Monday, November 4, 2013

Our Own Boondocking Paradise (aka What Every Girl Wants for her Birthday)

We spent most of the Summer in Northern Idaho. This spot is close to the Canadian border and a day or less away from some of the prettiest areas of Western Montana, Eastern Washington, Northeast Oregon, British Columbia, Alberta, and, of course, Idaho. It also has the advantage of being in an agricultural area with a climate that allows for grape and stone fruit growing, has the largest hops farm in North America, boasts local providers of grass-fed beef and lamb, is host to plentiful wild game and trout fishing, and is surrounded by tens of millions of acres of mountainous public lands.

This fine boondocking site is on the last benchland above the Kootenay River Valley. It overlooks thousands of acres of farmland down to the river and has the Selkirk Mountains as a western backdrop. Other mountains nearby include the Purcell Range, the Cabinets, the Bitterroots, and the start of the Canadian Rockies.

Anyone who has camped through Northern Idaho and Western Montana knows it's difficult to find relatively flat land with good sun exposure for boondocking that isn't right next to a busy road, a railroad, or power lines. Most of the land up there is steep. Where there is a pass or a valley, the usual drill is to run a major road, a railroad, or power lines directly through it.

So we were pretty psyched when we found this spot with great early morning sun, brilliant sunsets, and, most importantly, no road noise, no train noise, and no power lines running through the scene.  As an added benefit, we have 15 GPM of pristine well water that filters through 300 feet of sand, stone and cracks in the pink granite. Since the location, climate, and neighbors are as good as it gets, we decided we had to buy it. Better yet, we closed on Susan's birthday making for a nice present.




One of our neighbors called the property "the Serengeti of Northern Idaho" because it is teeming with elk and deer. We've also seen mountain lion, bear and wolf tracks. We see a lot of game birds (grouse, pheasant, water fowl) including the local gang of prehistoric looking wild turkeys.


The land rolls over open bench tops and down into gullys that provide shelter for wildlife. It has a perfect mix of wide open vistas and cool forest groves. The forested areas are primarily Douglas Fir, Larch (aka Tamarack), and Ponderosa Pine. For diversity, there are groves of Cedar, White Pine, Aspen, and the occasional Junipers.

The larch is an interesting "pine" tree. It's actually a deciduous tree with pine needles that turn yellow and are shed each Fall.



The land was logged about 40 years ago and there are old logging skid trails throughout the property. Between these and the numerous game trails, we have miles of hiking, mountain biking, or even maybe cross country skiing....someday.


The reason we are spared from a railroad as a neighbor this close to the valley floor is that this spur of the Kootenay Valley Railroad was abandoned and removed in the early 1970's. The entire western boundary of the property, and our road into our boondocking site, is the old railroad bed. We'll need to improve about a half mile of this road into our boondocking site. If anyone wants to pay for the road improvements, naming rights to the road are still available. :-)



A small creek also empties into the valley at our property. This pretty little wetland was ravaged by cattle overgrazing. We plan to restore it and make it even better for wildlife. We're looking to coax the moose into coming back.




An historic old grain elevator is also on the property. It was built high above the tracks and was used by local farmers to load their grain onto the trains.
 



Our new boondocking spot had some access issues. We've roughed in a nice easy driveway incline and started a pad. After some rock is added next year, this will be ready for any size rig to park and maneuver in comfort.



Idaho is fun, but now it's time to move south again. As much as we love it up there, we're not ready to give up traveling fulltime just yet! 

8 comments:

  1. Perhaps you would consider a lease/work agreement for fellow boon dockers...how's the mosquito situation up there during summertime?
    Box Canyon Mark

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    1. Come on up. We're making that big flat spot so fellow boondockers can drop in and not have to park on top of us! The mosquitos were nowhere to be seen this last summer, but the yellow jackets were out in force throughout northern Idaho. I have plans in place to wage a holy war against the yellow jackets when we're at the site next year.

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  2. Considering the scenic views of your photos, I'm guessing the Starbucks (or any coffee shop) is not nearby. :-))

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    1. A "better than Starbucks" bakery/cafe/coffee shop is 9 miles away. Starbucks is 14 miles away. Or we can just make our own awesome lattes and sit outside enjoying the view without driving anywhere.

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  3. What a lovely spot! Don't need a Starbucks, but a nearby grocery store would be nice. How far to the nearest town?

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    1. Bonners Ferry has four grocery stores anywhere from 11-14 miles away. It only has about 2,500 residents, but has a lot of services because the Canadian border is so close and all the Canadians come over the border to shop (much, much cheaper for gas, food, alcohol, and even dental services for some reason). Going north, Porthill at the border is interesting and Creston right across the border in Canada is a really cool agricultural town.

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  4. I'm taking notes : ) In just a few months if all goes as planned We will be full timers.Question:Do Boondockers often buy land they like just to go back from time to time?Do you own other land that You do the same thing with.That's one thing My husband never mentioned to Me in His LONG dissertations of part time boondocking so Our money will last and last and........ Retired and loving every min.

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  5. First of all , welcome to fulltiming. When we started two years ago we were told that most people stop fulltiming before three years and if you make it past three years then it could be forever. After two years we can't imagine settling down anytime soon. We've met "fulltimers" who have no land/house, still have a house somewhere, still have most of their possessions in storage somewhere, or have raw land that they camp on periodically. There's really no trend. We ended up buying land in ID because it was the perfect find for us (location, type of land, community, etc.) and if we ever do settle down again we could see building on the land. We know we'll be spending 5-6 months up north each year, and where we bought it's an easy drive for multi-week trips to MT, BC, WA, and southern ID. We use the shoulder seasons to travel to and from the southwest for the winter. That's when we'll hit places like WY, CO, UT, etc. Winters will be NV and AZ. We've thought about buying a boondocking property in AZ for the winter, but right now we're having too much fun bouncing around all the endless public lands down here. That's another thing. Boondocking on public land is easy out west. We travelled primarily in the midwest and east coast for our first year. Boondocking in those areas is extremely difficult (very little public land). So it also depends on where you plan to travel. Of course, how much you travel and where you travel will also impact how long those retirement savings will last. Have fun!

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