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No mosquitoes when we were there. I doubt there are ever very many. Could be an issue in the high country you drive through to get there though.

@@OccidentalistOutdoors Nice!! We have spent quite a bit of time on the Salmon ourselves usually near Spring Bar and have never had any skeeters there either. We love that country!

No sheep on this trip, we have seen plenty downriver towards Riggins though.

Yes that is another good trip. Always good to have a saw along!

We need to do the Wagon Road in its entirety. We have been on several segments, but haven't driven it as an entire trip. We'll have to plan on that one for next year. We may have been on the ridge you are referring to just this past week between the Salmon and Snake on Craig Mountain. There was a fresh layer of icy snow so we ended up turning around and deciding we need to explore that area more in the future too.

@@OccidentalistOutdoors A month ago I took the Grangeville--Salmon road to a ways past the Old Adams Ranger Station and then took the Slate Creek Road to Highway 95 and then to Lucile. From there I went west up Cow Creek, not a road for the faith of heart. That ridge road isn't nearly as well kept as it was 25 years ago. Turn right and go until you cross the Salmon. I then took the road to Joseph Plains which is a nice crooked gravel road uphill There are two roads that go north . One is flat until it goes down a grade where Center Creek is. I had been there before so I took the road through a forested area to Joseph (Nothing there I could see,). The road comes to a T and since a lot of that area is private land (cattle ranches), I went to the right. It is a real adventure when it goes downhill. A few days ago at a county emergency planning committee meeting I talked to one of the rural fire officials and he said the fire trucks can go up and down there but it is slow. I went down it but was in 1st and 2nd all the way. It covers a little over a mile but took me 30 minutes or so to make the trip. At the bottom, after a few miles there is a bridge over the Salmon River and then a ride up Rock Creek to the town of Cottonwood. But at the crossing of the river, you can drive 6 miles down the salmon on a paved road to a series of campgrounds. School was out so I saw very few people. The road ends there. The road from the Old Adams Ranger Station to Square Mountain Lookout is a great drive. With the Boy Scouts several years ago we walked to the top of Gospel Peak which is 8,000 feet high, but it is an easy walk because the road is already so high. A drive to Slate Lake leads to a half mile walk to the lake. Along the way, to Square Mountain, there is a nice trail to Moors Lake where I once saw a moose and calf. There is a horse camp and good places to camp. Square Mountain LO has been rebuilt and is 8000 feet high but is on the ground not a tower. The drive to the Gospel Hump area is possible but rough. I went up there on the back of a four-wheel ATV once with the Sherriff's Possee and I once went with someone with a Suburban, but usually I just walked. Once on the top it is pretty level and has lots of pretty lakes. With the Scouts we walked up to the summit of the Buffalo Hump at 8900 feet. I had to stop the boys from pulling trout out of the streams, but we would only see the bigger fish in the lakes. Weren't hungry, I guess. If you can get there, it is worth the trip. I tried it in my Outback but I turned around with a lot of trouble and went home.Easy to get lost in this country. GPS is a help but not foolproof. Few roads have signs and even the best of maps make traveling a chore. In some of these areas you can look online and are able to rent a lookout tower for a night. My wife and I did that once and she loved that. We rented Lookout Butte which is some 30 miles from where I live.

@@OccidentalistOutdoors Two weeks ago I tried to reach Lookout Butte Lookout from where I live, but fresh snow and too much ice made it not worth the risk. I just have a passenger car but I think I have a good chance to make it to many places with a Subaru. I didn't want to get to places where turning around could be chancy.

@@PatrickThreewit Those are all great places. The Gospels are definitely on our list in the near future - hard to time it right between snow and fires, but I think we will get up there next year.

