We are wrapping up a 3 night stay at a BLM Campground about 15 miles from home. Kelly Island is a well developed campground with 14 sites; no electricity or any other hookups are available. The sites are nicely arranged with a level graveled pad, picnic table and a fire pit with firewood piled adjacent. The toilets are clean and the Snake River is about 60’ from the front door of the camper. When we arrived on Tuesday, we were the only campers here so we got to choose the very best site; a very long pull through facing the river.
This was another test run for the camper; the last one before the big trip starting July 18th. We had some battery problems during our last campout. I took all four batteries in for testing and discovered that one of the batteries was stone cold dead. The interesting thing about that discovery was the dead battery had been purchased less than a week before the trip. So that battery was draining the other 3 batteries, not allowing the battery bank to get above a 50% charge. Good news. With the new battery in place, all is working well. During our time here the batteries did not get below a 50% charge and that was with the fans frequently going for air circulation.
Fishing was not great. I caught one small rainbow. The river is high and fast. Many float boats going by with high paying clients sending flies in and out of the water. There is a large boat launch site directly across the river, so we had the opportunity to see many boats coming and going.
Wednesday we started getting neighbors and it is expected to get crowded later today (Friday, the 2nd of July) for the 4th of July weekend. We experienced a generator problem yesterday evening. The generator appeared to be “flooded”, based on the strong odor of gasoline when I opened the generator compartment. Fortunately one of our neighbors is a skilled engine mechanic and he took one look at it and stuck his finger on the choke lever, completely releasing the choke and it started right up. We did not have a problem this morning, since the generator had a chance to cool down overnight. Another lesson learned. He suggested I get a spare spark plug and a spark plug wrench to carry with me; also to use some gasoline additive to clean the carburetor on occasion.
Thursday evening, our friends Joe and Ann brought us dinner, broasted chicken and accompaniments including desert. We had a great evening with good food and good conversation.
Here are some pictures from our trip. Ending with a great sunset picture from Wednesday night.
The site. My fishing buddy Joe and Rosie
Joe and me fishing the Snake River.
Sunset on Wednesday.
We will post again when we start our trip on the 18th.
No comments:
Post a Comment