Second Jedediah Smith Trail 1824 — 1826

Day 17: September 7th, 2010 Idaho Falls — Logan

Map Idaho Falls to Logan

Of course I sleep in a little bit. It is clearly past seven in the morning when I wake up. But I desperately needed my sleep. I take a shower and pack my stuff into the car. Then I quickly check out. But as the restaurant is just below the motel, I walk over to Brady’s Family Restaurant. Last year I received there a fantastic breakfast. So I give it a try today again. And again, I receive a perfect coffee service and a huge breakfast with four stripes of really thick and great bacon! There are $7.99 definitely not too much. And because the service was really great, I tip $3, which is a tip of 30%. But because of 50c, I didn’t wanted to cut it down.

When I pay, my server even remembers me. She was also my server last year and somehow I must have stayed in her memory. I am totally surprised. After the employee at the Montana Silversmith, this is now the second one, who remembers me! And this after one year and the countless number of faces they must have seen!

I–15, ID

I–15, Hells Half Acre, ID

Instead of 9am it is now already 11am when I have finished gassing up and everything else. First, I take I–15 South in direction of Blackfoot. While driving there, I cross Hells Half Acre, which is the eastern extensions of the lava field that also Jedediah crossed. I just took the faster roads via the highway yesterday to have a chance to arrive at a reasonable time. And furthermore, I already drove the long way last year.

Highway 91/NW Main St, Blackfoot, ID

At Blackfoot, I finally leave the Interstate.

E Rich Ln, ID

Little Indian Rd, ID

Reid Rd, ID

Then the roads takes me again along the Blackfoot River on the same roads like last year, just in the other direction.

Wolverine Rd, ID

Blackfoot River Rd, Blackfoot River, ID

Because I already took many pictures last year of this area and I am already pretty late, I only take a couple of pictures this time.

Trail Creek Rd, ID

Trail Creek Rd, Blackfoot River, ID

Trail Creek Rd, ID

Trail Creek Rd, Blackfoot River, ID

Trail Creek Rd, ID

Nevertheless, the landscape still has a lot to offer.

Trail Creek Rd and Paradise Rd, ID

Lincoln Creek Rd, ID

Portneuf River Rd, ID

Cattle, Reservation Rd, ID

Then I continue in direction of Portneuf River, whereas river sounds pretty much for this small creek…

Cattle, Reservation Rd, ID

Reservation Rd, Dust Devil, ID

Chesterfield Reservation Rd, ID

Chesterfield Reservation Rd, Chesterfield Reservoir, ID

Basin Rd, Chesterfield Reservoir, ID

But at Chesterfield Reservoir, this small creek is dammed up to a bigger lake.

Nipper Rd, ID

Kelly Toponce Rd, ID

Sometime I am again back on pavement and can proceed faster. Whereas the river road is limited to 25mph! This is something I have never seen yet, but okay.

Blaser Rd/Old Hwy 30, ID

Fish Creek Rd, ID

For a short distance, I travel on Highway 30 before I turn again onto my backroads.

Baldy Mtn Rd, ID

Baldy Mountain Road is again gravel and is also getting very steep — and is way longer than I expected! When I arrive up at Windy Pass, my radiator already shows 240 degrees even when using all of my three fans! Okay, next time I definitely must use my low range gears! Instead, the downhill ride is so steep that I even have to hit my brakes in first gear!

Smith Rd, ID

Smith Rd, Bear River, ID

River Rd/Thatcher Rd, Bear River, ID

N Cleveland Rd, Bear River, ID

Highway 34, ID

But I make it down to the river road without any problems. Now I continue along Bear River on paved roads up to Highway 34.

Highway 34, Riverdale, ID

Highway 34/36, ID

At Riverdale, I continue on Highway 34/36 and cross Bear River.

Highway 36/91/N State St, Preston, ID

At Preston, I continue on the bigger Highway 91.

Highway 91, State Line ID and UT

This highway takes my over the state line to Utah just past Franbklin.

Highway 91/200 W, Richmond, UT

Then I drive through Richmond in Utah.

Finally I reach Logan on Highway 89/91. There I work my way through a countless number of traffic lights until I eventually arrive at the Super 8. The lady at the reception can even speak a couple of words in German. She was once as an exchange student in Germany for one month — exactly as I was!

I tell her my story, which she also likes. Then I put my stuff into the room and get myself ready for dinner. Indeed, it is just past six in the evening. But this way I can have my cup of coffee after dinner and can also check my video taping and write my diary without interruptions.

I ask for a restaurant and she recommends the BeeHive. It is just a couple of blocks down the road, not even one mile! This is way closer than anything else that I have found so far. The restaurant reminds me of a sports bar with a separate pub. Unfortunately, I am not able to find my usual Sirloin. But I find something similar — which turns out to be somehow completely different. The meat are slices like from a roast in a Jack Daniels sauce. This really tastes great! Because my dinner took a bit longer, one of the lower managers even apologizes. But I don’t had the impression that it was this long and I tell him that everything is fine for me!

This way I have a chance to catch up on reading my book. Then I drive back and check my video taping of the last two days — with a horrible result: Infinity is at this camera behind the horizon! So I must either hold the camera to the horizon, let the autofocus find its focus and then switch to manual focus or I must use it completely on autofocus with the well–known issues at backlighting.

I will try the first version tomorrow first. At least the video taping of my downhill ride at Lemhi Pass to my motel is okay, because I forgot to manually adjust the distance! Then I write my Emails and finally start writing my diary. While doing this, I completely forget to copy my video taping! With these couple of Gigabytes, copying takes a while!

Now it is midnight and copying will take an additional hour, damned! Seems like I (must) let the laptop run during the night. But I still have to check my pictures. In the meantime I have the pleasure that my external hard drive shows a copy error! Great, what is now going on here?!

Seems like I must later try to copy again. Damned, now it is already half past twelve. I think it is better now to let the laptop work on its own to get everything copied and to go to bed…

The next day is in preparation…

Sights
Chesterfield Reservoir
Windy Pass

General
Breakfast: Brady’s Family Restaurant, Idaho Falls
Dinner: The BeeHive Grill, Logan
Motel: Super 8, Logan
Distance: 193 miles

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