@@OccidentalistOutdoors Earlier this week I decided to do a little road exploring on Reservation land between Kamiah and the Gifford-Reubens Road and found some very interesting places.. I drove to Grangeville and then took 95 to P3 road, driving to Melrose Road and finally to the Melrose Grade Road which was a fairly steep winding road that ended up at the south end of Peck. A very interesting road. I had come through a muddy series of farm roads and was glad to get to gravel. I see on the map that there are two more grade roads from Peck going northwest which I will eventually get to. The grade I took was pretty narrow. I had to use my hand held GPS to be sure of where I was, since road signs were not obvious. I drove south out of Peck on a road I hadn't been on for nearly 30 years. It was the Central Ridge Road. To my left was Big Canyon Creek and it was very big and very deep. The road was wet and a little muddy and not very wide with no railing of course. I passed one car and a full-sized semi loaded with hay and there wasn't a lot of room. Lots of winding road. I would have liked to have seen the canyon but there were very few places to stop. Continued south on a muddy gravel farm road until I got to highway 62. Many canyons prevent through routes. Drove 2 miles on 62 and then turned north again only on Russell Ridge Road until I got to the Greer Grade Road which would take me to highway 12. Didn't have a lot daylight left, but enough wide spots that passing cars would not be real bad. Steep winding grade. Drove north one mile on 12;, crossed the bridge at Greer and took the Woodland Grade Road. Fortunately I knew where the turnoff was, because there are no signs. I then crossed Lolo Creek and started up the grade steep winding gravel road. Next trip there I will look at the views of the Lolo Creek Canyon. Another big and deep wooded canyon.. Earlier in August I had been spending time on the upper reaches of Lolo Creek Canyon where it got level. An enjoyable trip from Kamiah to Glenwood to National Forest Land on a paved road to Musselshell and the beginning of the Lolo Motorway and the 500 road. Back to Woodland Road, it was a long road. All these grade roads I took are not for the faint of heart, but I will return, having put off such exploration for so long. There was another grade from that road down to Pardee on the river, but darkness was coming on and I still had to finish with the Woodland Road down the last grade, good road and paved to Kamiah.. I used to always take a scary road from Kamiah to Craigmont and then to Lewiston, but rains changed that. There is another road from Kooskia to the road from Kamiah to Grangeville, but I've only taken that twice being how far from the road to the bottom of Lawyer's Creek and no railing and only one turnout for 3 miles and farmers and ranchers with pickups don't slow down much.

Thank you for such a kind comment. Sometimes when sitting down to edit a video, you ask yourself, "Should I really spend the time to do this?" But an uplifting comment once in a while answers the question. This video sort of covers a bit of the transition on Vermont to Idaho: th-cam.com/video/w3YujKaNYxo/w-d-xo.html Write up is here: occidentalist.org/introducing-our-east-coast-adventure/ Essentially, the summary reason was that we went there (Vermont) was to be able to explore a new region of the country, and the job we took to enable that was supposed to be part time and ended up being a 24/7 commitment. After working 4 months with a total of one day off we threw in the towel and moved back west. We loved Vermont, but in the end the west called us back home.

Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for subscribing!

Glad you enjoyed it, thank you.

That sounds like fun. Thanks for watching!

You are correct, not sure where Mt. Watson came from. We had just talked to a guy out training for a run to the top from his house just outside of JT. Sounded like quite an endeavor.

@ interesting. I used to hike up and run down the Skyline trail that starts at the art museum in Palm Springs. You can take it all the way up to the summit of Mt San Jacinto. A lot of fun. I’m enjoying your videos.

Thanks for subscribing! We haven't been to Wildhorse lake yet - I had hoped to make it up there this summer, but just about the time we were thinking of going there was a few fires in the area, and we were already having our fill of smoke. Next year!

If the bacon has any flex in it, it isn't done enough for me! Pine boards sounds about right. This trip we got a couple spruce grouse and one ruffed - quite a difference in breast color, but they all tasted delicious.

I agree, it is the best time of the year. The grouse were a simple preparation: breasted out and those went into the cast iron pan with a bit of salt, pepper, garlic, then we took the breast bone and legs and made a quick stock to cook some wild rice in. Add in a couple crusty sourdough rolls and call it dinner.

