PHOTOS WILL BE POSTED IN A FEW DAYS.
I was awake by 6 or so, and soon we were up and getting ready for the day. How the day got away from us the way it did I don't know. but here's the story. Today the plan was to go into the Jarbidge Wilderness. I've known about it since I was a kid as being Nevada's premier wilderness and always have wanted to go there. This was to have been the time.
We must be wearing down because we were slow getting out of the room. I asked Debbie if she cared if I blogged for 15 minutes and she said no, so I published Thursday's text which I had already written, and stuck the photos in. There has been no Internet connection to post that one, and with all we are doing I kept getting a day or two behind.
There was no continental breakfast at our hotel, but they gave each of us a $5 coupon for a full breakfast at a restaurant across the street. We thought it was a good idea to use it. First we went to a gun and archery sporting goods store next to the hotel for Jarbidge information and maps. Lucky we did because forest service and BLM offices are closed on the weekend - go figure. That took 20 minutes to visit with those guys about the roads etc. They knew a lot about the country, and told us that going in from this side - the south, the pass to the small town of Jarbidge (pop. 14) was still snowed in. So lucky we didn't just take off like we did yesterday and have to come back out of there. They also said this was a two-track road and there were no signs. I said "You mean a dirt road" and he said "No, I mean two-track four wheel drive dirt road". But showed us instead on our new-just-bought-from-them-$23 book of Nevada maps how to go into Idaho through Jackpot and back down to Jarbidge. Half or more of route that is paved. This was the way I expected we would come out after the drive, and presumed that it was all do-able because these roads ARE shown on a road map. So we left the sporting goods store expecting we would do the northern end and be happy with that, although disappointed not to see the whole thing. The guys there said that the Elko/southern side was really the prettiest but that you shouldn't go in there until July. There were some very nice full mounts and artwork in the sporting goods store.
We're heard in several places that this week is a huge motorcyclers gathering in this area, and we've seen them everywhere we've gone. The businesses have been saying that this is their busy week. When we got to the restaurant, people were waiting outside for tables. We decided to go for it rather than search for another place and loose the ten bucks. I waited in line and Debbie went across the street to fill up with gas. It took 25 minutes to get the table. The food took forever to come after we finally got waited on. Then we must have waited 15 minutes for the check. It was after 11 when we left town.
We headed east to Wells on I-80 to catch 93 north. I sat with the laptop on my knees and wrote the report for yesterday, something I had not tried yet. It worked great, except I'm not good with the pad mouse. The scenery was beautiful again, if you like desolation. At Wells we got off I-80 and went through town to check for a visitor center for any more information we could get. The town is quite small. In the historic district we noticed some damaged buildings. And I said to Debbie, "Let's go around the block and look at this." The very old part of town (which dates from 1868) with it's historic old buildings was all damaged - whether deliberately being demolished or what we didn't know. An entire block of buildings was all enclosed with a 10 food high chain link fence. Then Debbie remembered that several months back there had been an earthquake here. She heard on the news that had done a lot of damage in the town. We got quite a few pictures of it and talked to two groups of residents. Yes, there had been a terrible earthquake there and aftershocks ever since. It happened in February, in the middle of winter. Bricks and signs and rubble and most all the windows were laying on the ground, parts of walls and roofs were gone. People lived and had businesses there but now it was abandoned, including the visitor center. The high school also had a lot of damage. An older lady and her family had moved there from California and bought three of the old buildings to restore, to get away from earthquakes she said. Now she owned three destroyed buildings.
We headed north on Highway 93. Lots of traffic there, one of the main routes in and out of Southern Idaho, and watching every road sign for some mention of Jarbidge. We stopped at a small station after another 20 miles or so driving, topped off the tank again just to be safe and got some snacks. Then drove on with me checking the new Idaho map book Debbie bought there. Come to find out that station, Roberson, was where our turn was, accurately described by the guys in the sports store, but no road sign ever saying "Jarbidge" or highway 229. Of interest is that there's a big reservoir there and Salmon Falls Creek is what fills it. It is the first river heading north we have come across - and all of them we encounter will go to the Columbia River now.
The weather was turning stormy. The sky was looking very threatening, the wind was coming up and dust storms were blowing. I said "Let's just go to Twin Falls and get our room early". It took a lot of going back and forth on whether to turn around and make the Jarbidge drive, but all the signs seemed to be saying that we'd had enough for a while. It was already almost 4 p.m. mountain time, so we would have been very late getting back from the drive and in to Twin Falls to our motel. We gave up our plan.
We didn't have a reservation today, so came to a Best Western and went in. They had no more rooms with two beds available, ..... but wait ..... she had a room that had a kitchen and she gave me $30 off on it. I said yes we'd take it. It has three rooms, a sitting room with a second TV, and a nearly full kitchen, even a dishwasher - none of which we'll use. We got our stuff into the room and soon the TV went out, and there was no wireless. The wind had taken them both out. We went to a steak house a few miles away and had a nice dinner. It was that or pizza. Now as I write after dinner there is a thunder and lightning storm with lots of wind and black, dusty looking air. Debbie went back to the SUV to get a couple of flashlights in case the power goes out. That was our day. Tomorrow we may go home..... or head for Jackson where I could get my treatment on Monday, then home. More decisions to make.
And curious if I'll ever be able to see the Jarbidge.
