Sawtooth Mtns Idaho. Wapiti WILDFIRES. Maybe an RV Mistake! HDT RV Life Fulltime Lifestyle. Travel

So should we be doing this? Probably not. Well don't do it. It's not worth it. We're taking a big truck with a little two-inch opening. What can go wrong? They'd cut that ride at 13.6. I sure hope so. Morning everyone. Welcome to the channel. Welcome. So we are in Idaho again and we're gonna go down to the Sawtooths and we're gonna do some, we're gonna do like eight days of boondocking straight. Technically we're going to do like three weeks but that's going to be kind of moving. So this one we're gonna find a spot and we're just gonna like do nothing. Yeah we're gonna homestead for like eight days. So we're gonna bring you guys along. I don't think we're gonna do anything so and maybe I shouldn't say that in the beginning of the video because some people are gonna click off it like now but it should be kind of interesting. We're gonna show you how we boondock and and what are the things that we do. Yeah how we live while we're unplugged. Oh big truck big travels unplugged. Oh yeah that could be a series. All right so as always we're going to bring you guys along and you know if you just get bored leave it running just do other stuff. All right see ya. You know it's funny uh driving along this road today kind of reminds me of some of the comments on occasion that we get from some of our friends of the channel and it is that we can't really go anywhere. Where can we go? And I and I think I think the majority are not trying to be smart or facetious. I think they're really curious. They really want to know yeah like where can you guys go when they're so big and you know on this summer tour through Idaho and Montana uh we've gone through or traveled across probably most of Idaho's scenic highways. Yeah it's just beautiful. It's gorgeous. I mean the scenery is amazing. Yeah it really is and parts of this really remind me of the uh Hell's Canyon and the Snake River Gorge and I know we jet boated up that so you're thinking wait a second we didn't put this in the water. No. But some of the canyons and a few of the spots were so steep and deep and we followed for a good part of this road we followed uh the Salmon River. I guess we still are. Yeah we're going to be following the whole way. So actually scenic highway 93 follows the entire Salmon River. Yeah and what's cool is we're way upstream from that and we did the jet boat um no we did the rafting. We did rafting on the Salmon. Rafting in Riggins way way way like probably a couple hundred miles downstream. Yeah that's pretty neat. Exactly and we're gonna where we're gonna boondock I guess we're gonna be closer to the headwaters. I think so. Of the Salmon River. I have to go find those. Yeah but yeah gorgeous drive so it's just it's interesting that uh where we we can go uh in the sights here. Guess what David saw a rock. I did. So he did a bat stop and a bat turn down the road way down there. I don't know if you can see it or not. No you can't because we're on the other side of that bridge area. So then we walked up here to look at this rock. Now he saw a bear earlier that crossed the road. I did. So so I got my eagle eyes on bears and rocks. Yeah but not rock bears. No. So we're gonna go check this rock out. Yeah this is a historical site but this looks really cool. Yeah so it's worth a stop. Okay we are turning off of scenic highway 93 and crossing over on Idaho 75. A little caution here. Big horn sheep. On the highway. On the highway. That's right two and a half miles. You're gonna hold them to it. Yes I am. These are pretty. Look at these bands. They're just so tall and sharp. Oh I know. Really cool. Okay I'm not seeing any big horn sheep anywhere. All right well it is Saturday. Sunday hot springs. That's why the hot springs. Oh wow. They are hot. Oh. What? Oh wow. They're steaming up there too. Oh my goodness. It's like Yellowstone. Yeah. Oh my goodness gracious. Yes there's like a gazillion people down there. Oh we may have to come back and check that out. Yeah but it's not they're not real deep. It's more surface. Okay. Yeah people are just kind of sitting down getting their butts warm. So like what was that place at Yellowstone over by Mammoth? Yeah what was that? Some hot springs that people went to go to. Yeah I can't remember what it was but. Okay. Interesting. I almost feel like we're on a railroad track. Entering Lower Stanley. So there's an upper and a lower Stanley. Man I didn't know Stanley was big enough to be upper or lower. So I guess this is where all the rafting companies are. Yeah. Stanley Motel. Motel wow. I thought there was like some sort of market here. So this is similar like to Riggins. It's all about the the Salmon River. Yeah. Yeah. Okay so welcome to Stanley. Gateway to 2.9 million acres of central Idaho wilderness. It's pretty cool. It is cool. And 119 people population. It's a lot more in the summer and in hunting season. Okay so the plan is we're going to go camping that way on 21. Yes. But we're not going to do that just yet. That's correct. We're going to go this way for another 2.6 miles and make a little pit stop. Literally. Man it's packed over there. