Bruneau Jarbridge Rivers Wilderness

All my BLM surveys are new, so I have to scout access. Imagine trying to find sixteen little dots in this. 

I drove to Mountain Home, Idaho to enter data from COM and get on Google Earth to look at roads.

Cash For Guns

But the only wireless I could find on a Sunday afternoon was at McDonalds, a place I haven't patronized since I learned how to eat in the 80s.

Mountain Home Junk Yard - on the main road. 

I thought, this is a crappy little town, I'll go on down to Bruneau, Idaho and use the internet there. 

But Bruneau is just a thirty-five mile per hour zone on a curve in the highway - no internet. So, I thought, I'll go on down to Grasmere, Idaho, and use the internet there. 

That abandoned trailer on the left is Grasmere. 

I drove dirt roads and two-tracks until midnight looking for my survey site. 

Got to within ten kilometers, woke up the next morning, and started walking in the dark.

When the sun came up, I saw the Bruneau River Gorge. 

The place is covered in Sage Sparrows. 

Brown body, gray head, white eyeing and malaria stripe. 

Photo by Tim Lenz

After the survey, I camped and swam at Sheep Creek. Rock Wren song echoed everywhere.

Western Tanagers, Yellow-breasted Chat, Gray Flycatchers, and Lazuli Bunting present. 

I'm writing a novel on how to get to this survey for the biologist next year.