Bah humbug! UT ≠ WY

The mail forwarded care package was nowhere to be found at the post office today, despite being mailed on Monday from AZ. I became suspicious. I asked what the zip is at the Alpine post office. Hmmm, did not sound like the 84004 I gave Mark the Forwarder.

Some checking, calling The Big Guy Behind The USPS Curtain at the 800 USPS phone number, I was able to acquire the phone number for the post office at zip 84004. Sure enough, my mail was dutifully waiting for me at the PO that services Alpine, UT!

The kind fellow near Alpine, UT agreed to forward my mail to Alpine, WY. Alpine UT is located a little South of Salt Lake City, serviced by the USPS Office of American Fork, UT.

Gotta watch those state lines!

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132 MPH !!!

I have often wondered what would happen if I left my wind gauge deployed while driving. Now I know. I drove to Calamity with the wind gauge ‘propeller’ deployed. I knew it would happen. Stuff always happens eventually.

The gauge gives two readings; average over three minutes, and gust over three minutes. It also records the max of these measurements until the next reset.

My gauge told me that I went a max of 62 mph, and had a max gust of 132 mph.

The 62 mph sounds about right since I usually drive at about that speed, all things favorable. Driving toward Calamity was a rather slow two-lane road, mostly a 55 mph limit. Actually surprisingly close to what I would have guessed.

But the 132 had me confused for a bit – until I remembered that the short-term peak would be caused by on-coming trucks that were likewise driving in the vicinity of 60 mph. So the peak gust would be the closing speed and 130ish sounds about right.

All this proves just two things.

1) The readings supported an accuracy better than I would have thought. I suppose I will trust the gauge in the future.

2) Eventually, anything that can happen, will happen. Either here or in a parallel universe! I have it on good authority that every conceivable chain of events happens in one of the infinite number of parallel universes. So you should feel lucky. You are being unmercifully tortured by some homicidal, maniacal crazy alien not of this earth in another universe!

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Palisades campground discovered

Annie the Dog and I took a short day trip, short in distance. I was exploring a road going West into , but found a large amount of road construction. So I made a U-turn and came right back through it! Drove about 30 miles round trip, forgot the batteries for the keyboard that I went for, and it took about two hours.

I did get a couple of pictures. This one is near the dam on Snake R. South Fork. It is just a glimpse, as the reservoir extends about 10 miles. The entire drive from the hamlet of Alpine is near the lake.

I mentioned right angle one-lane turns to get to the campground? Well, here is an example of what looks like ‘the end of the road’. But it is a 90 sharp right turn – not recommended for large rigs. Yeah, I know. I am always finding myself into places I wish I had never found! And I hope I can get out of here without a ‘calamity’!

Seriously, only short vehicles should enter. The road is narrow – two wide rigs probably cannot pass without damage, three very sharp turns bordered by rock cliff, and the sites that a rig between 32-40 can get into number about two. If you are more than 30 feet, I recommend going elsewhere.

Fortunately, I have already found elsewhere.

I did find another campground that is perfect for large and very large rigs, and will probably trigger another soapbox entry. And if you have solar and satellite, no problem. Need electric? No problem. Need to run a generator? Please check that I am not nearby first!

Palisades Lake Recreation Area campground is just below the dam that I am parked just above. In fact, it can be viewed as one drives across the one-lane road to Calamity. Palisades has it all but trees! Satellite visibility, sun visibility, electricity (or not), fishing, and low rates even without GAP (non-electric $10 and, 30 amp electric $13, Golden Age Passport $5 less). I think the electricity is that low priced is because the dam is generating electricity, wholesale, right at the source. When that is considered, it should be $1.

If you are over 30 ft long, go to Palisades not Calamity. To find it, simply go to Calamity, then look below the dam. However, I am where I am, and probably will stay where I am until time to leave where I am because calamity probably cannot strike until I try to move.

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Arrival at Calamity NFS CG

Where is Calamity CG, ID?

Today’s travel: map item #18 to #19, 135 miles

After a delayed departure from Pullout, UT at the foot of Beaver Mt., a smooth drive without events brought Barth and friends to in the Targhee National Forest, ID. Boy, were we lucky! Having not thought about the approaching July 4 Holiday weekend, we arrived to find that of the few unreservable sites, one was large enough, had sun, and had SE sky. We couldn’t ask for more. As usual, here is the obligatory campsite photo:

Actually, I made a missed turn and drove a ways up the Snake Canyon which encloses, [drum roll here] the Snake River! Since there was smoke in the air from forest fires, I decided that two friendly ladies might take a photo of me, in case things were shut down by fires. Me and the Snake:

And since I have a nephew that likes to kayak, or did until the younguns came along, the following was snapped of kayakers in Snake rapids seconds before one tipped up-side-down, or down-side-up as the Aussies would say!

All in all, a successful day. More, including the one-lane road to the campground, complete with right angle turns later.

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Climb to Beaver Mountain summit

It all started simply enough. I thought that a walk of about a mile to the end of the road at the bottom of the Ski Area might do my back some good. And Annie the Dog needed a little exercise. So a walking we did go. I went into the lodge to see what it looked like. I talked to a couple people, summer custodians of the place.

Then the insanity erupted! For some reason I got the urge to climb to the summit of Beaver Mountain. After all, there is a maintenance road, not like it is a sheer cliff. What I did not check was the vertical elevation change, going from 7100 feet at the base to 8800 feet at the top of the lift. Add to that about 150 feet from lift top to the real summit. And don’t forget about the one mile walk to get there with perhaps 200 foot elevation change. So a conservative estimate of the total elevation change is about 2000 feet. And a guess of the linear distance would be a total of 4 miles. We took an easy “green” ski run up, and shorter but steeper “blue” intermediate runs down.

Now, for a lotta youse guys out there, that probably would be a piece of cake. But for a 14 year old dog with recent serious health problems and a 62 year old man with recent severe back problems, it was the ultimate challenge. The fact that I carried no water did not help any.

I left Annie the Dog off her leash on the way up, and part of the way down. She was always in front, sometimes just out of sight. That is discomforting since Annie the Dog is deaf. About half way down she started taking off of tangents, complete right angles to the direction I was going. She was way out front when she did this and I was afraid I would loose her since she is deaf. I finally got her corralled and leashed for the rest of the trip down. But she continued doing it, even on the leash.

I finally came to the realization of what the problem was. She was desperately dehydrated, exhausted, and she was desperately trying to find the shelter of shade to rest. I realized this when she burrowed herself under bushes no taller than her by the path.

So I found the closest shade and gave her about a fifteen minute rest, but knew that the rest had a point of diminishing returns, as she also desperately needed water.

We finally reached the bottom after several one minute rests in the shade for Annie the Dog and I watered her. Then we finished the walk to Barth and Jeep, who were happily oblivious of the activity. Currently she is lying outside completely exhausted, motionless on the ground.

An outstanding view was afforded us at the top of Beaver Mountain. If I had not been so reckless as to have taken Annie the Dog on that trek without water, it would have been a pleasurable experience. And I think it did wonders for my ham strings and back.

Here are some shots I took from Beaver Mountain summit. The first one is a panoramic which, as usual, is a link.

Panoramic view from Beaver Mountain Summit

Part way up the mountain:

Barth is in the exact center of this shot, in the pullout beside the road. This has been my home for over a week:

Couldn’t see Barth? With my camera at max zoom Barth again appears in the center of this next photo. The tiny speck in the center:

With the magic of computers, another shot of Barth in the center. Just in case you are doubters:

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