Don't Sweat the Small Stuff!

On the Way to Jarbige

Note about pictures; (this blog will not display linked pictures, you will need to click on each link as you read to see them.)

Looking at a huge mountain of work I had on my plate last April I had planned to get much of my backlog cleared that weekend. I was covering two positions at MHAFB and taking over a new business in town along with moving it, I was a little swamped.

William a very good friend of mine, was always reminding me that you should never sweat the small stuff, and by the way, its all small stuff!

Not two hours later an acquaintance contacted me and was putting together an adventure starting in Bruneau to Murphy Hot Springs then following the Idaho Centennial trail, all the way from Nevada to Canada on dual sport bikes. He was planning to leave Friday evening ending up on the trailhead of the north fork of Lime Creek section Sunday evening for the first section of this adventure. Agonizing about the unmovable set of issues in front of me I did the right thing. "Where are we going to meet?" I said.

As usual the adventure starts in my garage, gearing up my trusty dual sport motorcycle for the 350 mile trip. We had to pack everything including food, camping gear and water. I met 5 fine gentlemen and fellow adventure riders in Bruneau and we started our journey to the Wickehoney Stage Stop ruins a few hours past Bruneau. As usual we went to great lengths to stay off the pavement.

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What an incredible piece of history, we were lucky enough to meet one of our local Mountain Home experts Connie, she was also camping on the old property, she told us a little about the history of the ruins. Connie works at Carlos' Mexican restaurant and is quite a wealth of knowledge. Here is my trusty dual sport machine in front of the Wickehoney ruins.

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The old house was built in the 1890's by the Dow Dunning family and was standing until a few years ago when it burned down. The ruins showed signs of running water pipes and two stories; including this old oven.

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What amazes me is that everything had to be hauled to the site in wagons over who knows how many years or months. There was a spring fed cattle tank behind the old ruins and running water next to the old ruins.

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There is a small grave site behind the house with a lone Jack Rabbit as a sentry

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We found a good camping spot and settled down for the evening.

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Then it was time for the evening refreshments and good conversation. My camping chair was well worth the extra weight and brought a few digs about not roughing it, they tried to shame me into giving it up, no way! The next morning we headed out on what I think was the old stage road on the way to Jarbige Nevada.

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Next time, the leg to Jarbige then to Murphy Hot Springs on Saturday.