In This Place, In This Hour

Not too far outside of Blackfoot and on Hwy 39, there is a tiny community called Riverside.

Aside from a church or two and a gas station, there is not much more to see than that.

Only there is much to see in Riverside.

For most people who travel Highway 39, Riverside is a pass-through community in much the same way that 

Idaho is part of fly-over country.

A place you must travel through in order to go from where you're AT, to where you're going. 

In fact, Riverside is a very beautiful place.

Straight up farm country.

Vegetable crops (predominantly potatoes) and cattle.

Today is freezing cold - sunny, 30 degrees, and with strong winds that make it feel much colder.

One more reminder that winter is still valiantly fighting its (ultimately losing) battle with impending spring.

But a few days ago our area enjoyed much sunshine and warmth.

After running tedious errands in Blackfoot I impulsively suggested to my Mountain Boy that we head to the All American Diner for lunch before heading home:

http://livingthejuneauadventure.blogspot.com/2014/03/all-american-diner.html

After eating burgers and home-made fries (and still running on spur-of-the-moment sunshine-induced adrenalin) I suggested that we explore some more of this area that we are just beginning to learn about (and which we found while driving backwards and forwards between Aberdeen and home during seemingly endless wood cutting trips last month).

Crossing over the highway we randomly headed down a side road, curious to see what we would find.

We found greening fields, irrigation equipment blowing streams of water for 30 feet in every direction, snow capped mountains, grown cows and baby cows, and all kinds of beautiful...............

There are a number of small, brown and white signs found along Hwy 39 that point the direction to public access areas.

Places where there is water.  Where people can fish and people can boat.

After leaving the restaurant we could have just as easily turned back onto 39 and watched for signs, instead of crossing over the highway and immediately picking up a side road.

But we didn't.

After finding endless farm land and after weaving through one back road after another, we found ourselves at a road intersection and across the road we unexpectedly found water.

The Snake River.

As we pulled into the parking area I noticed the boat ramp, and smiled when I saw the boat at the bottom of the ramp preparing to enter the water.

It was a perfect day to boat.

A perfect day to be outside.

As LC gathered up our eager pup I walked to the top of the ramp and snapped this picture and then stood watching the boater for a moment wondering why we weren't fishing or kayaking or........something.

I couldn't think of a good reason in that moment.

Maybe we had just forgotten how to fish.  

How to kayak.  

How to.......be.

Maybe.

Turning back I looked for LC and Kory.

We wandered.  We looked.  We photographed.

There were a handful of trucks and trailers in the large, paved parking area.  All already headed out onto the deep and cold and fast moving water...............

After wandering the area close to the river, and after a long morning of errands and eating, it was time to head towards home................

Happiness

Not in another place

But in this place

Not for another hour

But this hour..............Walt Whitman

Companionable Solitude

Last week it was snowing.

This week it is close to 70 degrees.

The snow is gone (except for rapidly declining amounts on Big Butte, and still much in the mountains further to our north).

For the past couple of days we have been building a structure in back of our metal outbuilding, that will hold all the wood we cut recently.

Once that's done we'll rent a wood splitter - and then split and stack and be done with it all for the next couple of years.

Pictures taken in Atomic City on two recent days while walking with Kory............

Kory - happy, healthy, sweet, athletic, loving Kory - has a hand full of stuffed animals that she happily chews on, tosses around the house, and eventually pulls the stuffing out of.

She is surprisingly not interested in chasing balls or chewing on plastic toys.

But she loves stuffed animals.

Her most recent toy is a multi-colored thing that is new enough to still be in one piece.

Grey koala bear however, was recently gutted and decapitated.............

Looking at the view of the mountains in back of a residents' property.

The woman recently purchased (and now lives in) a fifth wheel on a nice piece of land at the edge of town.

A cheap place to live, that has a million dollar view..............

Bands of endless rain showers all around me while walking with Kory on BLM land a few days ago.

Rain all around me.............

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.  We are for the most part, more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.  A man thinking or working is always alone.  Let him be where he will...........Henry David Thoreau

Number Hill - Arco

Taken during a walk with Kory on BLM land close to the house, one day last week.

The snow is again gone, and temperatures this coming week are predicted to be in the 50's and 60's...............

A look back at the town of Atomic City, with the Twin Buttes in the background...........

After walking for a long time with Kory, we loaded into the truck and drove over to Arco.

A surprisingly snow-less Arco.

LC needed to visit a dentist that was located in back of town, and close to the hospital.

Right behind the hospital is Number Hill.

The visit was strictly for a consultation so I knew that he would not be in the office too long, and while LC was doing his thing I walked a short ways with Kory up into the hills.

I had never been this close to Number Hill before, and as me and my dog slowly wandered, I found myself looking up at the hill in both wonderment and bemusement.

I don't know who came up with the bright idea of painting their graduating year onto this hill, but over the years (as one graduating class after another has followed suit and recorded their graduating year) it has become both a local icon and appreciated tourist destination.

An on-going, locally initiated and maintained, continually growing land mark at the base of the Big Lost River Valley, and in back of a tiny farming community in the Middle Of Nowhere Idaho...............

We didn't wander far - wandering into the hills adjacent to a major mountain chain anywhere in Idaho (without a firearm) is not something I wanted to do.

Wandering too far when LC's appointment should have been relatively quick was also something I did not want to do.

But there were trails here.  Lots of trails.

Many more than I realized, and as Kory and I headed back down towards the truck, I resolved to explore this area soon...............

Seen at the base of one hill.  

The same gizmos I found on top of a small butte just on the outskirts of Atomic City, that monitor and measure earth movement..............

The snow covered peak of Big Butte seen in the distance................

Twin Buttes on the way home...................

She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum..........Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated