The Well Behaved Dingo

Well, once again last night was more driving than I care to admit to. We got into Bends Idaho well after dark and couldn’t find the campground we were after anywhere.

When desperate we drive and drive. First up a long banging road to forest service land with “three great campgrounds” according to our guide book, all of which are about 6 miles plus up a snowed in road. Next we crept through a migration corridor full of hundreds of elk, who scared the shit out of Sarah with their Buddha serene stares and hanging flesh. The Big Ugly was dodging rock-slides as best she could. We drove 20 miles at about 25 miles an hour in case the elk beside the road spooked, which they never did.

After 20 miles and not finding the campsite the elk staring eerily at us and the road slides seemed to be a sign to turn back. It was a pitch black night, no moon, and we both had a sense that something bad was waiting up that road. So we turned around and went back. And fifteen miles back down the road was the campsite we were looking for. It was snowed in but fortunately they’d plowed a few hundred feet up the drive so we pulled in and slept while all around us through the night those zen elk flowed past.

THE HIKE: On Idaho-55 watch for NF-24 near Banks, ID. Take NF-24 East 5 miles. Watch for the pull-off beside the river. Cross the highway and walk East about 100 feet to find the unmarked trail. The trail switch-backs up a steep slope for about a mile before coming to the hotsprings. The dingo gives this hike a 6/10 babies. Nice location but the pvc piping and the flacid but skin of the retired hippy skinny dippers make her want to regurgitate her morning meal.
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This morning we got up and went straight to the hot springs, thinking that on a Wednesday, early in the morning, we’d have the place to ourselves. But of course, there are no private wonders any more. Somehow the elk had dissipated with the night and we didn’t see one while we drove back to Skinny Dipper’s Hot-springs. We parked at the pullout on mile marker 5, only to find another vehicle already there. Our hearts dropped a notch as it sank in that we’d have to share the springs we’d driven three hours to enjoy. But there was nothing to do. We hit the trail, working with Scherzo on her loose leash skills, which dip considerably on hikes.

We got up to the hot springs and only found clothes. The other hot-springers were evidently naked and in a pool above the central pool. We decided to hike out past the springs a ways in the hopes that they would leave and we could feel like we were alone up there but for the cars on the highway below, whooshing past out of site. We found a place to sit and look up slope, and Scherzo came over and we all laid on each-other. The slope there was so steep if you started rolling you wouldn’t be able to stop so we had to stay close to each-other so that if one of us slipped up there and let go of ourselves while we were resting one of the others could reach out and stop the rolling away.

We laid like that for over an hour until we were drowsy and decided to go back and see if the hidden naked folks had left. They hadn’t, but we went with the fuck it approach and jumped into the lower main pool and sat, the high altitude sun glaring off the water. It was so pretty, and Scherzo even stood with her front half in the water, I was bummed we’d forgotten the camera in Big Ugly. After a long soak we resigned ourselves to returning later to take photos and got dressed. On the way out we passed a steady stream of folks crawling up the path and changed our minds.

Instead of waiting and heading back up to the overpopulated springs we headed off for the state park the guide book claimed was the “crown jewel of idaho”, a state park called Ponderosa State Park. We found ourselves in a small mountain town, the kind of place you don’t expect to see many people. The thing was there were people everywhere, crowds of people.

(Sarah): Everyone was walking around in weird outfits and all these people were taking pictures like asian tourists. Some guy took a picture of me throwing away trash. Then when we got to the actual park there were colorful flags lining the road and a huge banner reading “world cross country ski finals.” There was a smaller sign below it that said all trails closed to anyone other than skiers and yet another sign saying no dogs allowed anywhere. All those weird people were foreign cross country skiers, mostly Europeans I assume. We walked around a bit, scherzo ran in the snow, but a cut she had gotten on her paw earlier that day hadn’t healed yet so we left.

Our new plan was to go to this camp site that was supposed to be awesome. I even called the Forest Service Ranger Station for the area and the woman who answered said the road was open but of course once we drove 6 miles down a dirt road it got all icy and we couldn’t keep going to the camp which was at mile 10. When mac tried to turn the van around it got stuck and the wheels were spinning out. Luckily I got out and started heaving on the van and got it rocking back and forth until it was unstuck. But by then it was night and real dark so we were forced to go to a crappy campsite by the highway.

It was SO loud, 18 wheelers were constantly going over a bridge right near camp. Also, there was a huge pack of deer sleeping at our campsite when we got there, which scared scherzo.

I decided to make her a warm bowl of “Embark,” a kind raw food gruel thats dehydrated which makes it good for traveling, or is supposed to anyway. I thought it’d warm her up and calm her down. But she was only half interested in it. So after yelling at each-other, accidentally stepping in her food bowl and unsuccessfully starting a fire we decided to leave there and drive through the night to Missoula. Thoughts of fish tacos and Brain Wash spurred us on. yum yum yum.