Travels with Amos

Sept. 7, 2015: We left Boise for our first Idaho camping trip together, bound for primitive Wildhorse Campground on the southeastern edge of the newly designated wilderness of Boulder-White Clouds (B-WhiteClouds).  As we had planned for Labor Day, we saw many RVs coming towards us, whereas none were going our direction, so we were optimistic we’d have no trouble with overcrowding.

We got lost.  Our tourist maps were poorly drawn and misleading, there was no cellular signal for a Google Maps overview, and my GPS identified the roads only by name rather than the route number posted at the intersections.  So, we rolled the dice and took Kane Creek Road (Rte. 134) off Trail Creek Road from Ketchum, thinking we’d find Wildhorse Campground.  We never found it, since we hadn’t gone far enough on Trail Creek Road.  But, no matter, we found a remote, primitive area to camp in the riverbed (our only option to avoid cow pies), and saw a herd of pronghorn antelope crossing Kane Creek on the way to our campsite.

 We took a stroll down the road before dinner and snapped a few Sawtooth scenes of the area.               

That night the Milky Way was clearly visible, and we saw several satellites and meteors.  The next morning we drove to Redfish Lake and found a campsite in Point Campground for tents, pop-up trailers and truck-campers only (no motorhomes), so we stayed the night.     It was nice to have a flush toilet nearby, and the lodge was only a 5 minute walk away, and our campfire was the first I had in years, supplied with firewood by the host who delivered it personally on a golf cart.  I slept on the picnic table (old habits die hard), got up at 7:30 AM and dashed to catch the sunrise on the peaks on the west side of the lake:

       Frank and Clair rented a canoe until the checkout deadline at 1 PM.  

Highlights of the trip:  Clair’s gourmet meals, Frank’s campfire, the scenery, the weather, the antelope herd, no mosquitos or bugs, few people, the stars late at night, the company.