A Very Rare Experience With a Happy Ending

We are now in the middle of somewhat of a challenge for Jan and I.  Many folks boondock all the time, but for us it is a rare, but welcome situation.  To truly boondock means no hook ups at all, you are self sufficient, no electric, no water, no sewer.  And for a few days it is no problem, and is welcome because it usually means we are in a pristine secluded spot.  And for us it is the waste that is the challenge.  We have plenty of electric power, lots of battery capacity, 900 amp hours with AGM batteries, and a very capable generator that can power everything on the coach.  100 gallons of water, plenty for at least a week or more. But that brings us to our weakness, we have 56 gallons of gray and 56 gallons of black capacity.  The black is no problem, it lasts more than a week when we are just living normally, it's the gray that gives us a challenge.  Even so we can get by for almost a week with navy showers and real care in using any water.  What we didn't realize until we were in the midst of it, we had somehow planned ourselves into 16 days with no sewer hook up!  Now I will admit we had dump stations available, and that's fine when you are planning to move anyway, but not so convenient when you have to move to one in the midst of your time somewhere.  We ended up with 8 days in a row in Picabo, ID, and I will admit since it is gray water we are talking about, sink water, shower water, etc, we may have had a small leak.  Then we dumped on the way out of there for our next 4 days in North Fork, ID, expecting to dump there on our way out and then 4 more days at Dewey, MT and then dump when we got to Cascade, MT at a full hook up campground.  So that was the plan.

We left Picabo after dumping our tanks thoroughly and headed north going through the Craters of the Moon National Monument, then Arco, Challis, Salmon to our next campground, Wagonhammer on a side channel of the Salmon River.  The scenery was awesome.  As we drove up the road we saw something way ahead of us we couldn't make out.  We were on one of those straight stretches out west that goes for miles and miles, as we drew closer, we saw cars and RV's stopped on the road for what, a cattle drive right down the road!

Quite a traffic jam in the middle of nowhere!

They didn't look very happy

The whole family was participating:-)

Mom and the dogs too

So after an interesting pause, we continued up the road.  The scenery was fantastic.

An interesting canyon along the way

We arrived at Wagonhammer and pulled in to check in.  Then we were escorted to our pull in site right on a section of the Salmon River, long sites, but a bit narrow, easily handled as it appeared except for one 5th who looked to be sharing a site with a motorhome, all were motorhomes so everyone's living side was on the same side.  Just water and electric but we already knew that.  Jan as she was walking around ran into a person who highly recommended that we explore a road that followed the Salmon River for 45 miles, half paved and half dirt.

The next morning we took off, the road began just a couple miles north of the campground.  Right off the bat we saw these two eagles.

Looking for breakfast?

The road by definition following along the river was windy, and got continually narrower.  Halfway in it turned to dirt and then really got narrow, in many places only one lane wide, thankfully there was little traffic.  The river hosts a lot of raft travel, recreational one day trips and also many day, overnight trips.  We also came upon many Big Horn Sheep, the canyon is made for them, high rocky sides, with lots of trees and grass, and of course the river.

They were everywhere

About halfway in, the Middle Fork of the Salmon River joined up.

And the road got narrower

We came upon, obviously a very popular take out point, first clue was about 30 vehicles, mostly with trailers parked on both sides of the road.  Then up around a corner and we could see why.

No, we didn't see any sign of social distancing either

We finally found the end of the road, 45 miles from the junction, both of us wondering why the road was even built, a question we never got an answer to.  We had a nice picnic lunch on a table in the campground there and were visited by a bunch of sheep, patrolling through for food, didn't care too much about us being there.

This scraggly guy came right up to us
We had a short conversation and he left

So after a great day sightseeing we drove back to the campground and as we drove up to our site, they were backing a huge 5th in right next to us on our living side, the passenger side.  Like I said pull in sites are usually set aside for motorhomes only, because now we are door to door with this 5th, with his living side on the other side of him, it's like he has two sites, ours and his.  Also the way the electric and water hook ups are, he has to run his cord and hose under and across to the other side to attach.  Wow!  We figured we'd put up with it for another 3 nights, how bad could it be?  But when they pulled out their 3 acre dog park and set it up right in front of our door for their 3 dogs, I had had enough, and off to the office I went.  

