Day 7 - Boondocking
Sometimes people ask us how we know where to camp. The answer is that we don't always know. So far on this trip from prior trips we knew of some camps that we enjoyed, like that on the Clark Fork River and the one at Gem Mountain. However, other times we don't have a clue where we will end up!
When traveling we ALWAYS have a map. Yes, the good old fashioned paper map that gets folded and unfolded so many times holes get worn on the folds... of course Murphy's Law dictates that frequently those worn out places are just where we need to go. You might say, "But what about your truck's nav system or your phone's map app?" Well, we use those as well, but sometimes they really don't help or send us the wrong way. When in doubt, we go with what the paper map shows.
One example of the phone app sending us the wrong way occurred this trip when we were heading to Ruby Reservoir. Coming over the Continental Divide out of Butte, my phone said to stay on I-90 to Billings, then work our way south, and then back west. The time would have been over six hours. When I looked at the map, there seemed a more direct route cutting south much sooner than Billings. We took that route and arrived at camp in about 2 1/2 hours which was much better than six.
Paper maps though are not without their challenges. Often those little tent symbols that we use to figure out where a camp might be are kind of in between some roads or just sort of in an area. That's when getting to a campsite gets interesting. Most of the time I am a pretty good navigator giving Pat road names, towns, and approximate mileages that we will be looking for. However, sometimes we might drive right by a turn off and as we go by, my head swivels around and I say, "Oops, that was the turn, I think"... I get mixed responses to that statement.
This day of traveling was that kind of map reading, tentative planning, and guessing sort of day. We started at Ruby Reservoir which had been a new camp for us, and one we will return to. Our drive through the ghost towns of the Alder Gulch area was pretty straight forward. According to the map, there was a campground at the ghost town, Bannack, so that would be a possible place for us to stay.
After we toured Bannack, it was about two, so kind of early to stop. Now, if it had been a really cool camp, we would have stayed, but this one had a lot of campers already, was in a pretty brushy area likely to be mosquito thick, and being in a deset area it was pretty hot. So we drove on.
Our next likely spot about an hour later was Jackson Hot Springs. Well, we found a hotel named that, but didn't see any hot springs, nor a campground. So we drove on.
Not far from there, the town of Wisdom had an RV park in the middle of the tiny town. It looked kind of dusty and dry. Of course it was still hot being in the middle of high sagebrush hills. So we drove on.
The turnoff at Wisdom sent us west towards Chief Joseph Pass and there was supposed to be a Nez Perce historical site with a campground... this was one of the those "swivel my head and say oops..." times. We drove on.
Now it was getting close to five and we'd been on the go since eight in the morning. At that point, we start to not be too picky about a camp. Another little tent symbol showed on our map, but we never saw a turnoff for it. However, there was a dirt road leading off with a sign... it looked like a possibility. We had already driven past the road, but after discussing it, we thought we'd turn around and go take a look. Although we only have a camper, with a big pickup truck it is still not the easiest vehicle to maneuver, but turn around we did.
The worn and faded sign listed three places, the closest of which was Tie Creek at 6 miles. That sounded promising, so up the dirt road we went, and it did go up! Within 50 feet we started bouncing through large potholes and deep ruts. Should we back up or go on? We drove on. Within 100 feet the road smoothed out a bit, but kept climbing. We were driving through a mixed pine tree type of forest. I always really enjoy that kind of forest because the underbrush is thin making it so you can look for animals - bear, deer, elk.
After a couple of miles, the road was winding around corners, but did level out as we neared the top of a ridge. Off to the right was a pretty meadow. Low and behold
just after that there was a dirt track. We caught a glimpse of a tent trailer so figured there might be a possible camp spot. Pat carefully turned and followed the track. A split in the road proved that the tent trailer had gone left, so we turned right. It led us back to the meadow and a spot that has been used as a camp before, complete with a fire ring!
Yes, we found our camp for the night! Actually it is the kind of camp we enjoy the most, no people (or just a few people), cool temperatures, and something to look at . In this case, we enjoyed looking at the meadow, the birds flitting around our camp, and prairie dogs. Of c.ourse what we were really looking for were bear, elk, or moose. Deer and birds we see in our yard at home.
