I got home from 3 days in “deepest” Idaho late yesterday. My adventures started with driving to the roadhead for the Blue Jay Mine, west of Leadore, in the Lemhi Range & discovering that the biting flies & mosquitoes were quite abundant this summer.

Central Idaho has a good variety of biting flies that range from the large Horseflies down to nearly invisible Noseeums. A little study on the somewhat arcane subject had convinced me that like flies in the Black Fly family, their first life stages are in or near water.

In late June & early July, they know humans are very interesting, but in late July & early August they get really insane about acquiring a good blood meal so they can reproduce. Of course the females are the ones that bite, just like with woodticks & mosquitoes. The biting flies finally go away when Dragonflies appear in strength & eat them, or a hard freeze makes them go dormant.

I put on long pants & gloves, sprayed Deet on various strategic spots of my body & hiked 1,200 vertical feet of steep road/ATV track up to the Blue Jay Mine. It had been explored for copper, as late as the 1970’s, & although a lot of bulldozing got done, no economically-viable ore was found. I found lots of the Copper silicate Chrysocolla, but darn little of the once abundant Copper carbonates Malachite & Azurite. Other damn mineral collectors had nearly collected everything at this well-known site & I had to venture onto steeper slopes than most 68 year-olds enjoy, to find some decent specimens. I left the next collector some Chrysocolla.



Fritz happy to be at the mine.

The mine dump I needed to hike to find the good-stuff.

Boytroidal Malachite

Azurite (darker blue) surrounded by Chrysocolla (ligher blue).

An old miner's cabin in the creek bottom.

After getting back down to my SUV, in the creek-bottom, at about 6:30, I started to pitch camp & was suddenly swarmed by mosquitoes. I quickly threw everything back in the SUV & escaped the mosquitoes & most of the biting flies on a road that took me high above Big Eightmile Creek, onto a dryer, scenic, & breezy ridge, for a pleasant evening at 7,500’.

Camp photos from high above the Lemhi River valley.






The darker red clouds at bottom are a big thunderstorm over Montana, a long way aways.


The lights of Leadore & the upper Lemhi Valley.

The next morning I was awoken near the first light by a mooooooo. I sat- up & looked out of my 4-Runner at a small herd of cows, who had grazed right up to my table. As soon as they saw me, they withdrew & left me to make coffee.
After some coffee, I drove back down to Leadore, noting that status among the long-term residents is apparently gained by collecting derelict vehicles, instead of having a fancy house or nice yard.

Scenic downtown Leadore!

OK! Two more days of adventure to be posted, soon!