Yes, when we went into a few provincial parks, it was kind of like visiting a city - I am glad they are there so that most people will go to them, and leave some places with some peace and quiet. We could see that there wasn't a lot of maintenance, but just having them there, with access to them is the biggest thing.

Here's a few options: I started at this site: www.tourguidecanada.com/free-campsites.html There are 5 regional google maps imbedded there, if you open them you can go to the menu and download a kml file and then upload to your gps app of choice. OR (maybe a bit more complicated) You can download directly from the BC GIS layer that powers the interactive map. You need to create an ArcGIS account (free), once you are logged in, you can find a choice to download the data in a variety of formats from this page: www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=d6281a4d6a2044ec865d79cd1007e2f5 I just saved a KML file from there and made it public, you can try to download from here: www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=44270b8c08ea4161a27e9bdca7ae4e51

Well this video probably isn't for you then!

I think those are a good option. Anything lightweight, packable and still durable should do the trick. We sure enjoy having it along.

You bet, thanks for watching.

Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the kind words and subscribe! Really appreciate it.

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks Bill!

Thanks! Yes, lots of options to see some cool places in the north too - throw in the Magruder Corridor and the Lolo Motorway and you have a few great adventures in this region.

Glad you enjoyed it! I can't get over the amount of small lakes in BC, and how uncrowded they seemed to be.

The lakes were definitely the highlight of the trip. Thanks for the kind comment.

That's pretty amazing! Of all the recovery gear, rear end grease hasn't ever been on my list. Nice work, and good memories. Thanks for sharing, and glad you enjoyed the video.

The wolverine was definitely a highlight!

Our pleasure!

Our pleasure!

Possibly. If you mean, loading up an ATV with camp gear and using it to get down here and camp, I'd say yes, it would be an enjoyable ride in and out, and a great spot to camp. If you mean, load up your ATV in a pickup, and take it with you camping here, I'd say no, once you get here there really isn't anywhere (eg trails) to ride on.

It's the last one in the list for the north half of the forest: www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/stelprdb5318739.pdf Lot's of other options listed in this document as well.

We didn't see any while we were there, but there is a fair amount of traffic overhead.

@OccidentalistOutdoors ok thank you I just watched the video and my permit didn't load after watching it.

​@OccidentalistOutdoors the marine website worked looks like it's good for air force area b

That soumds correct to me. Glad you got it figured out. It's not the most straightforward, but the reward is a lot less people!

The BC Rec Sites might be just the ticket for you, assuming you would bring a canoe. It's not so much seeing the popular sights, it is being in the place, and enjoying the quiet of the lake, exploring off the tourist trail, and getting immersed in the woods. There are so many sites it would take many a season to really explore them all.

I suppose. It also comes out of the Pioneer Mountains, and Copper Basin, and...

You'd probably be ok if it wasn't right after a storm.

In my car, I carry a chain saw with an 18-inch bar, 2 fix-a-Flats, a tire pump, and a short shovel that will chop through a 2-inch sapling. Fortunately I'm young (79).

I can't imagine driving a car down there today! It seems like the only road maintenance done nowadays is when the big fire comes to town and opens up the bottomless checkbook.

They state the interior height is 6'5", so it would be pretty close. You may run into the A/C unit that falls below the height of the rest of the ceiling.

Start a list. It's likely you'll never run out of things to do!

The route is on a ridge, not much fishing, but yes the Lochsa is very accessible off highway 12 with some great spots to fish.

Enjoy!

Yes. To be fair that is for the full lodge (12 people?) food, accommodation, 2 jet boats, guides. Still pretty steep to be sure.

No 4x4 required but high clearance I'd say.

I'd say no, a few are considered II+ in the right flows. Blind falls and Sheep creek are probably the most challenging. We did rescue a kid once when he fell out of a boat that pinned on a rock at Sheep Creek and floated about a mile downstream in waders on a cold day.

@@OccidentalistOutdoors Thanks!