laid up w/ health care issues.

Ketchum up, no that is ID Ketchum.

Sunday I drove past the hot spring resort and camped @ Chief Joseph Pass right near lost trail pass where years prior Lewis & Clark had a wonderful time in the Bitterroots. Camped @ 7241′ for elevation conditioning.

In Darby I looked up an old family friend, John Huffman. He and his wife Vicki have a new house right on the riverbank of the Bitterroot and John is all about fly fishing. i tagged along for his catch & release session ofn the river at his house. I learned more things about fly fishing.

Then I drove to pass. My rib cage hurts worse from my fall and my GI track isn’t right. My plan was to stay @ pass and if Monday i didn’t feel better that i would drive back down and go to hamilton, MT as a larger town and seek medical advice. Plan was implemented. I found a clinic. I submitted my morning growler for examination of giardia and my sore ribs. No giardia, unfortunately that is all that was checked for. Ribs: the NP heard “gurgling” in my left lung. She ordered a chest X-Ray which came back negative for pneumonia per the radiologist. She put me on 3 days of antibiotics which i have finished. My chest still hurts.

I returned over Lost trail pas and down the Salmon in ID. Beautiful rugged country. Hwy hugs shore of river. Camped at a BLM river access point.

Tues. I drove further down river. I stopped at Challis RS and learned about hot springs along the way. I picked Slate Creek hot springs back up off the river. Rough road driving back up. Hiked up creek and found steam wafting into the sky and a tub enclosure that was empty. What the heck? A dry tub? Hot h2o poured out of ground thru a 4″ pipe and it appeared that each party filled the tub and drained it after use. I saw a concrete block building further up canyon and I thought that maybe that is where the soaking spring was. I hiked up to check it out. It turned out to be  abandoned and that was used during the mining operation there. I ended up hiking around looking @ mine operation.

I returned to the spring and figured out the plumbing process and started filling the tub. Outside temp is in low 30s. I filled the tub w/ hot h2o and when it got to knee deep I checked the temp out. way too hot. I changed pipes and plumbed in cold h2o and dropped the temp to non scalding. I laid out and noticed that my chest pain disappeared immediately! No breathing pain. I started my stop watch to control my soak time and got out @ 10 mins. Too long a soak @ a high temp just leaches energy out. I had about a 300 yd downstream hike over a treacherous trail bypass to the van. If I were too cooked I might have fallen off the trail. The painfree lasted for several minutes post soak.

On my way back down i encountered 2 hunters heading up. During the conversation the woman mentioned she had a bottle of wine that she was going to enjoy during her soak but she forgot the corkscrew. I told her how to open the wine w/o an opener by using hydraulic pressure formed when the bottom of the bottle is gently rapped against a tree. I wacked the bottle a few times but chickened out for fear of breaking the bottle. And I also had a corkscrew on my Swiss Army knife in my van another 200 yards down the trail. She used the screw and carried her wine up for her soak.

I decided I wanted to stay here overnight and get another soak the next morning. Cold night: temp was 26 degs when I headed back up. I took a cooking thermometer up w/ me to learn the facts. water directly out of pipe was 140 degrees. Now I know why it was too hot last night. I switched pipes and lowered it to 120. The wood bench was white w/ frost. I stripped to my Speedo in 26 degrees and carefully negotiated the frozen boards and lower myself into knee deep water. I made 15 mins with a few beads of sweat on my brow. Again my chest pain disappeared. I rinsed off w/ cold water that didn’t appear to be too cold, dried off, and got dressed. 26 degrees buck naked steaming.

My chest pain concens me; I felt the source was damaged either rib or connective tissue. I drove into Ketchum, ID to the Visitor center and searched Chiropractors in the phone book. Picked one down in Hailley and drove down. Dr X-rayed and found no cracked rib that he could see. He made several adjustments that were painful. But last night I was able to sleep on my stomach w/ little discomfort indiacting to me that his adjustment worked.

Today I found another clinic in Hailey and made an appointment for tomorrow for chest recovery strategy and another growler study more in depth. Something unwelcomed is living in my gut or something is acting up in my body.

Today I wandered shops and streets in Hailey & Ketchum. I visited a bike shop in Hailey that i visited years ago when i was down here w/ my AMP B4 bike. the shop owner was the same but neither of us recognized each other but the experience of me rebuilding my shock was remembered. He also had an AMP bike.

ketchum is home of Sun Valley ski area. The area base is right in town and the summit is visible from town. There is a good white color from the top down for a short ways. Not enough to ski. Temp in town is in comfortable 60’s.

I could be riding here below the snow level but I am resting my chest.

Buddy Rick is on his way to Cedar City, UT. I might just skip riding here in the cold and head to southern UT for warmth.

Dan, the chiro who worked on my hip in Spokane told me that active release will work on my ribs. the nearest practitioner is Boise, ID. Out of my way, will seek someone in maybe Salt Lake.

Today I visited a heritage museum in Ketchum where the director added to my knowledge about Indians & the local settlement. I am a sponge for my selected knowledge input.

The hot spring terribly tarnished my bracelet. I stopped @ a jewelry store for a polish. The woman worked on it for awhile but the deep tarnish remains. Reminder to self: remove bracelet before soaking.

Leaving to find another FS access camp spot for tonight.

Oh, at Challis RS I learned that on the forest there are 3 manned lookouts and that last summer they had hard time filling the lookouts. Note to self: Apply for lookout job in Jan for region 4. I could work a lookout. Lookouts aren’t “sequestered” all summer like old days when a pack train packed them in and packed them out @ end of summer. Some can be driven to and the workweek is like 10 days on & 4 off.