California Update

So for the last five weeks or so we have been here in Middle California, camped mostly in daughter Rebecca's driveway (quiet, good hook-ups) but with several trips elsewhere. We got the Roadtrek all fixed up, and, scarcely more than a week on the market, sold it to a nice couple from Santa Cruz. We really hated to see it go--but are relieved to be down to a more reasonable number of campers. Much of our time has been spent with Princess P, watching her while Mommy graded, and then while Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a respite in the Sandwich Islands (Rebecca's spring break), and then camping at Pinnacles National Park (P's spring break)(next post). We'll be here in Rebecca's driveway through Shakespeare's birthday (also P's) but then will head out for a couple weeks' travel hereabouts before venturing back to Florida and then Europe for the summer.

For a couple weeks, Rebecca's front yard looked like this...
fortunately, she has nice and tolerant neighbors

Our stay included my birthday

And Vicki's (after her visit to Chicago to see
young Wesley, parents and grandparents)

Our visit also included Easter, and the making,
under Mama's supervision, of Easter eggs

Thus

Easter morning

Enjoying a chocolate ice cream bar at Oakland's
Childrens' Fairyland

She did all the rides, most more than once, took in the puppet
show,  and insisted on seeing the magic show twice; but the old
favorite is still her favorite

Building a replica of one of Aunt Rachel's
towers (Grandpa also did another family photo
digitization project)

You know you're in Middle California when the bill-board
advertising is about crowd-funding

And a driver-less Googlemobile pulls up next to you at a San
Antonio Road intersection

Best Laid Plans, Or, 2008 Roadtrek Agile For Sale

We were feeling pretty confident about our plans for shipping our Roadtrek Agile to Europe in May and enjoying it there for the summer; and beyond. So confident, we decided to go ahead and make arrangements for shipping, insurance, etc. Then we learned that the major underwriter of insurance for American RVs there had suddenly dropped out of the market; and the best substitute we could find was a completely-out-of-the-question $300 per week for comprehensive. We were not willing to keep the Roadtrek over there with liability insurance only--it's too nice--and have reluctantly decided to sell it. You can find it on RV Trader or Craigslist/San Francisco. Or read the narrative and view the pix below...

"2008 Roadtrek SS Agile. This Agile is on the Freightliner Sprinter 144 inch van chassis with the new body style available first in 2008. Gorgeous silver paint with dark gray contrast. The Sprinter has a Mercedes Benz V6 diesel engine that gets 18 to 22 mpg. Exterior length of 19ft. 6in. is easy to maneuver anywhere  and parks in any standard parking space! Drives small but lives large. This Roadtrek seats five and sleeps two on the power adjustable sofa that makes into a king size bed. The entertainment center has a 19" flat screen TV, viewable from swiveling front seats or sofa, and a DVD player complemented by a surround sound system. The galley has granite counter top,  cherry cabinets, two burner glass-topped, recessed stove, stainless sink, convection microwave, 12 cup coffee maker (no carafe), and 3-way fridge with freezer compartment (uses battery, gas, or shore power). Thermostat controlled propane furnace and optional 11,000 BTU roof top air conditioner with heat strip saves on propane when on shore power. The bathroom is equipped with toilet, sink and permanent shower. The Onan generator with only 27 hours lets you dry camp in National Forests and Parks or even Walmart! Nice exterior awning and shower for camp-outs! Extremely well maintained with oil changes every 6,000 miles (MB recommends 10,000). Next oil change not due for 9,000 miles! Newer AT tires on rear have only 8,000 miles. Brakes still at 2/3. Coach batteries 1 year old. Agiles are rare because they do everything well. Selling for $59,500 --$1,700 below book value and this is no average condition vehicle. 650-862-4055."

It would have been our dream motorhome over there...

California Campin'

After getting back to Menlo Park, we took P camping for a weekend...

First night, back at Little Basin, same campsite as in December

Watching critters along the trail

It's spring,and the critters are coming out all over...here at
Manresa Beach, Monterey Bay

173 steps down to the beach...and back up

Down by the seashore sifting sand...

Departure From Big Sky Country

We spent another week or so in Missoula, seeing friends, enjoying the relatively decent weather, working at our storage unit, and having some further work done on the Bigfoot. We left March 12th, heading back to Menlo Park, but this time via US12 and 95, through the beautiful Salmon and Snake rivers country, and then I-80, through the unrelentingly dull yet boring wastes of Nevada.

The work on the Bigfoot was fabricating and installing a back porch/step...

It doesn't look a whole lot different, but permits better access
to the basement as well as easier storage of the (accursed)
scissors steps; and some exterior storage

Our route took us through familiar and favorite territories; here we have stopped at
Lolo Pass, on the Montana/Idaho border, in the heart of Clearwater country, in the
heart of Lewis and Clark country... 

Thus

In past years, we snowmobiled out of this lot perhaps half a
dozen times a year; with so little snow, not in 2015...

Another favorite place; a favorite ride was from the Pass to Lochsa Lodge for
lunch (not pictured but I'll get it next time for scenic, historical, and personal
interest: the Bernard De Voto Cedar Grove)

One of the more photographed road signs of the West; what it doesn't tell you is
that, in addition to winding, the road follows one of the great white-water rivers,
the Lochsa, and drops from more than 5,000 feet to about 1,200 feet, where it
meets the Selway, becoming a fork of the Clearwater and then of the Salmon

A bit of the Lochsa, lower down, least water I've ever seen in it--and this is as high
as it will get this year...when we rafted it in '97 or so, there were 25 class IV rapids
in the 24 mile stretch; you could wade across most of it now...sic transit, Gloria

Camped on the Salmon River

All along the Salmon and the tributaries we drove, we noticed porta-potties being
set up and small groups of fishermen [sic] massing for attacks on the salmon

Porta-potties evidently are a big business during salmon runs....