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what that is. But yeah. More rafting. It's busy. Oh it might be parking. Yeah. All right. Ranger Station. And you know we can get in here and get out. Huh? What? You're sure we can get in and get out of here? I'm as sure as anything in RVing. Yeah I looked on Google and did some measuring. Yeah so it's a it's actually a looks like a really nice. So is this a camping area? Dump area. Oh look at the mounds. That's purdy. Shut these guys up. Wow. Oh yeah there's a campground that way. Dump station this way. Somewhere. Oh. You got it? I need to see. Inches a mile. Wow. Yeah. This reminds me of Denali. Yeah it does doesn't it? Wait here for next available space. Could you imagine? That many? This many people? Yeah. No. Oh and they have potable water too? Yes. Trash cans? Yes. Nice. I got it all. Fee station. Dump fee. Eight dollars. Okay. This is like brand new. Yeah I'd heard they renovated this not too long ago. Okay so I'm having flashbacks of Tuck to Toilet Tuck. Is that a sewage lagoon over there? Oh man. And it says danger keep out over there. There's a sign way over there. Wow that might be the drain field. Oh. Hmm. Hmm. I almost thought it said no smoking over there. Oh yeah. Right there? Yeah. So I'm sure we'll be back here. Yeah I'm sure we will. Wow this is a really nice facility. It really is. Well I'm going to go check out the sewage lagoon. Okay. I see a swan swimming in there. Oh and a helpful tip for everybody. In national parks red means non-potable. Blue over there is potable water. Yes not a lot of people know that. No they don't. You'd be surprised how often we get asked that question. Yes. Hey David. Yeah. So somebody asked on it's either on the channel or on Facebook about your water filtration system and where you got it and how you built it. It's the water filter store filters and I just got the basically the two filter system because. So you bought it just like that it was already attached with the bracket and everything? Yeah that's why I got it because I wanted the bracket. And then you got is this where you got at the container store this? Yes and I got that at the container store. Okay. Yeah so it just kind of worked. Just kind of fit just right. Yeah kind of designed that way. Okay. I measured it and then I just put all my extra stuff in here and then it fits just up underneath our our galley tank there and I just slide it back in the in the back corner. So everything's nice and compact. You have your hoses wound up. Your little guys. Yes. Which is nice. Water pressure gauge. Yeah I'm sure I don't need it here at the. Oh yeah this is great but yeah let's see how it is because then we can determine how long it's going to take to fill. That's right we probably should have had lunch here. You're just going to filter just this and then it's going to go through the other in-house filters. So these are basically your primary filters. Yeah yeah and then the other filters go are inside. And then I flip my switch to do the tanks. It is actually wow. It's kids climbing. Pretty good it's like 52. Wow that's good. Okay that's actually pretty good. Where was it that we were somewhere obviously. Obviously we were somewhere. Oh Mount, was it Mount Rainier, Mount Hood at that sewer plant and we filled up and it had really really bad water pressure and it took you almost an hour to fill the tanks. That was Mount Hood down near the Columbia River. Yes at that sewer place where they had a dump station. Man that was that was horrible pressure. Yeah and there's people waiting. I felt bad. Yeah but we were we were almost empty at that point. Really empty. Yeah here we had about 60 percent in our tanks. Yeah we had nice showers last night. Yeah we did. We've done the deed. Yes. Sewage lagoon's probably about a quarter of an inch higher. We actually didn't have that much. No we needed more fresh than we needed waste. Yes definitely. A little smoky today. We saw a helicopter, a fire helicopter. I cannot get over all these rafting companies here. Oh man no kidding. I mean it's just like Reagan's. Restricted route ahead. 