Okay, so the short story is this. Last Friday it was raining cats and frogs in Boise. In Idaho Falls where Little Yonni and Susun reside it was snowing to beat the band, as they say in Midwestern parlance. Kind of reminds me of parlaying in Pirates of the Caribbean, but I digress. Suffice to say that Little Yonni was way stressed about trying to back his pickup and pop-up camper out from under a dearth of snow and branches; or finalizing his rigging to get he and missus to COR on Friday late afternoon for a rendevous.
I had already arranged for a dog and chicken sitter to tend to my hearth and flock so was inclined to get out of Dodge, as they say. I decided to call my brother and sister in law in Rupert at the family farm to see if they'd put up with for a night and they graciously and enthusiastically agreed I could come and hang out.
So, all packed up I left Boise and figured I'd meet up with Yonni and Susun at COR on Saturday around 11:30 to noon. An enjoyable evening was spent with Steve and Marcy at the farm joined by Willie, Waylon and Vanna the cats, and also the beloved 10 year old border collie mutt named Callie who squeals a whimper that is both endearing and annoying at the same time. But I adore her.
After a breakfast of fresh peaches and berries with cereal I headed off to Almo, the remote spot in MOAN country where the does and bucks are nervous. Much to my surprise Yonni and Susun had pulled in only about 60 seconds or less prior to me. They accused me of spying on them when I rolled in.
We headed on out after maps and a pit stop to look for a campsite. It would seem that despite the plethora of climbing clientele, that folks had quickly tired of three days of rain and snow. Campsites appeared full and we went up to a higher site only to find excess snow to the tune of 6 inches on the picnic table and drowning in moisture and snowy wonder at the tent location. I wasn't particularly enthused at this option. Yonni and I left Susun to hold this less than desirable camp and we headed back to below snow line to look at other options I'd identified previously. As luck would have it, the climbers were sick and tired of being cold and frozen and rained upon for the past three days, most of them without any kind of fire wood, so camps were being evacuated. That was good news for us as we snagged one that I'd identified as highly desirable. Well, it turned out it was more than that. We had 360 degree panorama vistas, shelter from wind, morning sun and a flat spot for Montezuma family to park their pop up camper truck. I was in hog heaven, actually. I don't typically camp in formal campgrounds and this was hands down the best developed campsite with a picnic table and fire pit/grate I'd ever been to. I kid you not!. I even went on video to proclaim this, but Yonni hasn't put it on U tube boob yet, so it might show up later on this blob of a blog.
Well, all I can tell you is we had 48 hours of the most incredible break in weather known to camping/hiking mankind and we made the most of it by hiking all around the place. Yonni had a better description and I'll try to link to his blog when I remember how to do that.
We saw climber on the Bumblie trail loop and we hiked up on an adjacent rock dome near our camp with amazing pot holes full of snow melt and we could see lots of snow on Independence Mtn and Cassia Peak along with Mtn Harrison near Pomerelle Ski area. Hiking was superb. Coyotes sang us to sleep and the full moon almost, came up on our Sunday evening under the night sky. Susuan serenaded us with her version of Dancing with the Susun and her hippie dippie lava light tubes. I brought enough wood from my firewood pile at home to keep us in good stead for the full two day of camping.
We met folks from Bozeman, Banff in Alberta, and Boise, Nampa and even Colorado who come to hang out. All of them by and large were climbers but they were appreciative that were hikers not climbers but loved what they do. We met horse people on the trail around Bumblie on Sunday.
The difference between COR and Great Basin National Park was the difference between night and day. I didn't see a single "ranger" with law enforcement authority, nor did I see rangers or personnel per se at all except at the visitor center. We saw some state of Idaho Parks Dept folks who all waved and were convivial and they never bothered or harassed anyone.This was in stark opposition to my experience at Great Basin where I was ticketed for supposed speeding within less than 5 minutes of crossing into the boundary of the park. The Visitor Center Park service employee at Almo was amazingly knowledgeable and helpful unlike the staff at Great Basin. This guy knew everything. But then again, he was easily 30 year older than the staffer at Great Basin. And even the older staff we met seemed clueless.
My experience here was stellar. The scenery was superior to anything Great Basin has to offer and far less hassle. I plan to come back again same time next year. I'd been here at least 6 times since it became a joint NPS/State Park venture. I think the NPS should consider this model more often. Great Basin doesn't deserve National Park status and should probably be a monument or reserve and they need to unwind all their regulations which are overkill.
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