You know you're in Basque country when...let's see...the last fronton we saw was
in St. Jean Pied de Port, on the Camino de Santiago, French/Spanish border, 2012...
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2012/09/st-jean-pied-de-port.html

Return To Big Sky Country

En route to Missoula Friday we thought we would give the trails near Seeley Lake a try. After nearly two hours of bronco-bust riding, we gave up. The place appears so crowded the groomer can't keep up with what little snow there is. Roughest riding ever. Fortunately, our good and great rides this winter far outweigh the bad ones.

We returned the snowmobile to our storage unit and the trailer to friend Dave on Saturday. Season over. Despite the lack of much good snow, it was a good return season for us, and we are already looking forward to 2016. It will be much easier to get things going next year, after only a year's absence and storage.

We will stay in Missoula another week or more, getting some improvement work done on the Bigfoot and more sorting/selling/donating from our storage unit. There probably won't be much news. In view of this, I offer below a brief article on the derivation of the term "Big Sky Country," (not Guthrie's novel, The Big Sky) from The Hellroarin' Encyclopaedia of Montana History and Culture, which I had the honor of founding and editing some years ago. The discovery of the term's origin was made by historian and friend and also Park Ranger Lyndel Meikle.

Schlobigsky, Vladislav Polish priest and explorer, b. 1751, Warsawa, d. circa 1810. Little is known of Schlobigsky’s early years, except that he became a black robe priest of the Russian Orthodox Church in his early twenties. Difficulties with church authorities sent him further and further east until he appeared as priest to the settlement at Russian River, in what is now California, in the 1790s. Expelled from his position there, amid rumors of improper advances toward seal-skin traders and altar boys, he journeyed further east to befriend and minister to a variety of Native Nations in what is now Montana. Little is known of his interactions with these peoples, except that he was very likely the first European to set foot in what is now Montana. (For discussion of whether or not Poland, or for that matter, Russia, is part of Europe, see Norman Davies, Europe: A History, pp. 1-847.) Blackfoot interpreters, unable to pronounce the Polish “Schlo-”, shortened his name to “Bigsky,” whence Montana became known among later explorers as “Bigsky country.”

Vladimir Schlobigsky (center) and friends

Mesa Falls, Idaho

We spent the night in Ashton, a small wheat and seed potato town in easternmost Idaho, a town we have visited several times before for the start of the long ride to Flagg Ranch and then on to the Continental Divide trails. Ashton to Pinedale, and back, a ride of a couple hundred miles each way we probably would not contemplate anymore. Anyhow, from Ashton, we drove out to the start of the Mesa Falls trail, just a few miles, which we extended to the Eccles trail, near to Island Park, and back. In this winter of little precipitation in the West, the falls were not as impressive as in previous years, and the trails were hard, rutted, nearly icy. We thought about trying West Yellowstone again, but decided that snow conditions there probably were no better. And so we drove over past Rexburg, hit I-15, back to Montana, and got as far as a rest area just short of Butte. Perhaps our snowmobile season is over, unless more snow arrives.

Ashton is a town of architectural and cultural wonders--e.g.,
this art deco auto service building

And this drive-in...the mug actually revolves (in Driggs or
Tetonia we saw a drive-in theatre...)

And the beautiful Rankin 1924 motor hotel...major Americana

And the Reinicke Grain complex...Frank Gehry eat your heart
out! (note geodesic dome offices) 

On a more serious note, the Forest Service
warns that the bears are out, and hungry

Snow pole at Upper Mesa Falls...2 feet

Upper Falls

Lower Falls...far more impressive, but not viewable close-up

This is what a snowmobile tour bus looks like

Snowmobiling The Continental Divide Trail, 6: Last Days

We were tired after our Green River Lakes ride, and nasty weather was threatening, so Saturday morning we came down off the pass to spend a couple days in Dubois--one whole day at the very nice and welcoming public library--avoiding the worst of the weather. It snowed an inch or two in Dubois, and Sunday and Monday mornings registered -7 and -11 respectively. Cold, yes, but our camper seemed to do just fine...as long as the propane held out. Monday the highs and lows returned to more comfortable levels, and we drove back up to the parking lot just beyond Brooks Lake and did a couple more days of good snowmobiling...trails CD, T, E, F, A, B, TH, PB, and so on. Despite the recent cold and a few inches of snow, even the Continental Divide trails seems to be melting down, especially some of the access points. Tuesday afternoon we drove back through Jackson to Alpine, where there was less snow but still plenty of snowmobiling, and spent the night. Wednesday we resolved to drive on back into Idaho, to try something we had missed earlier, the Mesa Falls trails out of Ashton. And then back to West Yellowstone and Montana.

Most of Monday's sledding was quite varied if unspectacular, and
I thought I'd take just this one photo to remember the great trails

But then we hit this beautiful white forest

Which went on a ways

And then we came to the Continental Divide Overlook, and its
viewof the Tetons

Thus

And then, a few miles further south on F, another great view
of Squaretop, in the Winds

And more views of the Absarokas as we returned home

And then, next day, riding atop a plateau at 10,000 feet or
more, a panorama that included the Winds

The Gros Ventres

And the Grand and the Middle Teton just sticking out above the
ridge (for some reason I didn't shoot the Absarokas, but then
we've seen enough of them)--anyway, all four of the great ranges 
that enclose this area...

And then, a few more miles up the trail, even better views of
the Tetons than the day before

Thus...the Middle Teton, the Grand, Gunsight Notch, Mt. Owen,
and Teewinot...a fitting end for our rides on the Continental
Divide