Thursday evening things looked like they were unraveling. I was in the Dominican Republic waiting for the plane we would be flying back to JFK and it was already clear I would be missing both flights back to SLC. I was not happy. Once back in JFK, desperation to save the trip kicked in and I got on the jumpseat to Vegas at 10:30pm. After sleeping on the cockpit floor for 4 hours, we arrived in Vegas at 2:30am. After another 3 hours of "sleep" on the terminal floor, I was on the 6:30am flight to SLC. I was home by 9am and we were on our way to JC by 1pm. Trip saved!!
A backcountry trip is one of a few reasons I'd subject myself to this! But I'd pay for it (more on that later).We flew up to Gooding for fuel and then on up to JC. I've not been up there this early before and there was a lot of snow still on the mountains. Snow levels generally were around the 6,500-7,000' range. Once at JC, we set up camp above the river, down from the covered picnic table. Keeping with the princess camping theme, that gave us Wi-Fi in camp. We were greeted by Tim (qmdv) and it was good to finally meet him. After setting up camp it was time to work on dinner. Not having the kids, Dee had the time to Dutch oven cook and we ate well both nights. Her sister did some bread over the fire that was really good too. We walked the strip and went down to the bridge. The water was running really high and fast. That night was supposed to be a meteor shower so we played cards and then stayed up until after midnight when it was supposed to peak. Unfortunately, it was a bust. We saw a few, but not worth the wait. Still, a beautiful night for star gazing.
Saturday we got up, had some breakfast burritos in camp, and then took off to see where we could explore. The only weather we had to deal with the whole trip was the lower ceilings this morning. Profile Pass to Big Creek was just barely covered so we weren't able to go north like we had planned. Instead, we headed towards McCall following the road over Lick Creek to try to get to Memaloose. It was so green and beautiful around the McCall area and we saw more elk on the ridges between New Meadows and Hell's Canyon than I've seen in years. Once in the canyon, we flew north but it didn't take long to see that Memaloose would be in the clouds. The views were stunning though and was worth the flight over. My sister-in-law took a pic that I've included in the video that doesn't even look real.
After our scenic flight, we decided to land at Donnelly since I had never been there. We fixed lunch on the tail of the plane and stretched our legs before heading over to Cascade for fuel. From there we headed back to JC. To kill the rest of the afternoon, we hiked up to the bathtub and soaked our feet. More Dutch oven cooking and more card playing finished off the evening.
Sunday morning, we broke camp and headed over to Smiley Creek for breakfast, which was incredible! We counted 8 aircraft at Sulpher Creek for breakfast on our way over. We stopped at Gooding on the way home for fuel and swung by the Spiral Jetty and concrete arrow on Promontory on our way back to Ogden.
It was a great trip and it was nice to get some camping in where Dee could relax a bit and have less work to do. One thing that caught me a bit off guard was how spongy JC was. Not soggy, but more like walking on a 4 inch memory foam. It took a lot more power to taxi and gave you a longer takeoff run. Otherwise, it is in great shape! Apparently the Flying B is similar. The guy next to us flew over for breakfast Saturday morning and got some prop damage after hitting a soft spot. Luckily he was able to file it out. I'm sure it's the norm for this time of year. The caretakers were there getting everything ready and were as great as ever. We got lucky and it didn't freeze either night, so no frost. 70s during the day and hi 30s at night. Couldn't ask for better. The downside is after all this, my back was killing me and laid me up for the last week! It will be a while before I sleep on an aircraft or terminal floor...unless it's to save a trip to the backcountry!
Here's the video. It's my first time playing with picture in picture as well as using the ND filter on my camera. Still a few kinks to work out.
No way you guys weighed that much. Your very pretty wife can not be over 105.
