Bruneau
TL;DR - Here’s the video.
There is an incredibly brief window of opportunity for PERFECT spring weather in the Treasure Valley. We can go from 84 and sunny one day to 43 and overcast the next. We’ve been pretty fortunate with finding decent weather on the days we’ve been going out for a drive or camping, so I’m going to keep rolling the dice with our luck.
Speaking of awesome things, Hailie and the dogs came out for their first trip.
The car camping setup worked fairly well in my goal of making the act of camping more accessible to my wife. I want to say I’m exactly where I want to be, but after a few trips, I can say that there are definitely things I need to figure out to make camping more convenient for sites that don’t offer amenities like tables, fire pits, restrooms, but I would comfortably say I’m 80% of the way there. More importantly, the things I want to change to get me to the place of contentment are largely quality of life improvements that don’t add to my current capabilities, but instead, those improvements will create dedicated space for the things I want out of my camping setup. I want a tire swing less for the spare tire, and more for a place that I can have a permanently attached camp table to the back of the car. I want to eventually build a modular storage system in the back of the car so I can keep everything in the car at all times. Added capability items are better wheels and tires, solar generator, some more rugged bumper guards, and a 20v fridge. All of those are things I will add over the next two years, and will let me access new places and go further out, but as far as being able to have everything I need for a few days out, I am golden.
Sumo had her first night in the back of the Forester while Tesla came up into the tent with us. I picked up some Revel lights at REI and ran them through the looping that is built into the top of the Mt. Hood tent, and after turning them on I quickly realized that this was how I always wanted to camp. I have a mattress, sleeping bag, pillow, perfect lighting, and enough space for my wife and dog to be comfortable. I can’t wait for summer camping with the sides down.
We did a community road trip to McCall, but I was not impressed with the community, so here are some pictures from a road trip we took in the STI to Bruneau Sand Dunes. Hailie accidentally missed the turn off to the state park, so we took a detour to go check out the Bruneau Canyon overlook. It was absolutely worth the extra time, and the weather was perfect for the drive.
The vertigo inducing sight of Bruneau Canyon is truly something to behold up close, but Hailie was not at all thrilled about my comfort level around the edge to take pictures, especially with the wind picking up as much as it was. She stayed comfortably behind the barrier while I got nauseated with the ability of looking all the way down. Worth it.
Using the overlook as our turnaround, we went back to the sand dunes for an hour of walking around before we were sick of finding sand everywhere.
Spring is beautiful, and the next few weeks have a few planned out trips to Cascade, a week in Wyoming, and I’m trying to plan out a trip to see the red woods later this year. I guess we’ll see where the year takes us.
Get out there and kill some bugs.
Until next time.
-Chris