65 feet max for permits. Call this 1-800 number. Yeah we're not going that far. Okay good. Restaurant saloon. There's the grocery store right there. Fuel. No we're not fitting under that. No. Oh they have propane and propane exchange. A lot of cabins. Fire department. They have an airport. Did it say ice rink? I think it did. I bet you that's only in the winter. All these cabins. Nice. All right well we do need to come back here because I got to mail off a birthday package. Oh okay. Wow look at those cabins. Those are fancy. Is this it? Oh it's the next one. Yeah. I hope that's not it. No. Okay that looks better. Yes. This is pretty in here. Designated roads and trails. Camping. Stanley Lake and Lakeview both open. So are we going to be on a lake or what? No we're going to be just off the road a little bit. Kind of in the woods sort of. I mean I've only seen this through Google and... So you're seeing this for the first time. Yeah. So no ATVs, motorcycles, no nothing. So it's nice and quiet. Yes. So maybe the bears and the mountain lions and the caribou and... They might come out. They might come out. Deer. You never know. But yeah we're going to be dispersed camping. Storage required. This is bear country. Oh yeah. It better be. You want to see a bear. I want to be sitting outside enjoying the views and the quiet, the scenery and I want a big old bear to come by. Yeah really nice out here. Just very pleasant looking. We're not going up there are we? Okay so I see some campers over there. Yeah. We have voice service but we don't have data service out here. Yeah. So we're just assuming that those guys got over there somehow. There's a road down here. Yeah there's got to be a road. There's several campers and... A lot of campers. Yeah so there's got to be a road. We're just loop trail. Something meadow loop trail. Oh so many choices. I hate this when we have too many choices. Where to park. 10 day limit within 30 day period. Okay that's cool. I don't think we're going to be here 10 days but... Nope. No campfires. So let's kind of look at a few things and let's decide where we want to stay. How we want to maximize solar. Yeah. Because this actually looks pretty good right here. Yeah. I don't know if I want the door facing the road. Yeah. Let's get out and look. Yeah. So I want the site that has the best chance of seeing a bear. Oh I think it's all these sites. All right so we got our campsite. It's pretty level. I think we'll make this home for the next week. So let's get set up. Start breaking out camp and making this a little more like home. Day one of boondocking and we are going to get some more solar. I'm going to raise the panels. The sun's at that point where it looks like they'll be good. So we're going to get them up and see what the amps look like. Well I've asked David to get some chips out of back stock. Oh! Bag check. Oh my goodness. Look at this. I guess we gained some elevation. Wow. Oh my gosh. No wonder the nights have been cold. We can go check them all to make sure there's um... At least we know it's a good seal. Yeah I'd say so. That's right. Wow man those things are huge. Well are we set up? We are all set up for our week of boondocking slash camping. This is nice. Yeah. This is really really nice. Got the rug out. Very nice. Solar lights and a fire pit that we can't use. Yeah so there so there's a fire band right now and a lot of wildfires going on. Yeah so we figured what the heck. Yeah might as well just make it part of the whole ambiance even though we can't use it. And then uh this is like I've one of the first times I've gotten these supports out for the awnings. You got those in quartzite right? I did yeah and uh so so far uh we've had a few little wind gusts and they've actually done pretty good. So uh yeah they hold it going down and coming back up and so yeah. Pretty nice. Pretty nice. The grill which I'm going to use here in a little bit. Yeah. Yeah gonna do some grilling some hot dogs. All right so this is it I think. Oh and the bikes we have them over there. Oh yeah unloaded those and got them up underneath the nose and we'll do a little bit of bike riding this week. Explore a few things but mainly we're just going to be camping. So this is what I I love this. This is the part of RVing that I love. I love camping. They need to make a sticker. So they have stickers that say beach hair don't care. They need to make a sticker camp hair don't care. Well you don't care. I don't ever care. But it's just we're just out here all by ourselves. I don't know why I'm whispering. We're here all by ourselves in this great I mean we probably have 20 or 30 acres. Yeah. All to ourselves. Yeah and it's free. It's free. It's part of the national forest. It's really nice. Yeah. Yeah and the weather's been spectacular. Oh it has. We're supposed to have uh what mid to upper 70s and then 40s at night. Upper 30s at night. So that's like that's just like perfect camping weather. Yeah. And just to hang out here and look at the views. I mean look what we're having to deal with. Yeah. It is a little smoggy or hazy from the wildfires. From the wildfires. Yeah. But you can kind of oh wow you can really see the layers in the mountains now. Yeah. And again virtually no neighbors. So quiet. It's deafening quiet. Very nice and uh quiet at night. We're just enjoying it so. Yeah. It's gonna be nice. We say that. So we are kind of near