Occupation of Independence

The inland Northwest is no prize when the smoke season starts.  I have yet to deliver on my promise to abandon it when smoke dominates life.  That may happen today. It is true that a person can develop a tolerance for smoke from forest fires.  Yesterday the smoke was quite bad.  Then a dry thunderstorm blew up.  After an hour the sun came back out. And the sky was clean and blue!  How could that pall disappear so quickly?  I was impressed.  Still, it might be time to head southeast today, being careful to stay clear of Yellowstone.   It is over 50 miles to the nearest grocery store from Leadore, ID.  How do people live around here?  Do they drive to Salmon once a month and load up on canned vegetables, beans, and rice?

The last national holiday weekend of summer is always a poignant moment and a chance to reflect on seasonal progress.  How could a person find a way to enjoy or be interested in their "fellow campers" when they seem to be about nothing more than noisy and showy toys?  Perhaps I am not optimistic and persistent enough to find something of interest.  Instead, I aim my efforts at non-human things like topography, clouds, creeks, and dogs.    And it always seems to work.  My little dog sent a text message down to "Duke,"  her doggie friend down in Utah. Water never seems more alive than when it splashes through a fast moving creek.  I think my little girl was trying to make Duke envious of our Idaho location.  He is a labrador retriever after all. My little girl loves her lifestyle.  She runs to the bicycle to get snapped into the bungee-leash.  She has learned to keep her distance from the front wheel.  Her pace is a relentless fast trot, occasionally breaking into a w

It has been a long time since wind was a factor when camping.  But I was caught by surprise at 2 a.m. by severely gusty wind.  It was impossible to sleep, especially because I was not prepared for the wind.  Otherwise, the stabilizers would have been put down and the window would have been closed on my door.  But I was afraid to open the door in that wind. What could cause gusty wind at night?  In the daytime you can imagine violent sunlight causing differential heating of the local topography.  But at night, it seems like air pressures would gradually equalize.  Hence no gusts. My goodness, how can a fellow spend so much time outdoors and not learn more about how the earth works?  And yet,  virtually every blog or video talks about  nature as eye-candy to be consumed. 

I followed a river in Montana the other day.  Rivers are no small miracle to an old desert rat who has trouble visualizing moving water.  After an hour of trying I gave up on finding any good campsites along the river.  This experience confirmed my first decision about camping, learned many years ago: avoid lakes and rivers.  It sounds weird but I enjoyed feeling lost and frustrated.  It was late enough in the day to feel a twinge of desperation.  Finally I saw a humble, brown sign for a dirt road that headed perpendicularly to the river, towards high sagebrush hills.  It looked like the kind of area that scenery tourists -- including van nomads -- would not be interested in.  Therefore I was.  The road wasn't too rough and steep, and it is usually possible for a van + trailer to get turned around in places like this. Sagebrush hills always grab my imagination.  The hills are like giant, lethal waves sloshing over the "sagebrush sea."  That is how waves on a stormy lake c