CACHE ACROSS IDAHO - DAY 5

I was so tired from the previous day that I was about an hour late getting up. I got down to the motel breakfast and this time it was so crowded there was standing room only. There were a lot of foreigners which seems common these days. I was hoping the wind had abated during the night but no such luck.

I headed west on Highway 33 toward the Interstate but I had another Madison County cache that I wanted to get. It was at Beaver Dick Park and the log said it was under a pine tree. The cache owner didn’t know his trees because it was a fir but I found it anyway. After I departed from the beautiful little Beaver Dick Park I had the biggest scare of my trip. I soon came upon a sign telling me I was entering Jefferson County. I thought, “Oh no, another Mickey Warnock gaff. I don’t remember anything about any Jefferson County caches on my schedule today”. I later recalled that Jefferson County has a little panhandle that sticks out to the east that takes in Rigby which I had cached the day before. Whew! Just before getting on the Interstate I stopped at some sort of State facility to use the bathroom and check the map (about Jefferson County). I asked one of the employees if the wind always blew like this and the man replied, “Wind, what wind? When the wind blows you can’t see those mountains over there.”

Now I got on Interstate 15 and headed north toward Dubois, county seat of Clark County. How sweet it was with that tailwind. Dubois is a really neat little town in the middle of nowhere. The first cache was at the Heritage Hall which is listed on the National Historic Register. The next one was at an old abandoned jailhouse. The third one in Dubois was called “Nut and Bolt” -- a big bolt about eight inches long and two inches in diameter with a nut on it. When you unscrew the nut the bolt comes apart and the cache is in the hollow bolt. It was across the road from the County Maintenance Dept., and an employee had placed the cache. (Sorry my camera is not working).

With Clark County out of the way I headed southwest on Highway 22 to the intersection with Highway 28 that heads northwest toward Leadore and Salmon. If you ever have a hankering to blow the carbon out of your car, this is the place. Highway 22 is smooth as glass, straight as an arrow, flat as a pancake with nothing but desert and sagebrush on each side of the road. I didn’t see another vehicle on it. And the wind had finally quit.

My next cache was at Kaufman Creek on Highway 28. Initially I thought it was in Lemhi County but now I don’t know. It may be in Clark. At any rate, I had to hike a ways up the creek and even though it was an ammo box I had a little trouble finding it.

I was getting low on gas and this really is definitely not where you want to run out. The next place (that’s all I know to call it because village would be a vast overstatement) was Lone Pine. The only place there is an old store with an old fashioned gas pump. When I saw the price of gas was $5.28 a gallon I decided to try to make it on to Leadore. I knew I had been getting good mileage thanks in part to that tailwind on the Interstate.

I made Leadore alright, got gas, had a pop and a welcome break. I now took a little side trip northeast on Highway 29 to a neat little campground called Nez Perce Rest Area. This cache had been logged very few times and not recently but I didn’t have any problem finding it. It was late morning and a beautiful day as I headed back to Highway 28 to turn north toward Salmon. I passed on through Salmon and didn’t stop until north of Gibbonsville for two caches. I had my lunch at the second one which was at a Lewis & Clark campsite right on the highway.

That took care of my required Idaho caches for this journey. I did stop for one near Sula, MT, just for a break. I stopped at Lolo to get gas and take a break before heading west over Lolo Pass. Of course, there are few motorcycle roads more fun than this section of Highway 12. I stopped at a campground to get one more cache at Whitehouse Pond, then unfortunately, I ran into road construction a ways down the road which made the second half of this stretch not nearly as much fun. It was a lot of stop and go and staying in line.

I arrived at Chukar Lane late afternoon with a worn out rear tire and having traveled almost 1,900 miles. I averaged over 50 mpg on the trip and my total expense including gas, lodging and food was less that $285. It was a fantastic trip!