the road and we did that on purpose um just to be closer. We don't want to get too far in. First time here. Yeah. But yeah there's some more sites a little bit further in but I like this one. I do too. Pretty level. This is this is what I love. Yeah. This is what camping and RVing is all about. Yep. So we're gonna enjoy this for the week and man just kind of chill and enjoy the outdoors. All right. Are you all comfy out here? I am. Cool breeze. Warm sun. Beautiful sight. You look like really too relaxed actually. I'm really relaxed. The only thing that could be better is if I bring my boujo table out here. That would be nice. Yeah might just. Blow all the stickers. That's exactly right. And they'll be stuck all over Orion. I gotta get back to the dogs. Yeah. This is a special treat. Yeah we don't do this a lot. No because they're so not good for you. Definitely not. The potato salad it makes not good for us. Really they're definitely not. Yeah so this grill is about 15 years old. And but I it got really nasty on the grate so I replaced that and then I replaced the starter button. So it's like a brand new grill. It's really cool. Well it's neat that you can buy those replacement parts. Yeah. Instead of spending what five six hundred dollars. Yes that was very nice because the outside was perfectly fine. And then my table from Walmart. It's a Walmart special. I know that is so funny. Isn't that great? Yeah the legs are adjustable. Yes they're adjustable up and down and I've got it on the high level. It folds flat so I can stick it in my compartment. It's a great grill table. It's very multi-purpose. Yeah. We've used it inside for the grandkids because you can drop the legs and they have their own little table. Exactly. It's a great little table that we found. It's like $21.99 at Walmart. Used to be $19.99. Yeah inflation. But that is your second table. That is yeah. The first one lasted about five years. Roughly six years. That's almost five dollars a year. Yeah and so a lot cheaper than like what you'd get at you know a camping store. Yeah yeah. All right so they're getting close. Almost done. Are you finished with your stuff on the inside? Yes I am. Right. Potato salad. Baked beans. Yep. Good stuff. Out here in the great outdoors. Yeah this is uh this is camping. This is camping. This is what we this is what we live for. Yes very nice. Still boondocking. Actually we've only been out here just a couple of days. Yeah. But we're gonna take a little bike ride today. No like exciting trails or nicks to a gorge or anything like that. We're actually not sure. I'm bringing my camera just in case. You never know because we did see some deer coming in today. Yeah. But we're gonna go towards Stanley Lake and we're gonna see what that's all about. All right so this is a nice lake area. It's got a few picnic tables and a boat ramp and a dock. See some boats and stand-up boards and kayaks. So a little bit of everything here. But there's a lot of waters up here. It's really clear. We're not far from the boat dock. We found a bike trail going into the Sawtooth Mountain Wilderness. So I wanted to check it out to see if we can find some wildlife. Always about wildlife. We've reached the top, but not the tippy top of the trail. No. And this is kind of us wandering. We weren't planning on this. Thus no helmets. No snacks. And only one bottle of hydration liquid. Which is about gone. Yeah. But it's all downhill from here. That's right. But it's pretty. It's a nice trail. Biking, hiking and ATV. No motorcycle. Motorcycle. No ATVs on this. Yeah. So nice trail. Pretty views. I think we need to come back. Yeah. I need to see how far it is and we should go to Sawtooth Lake and have a picnic lunch. Ooh. All right. That sounds good. One of the things we like to do. Go through campgrounds and just kind of check them out for, I don't know, curiosity and also future visits. All right. So it looks like half of this campground, or at least the section closest to Lake Stanley, is reservations. And the section above it, which is where we are right now, is first come first serve. But most of these sites are double sites. Now there's a few good size ones that are not double. But man, I'd say almost half these appear to be double sites so far. Sondra doesn't want to sound cheap, but. No, I'm thrifty. So why would you come in here and pay $22 a night for boondocking? Now you have access to a pit toilet and trash. Yeah. And a hand crank water. And hand pumped water. But why would you do that when you can camp for free and have a huge space? I mean. Less than a mile up the road. Yeah, because some of these sites, I mean, if you're backed in and the guy's right next to you, you may not be able to get out through your front door. Yeah, yeah. They're tight. Some of these double sites are tight. So yeah, I don't know why you would either. I mean, it's nice and cleared out here. But man, I