Saturday, July 15
We drove thirty-five miles or so south down to Eugene and then flew up into the air, heading north. The day was clear and our flight path was relatively low, so we could look down and see I-5 almost all the way up to Seattle. We had a 45-minute layover at Sea-Tac, then lifted off for Boise. We were still climbing when we passed very close to Mount Rainier. Spectacular.
We rented a car at the Boise airport and checked into a Quality Inn. Once we got in the room, we understood why the motel was not called the High Quality Inn. For one thing, our room was missing a least one piece of furniture. But basically it was okay. So we also understood why they didn’t call it the Low Quality Inn. We had dinner at the Denny’s next door. The meal scored highly for proximity to our hotel.
Sunday, July 16
This was our day to kick around Boise. We decided to go to the Idaho Botanical Garden, which is located on the outskirts of the city at 2355 Old Penitentiary Road. It turned out to be quite nice. There is an English garden, a rose garden, a meditation garden, a children’s garden, a koi pond, a native plant area, and more. Plus, immediately adjacent to the garden, there is an old penitentiary. Not so nice.
After walking through the garden, we toured the penitentiary, which has been developed into a museum. It is one of only three decommissioned U.S. prisons that are open for public view. Someone has gone to a lot of work to provide extensive interpretive information about the history of the prison and the people who were there. A sign at the entrance invites any visitors who happen to be former ‘residents’ or family members of residents to contact the museum staff if they would be willing to help with the ongoing research.
Four of the cell block buildings are open to walk through. The oldest, dating from the late 19th Century, has incredibly tiny individual cells with steel latticed doors. The cells in the middle aged blocks were a mix of single, double and triple bed cells and had the more familiar steel bar doors. The newest block, completed in the early 1950’s, was noticeably more humane and had somewhat larger spaces. None of the cells had windows. The prison closed in the 1970’s after several buildings were damaged during a series of riots.
One of the most interesting exhibits is a row of 24 cells where each cell has an information placard about one of the prisoners who spent time there. The Information includes dates, reason for incarceration, a photo of the resident, and in many cases, information about what happened to that person once they were released.
The experience of seeing the prison was a little creepy and we did not take pictures. For the curious, there are lots of (uncreepy) photos and other information here.
After the prison tour, we retired to our motel room to recuperate and to get out of the 105 degree heat. Later on we took a hint from one of our readers and had dinner at Twigs Bistro in Meridian, a Boise suburb.
Monday, July 17
After a less than high quality breakfast, we went to pick up our overlanding vehicle from Idaho Overland Adventures. Owners Brianne and Joe had everything ready for us and gave us a one-hour orientation before sending us off. The vehicle we rented is a Toyota 4Runner that has been modified to include a rooftop tent, a nice sized side awning, and a slide-out kitchen in the rear. The kitchen includes a 12-volt refrigerator running off a dedicated battery that can be charged either by the truck’s electrical system–while driving–or by a solar panel for days when the truck is parked. The truck also has an impressive Garmin GPS system that not only tells drivers where they are and what roads to take, but also relays the truck’s position to the home unit in Boise and allows for emergency communication no matter how far out in the boonies one might be.
On the first day, we didn’t actually use any of these things. Instead we just drove a couple of hundred highway miles down to Elko, Nevada and stayed in a motel. The motel was nicer than our previous one, but it also had a big bare spot in one corner of the room. In back of the motel we saw a couple of dozen armchairs and three or four couches arranged in neat rows in an unused part of the parking lot. Are all hotels like this? E went for a swim in the pool. And then we had dinner at a Basque restaurant.
Tuesday, July 18
Today our trip began for real. First we made a meal plan for the next two days and went off to the market to get what was needed. That done, we filled up the tank at what we thought might be the last gas station we would see for the next two hundred miles. We then drove north on Nevada Highway 225 and started looking for the road to Jarbidge via the ghost town of Charleston. We did not know that there were actually two ways to get to Charleston from the highway–one good one and one bad one. We turned off on Humboldt River North Fork Road. As we found out later, that’s the bad one. In fact, in places, it was terrible–not really dangerous for people, but hard on machines. It was also beautiful, passing as it did through the low hills of uninhabited sagebrush desert. The Garmin was really helpful; it knew the route well and was quick to let us know what to do whenever we had to decide between two faint tracks, each seemingly leading farther into nowhere.
Eventually we came to the end of the wrong road and connected up with the better one. We passed the Charleston ghost town and found that there was still an active cattle operation going on there. We also found active cattle.
Finally we got to the high point of the trip–both literally and figuratively–Copper Basin and Bear Creek Pass. The former was the area that M thought we just had to see.
The road to Jarbidge climbs along the east side of Copper Basin and eventually reaches Bear Creek Pass at 8,488 feet. It then drops very steeply down the other side of the mountain till it reaches the level of the Jarbidge River at about 6,500 feet. The town is just a few miles downstream. We set up in a somewhat primitive campground next to the river a half mile from the town.
At around 2:00 in the morning, M descended the ladder and went out stargazing. The Jarbidge River canyon is steep and narrow, which meant that he could only see a relatively narrow band of sky running north and south between the canyon walls. Still, it was a moonless night and the nearest town of any size was 100 miles away, so there were plenty of stars to gaze at. The Milky Way, meanwhile, was running east and west, and looked like a glowing white bridge stretching across the canyon from rim to rim.
Wednesday, July 19
In the morning the weather was again sunny and warm, pleasant in the shade but a little harsh out in the sun. We walked into town to see the sights.
