Sunday, August 6, 2017

Fires

I've made my way all the way back down to Cascade, ID where I'll spend the next two weeks waiting for the Great Solar Eclipse 2017. I've been dodging forest fires all over the northwest. As I wrote and posted in my last entry, there was a pretty big fire just west of the campground near Lolo in the Lolo National Forest.



When I drove from there to my next camp outside Grangeville, there was a lot of smoke over Highway 12 until I got near Kooskia, then it was pretty clear from there. I found a really nice Campground seven miles southeast of Grangeville. There were several trails around the campground, the temperature was perfect, the other campers were quiet and well behaved, and I had a prime site. If I'd had better cell signal, I would have stayed for a week, but I only had one sporadic bar of 4G, so I only paid for three days.

I drove down to Grangeville one day for an internet connection so I could catch up on news and blogs, but otherwise, Hanna and I stuck close to our camp, and did a little hiking.

On Thursday morning, I moved back down to Last Chance Campground just outside McCall, where I'd spent a couple of nights last month on my way north. I knew there was a little signal and the campground was nice, right on rushing Goose Creek. This time I snagged the best site in the campground and paid for another three nights. The creek was just over the hill from our front yard, and I left my bedroom window open, so I could hear the flowing water  all night.


The second and third days, I started noticing a "haze" in the morning sky and thought it was low clouds. Today, as I drove south to Cascade, I realized it was smoke from nearby forest fires. The closer I got to Cascade, the denser it got, and when I reached the lake, I discovered you could hardly see across it.
I'm set up for just a couple of days in French Creek Campground. I got a nice roomy spot, but there are mosquitoes here, so I won't be spending much time outside. I've already had to get out the insect repellant.
Tomorrow I'll take the Fit and explore the nearby forest roads, looking for a dispersed campsite to settle into until after the eclipse. I've already checked the MVUM and found there are lots of designated areas nearby, so I'm hopeful I'll be able to find someplace nice. I just hope the smoke clears before August 21!

2 comments:

  1. Wow, that smoke would be a real bummer on eclipse day. We should complain to the Department of the Interior, tell them to take care of it.

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  2. The bugs up here have been terrible the last two weeks. Even Deet won't keep the horseflies away! Other campers at my last camp had screen tents up. If I was going to be at one place for a while I would put mine up too.

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