really like our spot. I do too. Yeah. It's worth the mile and a half bike ride. I think so. Another nice morning while we're boondocking. One of the things that we do first thing, it's like a habit, is we will check what our state of charge is and kind of gauge if we need to run the generator. We've been here going into the fourth day, haven't run it yet, but we probably will. There's going to be some clouds coming. All right. So another kind of a daily task, and I hope it's a daily task because if it is, that means it's sunny, is deploying the solar panels. So we've got some sun today. Actually, we had it all week so far. Tomorrow might rain. So we always try to maximize on solar. And right now that means I'm getting up on the roof. So I still want to get those solar panel actuators. We talked to the guy at Quartzsite and we're going to do that this fall, hopefully. And he's worked out some things on the structure and changing a little bit to minimize the height. But until then, I've still got to do it manually. And right now I use these sort of homemade straps to make sure that a gust of wind doesn't come this way and knock them over. So it's okay if it hits it this way. They'll just go back down and go into the retracted position. But the other way, these are like sails. Don't want to ruin them. So I use these straps to kind of secure them. Our last day here, we're going to do a little bike ride. And we're also going to do some errands on the bike. And Sondra is bound and determined to get it in there. Of course, she had to expand everything up and out and down. We have some great bike packs. Oh, I love these things. Very expandable, very flexible. Yeah. So it works out great for carrying everything. Yeah. So a little bike ride, go by the lake, go by the campground and just kind of, you know, ride around. It's a nice day right now and the sun's out. So we thought we'd enjoy it. And off we go into the wild blue yonder, literally. We're going to make a stop at the campground and a few other places today. We'll see if the weather holds. It's been nice today. It's been really smoky the last couple of days. So we decided just to kind of hang out and have some zero days. But today is really good. So we're going to seize today. So we took a little side road that looked like a camping area similar to where we are, but it's definitely more snug back here. But we found out why everyone is all the way at the very back, because there's a pond, lily pads and all kinds of good munch for all kinds of animals. So we're thinking this gets some activity back here. This is well off the road, really a nice area. We won't fit, but it's a nice area to visit. All right, so no wildlife back there. So we're on to, I guess, the campground. I don't know. So off we go. All right, so we're at a crossroads. We've never taken a mountain bike trail before on our bikes. So the other day we went up this road probably about a couple of miles, and I thought this road was this. Yeah. And after looking at the maps, the road that we really want to take is this one. But this is like a real mountain bike road. It's sort of. It's definitely maintained trail, but it's definitely more of a mountain bike trail. Yeah. We'll just experiment and go a little ways. Just a little bit. Yeah. Because I think there's going to be more wildlife here than there is up there. Yeah, I think so. Oh, and I do have my helmet. I took it off because otherwise we get these. Ringing. Yeah, and the echoes because of our Bluetooth headsets. Yeah, you could turn it off, but then you got to turn it back on. You know, repair it, blah, blah, blah. So. All right, so yeah, let's, let's give it a shot. All right, so we get out of the trees and we get to this open meadow area. And of course, Sandra's drooling because she's looking for wildlife. But man, it's a gorgeous view of these sawtooth mountains. Really nice. And the trail has gotten infinitely better. This is a hiking biking trail right now. Really nice. So is that you climbing under the tree that you want to drag our bikes under? So David's doing some recon because the road, the trail's gotten really rocky and steep uphill and had a little incident right over there. So David's doing recon. There you are. So you think we can make it up there? Okay, so should we be doing this? Probably not, but there's a waterfall up there. We want to see if we can see it. So I don't know. It's one tree across the trail and the rest of it looks pretty good. So call us crazy. Yes, Sandra is using her e-bike motor to get up the hill. Saucers are available. Oh, you are too. No, I'm not. I just saw something spin. Because of my power of pushing it up here. Oh, please. Yeah, I'm not using my throttle. See? Because it's turned off. Oh. See? You know, you let your bike go to sleep. Yep. All right. Let's keep going. Push on. Just right in this bend and it should be fine. Biking on