Looks like fall

Early evening light makes the reflections of the surrounding hills on the Middle Fork of the Boise River look like fall even though it's the middle of summer.

I don't come out this way often because the road along this stretch of the river is dirt, rough, and dangerous. Not dangerous because in some parts it's narrow, winding, and 1000 ft above Arrowrock Reservoir with no guard rails, but because it's narrow, winding and 1000 ft above the reservoir with no guard rails AND idiots from the city drive the road too fast thinking they're the only ones on the road. The speed limit is 25, but on some parts you can't (and shouldn't) drive that fast due to extreme lack of visibility around sharp curves, washboard surfaces that can make control of your vehicle problematic if you don't know what you're doing, narrow roadbed (one car wide in spots with no turnouts), loose dirt which makes stopping problematic if you're going too fast, extreme and precipitous drop-off (it's so very obvious there is no shoulder to this road) which makes landing problematic (it's not the fall that kills you, but the sudden stop at the end).

This road has its accidents every year. Mostly people coming around sharp curves too fast from opposite directions and on the same side of the road. I've come across idiot-mobiles kissing each other on the apex of a precipitous curve, their befuddled drivers standing in the middle of the road waiting to get run down by the next idiot careening around the corner. A few have driven off the road (speed, alcohol, inattentiveness all factors of varying degrees). Some survive, some don't.

I'm not a pansy when it comes to driving roads like this. I seek them out and have been on much much more challenging "tracks" by myself when my worry is getting stuck 20 miles from the nearest pavement. It's how you get back into the thick of things (driving or to start a hike) for those photos few others, if any, have, and for those adventures worth retelling. It's not the road, it's the idiot drivers I worry most about. The weekend warriors who thnk every dirt road is a racetrack run best with a few beers in the belly and one in hand.

To drive to this point on the road, about 30 miles, takes about 2 hours one way if driven correctly. If you grit your teeth, hope all the idiots are still sleeping it off in their campsite, on their boat, drowning worms, or otherwise not on the road, then the rewards are good. There are many places along the way to stop and get some great images if you're patient and observant and wait for the light.

So, that's the "walking 5 miles in hip deep snow uphill both ways (barefoot, carrying an orphaned cow)" story behind this photo even though I don't believe such stories make photos any better (or worse). It's just part of the process.

On this trip I almost had run-ins with 3 idiots, but luckily they were in areas with enough visibility or road space to stop or get out of the way.

If you've gotten this far, you might check out some backblips I did to catch up, somewhat, for my absence.