As I left Sandpoint, I realized i should stay for a bit. I decided to drive back to the park but then the clouds rolled in and rain began. I guess it was an omen so I turned around and headed for Washington. I was planning to stop at the Spokane grindline park. When I arrived, it was pouring, but I tried to find the place anyway it was a bit wet when I got there. So I took a few pics and planned to get some but then the rain came again so - I turned back, went to Walmart and got some supplies and headed out for the next park.
The park is really cool though, it features a huge snakerun that goes around the big snakey 12' flow area. Some kid was rolling back and forth in one of the gullies through about 6" of water. Great for those bearings kid!!
So after driving for a few hours I made it to the area known as Horse Heaven. It is a place that is just north of Oregon in the middle of Washington State. The landscape is like none I have ever seen, even in movies. I couldn't figure weather it was desert or plains?? The hills are amazing and some of them have big dark rock outcroppings that seem to reach to the sky. I am not a geologist or anything but it seems to happen in canyon or basin like areas. Maybe pre-historic rivers or???
Anyway whatever it is this place is cool looking. When I am much older (70s) and unable to skate I might just do this same road trip for a year and paint each area I went to in my mid 30s (35)... If it still looks like this that is. It fearfully may be just one big burb someday. Lets hope not.
So I found some great BLM land and just drove up the hills. The pics will speak for themselves but the drive was a great one. I kinda had to crawl up these hills in the fit. Plus the sun was going down and I was going up - it was a bad vision situation. I kinda went up these hills blind.
Once I got on top it was windy as hell. I got to a certain point and turned the car off. I did not want to start a fire and be that idiot that was responsible for burning a million acres of land. Park your vehicles in the gravel spots on BLM land people. Be safe!!! Choppa' don't play!
So I hiked it up the rest of the way on the tallest point that I could see. Along the way I noticed all of this trash. Like burned cans and rusted car parts. It is a 50 year old dump site from travelers or farmers or??? The cans were pretty old, some of the labels were still intact. Some day the area will probably and excavation site with remnants of 20th century culture. Bath soap bottles and laundry detergent cans... whoopie!
As I was nearing the peak, (not a really great challenge but it was fun!) I had an erie feeling. It was wonderful - wind sunset land for as far as the eye can see. Breathtaking. I had to take in a lot of breaths after that one. I am not much a climber and apparently not much of a walker... ha
I drove around for a while, exploring and finally settled on a good safe spot to stay for the night. The only problem was that the tent acted like a parachute and almost dragged me down the big hill. So I decided to sleep out under the stars. But around 1am a couple of 4x4s were out muddin' around and I got back in the car for safety. The wild outdoors.
No comments:
Post a Comment