The ambiance that is Johnson Creek Airstrip
Suburban sprawl
In Idaho - Boise is getting to be a big town
We stopped at Caldwell to get some lunch but the restaurant was closed
They are building a bunch of new hangars here
Nice compass rose too!
I had to work on Friday (yup, some of us still have to do that) so flew up commercial on Saturday morning to Boise
where the bro picked me up
MauleBros off on another weekend adventure. This time to the backcountrypilot.org meet at Johnson Creek
It's still very green up in the hills and I'm glad to, at least temporarily, be out of the smoke filled cauldron back in California
It's REALLY bad folks, worse than I've ever experienced
Almost looks like a river but it's a road that I don't think has quite figured out yet where it wants to go
Cascade
They've certainly had their share of fires up here too
but today the air is clear and fresh as we pass over the ridges headed for Johnson Creek
This is where the 'creek' comes rushing down the mountainside in a torrent
I think a drive along that road would be well worth the effort
Maybe someday when we have more time
There's the strip as we approach from the south up the valley
Not a bad landing
Probably one of the toughest issues with landing at Johnson Creek is that you know there are probably 40 other
pilots watching your approach. So you're not gonna get away with anything or just sneak off into the crowd afterwards
See, there's half a dozen of them right there!
It's a beautiful place though, one of our favorites
Since the restaurant at Caldwell was closed our first quest is to head into Yellow Pine and get some grub
So we take one of the courtesy vans and head down the road
Yellow Pine isn't far, maybe about ten or fifteen minutes away
It's not a big town but there's nothing else around so it's got just about anything you'd need
The Silver Dollar Cafe is right there past the jeep
They have a full assortment of $800 burgers for the hungry back country pilot
I guess that at one time there were a lot of giant Sitka Spruce trees around here but I guess we cut them all down
and what would a back country Idaho bar & grill be without the mandatory Jackalope head mounted on the wall?
Quads - the 21st century steed
With bellies full and a bag of ice, we head back up the road
Back to the field
Johnson Creek
Johnson Creek Airport is considered to be one of the 'easiest' or 'benign' back country strips to get into
But things do occassionally go wrong and it shouldn't be taken lightly or considered a 'piece of cake'
In fact, every time I've been here there has been at least one airplane with a bent prop
or worse
I didn't count the number of planes here this weekend but I'd estimate at least 60
The Maule wing is wide enough that you can lay here for a good hour before you have to move to get back in the shadow again
Belford knew what he was doing
There were a lot of folks here for the backcountrypilot.org meet and we met a lot of interesting people
but that is beyond the scope of this webpage. I'm just trying to give an impression of the atmosphere
that one experiences when visiting Johnson Creek Airstrip
God Bless America folks. We sure do know how to enjoy ourselves if nothing else
As the sun goes down behind the ridge the temperature begins to drop and that's good
so that you can put on long sleeves to keep the friggin' mosquitos from eating you alive!
Some people probably had the foresight to bring mosquito repellant
We didn't even have the forsight to bring any food so we broke into the survival gear (which is nearing expiration dates anyway)
and cooked up some instant Mexican Chicken and Rice pouches
Problem is we didn't have any plates or silverware either so we used the messkit pans and tortilla chips as scoops in lieu of forks
This is normally what wakes you up in the morning
Time to break camp and start packing gear
Damn, it came out of there, it's got to fit back in somehow
A gorgeous morning filled with wonderful sights and sounds
So we are on our way back home again
heading back down towards Yellow Pine - This time with no billowing trail of dust behind us
TERRAIN
Always on the lookout for that emergency spot in case it's needed
nice details in the morning light
The nice thing about a little 'point and shoot' camera is
you see something, you point and you shoot - that's really all there is to it
Owyhee river in Eastern Oregon - you can't miss it
We've been over this route many times but different seasons and different times of the day, there's always something different to see
Back to California where the fires are still burning and conditions haven't improved
No clouds, no fog, just smoke
Like I said, it's the worst I've ever seen it