A Long Way Down

With the truck and camper ready to roll, Linda and I did our final walk around the house, checking off our lists. Once we were convinced we had everything, we hit the road south. We drove I-95 south out of Cd'A to Potlatch where we hung a left onto I-6 through the famous towns of Princeton and Harvard. At Harvard, we followed I-9 on down to dreary Deary (that's what I used to call it when I was in college). From there we followed I-3 down a long curvy grade into Kendrick where our Google map girl went crazy and tried to get us to turn up a very small steep road. I refused to drive up the road Miss Google wanted me to drive on, so we stopped at the city center of Kendrick and Linda got confirmation from some locals, that we missed a turn. We finally got back on track and started our long climb out of the valley to the fields above. 

Once on top, we followed Old ID 7 to the Freeman Creek Road. At this point, we were wondering just how many more steep, slow roads we had left to follow. On the Freeman Creek Road, we started dropping down into the reservoir. We crawled around switchback after switchback dropping down, down, down to Dworshak State Park and our final destination.

Our truck handled all the steep downhill very well, but I definitely had it in low gear with tow-haul turned on. A run-away camper would not have been something I wanted to deal with.

We set up the camper and then set up the screen tent. I also got out the propane fire pit and got it ready for cards and dinners. The Andersons arrived at about 6:30 PM. We turned on the fire and enjoyed the sunset.

The next several days were filled with on and off rain. Between downpours, we explored the campground and played cards. Then by the third day, we decided we needed to take a drive, climb out of the valley, and go to the Dworshak Dam and explore.

We climbed back up the switchbacks and then drove over towards Orofino and steeply dropped down another grade to the Dam's Visitor Center. Our arrival was perfect. The rain had stopped and the sun came out. 

In the Visitors Center, we joined a family and took a one-hour tour of the dam.  We were able to go into the upper levels of the dam and walk across almost all of the concrete structures. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the history, construction, and operation of the dam. 

After the tour, we had lunch and then drove to Orofino where we drove past the prison and mental hospital. I could not figure out why everyone wanted to leave me at these two stops!

We drove back up and down the winding road to camp and finished our day playing cards and eating.

On Tuesday Linda, Mike, and Rayelle all went for a long walk and I went fishing.  They had a great time and saw some beautiful small waterfall action.  I didn't catch any fish. The reservoir was very high and very dirty due to runoff, so I didn't have any great expectations for the fishing.

Late afternoon I was in the camper when Linda's phone announced a text. This was weird because we got no cell service at the campground. We could see it was from Sharon, Rayelle's sister-in-law, but couldn't see any text. They wouldn't call if it wasn't important so Mike and Rayelle drove and found reception to find out what was up.  Turns out that they had a water leak in their back yard and it needed to be stopped. For the next couple of hours, Mike made calls to try and solve the problem. Nothing worked so we helped them quickly pack up and drive back to Cd'A. 

View from the top of the dam. 

We spent the final night sitting around our fire-pit hoping everything would be alright.  We packed up the next morning and drove up to the flats where we could get cell service. The Anderson's water problem turned out to be in the sprinkler system and Mike was able to get it to shut down. We were glad that it wasn't really serious. We drove home through Orofino, Lewiston, and Moscow. The drive was much easier on our truck and me. It took longer driving this way, but the roads were much nicer which made the trip home better.

We liked the Dworshak State Park. It was clean, the sites were adequate, and very quiet. The showers were literally hot and cold, which was annoying but manageable.  The biggest drawback is that once you drive down all the steep switchbacks you are basically down at the bottom with no place to drive. You have to drive up and out to do any exploring. If we were to do this again we would have to bring a boat and motor and explore the lake that way.

Looking down the long hallway in the dam.

Dam good-looking ladies!