Old Beaver Campground to Aldous Trailhead, Dubois Ranger District, Targhee National Forest, Idaho

Back on foot today we had an easy 1-1/2 mile bushwhack, several miles of 4-WD on county and Forest Service Roads followed by a 6-1/2 mile hike over Table Mountain. The hike, by our standards (as we now measure everything against Ouzel Peak and The Wall) is not very strenuous. The day is comfortably sunny with a light breeze. We cross Little Bear and East Camas creeks, climb 1,728 feet through fir and aspen, and lunch on top of the mountain. Table Mountain is covered in obsidian and must have been an important resource of the native people. I find one piece (Sammy, yes, I’m bringing it home) of obsidian that is a natural scraping tool. I wonder with Charlotte how long it took for the native people to move from just using natural pieces like the one I have found to working the stone into the beautiful arrowheads, spear points and other tools we find today?

Today is the first day of bow hunting in addition to Friday of the Labor Day weekend. Camping areas are crowded. On our way up the mountain we pass two hunters on their way down in full fatiques including face paint. They have seen nothing. At the end of our hike Paul comes up the trail, from the trailhead, to meet us and sees two elk stags within 50 yards of him. We see nothing but we have also gabbed the entire way up and over the mountain.

Somehow Paul had passed us and we end up at the trailhead. Thanks to the little walkie-talkie radios we carry we discover that he is about an hour up the trail. We sit down to wait and take advantage of the time to write in our Journals. In an effort to find shade we drive the car down the road about a hundred yards and discover a sheepherders camp. After parking the Honda back up the road, no parking room in the shade, Mike wonders back down to meet the sheepherder. Manuel Martinez Larasca is Peruvian and speaks about as much English as we speak Spanish. We carry on a broken conversation, Mike has his picture taken up on Manuel’s huge draft horse, and we leave him with all of our leftover lunch snacks.

Back in camp by 4:00 we get to grab clean clothes and drive down to the very tiny community of Kilgore for showers. The only community buildings are a general store with pool table, sandwich bar, used tool and art display, and the 1921 schoolhouse in the process of being torn down. While waiting for all to shower I strike up a conversation with a young woman originally from California who has married into a local family. As we have from many we’ve met along the way local people are concerned with any further loss of access to public lands. As Misty put it, “There is not much (entertainment - movies or shopping areas) for us to do around here. We hunt, and fish, and ride ATVs and snowmobiles. What will we be able to do if they close any more of the land?” Personally I do not believe that many urban people today, who have not traveled extensively on public lands, understand the huge expanse (nearly 1/3 of the nation) of public land that is accessible to the public. There is need to protect our natural, cultural and diverse recreation resources these lands with good management not simply closure.

It’s now 10:30 p.m. Mike, Bob V, and I are all in the RV finishing up our Journals, and Steve is sitting on the couch reading. Cheryl has just walked stepped in wearing a BRIGHT orange vest to protect us from hunters as we continue our Journey. Amanda, our new Techie has said that the computer gets shut down at 11:00 so I guess I need to go bug Rob about giving me a few minutes to enter the last five days. Tomorrow we leave on our three-day backpacking with mule assistance adventure in the Centennials. As this day closes I think that it has been a long time since I have felt this stress free and healthy in a long time. How very fortunate I am to be on this unbelievable trek across America. From the Journey, dana