The Road to "Totality"

Lucky you! I'll be rushing back with my brother so we may lose you in our cartoon-ish Fred Flintstone dust. Brent has this crazy idea to drop the girls at the airport Tuesday and power drive home to be at work Wednesday. I think I'll still take Wednesday off for me haha
 
Trying to understand clearly... casue I ain't so smart... if you are close to the blue line on the maps, but not within that path, you will see a partial, but not a total, is that right?
 
Why not find some forest in the path and dispersed camp? Should be a no brainier for this group. My brother and I may combine this with a treasure search in WY.
 
Nice. Yeah, I didn't realize I could boondock up there so I think we'll go down a random road and make camp. Should be easy.
 
jscusmcvet said:
Thank you for the clarification... we are outside the lines (as usual!) but not by much. Might just have to hunker down and have an eclipse party right here... and you are welcome...
Click to expand...

Thanks! I was actually thinking of making my way down there. The Blue Ridge Parkway ends within the totality zone so the idea in the back of my head was to end a trip down the BRP the day before. Getting time off work will be the trick though.
 
Our latest route has us leaving from Lompoc on August 12 and going over highway 166 to central California and heading north via the 395. Once we've passed Mono Lake, it's new territory for my brother and me. We'll stop through Lake Tahoe and Reno and find some wheeling and camping along the way.

I'd love to camp up Sand Canyon just after Bishop or somewhere near there. There's a little hidden lake back there.

Eclipse Trip.jpg
 
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At this point I take it you aren't looking at any serious off-roading? I'm torn between taking the truck or the Jeep.
 
I think you will be able to get by with the truck and camper. Brent just mentioned he'd like to visit South Lake outside of Bishop instead of Coyote Flat. I'd personally like a day of hardcore wheeling, but then again, if something breaks and we miss the eclipse, I'd be super bummed. We'll need 4x4, but probably not too much rock crawling since we need to cover distance each day as well.
 
So far, we're looking at:

Saturday, August 12 - Drive from Lompoc to South Lake just outside of Bishop and camp #1. Likely campground, but maybe not.
Sunday, August 13 - Photoshoot near Mammoth Lakes and then head up to Laurel Lake for camp #2. Hike around, photos, etc.
Monday, August 14 - Drive to Virginia Lakes and camp. Explore locale - maybe 4x4 day?
Tuesday, August 15 -
Wednesday, August 16 -
Thursday, August 17 -
Friday, August 18 - Evening in Boise, ID. Hotel shower.
Saturday, August 19 - Girls fly in to Boise. Boise day! Food, bar scene, FUN! Hotel.
Sunday, August 20 - Drive to Stanley. Photos at Stanley Lake and find a boondock campsite. Enjoy Stanley
Monday, August 21 - Enjoy Stanley area, attempt to avoid dying, experience solar eclipse, boondock campsite
Tuesday, August 22 - Book it for Boise! Drop off the girls at airport. Start power drive home.
Wednesday, August 23 - Unpack and relax day off work and/or finish power drive home.

As for attendees on the road trip, I'm OK with 1 more vehicle, but no more, otherwise finding camping spots is a hassle, especially if we're boondocking (not that my trailer won't call attention or anything). So that puts @100acrehuphalump first in line.

I'd LOVE to meet more American Adventurists in Stanley for the #SolarRendezvous though!
 
Machelle and I may skip the Boise days and go try to secure a boondocking site for us. I don't want to try to deal with our dogs :dog, hotels and the city in general.

I'm fairly certain we're taking the truck. If you guys decide to take a 4x4 route to get somewhere that is more than I'm interested in putting the truck through, we'll either hang out at camp, or meet you at the other end of the trail.

I assume Frankie and Lucy will be taking you guys with them?:cool:
 
If say we were to meet in Stanley, there is great camping with amenities not far at Redfish Lake and better/quieter spots at Little Redfish Lake. There's another even closer CG called Sunny Gulch right on the Salmon River but I don't recall them having much more than sites and pit toilets. Also if coming from Boise, I highly recommend taking ID 21 up to Lowman where you can find awesome spots at Mountain View CG on the South Fork of the Payette River. Freaking gorgeous drive through the Boise NF! After Lowman continue on 21 through the Sawtooth NF and the Sawtooth NRA. Also near Lowman is NFS Road 582 along clear creek to 510 and over to the Deadwood Reservoir and many BF sightings and old ghost mining town. I could branch out all over Idaho. I absolutely love it there. The road to Deadwood Res. from the north may be iffy if pulling a laden trailer due to some steep grades. Another route to access the Res. is from closer to Stanley on 579 Bear Valley rd to Landmark Stanley rd and take 555 south to the Res. Whichever way you go, you will be left awe inspired by wild Idaho! Coming in from Challis to the east to Stanley there are a number of NF CG's along the Salmon River along ID 75 in the valley between the Sawtooth NF to the south and the Salmon-Challis NF to the north. Can you tell I'm EXCITED?
 
The small ski resort at Sunbeam was on fire last time I was through there but there's Salmon-Challis NFS road 013 north to some higher off road traveling and camping. As I said before, I've been in the area a couple times before but I haven't been on some of the roads I just mentioned. I'm gleaning much of this from the Benchmark Road and Recreation Atlas for Idaho. I had done a few of the roads in the area but I think I really want to stay at Deadwood Reservoir at some point on this trip. I do also know that the whole ID 21 is God's country!
 
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