The Little Salmon River
Today was my premier data gathering day. I'm sitting here in the car 10 miles north of New Meadows while the receiver is dutifully collecting data from the birds circling overhead. The spot is in a clearing that is contained by the highway and the Little Salmon River.
I'm bundled up against the cold as it's cold, breezy, and cloudy.
Approaching the clearing from New Meadows |
|
HVX4 |
HVX4 bayonet height |
HVX4 north |
|
HVX4 west |
HVX4 east |
HVX4 south |
|
Afterward, I drove up to Riggins, ID to reconnoiter the next mark. Yesterday Caroline, one of the other surveyors, called me up to report that she couldn't find the mark. Well, I couldn't either. And I hopped a barbed wire fence with No Trespassing signs to look for it too thinking that perhaps the fence had been put up since the mark had.
Wayne, do you recognize any of this?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Race Creek Valley
The really nice people who lived across the (dirt) road were curious about what Caroline had been looking for. They told me that the No Trespassing signs were mostly for hunters and I should be OK. I later thought that I was hunting too. I also talked to a crusty old guy who told me that the fence had been installed at least 10 years ago, so I guess I didn't have to hop it after all as the mark had last been seen only five years ago.
Confused rocks
I then met another person who lived on that dirt road who was walking her two gorgeous border collies. No, you RUN border collies. She worked for the Forest Service and had lived there for 25 years. She didn't know about the mark, but attested that the ground hadn't moved since she lived there.
Good enough for government work?
Basalt columns
All in all, the Race Creek Valley is a peaceful, quiet valley. You can hear the creek bubbling. Horses graze in the green fields. The steep walls of the canyon comfort you. And it has its very own set of basalt columns!
I caught dinner at the This Old House Restaurant in Riggins where the maitre d, waitress, chef, and cashier were all the same person. And the service was great! Incredible. By the way, this is definitely the land of steak and potatoes. Potatoes anyway. This is Idaho after all.
Relaxing back in the B&B, the rain begins again. I'm thankful it waited until I was done making the measurements!
Early morning scene behind the inn
Since the mark in Riggins was not to be found, I took a personal day to start working on my so-called "security clearance" questionnaire for NASA and catch up on a couple of weeks of email backlog. It rained most of the day.
Palo Alto, CA to New Meadows, ID
|
|
P157: Council, ID
|
|
Copyright © 2006 Bill Wohler Last modified: 2006 About photos |
Free DNS |