Motocaching the Grand Canyon State - Days 1 & 2

After months of planning, the date for the start of my journey had arrived.  Milo’s son, Mason, was selected by his school to receive the Mayor’s Award in Boise April 22^nd so I needed to plan my departure the 10^th in order to be back for the trip to Boise, or else postpone it until afterwards. I left around 7:00 am on the 10^th and made it about a mile before remembering I had forgotten my phone.  So I had to return and do a restart.  I knew I’d be dealing with extreme variances in temperature on this trip.  It was 42 degrees when I left and dropped to 38 when I reached the Camas Prairie at the top of the Culdesac grade. I had on 6 layers of clothing above the waist and 4 below.  As the temperature rose I would peel off layers.

My destination for the first day was Gooding, ID, to spend the evening with son, Clint.  I stopped on highway 95 and got a geocache by a beautiful little waterfall on the roadside.  I tried a different route through Boise in order to avoid construction projects on the Interstate.  I left the Interstate at Caldwell and went through Middleton, Star and Eagle ending up on highway 44 which turns into State Street.  I don’t know that I saved any time because there were numerous stop lights.

I left the Interstate at Bliss and got on old Highway 26 over to Gooding.  I picked up one interesting cache along the way featuring an old Stinker Station roadside sign.  Years ago when Stinker Stations (owned by Fearless Farris) were widespread in the southern part of the state they put comical signs along the highway similar to the old Burma Shave signs of yesteryear.  This was one of the few left.

I arrived at Clint’s around 4:30 having traveled 421 miles.  Clint and Elisha had burritos prepared which were delicious.  To top it off Elisha had whipped up an ice cream dish that hit the spot.

I departed Gooding Saturday at 7:30 MST with the temperature again in the low 40’s.  Normally when I leave Clint’s going east in the morning the sun is directly in my eyes until I turn south.  There was just enough overcast this morning to lessen the blinding effect and there was negligible wind as well.  About the time I turned south at Twin Falls the sun was in full force but the wind had also picked up.

 

I was soon in Nevada and picked up a geocache every chance I got to get a break from the wind and monotony. I’ve included a couple of pictures of some of the desolate areas where I logged caches.  The most outstanding by far was the Cathedral Gulch State Park near Panaca.  It reminded me very much of a cache Yancey and I did in Wyoming three years called “Planet P” which was the location used in the movie Starship Troopers (1997). I wish I had had time to hike some of the trails.  

 

I think it was nearly 7:30 before I arrived at brother-in-law Chuck’s place in Ivins, Utah, having covered 511 miles.  Ivins is in the very southwest corner of the state near St. George.  Chuck and Joanne have a beautiful place and they also hosted Yancey and me when we did the Utah counties two years ago. I had a delicious chicken dinner, got my caches for the day posted on the computer and got a good night’s sleep. [To be continued] M/W