Idaho DeLorme challenge - in 5.5 days...

[+TeamIDFC]

MsIDFC and I have spent some great times taking road trips for the Washington DeLorme Challenge (3 big ones, several day trips), Oregon DeLorme Challenge (3 big ones + one more for the final), and various County challenges. Well, we've decided we want to tackle Idaho's DeLorme next, and I've plotted a route that will take us through the state in about 5.5 days.

 

 

Besides the fact that this is slightly nuts, I thought I'd see if anyone had any:

1) thoughts or advice from their Idaho road-trips

2) things along the route we should see or do

3) way to knock common sense in our heads before 5.5 days in the car...

 

We're going to be on a bit of a whirl-wind, but we do get to see a couple cool spots - Grand Teton and a bit of Yellowstone, as well as pick up some new states - Wyoming and Montana. I'm just wondering what else we might fit in.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Michael (MrIDFC)

[+The Jester]

Don't miss Craters of the Moon National Monument - on Hwy 26, about N47 27 W113 34. (There has to be an Earthcache there, I just haven't looked it up.)

 

Another interesting area is City of Rocks National Reserve (City of Rocks virtual GCGP77 N42° 04.170 W113° 41.875). Very cool rock formations - even if you're not climbers.

 

A very fun cache is Dog Bark Park (GCN7HM N46° 03.460 W116° 20.687). It's an OK micro, but the setting is great.

[+eridge74]

The Perrine bridge in Twin Falls I84 exit 173. Looks like you will be right there. Canyon is less than 5 miles south of the exit.

[+hydnsek]

Don't miss Craters of the Moon National Monument - on Hwy 26, about N47 27 W113 34. (There has to be an Earthcache there, I just haven't looked it up.)

Second the Craters of the Moon rec. I visited pre-caching, but it was kewl.

[+Terrible Ts]

Your route looks very interesting. Do you have a bookmarked list of the caches that you would be willing to share. I not sure I would want to do this in 5.5 days, but I have a bunch of vacation time, so I could stretch it out and take it a little slower.

 

My wife and I spent most of a week doing the Eastern half of Washington (the outside edges anyway). We had a great time and we saw some amazing things and places. It was kind of a letdown when we finished the Washington State Challenge.

 

I have also been thinking about the Oregon Delorme Challenge. That one is going to take a bunch of time.

 

Thanks

Terrible Ts

[+TeamIDFC]

Well, we tried. Gave it the ol' college try. We managed to get 46 pages, but were thwarted by snow. *sigh*

 

Craters was awesome. Tetons/Yellowstone = awesome. Learning what a "bear jam" is = priceless.

 

Not finishing = a major bummer.

 

Getting stuck on a mountain 7 miles from nowhere at 8:30pm on Sunday of Memorial Day week = idiotic.

 

Want to read more? Check out our three-part note on the Idaho DeLorme page.

[+hydnsek]

Well, we tried. Gave it the ol' college try. We managed to get 46 pages, but were thwarted by snow. *sigh*

 

Craters was awesome. Tetons/Yellowstone = awesome. Learning what a "bear jam" is = priceless.

 

Not finishing = a major bummer.

 

Getting stuck on a mountain 7 miles from nowhere at 8:30pm on Sunday of Memorial Day week = idiotic.

 

Want to read more? Check out our three-part note on the Idaho DeLorme page.

That's quite a tale! Sorry you didn't finish, but sounds like you had fun (mostly), and thanks for sharing the stories and pics.

 

Now I've got the itch for another road trip....

[+dshifter]

Looks like you two had yourselves quite an adventure! I was just wondering, what road were you on outside of of Elk City when you got stuck and where were you trying to drive to?

[+W7WT]

We are leaving Tuesday for a trip thru Idaho to Idaho Falls and then to Jackson. Wy to visit our grandson. Then down to Soda Springs, Jerome and home. We also have a 2000 Land Cruiser, however we will be traveling in 97 Roadtrek, geocaching going and coming. I have about 200 caches in the GPSs and have come across several that you have found. We used the Land Cruiser when we did the Trinity Mine caches but we could have done it in our little Scion tC. At least you had enough adventure to tell your grandkids some time. Dick

[jholly]

Quite a story. Yep, snow on Memorial day is a reality. I was going to a couple caches in Oregon for the Oregon challenge. Even though I was driving my four wheel truck (no dogs) I said nope. Thanks for the pointers to the logs and I hope you get it latter this year. Can I suggest August or early September?

 

Jim

[+TeamIDFC]

Looks like you two had yourselves quite an adventure! I was just wondering, what road were you on outside of of Elk City when you got stuck and where were you trying to drive to?

The truck got stuck at N45 52.334 W115 31.256 - out past the end of Wagon Road. The GPS was routing us from having completed Area52/Area 56 up to Highway 12 to get up to Lolo.

 

Key things this trip taught/reinforced:

- map data is of highly variable quality. We didn't think this particular road was likely paved and plowed, but there were times where the map data implies you are going to be more successful than you probably will be. In the future I'm going to use sat pictures to verify before leaving.

- snow is going to be in the high mountains until July. Just accept it.

- don't push it. We really learned to accept that you can't always do it all.

 

Looks like we'll have an excuse to hit our favorite martini joint in Spokane on the next out-and-back...

[+TeamIDFC]

At least you had enough adventure to tell your grandkids some time.

Ah, but we are "child-free" so no grandkids... We'll have to settle for cocktail party stories...

[+TeamIDFC]

Can I suggest August or early September?

Yeah - that's what we were thinking too...

 

When we first started doing geocaching road-trips we did northern Washington over Memorial Day (conveniently being gone when the house was being painted) and had no problems. Then we did central/southern Washington over Labor Day - again no problem.

 

We did a lot of Oregon around Thanksgiving and had definite snow problems - but we were somewhat expecting that so we weren't surprised/annoyed.

 

This one was a hopeful trek - we knew a couple were snow-problems (Lolo pass), but hoped the rest were surmountable. Lesson learned for working on the Washington Earthcache, Webcam, and Lookout Challenges...