Idaho Backcountry Getaway 2011

Some of my favorite trips start off as IFR flights, and this was no exception.  We didn't get out of town until afternoon that day, so we were not planning to make it all the way into Idaho, but planned to instead stop at Custer, SD (KCUT) where we could stay in a hotel or camp for the night.  We launched IFR and got routed around the Class Bravo near MSP, which always seems like such a waste...I mean, if you're IFR, you're under positive control, so why not route right over town instead of taking the long way around.  But, we got what we got.
We were pushing a pretty good headwind along the way, but at least the storms to the South weren't going to be a factor for us.  With everything in the green at 10.3gph we plugged along on the trip.  A while later we were still zipping along under and between layers, which is very pretty to see.  Clouds can really make a trip fun.
As we neared Custer, it got darker and darker and it was full-on nighttime by the time we landed.  Arriving at the airport, everything was closed up, and our only choice into town was to call a taxi.  I had called ahead and the nice FBO folks gave me the combination to the FBO where you could go take showers in a nice shower and use bathrooms, so we were set as far as that goes.  We decided to forego the hotel cost this trip though and since we were just going to camp in Idaho anyway, we pitched our tent by the FBO.  A quick call to Pizza Hut and we had a great dinner delivered right to our camp.  The only thing left to worry about was the TAF for KCUT...the evening forecast was calling for winds gusting into the 40's. As the night went on and we were ready to sleep in our tents, we suddenly heard the trees start to blow...all at once, within a few seconds, we were hit with steady winds, and as forecast, they were in the 30-40kt range.  It was really something to hear from inside a tent.  I walked out a couple of times to check the plane, and it was doing fine.  The rudder gust lock worked perfectly all night and we had no damage.  The last photo above is of a lightning storm behind us in the distance. It was far more spectacular to see than the camera could photograph without a tripod...the skies lit up with light and arcs of lightning.  None of it was near us though, and we heard no thunder.  The tent was blown so hard that most of the night it was laying down almost down to our sleeping bags, as it collapsed against the strong winds.  When morning arrive though, we were warm and dry in our sleeping bags, and the winds had subsided...no rain at all that night. Check out the screenshots below of our APRS vs SPOT tracker.  This year I bought a SPOT tracker just to have one for 2012 when I hope to get to both the Bahamas and Alaska again.  It's far inferior as a nice precision tracking device.  APRS leaves a great smooth track and for much of the US 48 performs excellently.  The SPOT on the other hand, with it's 10 minutes between updates, leaves a very rough track without a lot of detail.  The folks tracking you will have a far better idea of what kind of flight you're having, if you use APRS, and they will be able to see you descending to land at any airport.  The SPOT, however, works internationally, in areas without ground stations, and has some optional provided rescue services that may be beneficial if you commonly find yourself in the backcountry.
Heading out the next day we were in for some beautiful weather, and some truly spectacular flying!  To get to Idaho, we wanted to stay as low as possible, and get some well-priced fuel too.  After some careful flight planning, looking for lower mountain passes, we came up with an awesome plan that took us straight to Cody, WY, through the pass into Yellowstone National Park, over the park, and then up the back side of the range to Ennis-Big Sky, Montana.  The fuel price at Ennis (KEKS) was fantastic, well down into the $4's per gallon...so we used that as a fuel stop on the way home too!  The flight over yellowstone was beautiful!  After having taken the kids there a couple years prior, it was great to see the sights from the sky.  We flew over numerous springs, and the Old Faithful geyser, and right over yellowstone lake too.  As we flew, we talked about the Yellowstone supervolcano, and what would happen if it were to erupt.
As we got into Idaho, we had a few forest fire TFR's to contend with.  Some of them filled the valleys with smoke in our path, so we climbed a bit and navigated around the TFR's and smoke.  Before long we had Johnson Creek in sight, and we came in for the valley approach.  It's a really awesome flight coming in there.  You can see the town of Yellow Pine below in one of the photos...not much there, but it's a neat little place.
Before long, Sean and Hollie along with Dexter their dog that looks JUST like ours, came flying in to join us.  They had a much quicker flight.  Later, I took a flight in Sean's G3X equipped RV-10 and saw all of his fancy instrumentation and headed to McCall to buy some sleeping pads since I had forgotton ours.
When traveling, we've found it super convenient to bring our hiking equipment, including a multi-fuel portable stove, which can run on Avgas if needed, and some Mountain Home dehydrated meals.  The meals are actually so good that I'd love to eat them at home if they were a little cheaper.  It's an excellent way to spend a week and eat some great tasting food.  As you can tell, camp was very nice.  It was pretty cool how each morning we would wake up and the temperature would be in the 20's and 30's...the planes would be covered in frost.  But, as soon as the sun rose above the mountain range, it warmed right up, and by noon it was in the 80's or so.  It was a really wide range of temps!
Since this time we were here to stay for a couple days, we decided to take a few flying excursions out and about to see the mountains and just get some fun flying and more landings at Johnson Creek. I got more comfortable flying at lower mountain clearances, and really enjoyed the flying.  We also decided to take the hike up to the hot-spring fed bathtub up on the mountain.  It's a couple miles of hiking, which takes a little bit of time, but it's a great way to spend a couple hours.  There were other people up there when we got there...who MAY have been putting their clothes back on as we arrived. We got down to our skivvies and jumped in the tub too.
Back at the airstrip, we took the courtesy van into Yellow Pine for our first view of town.  It's a pretty tiny little town, but they do have a general store where you can get some basic essentials.
Back Johnson creek, we wanted to get in the water and get wet, but the river was VERY cold, despite it being early September.  So the kids headed out to run through the sprinkler.  It was a pretty dry and warm summer in Idaho this year. Before long, it was time to pack up and head home.  We'd had a great couple of days with a great couple of friends, and their way cool dog.  We vowed to some day meet up with them again, but this time bring our dog along too so we all could have fun.

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