We really had climbed up a long way because by the time we went
to bed the temperature had dropped to 34 degrees. Overnight the temperature dropped to 29 degrees. Brrr, considering we'd been in the upper 80's at Bannack! We were happy we'd packed a bit of cold weather clothes! It turned out to be a great stargazing site. Once the moon went down, we saw a number of shooting stars. This may be our favorite camp of the trip.
We would come back to this boondock camp... that is if we can find it again.
One example of the phone app sending us the wrong way occurred this trip when we were heading to Ruby Reservoir. Coming over the Continental Divide out of Butte, my phone said to stay on I-90 to Billings, then work our way south, and then back west. The time would have been over six hours. When I looked at the map, there seemed a more direct route cutting south much sooner than Billings. We took that route and arrived at camp in about 2 1/2 hours which was much better than six.
Paper maps though are not without their challenges. Often those little tent symbols that we use to figure out where a camp might be are kind of in between some roads or just sort of in an area. That's when getting to a campsite gets interesting. Most of the time I am a pretty good navigator giving Pat road names, towns, and approximate mileages that we will be looking for. However, sometimes we might drive right by a turn off and as we go by, my head swivels around and I say, "Oops, that was the turn, I think"... I get mixed responses to that statement.
This day of traveling was that kind of map reading, tentative planning, and guessing sort of day. We started at Ruby Reservoir which had been a new camp for us, and one we will return to. Our drive through the ghost towns of the Alder Gulch area was pretty straight forward. According to the map, there was a campground at the ghost town, Bannack, so that would be a possible place for us to stay.After we toured Bannack, it was about two, so kind of early to stop. Now, if it had been a really cool camp, we would have stayed, but this one had a lot of campers already, was in a pretty brushy area likely to be mosquito thick, and being in a deset area it was pretty hot. So we drove on.
Our next likely spot about an hour later was Jackson Hot Springs. Well, we found a hotel named that, but didn't see any hot springs, nor a campground. So we drove on.
Not far from there, the town of Wisdom had an RV park in the middle of the tiny town. It looked kind of dusty and dry. Of course it was still hot being in the middle of high sagebrush hills. So we drove on.
The turnoff at Wisdom sent us west towards Chief Joseph Pass and there was supposed to be a Nez Perce historical site with a campground... this was one of the those "swivel my head and say oops..." times. We drove on.
Now it was getting close to five and we'd been on the go since eight in the morning. At that point, we start to not be too picky about a camp. Another little tent symbol showed on our map, but we never saw a turnoff for it. However, there was a dirt road leading off with a sign... it looked like a possibility. We had already driven past the road, but after discussing it, we thought we'd turn around and go take a look. Although we only have a camper, with a big pickup truck it is still not the easiest vehicle to maneuver, but turn around we did.
The worn and faded sign listed three places, the closest of which was Tie Creek at 6 miles. That sounded promising, so up the dirt road we went, and it did go up! Within 50 feet we started bouncing through large potholes and deep ruts. Should we back up or go on? We drove on. Within 100 feet the road smoothed out a bit, but kept climbing. We were driving through a mixed pine tree type of forest. I always really enjoy that kind of forest because the underbrush is thin making it so you can look for animals - bear, deer, elk.
After a couple of miles, the road was winding around corners, but did level out as we neared the top of a ridge. Off to the right was a pretty meadow. Low and behold
Yes, we found our camp for the night! Actually it is the kind of camp we enjoy the most, no people (or just a few people), cool temperatures, and something to look at . In this case, we enjoyed looking at the meadow, the birds flitting around our camp, and prairie dogs. Of c.ourse what we were really looking for were bear, elk, or moose. Deer and birds we see in our yard at home.
We really had climbed up a long way because by the time we wentto bed the temperature had dropped to 34 degrees. Overnight the temperature dropped to 29 degrees. Brrr, considering we'd been in the upper 80's at Bannack! We were happy we'd packed a bit of cold weather clothes! It turned out to be a great stargazing site. Once the moon went down, we saw a number of shooting stars. This may be our favorite camp of the trip.
We would come back to this boondock camp... that is if we can find it again.
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