In 1909 there was a gold strike in the area and miners began to pour in. One story has it that the town was first called Mahoney, after an early prospector. For reasons unknown, the name was later changed to Jarbidge, a mispronunciation of the Shoshone word Tsawhawbitts. (According to Shoshone legend, Tsawhawbitts was a giant cannibal who roamed a certain canyon in the far reaches of northern Nevada, hunting for unsuspecting men to toss into a large basket and carry back to camp for dinner.) Eventually a large-scale gold mine operated in the canyon, with a vertical shaft running down 1100 feet, where a number of horizontal shafts branched off. The apparatus in the photo below was located at the top of the vertical shaft and was part of the mechanism for operating the elevators that would take miners up and down and bring the ore up. Production was high for about ten years but then gradually declined, finally ceasing in 1932.
These days there are several dozen buildings in Jarbidge, including a hotel (of sorts), two bars, and a general store. Of the many houses, some are very nice, but few are very large. Some houses don’t look like much at all, at least at first glance. Look again, though, and you see that most of them are solid, snug and well-maintained. Only a few of them are lived in all year. The over winter population is said to be about fifteen hardy souls. The most crowded time of year is hunting season. During our time there, the town was alive, but hardly lively. There seemed to be only one business open, a bar/restaurant called the Outdoor Inn.
There are no paved streets in Jarbidge and the town speed limit is 10 mph. There wasn’t much traffic, either vehicular or pedestrian. As we walked along Main street, we did see one very neatly dressed old man slowly make his exit from the Outdoor Inn. He used a walker to shuffle over to a white pickup truck, got in and drove away, stopping at a house about 300 yards south on the same street. Presumably that was where he lived. Then an ATV came by, driven by a girl who looked to be ten or eleven years old. There was another girl in the seat beside her. They were just barely tall enough to see over the dash, but they were laughing and having a grand time. After a few minutes the driver returned, this time without her friend. Later on, another ATV passed by, this one driven by a boy, who was maybe seven or eight. If he had been seated, he would have been too short to see over the dash, so he stood on the floor of the machine just behind the wheel. As he passed, we were both struck by how small he was to be driving down the street, but even more by his demeanor. With his eyes fixed straight ahead, he stood as motionless as a statue, with a serious, stoical, trancelike expression with a hint of sadness.
Back at our camp, we were feeling hot and dry, so we went and sat in the river for a while. There was still a little snow melting up in the hills, so we got cooled off pretty quickly. After that we dried off and went back up to the truck for lunch. As we ate we noticed some light cloudiness moving in from the northwest. It was nice to have a little less sun and we started thinking about naps. But then the clouds got darker and we could hear a bunch of thunder off somewhere. Vay! Vay! Vay! as you might say. E located our rain shells and started moving all non-waterproof items to shelter and M jumped up on top of the truck to reach up and extend the rain flaps around the roof tent. That process is quick and easy, but only if you know what goes where. We really appreciated having had the benefit of Joe’s detailed orientation back in Boise. By the time the storm hit us, the tent was prepared, the truck was closed up and we were settled in on our folding chairs under the awning. Which was good, because the rain came hard and fast.
Thankfully, that one shower was the extent of the rain and we were able to cook dinner without drowning our veggie burgers and cookies. After dinner, we took another walk, this time in the direction away from town. There were striking rock formations on both sides of the canyon that looked quite lovely in the early evening light.
Thursday, July 20
Today we had to get back to Boise and return the 4Runner, as early in the day as possible. So we were up at 6:00 and on the road by 7:00. We took the easy route out of Jarbidge, one that M knew well from his previous visit. Also, we knew we had plenty of gas. So it was a relatively stressless trip, the only problem being that Boise was about six hours away. We got there, though, and made a quick stop at the airport, where E rented a car while M continued on to turn in the truck. By 3:00 in the afternoon we were checked into a very nice room at a Hampton Inn downtown. We had just enough time to clean up and go to dinner at Epi’s, a very nice Basque restaurant. This we had been looking forward to the whole time. It did not disappoint.
Friday, July 21
Up at 5:15 today and on our way to the airport by a little after 6:00. The Boise airport is nice, very easy to understand and to deal with. Our plane was late taking off, however, because of heavy fog in Seattle! Fog? The whole idea was preposterous! But there it was, and the delay almost made us miss our connection. Isn’t it amazing how slow some people in airports can be, if you happen to be in a hurry? But we got to the gate in plenty of time, at least two minutes before they closed the door. By 11:00 we were back in Oregon. At the Eugene airport, by the way, the Eugene Library has provided an automated story/poem dispenser in a corridor on the way to the gates. You push a button to choose one of the two, short story or poem, and the machine prints one up and spits it out for you. E got a short story, which was rather nice.
Saturday, July 22
Looks like it must be M’s birthday.
Sunday, July 23
We had another party today with A who came down from Vancouver. This time there was cake!
Happy birthday! What was the present?
Belated birthday wishes, Michael
sounds like a perfect little get-away! Some good food, sites to see, both rustic and urban! We’ve eaten at the Elko Basque restaurant, not the Boise one…will put on our list.
Did you eat at the Star Hotel in Elko? We ate at Toki Ona, which we do not really recommend…although we should mention that the Toki Ona does offer Carlo Rossi Paisano Red as the house wine. You can’t say that about most restaurants. (And M kind of liked his glass of CRPR.)