenging “docking”. We didn’t take out any pine trees this time, but tangled with some rocks and bushes. It’s clear that boondocking requires careful docking! The campsite was quite a way off the main road and very peaceful. We had it to ourselves until a hunter showed up late in a camper.

November 13, 2019. We continued our journey south and ended up at a primitive BLM campsite for our first boondocking experience. The BLM can’t be beat. We stayed at the Pink House campground with full hookups for $9 a night (senior discount). The primitive campsites (no amenities except maybe a fire pit, picnic table or pit toilet) are free.

This campsite had a very tricky entrance, down a hill and across a gravel bed. In spring, water flows across the gravel bed, thus the name, “Island Bar.” We spent only one night, sharing the bar with a couple of hunters. One was skinning out a small buck deer as we were leaving next morning. Elk are also plentiful in those hills and we saw a whole herd but, alas, those were captive. An elk farm! Very high fences.

November 10 we left Spokane, traveled through some desolate eastern WA wheat fields, back into Idaho and ended up at a BLM campground called Pink House on the Clearwater River just outside of Orofino. After leaving Spokane we had no cell reception for several days. At Pink House, we could SEE a cell tower but had no service. Turns out it was a Verizon tower and apparently AT&T doesn’t have any truck with Verizon (insert dueling banjos music here). Wishing for Roger…

Apparently Lewis and Clark jumped in some canoes here and travelled down the Clearwater to the Snake and then to the Columbia. We stayed two days at Pink House installing the solar panels. Ready for boondocking!

We left Tonasket on November 7, heading east on hwy 20 for Sandpoint Idaho. Backwoods Solar is in Sandpoint and, not having an address and all, it’s difficult to order stuff. So we went there instead. It’s pretty clear that if we want to go boondocking (parking on public lands out in the boondocks without services), we’ll need solar panels.

I got some photos of the tamarack trees passing through the Okanogan National Forest. They were pretty faded by that time but you’ll get the idea.

We didn’t make it to Sandpoint in one day. We drove over Sherman Pass, stopped at Crystal Falls for lunch, then crossed the Columbia River, into Idaho, over the Pend Oreille river and stayed at a non-descript State Park called Round Lake. It had a small lake that was sort of round. It had many pine trees that we ran into a bit. Breaking-in time for poor Harvey.

Next morning we left Round Lake, side swiped a few more pine trees and arrived in Sandpoint on November 8. We picked up the solar panels then headed to Spokane for some deep cycle batteries. There is a nice State Park near Spokane but all sites with electric hookups were closed (wtf?). We needed electricity and access to a hardware store to install the batteries so we ended up at a casino RV park. Yuck. Can’t win every time.