You can see what was a very nice site, with the dog fence
and the back of the 5th next door, or should I say at our door

I want to interject one other thing here first.  As I mentioned earlier, every campground we have ever been to, and that is a lot, offer dump stations to guests of the park, and some even charge for outsiders to come in and use their dump station.  Now when Jan and I drove out of the park in the morning to sightsee we saw a sign at their dump station saying $10/dump?

So with all this in mind I went to the office, asked why they put a 5th in backwards in a pull in site, cutting off what little room we already had, and they said they do it all the time.  Then I mentioned the 3 acre dog park right outside my door and they said, oh well, happens sometimes.  I start to boil, then I ask about the $10 fee for a dump, that's for outsiders, right?  Oh no that is for anyone, and you already knew that when you came.  I said what!  How would I know about that?  Your confirming email said so.  I said I don't think so.  Yes it did, they said!  Now also I should mention, there is NO cell service at this park, so I can't pull up the email on my phone, but I tell them I am going back to my coach and going to get it.  Okay, fine.  So I get it and bring it back and it of course has no info on the dump fee, understand this is not about the money, it is about the principle of hiding this info.  I said the email doesn't mention it, the sheet of rules you gave us doesn't mention it, and when my wife checked in no-one mentioned it.  It is misleading at best, they just said oh well, if it is that important to you then we'll waive the fee, and by the way there is a free dump station 2 miles up the road.  Then I asked again, are you going to do anything about the dog park directly out my door?  Nope, you live with it.  Those of you who know me realize I am burning by now, I say this is what we are going to do, it is too late to leave tonight, but we are leaving in the morning, cutting this visit by 2 days, you should refund me the money, but regardless we are leaving.  They then said you do know we have a no refund policy for June, July, and August.  I said how would I know that?  It's on our website.  Interesting I say if I had ever looked at your website, I looked you up in Trailer Life, called you and made a reservation, and never was I told you charged for a dump, or that you had a no refund policy.  Too bad, was their response.  She did say at the end she would refund our 2 nights, which she did do.  We will never go back to this park.  They are running a sham on people and don't care.

So after negotiating the dog park for the evening we left in the morning, and drove up the road the stated 2 miles to find the free dump station, and what do you know, we couldn't find it!  We were still disconnected thankfully, so Jan took off in the truck to see if she could find it.  Instead of the 2 miles we were told she went on up the road another 4 miles, no dice.  She came back and then since we didn't know what else to do she took a look on an intersecting road, and sure enough another 2 miles up that road she found it.  Just one more misleading statement from the campground.  So we got dumped and thought, so where are we going to go?  Well, we crossed our fingers and headed towards our next stop along the Big Hole River in Montana, and hoped there would be an open site in this awesome boon dock fishing access location we had stayed in last year, Fishtrap.  Well, hooray, things do work out for the best, we drove down in and found the ideal spot, directly on the river, and only 2 other people there, far away from us.  Fantastic!!!

Is this awesome or what?

A view from up the hill!

So we spent a glorious 3 nights here, fished every day, Jan caught a few more, not me though, are you starting to see the trend here:-)

Misty morning

Sun just cutting through

Jan fishing down river

One of her catches

So in the end everything worked out for the best.  We experienced 3 days at a fantastic spot, private, quiet, dark, lovely.  We got through our challenge of 16 days without sewer, in fact as we sit here at the next campground, Hyde Park, we still have one day to go, but all is well.  So even with the terrible time we had in North Fork, it all worked out beautifully.

Cocktails beside the Big Hole

Two very happy campers!

Tomorrow, we leave the Big Hole and go up to Cascade, MT on the Missouri River.  We are still trying to decide with the Covid whether or not to take a float trip.  Last year when we did it, we both vowed to come back and try again for the massive trout in the Mighty Mo, but now.....?  We'll see.

Cheers from Dewey, Montana
Boy, sure looks like we drink a lot:-)