An Imprumpto Trip

After spending the weekend counting birds and doing a little chatting with visitors, I decided I really needed to do some real work and  the time had come to plant some willow sticks to build a screen out of willows along the planned path to the headquarter pond.

So I came in to work at 7A and did a little quick research on how to cut and plant the willows .  But, just before my boss arrived, with whom I planned to discuss today's work, the Project Manager, Tim Bodeen popped his head into my work station and asked if I wanted to drive to Boise.  Of course I did.

Our newest hire, Kris, had been to Boise for a motorboat course. Then he stayed on with relatives and his wife brought his son over for a birthday party.  When he went to load up his truck and come home he could find the keys nowhere.  So my task was to go over with him and drive the car back.

I grabbed my camera, binoculars, a  book, water, and my bin of muffins - the muffins because I figured he was upset enough not to have bothered to eat breakfast. (I was right and he enjoyed two of them, while I had one for a snack.)

We got to Boise just at noon our time but an hour later their time. Chris wanted to go eat sushi, since we can't find that food around here. I was in complete agreement. On the way into Boise, to the restaurant, he pointed out the Sierra Trading Post, Cabella's, and REI.  AND he is going to give me the waypoints for some of his secret camping spots in the national forests near there. I'm planning to spend a little time shopping and camping there soon. I won't get in very much trouble.

I had left my phone at home so didn't want to hang out and then have something happen with no one to rescue me.  Chris planned to leave about an hour after I did, so I had time to stop and take some pictures of the spectacular views.

I was almost out of gas when I got to Burns, so got two gallons to get me home.  I also spent several minutes scrubbing bugs off the windshield. We have bugs so think here now, that they sound like rain hitting the windshield and can almost completely cover it every fifteen minutes or so. The windshield washer will only get a few of them off.

Then a storm blew in and I realized I REALLY had to go to the bathroom.  So I pulled off at a gravel storage place along the way and hid out behind a pile of gravel.  I opened two doors and was going between them. Before I had my pants back up, a big white truck pulled in and tried to come over to the driver's side. I realized it was Chris checking up on me and did manage to get my pants up before telling him thanks for checking on me.

But the scenery was beautiful and Idaho was surprising.  I was expecting to climb into a forest but after we climbed out of Haney Basin, we mostly were going down 2000 feet. And we were in farmland, not a forest.  But there is forest just a little north of Boise and  I'm looking forward to hanging my hammock there soon.

A few miles west of Boise

A closer view

Cattle and horses live in the drier areas

A fork of the Malheur and a couple of other streams share the valley with the road

Just another roadside view - I'm in Oregon now

Some hills seemed to be made of volcanic ash

View of Eastern Oregon

Some hills looked more like dunes or a mixture of ash and sand

I love these soft-looking hills

This is on the north fork of the Malheur River

This was a lake about thirty miles from Burns