the trail and see this sign right off the trail because we were looking for some waterfalls. And here we are. This is the trail head, so to speak, but it definitely looks like they don't want us going down to see the falls. They've blocked it off. Getting off the bikes, putting it under that stupid tree. Because this is the trail we wanted to go to. Yeah. And they've blocked it off for some reason. Let's put a sign at the very, very end. All right. So upon further investigation, Sandra was looking at the all trails. It looked like there was another trail. So it wasn't that it's closed, but they were shutting. Yeah, they were shutting down that sort of social trail to get you on the good trail, because right there, right off of the bike trail, this trail isn't really well defined. Now, it is once you get about maybe 100 meters, 75 meters in. I mean, less than that. You get over that. Yeah. Get over those rocks and then it becomes much more defined. So we're heading to the falls. All right. So as we're climbing up and over some of these rocks, we're hearing water falling. You just got to find it. It's like it goes down into a really deep gorge behind me. So yeah, this is exploring. You see anything? You see anything? Water. But I mean, like pretty water. It's really clear. You see any falls? Just be careful. No try. Do. No way I'm going down there. Okay. For the record, I do not approve of this. I can't watch. I'm just gonna go this way. It's not an actual trail down here and it's kind of slippery, but it's really pretty. It's very small falls, but it's really, it's beautiful. He's got bright orange in case the rescuers helicopter has to come in. He is not making this look easy. He's definitely watching his step. Oh, I see rocks falling. I still don't approve. All right. So as is tradition, I think I can test the water. I think. All right. So now, now I have to get back up where Sandra is, unless I want to camp out here for a few days. I don't think so. So what goes down in this case must go back up. Let's see. I call you Lolo. Okay. Made it. So I guess I have to wait for the video to come out to see it, huh? Yes, you will in this case. That's pretty down there. All right. It'll make it easy though. No. Morning everybody. Well, it is moving day today and our little piece of paradise has gotten full today, Saturday and last night, Friday. Everyone, all families and people coming in for the weekend, but today's our moving day. So we're going to head out. And when we're boondocking like this, I don't have a lot to do. I've got a few things. I'd put up the rug and put away the solar lights and everything, but I've got to, the last thing I've got to do is get the weather station. Now this has been okay, this weather station. We like having it and I like having the anemometer to tell wind speed, but we're not crazy about the layout of the monitor and how it sort of calculates wind speed and stuff like that. So probably going to look at another one. I've seen a few more on the market. So one that I think will be nice and I'm going to check it out in a little bit. So yeah, so just a few more things and then we're going to be hooking up and hitting the road going back north, back into Montana today. Actually, that's wrong. We're not going to be in Montana today. We're going to take a short day. We're going to camp next to the Salmon River and for an overnight. And so that'll still be in Idaho. Then tomorrow we'll get fuel and then we'll be in Montana. All right, so we're getting ready to hook up and we've done it enough, over a thousand times probably, and it's pretty straightforward. We're taking a big truck like that that has a little two-inch opening and we're trying to put it onto a pin. Well, it's two inches in diameter. Yeah, now it's on an eight and a half foot wide, 102 inch wide trailer. And what can go wrong? So we're going to position the truck and get it to where we can get it onto the pin. And as we do it a lot, we'll see if we can hit it without hitting anything else. We're going to be hitting the road again, but we really appreciate you guys watching the channel. Yeah, thank you very much. And being with us this past week. And just as an update, look at my arm. It's getting better. Oh yeah, I didn't have the video going when she crashed. Thank goodness, but we're inquiring minds. After I crashed, she said, content. Yeah, I didn't have it going. It was a rocky part of the trail. Yeah, but we really appreciate y'all watching and coming along. And I guess we'll see you next week. Catch you. Oh, escape the drone. Sondra's trying to lose the drone. Oh no. All right. I got to go check it out. Yeah, I'd give it all up now just to be with you somehow. Unexpected love was found. You're the rose in a garden and it shows if I'm honest. You're the leaves in mid-August and I've come out here to say that I love you. Hold you in my arms. The world around.