Wednesday June 11, 2014 Bruneau River Bridge Camp NV.
Off on a little walk
The reason I camped in this spot was I wanted to walk down the draw a few miles and back again this morning.
This was my camp spot last night and I’m going for a walk on past the van and down the draw for a few miles. I was off around 8:30 AM this morning to a nice day. That’s the road I’m on in back of the van.
This was my view as I walked down the draw this morning.
Trying not to get lost
When I started out on this hike, I looked around to see where I was in relation to Bearpaw mountain as I could see that from a long way away so, could get back to that point if I got slightly off course. :O)
There were some wild flowers out here and there.
And always that squirrel with it’s eye on me.
I walked down through stuff like this on my way. Fairly easy walking actually.
I could of drove here
When I got down to as far as I wanted to go for the day, I found that the road I traveled on to get here yesterday, goes right by the place I walked to, so next time I can drive to this part and start my walk from here. The draw goes down to a creek, called Deep Creek which looks like it might be interesting.
Heading on back up the draw
I rested for a bit, then turned and headed for home the way I came, I thought.
Here was one of my views as I walked back up the draw. Some times the draw has water flowing down it, but not right now, unfortunately, as it would of made the walk more interesting, then it already was.
A snake a I cross paths
A two foot long snake went down a hole right in front of me, that I thought was a small goffer snake as I’d seen several big ones on the roads.
But this one stopped just short of going all the way into the hole for some reason,maybe to show me? It was a small snake, better to hide than to challenge, to live another day.
Not far past the snake, this little thing darted through the grass in front of me.
Horny Toad, I think.
And throw some elk in for good measure and distraction
I saw something move up on the hill above me. Some elk were moving my way, but got my scent, somehow. The wind was in my favor, but they silently left as quick as they showed up. And that distracted me, just enough that I missed the draw to the van and passed it by.
Oh great
Of course, I didn’t know I’d passed the draw with the van in it until later.
Bones to reflect on what can happen to those that lose their van
I saw the skull of a Hiposarous looking at me. Closer examination of the other bones in the area showed it to be the hip bone of a bovinosarous instead.
No Van
Just past those bones I came to the head of the draw and realized my van wasn’t in site, which wasn’t a good feeling. However, I knew it had to be not too far as I could still see Bearpaw Mountain, so I headed for that and picked up another road I hadn’t been on yet, but thought it would go over to the draw with my van in it and it did.
That’s a good feeling
Nice to see ones van after losing it. :O)
I rested up a bit and had a bite to eat, then headed on out of this area through the shorter route to the main dirt road, FS 071 I think it was, the road to Jarbidge. Four wheeling, low range, low gear most of the way, watching to keep from hitting rocks with the vans tires.
Anyway, I had to cross this water by this little pond on the way out.
Exploring looking for places to camp for later
I made it back to the main dirt road and headed on down it. I stopped here and there along the side roads looking for future camp areas and this is one I found that looked good. I stopped for a bit of a rest here before moving on.
Bruneau River Bridge
I stopped here at the Bruneau River Bridge crossing for a break and to decide what to do for the night. There’s lots of water in the river right now, likely because the snow is still melting on the higher mountains in this area.
Camp here
I decided this place is good enough, so I took off on a little road behind the grader that went to a camp spot back there.
;
This is where I’m camped right now, next to the Bruneau river, which is off to the left and flowing down that canyon in the back.
Small things too
Something caught my attention in the grass, so I bent over to see what it was?
A little cricket sat still long enough for me to take it’s photo.
Campfire tonight
I hadn’t had a camp fire so far on this trip, mostly because I was trying not to scare the wild life off. But tonight, I was in a good place to have one, safe and a bit of wood here too.
I waited until almost dark, when the dew was up, before starting the fire so I wouldn’t burn the place up.
Here’s my campfire just after I got it going with the moon in the background providing the proper ambiance. :O)
Lots of exploring today
It seems like I’ve done a lot of exploring today with the walk and the exploring I did with the van moving to a new camp spot.
I’m thinking I need to find another camp site close by tomorrow, so I plan to do some more exploring of side roads with the van.
I’m going to shut this thing off and think about what to do tomorrow.