I awake at 5am in the dark. Might as well check the weather forecast and see how much snow is coming. The forecast has become much more bleak, in fact there is a snowfall warning out now. I lay in bed for a few minutes contemplating my options. Plan A was to move a short distance to a spot I could get out of driving downhill all the way back to pavement. Plan B was to hightail it to the USA. I think about having to be back in Canada in late March if I leave today, but then I make up my mind. I’m going to take a page from Lazarus Long – do what I need to do to survive today, and figure out the rest when it comes. Plan B, implement!
I had packed everything up the night before so getting moving was quick. I was now going to cross into the USA and do a long day of driving to McCammon, Idaho, the location of the abandoned campground I had stayed at before. This place was turning into a regular stop coming and going to the USA, but with good reason. The campground was all weather, and a comfortable distance to drive south a day into the States. Not to mention, I was trying to get away from all the snow forecast up north!
But first I had to get past customs. For most people, this is not a big deal, but full time nomads have it a bit trickier. The basic question ‘where do you live’ is not going to go over well if you answer honestly. They want a LOCATION, to fill in that equals a physical spot. They also want to know when you have been there, and when you will return there. My mistake was using the term ‘visiting my house’. That is true, but it implies I live somewhere else. I mentally cursed myself the second after, as that earned me additional grilling. Wherever your drivers license says, you live there, you came from there at a certain date in the not too distant past, and you will return there in the not too distant future crossing back into Canada. Yes, to cross into the USA you pretty much have to pretend you live at a regular location that you will go back to after your ‘vacation’ down in the States. Anything else will just get you more questions. I even got pulled into the building, I assume while they were doing an extended paper check on my credentials. I’m just happy they didn’t throw me in a room for an extended grilling.
Rainy Lake is only a short walk from the camp sites.
I continued south, passing through Eureka. I wish I had done a bit more gas price research before filling up in Fernie. I could have saved a bit of money by waiting until I got to Eureka, but my quick moving south had me doing a little less research than normal. As I had a lot of distance to cover, there was not going to be a lot of stops for sight seeing. I kept my eye open for a possible boondocking spot to check out for lunch, and instead find a free campground at Rainy Lake. It looks like it is meant to be a car/tent kind of place. You park your car, and walk a short distance in the woods to the tent spot. But there are a couple of spots where the tent spot/picnic table is right by the parking. Nothing saying you can’t fit a camper or small RV in the parking and go with that. I had a little walk down to the small lake, noting that this might be a good place to hit for an overnight on the way back. I’m not looking forward to being back up here sometime around the 25th of March. I was certainly hoping for an early spring!
Onward I went after lunch. I could see from my schedule that I was going to arrive after dark at my campsite. Good thing I had picked a spot I was familiar with that was easy to park in, even in the dark! I found out that the googles estimated times are a bit optimistic when you are doing 63mph on the Interstate allowing 70-75mph. So I had a good hour of driving in the dark before arriving at my camp. It was a good test to see how well my headlights peek through the Grom. It is mostly fine – just a little blockage that doesn’t really affect any distance vision.
I awoke next day to sun with threatening skies. The snow was chasing me south. There was no snow at my camp, but just above me the rain overnight had been white stuff instead. It was blustery, but at least not snow covered! I was planning on staying a few days but it was just a little too cold here still.
Cow tunnel, useful for hikers too
I did finally manage to walk all the way to the end of the road that left the campground to the north of me. The road just ends, turning into a cow trail that continues north probably all the way to the next town I could see in the distance.
Mother nature can be a cruel bitch
Coming back, I stumble upon a reminder that this cattle country is pretty harsh for cows. There is no Disney ending for them here, survival is not guaranteed. Take the good times when you can – you never know what tomorrow brings.
Fire charred landscape
I also came across another harsh reality of this dry scrubland – fire. This fire had gone through in the summer of this year, leaving just blackened bits behind. I wonder if things will spring back extra green next year? Certainly it can be dry enough – the bigger issue is did enough vegetation grow when it was wet to provide enough fuel to spread a fire once it dried out? Judging by the dry grass where not burnt, the spring had been wet enough to provide some fire fodder.
Two days of no snow but still pretty darn cold convinced me that I needed to get further south. Not to mention, snow was in the forecast here too now. So I visited the pile of petroglyph rocks one more time and plotted my route south. I was passing through the Salt Lake City area. Time for me to get a USA phone and not pay ransom pricing to roam as a Canadian. Then head further south, to get away from the snow and back into the warm! See you on the road next time!
