Bear Valley in the Salmon-Challis National Forest

On this year’s trip to Idaho, my gear made it to Boise and back just fine. I use an army surplus bag to protect my Osprey Atmos AG 65 backpack from snags, etc. I decided to cinch up the empty space above the backpack with some rope. So it really does look like a body is in the bag. So we refer to the army bag as the body-bag.

This year’s travel related event was a passenger on the inbound flight fainting or something like that. It was on the way to my connection in Phoenix. Before we could deplane, the captain came on the PA to say we all had to sit and let the paramedics get the ill passenger off of the plane first. I looked at my watch and I had about 20 minutes to get to my connection, but I didn’t know which gate I was arriving at or where the connecting gate was. Fortunately after I finally got off the plane, my connecting flight was at the gate across from where I deplaned.

We were thinking of going to Boulder Chain of lakes this year but the snowpack was still too much in late June. So we changed plans to go to Bear Valley and Fir Creek. We arrived at Fir Creek campground and noticed signs that the campground was closed. We assumed it might be related to salmon management. We did notice that most of the camping spots were taken but figured it was mostly forest management folks and a few jerks that ignored the signs. Turned out that the campground was closed until the end of May and the forest service didn’t take the signs down. We moved on to Bear Valley creek campground which was less crowded and better anyway. We managed to miss our turn to Bear Valley. We stopped to look at the map and it was supposed to be 3 miles ahead. We passed a couple walking their dogs and thought it’s been a long 3 miles but we must be close. We realized it was way more than 3 miles and turned around. It seems that where we stopped to look at the map was exactly the fork in the road that we should have turned at.

Even though we were at a lower elevation than Castle Lake and the Boulder Chain of lakes, we had hail the first evening. That’s better than rain. We were able to keep our fire going. We put up a couple of tarps to try to shield against the wind and hail. The hail kept starting and stopping so Adrian and Jared did their best impression of Lt. Dan, “is that all you got” (from Forrest Gump). It was about 32 °F the first night and fortunately had stopped hailing. My sleeping bag (REI Flash bag) is rated for 29 °F and I have a Sea to Summit Thermolite Reactor Liner that’s supposed to add up to 14°F to the sleeping bag (doubtful in reality). My sleeping bag is down on top and synthetic on the bottom to save weight. It’s 1 lb 12 oz plus 8 oz from the liner. I had wool socks, long underwear (top and bottoms), and a knit hat. I was warm enough except my feet got a little cold by morning. We had coffee/tea in Jerry’s camper in the morning. The heater was nice. I also tried out my new Klymit Inertia X-frame recon sleeping pad. The gaps are supposed to allow your sleeping bag to fill the gaps to trap air, and therefore warmth. I put it between my liner and sleeping bag and it seemed to be OK. I also had my old REI Trekker 1.75 self-inflating sleeping pad. Combining them is quite comfortable without too much weight. I also have a Sea to Summit pillow.

Critters
Around 1:30 AM the first night I heard the sound of a plastic bag. Jerry left his bag of peanuts (in the shell) out. The bag was only slightly open. So a mule deer was tossing the bag to get them to spill out. So I kept hearing the bag drop. I got out in my long underwear to tell her to go away. Then I put the peanuts in the truck. As usual, the deer came back every night. There was a really young buck, a doe and maybe her fawn. I wasn’t sure if the little deer was her offspring or just small. We saw a lot of birds in the evenings and I practiced a lot with my telephoto lens. I did OK photographing a woodpecker but not so good with the turkey vulture. The birds were bloody loud every morning starting around 5:30. There was a giant ant hill on our campsite and I discovered more like it at other campsites. There were ants everywhere. On the last day, we probably took 20 photos of a little chipmunk that found some granola Adrian spilled.

Other new equipment
I mentioned the Klymit Inertia x-frame recon already. I bought a Garmin Tempe temperature sensor for my Fenix 5 watch. The temperature readings on the watch don’t make sense to me. It’s not quite body temp but it’s clearly not ambient temperature either. The Tempe takes a while to connect to the watch, using ANT+ wireless technology. I hung the Tempe sensor outside my tent to get a few readings in the middle of the night. However, I don’t think I waited long enough for it to connect to my watch for our hikes. Sadly the Garmin software doesn’t tell you if the temperature reading is from the watch or the Tempe sensor but I likely didn’t record from the Tempe.

I tried out my new Goal Zero Nomad 14 Plus solar panel and Venture 30 battery. I didn’t really need them for this trip but it’s always good to try out new gear in a situation where you don’t really need them. I was able to daisy-chain my solar panels with Dan’s but it wasn’t clear if they were really boosting output. Anyway, the Venture 30 battery was enough to charge a couple of phones plus my Garmin watch. I don’t think I needed to charge my Sony camera. Dan and Jerry were trying out their ham radio gear for Field Day.

I like my REI Flash 18 daypack because it’s lightweight and packable. However, it’s on the small side and not comfortable if you load it up even with just jackets and clothing. I bought an Osprey hikelite 26 to use as a daypack when car camping. Unfortunately it doesn’t fit me well. It cuts into my shoulders a bit. It’s one size fits some, so I think my wife is claiming it.

Adventures
We hiked to the “secret” hot spring on the last day camping. We saw some people on the trail when we were hiking in and they were hiking out. When we got to the hot spring, one section had a heavy sulfur smell so we went down to the larger pool. We came across a group that had just finished and were on their way out. When we were done, we encountered a group just arriving. So we were glad to have the hot spring to ourselves, plus the garter snake we found but I’m not sure it’s really secret or hidden.

We found a wigwam across the creek and decided we should move it as a team building exercise. It wouldn’t fit on the truck so we carried it for a decent workout. We also found what appeared to be an abandoned farm while we were driving around. I still think it’s a CIA safehouse. The Elk Creek national forest guard station was empty but not abandoned. I saw a woodchuck near what appeared to be some kind of bunker but I couldn’t get a photo of him. I also saw some elk when we were driving out but I wasn’t ready with the camera plus we were in the truck.

I treated some of my pants and shirts with Sawyer Permethrin bug spray. It was hard to judge its effectiveness because it was a bit cold and there weren’t too many bugs. Overall the weather was good so I’m not complaining. There were no fires nearby so the air was fresh. The water from the creek seemed to have a bit of a pine aftertaste. At first we thought it might be my filter but Dan’s filter had the same slight aftertaste. As a bonus, Jerry made petite filet mignon, baked potatoes, tomato slices, asparagus, and grilled Anaheim pepper for dinner. It was outstanding and way better than dehydrated camping food, which is not to say that camping food is bad. Some of the camping food packs are actually pretty good.

You can see the rest of the photos here: Bear Valley, ID 2019