Jeff Lubeck

A Retrieval and A Sunrise

Have you ever taken a trip, a ride, a run, or walk, and found yourself trapped?

If asked the question five days ago my answer would be “hmm… I am not sure.” If asked the question today my answer would be “yes.”

On Sunday morning I decide to do some reconnaissance for sunrise and sunset shots from locations I have yet to photograph and desire to do so.

While the month of May in most of the country means green grass and flowering trees and bushes, it yields something else in the Northern Rockies and Central Mountains of Idaho. The valleys at 6,000-7,000 feet elevation are melting out to the point of being clear of snow. Forest Service roads winding into the backcountry and higher elevations are starting to become passable up to certain points.

I want to shoot the Sawtooth Mountain Range from the Nip and Tuck area north of Valley Creek, Stanley Creek and Anderson Creek. With a cup of coffee situated securely in the console of the Jeep, I decide to check out the conditions. To my pleasant surprise the road is mostly clear of snow. Areas of the road on the north side of steep slopes have some snow. However, they are packed and iced over – as on most nights the temperature drops below freezing.

The challenge is the icy spots. They will turn to Snow Cone consistency by mid-day (65 degrees) with as much as two feet of snow. The implication; the road is impassable until it refreezes. The delimma? Do I want to drive another 2 or 3 miles to my desired spot, with the requirement of beating the melt or park and hike?

I decide the Jeep is built for the challenge and I simply need to return past any trouble spot by 10:30AM (my best guess). The upside is I get to drive right to the spot just below the perch where I will take my shot. I hike up through the sage brush to the base of the rocks and scramble up the remainder to the perch.

Sand Cranes observe a hawk making a low fly-by

The perch yields the shot I expect. Off in the distance I hear San Cranes honking to each other as they sift through the newly melted streams for food. Hawks and many other birds are circling for their morning meal.

At 10:30AM I am back to the Jeep and start my return. As I head through a relatively short patch of snow covered road (about .2 of a mile in length) I learn the 16 inches of Snow Cone will not let Jeff & the Jeep pass. After three tries and various 4-Wheel Drive configurations. I decide to park the Jeep.

I have at least two days supply of food and water. I have extra clothes and stuff in which to sleep comfortably. My choice is to stay with the Jeep, or hike out the 6+ miles back to the cabin. I choose to hoof it. After 1:23 of hiking I am back to the cabin.

I determine the temperature will fall to about 29 Degrees from 4AM-7AM. I ask my buddy Doug if he can shuttle me back to the Jeep before sunrise and wait until I pass through\over the Snow-wall of Winterfell. Ever the generous soul Doug abides.

We leave the cabin at 5:37AM, reach the Jeep at 5:54AM, and the Jeep successfully completes its crossing. Doug and I shake hands, he heads home and I hike and climb up to the camera perch. The sunrises with beautiful color and clouds.

A Spot Once A Connecting Point for Hope and Promise – Now the Resting Place for its remnants.

I stand on a spot where America’s longest highway (U.S. 20 at 3,365 miles) and what once were The Oregon Trail (at 2,170 miles) and The Oregon Short Line of the Union Pacific Railroad sit in view of each. And if all were operating on this day, I am likely standing at a point where they cross paths.

The last 150 years has brought a tremendous amount of change, hope, prosperity and demise when it comes to transportation and the ability to migrate let alone travel for pleasure or commercial reason.

Perhaps this spot represents this enormous and speedy change better than any. In less than 200 hundred years it transformed from being untrammeled by the White Man to acting as the principal route for trappers, and playing the same for the most significant emigrant migration our country has experienced. Soon thereafter it would play a major role in connecting the continent via railroad followed by the U.S. Highway system.

Each of these phases brought tremendous hope for change and prosperity. They were conducted under great risk both financially and often involved life and death.

Making a living on this spot was difficult if not impossible and remains elusive to this day. But make no mistake, it was critical in its role as a connecting point.

The Oregon Trail just to the east.

In 1982 I travelled past this spot for the first-time. It was so isolated, remote, and subject to extreme weather conditions, that locals highly recommended travel should always include tools, clothes, food and water for survival upon being stranded. I heeded that advice. In that same year, the tracks from the railroad began to be removed. On this spot, the tracks were removed from where it crossed the highway.

I travel over this spot on days when the thermometer reaches anywhere from 103 degrees Fahrenheit to -49.

How many lives saved before its career ended?

I cannot place the exact year – my best guess is the late 1980’s – this spot started performing its role as the resting spot for vehicles and machines. While I cannot say for certain these vehicles and machines serve no purpose and or have no value – it would be fair to say they are long past their prime.

Why not a commercial operation or a formal junkyard, the collection has grown substantially over the years.

A bus likely not used by The Partridge Family.

Each time I drive by this spot, I look for new additions. I always always pick one vehicle or machine and ponder about it during its operational prime. I ponder about the hopes and dreams of the people who operated them or whom benefited from their service.

On this bright sunny spring morning I decided to visit this spot and its occupants.

So what about you? Is there a spot for which you pass by on a regular basis that suggests history and or an intriguing backstory you have yet to investigate? Is there a spot in which you have? If have not. Take the time to stop the next time you pass by. I would love to learn your story from either situation.

Running Into A Girl Carrying A Surfboard and Packing A Pistol

It is a sunny spring morning. To kick off the day on the positive; I decide to get a Cup of Joe and petrol for my rig. As I pull up to the curb to complete both transactions I see her out of the side of my eye.

At first, I conclude my peripheral vision is on the Fritz. Also, I am trying to mind my own business because this is a small town and word gets around real quick.

But no… this girl is real and she appears to be looking me over. She has curves in all the right places and is carrying a surfboard. At this point my curiosity is similar to that of male cat, and this female strutting in my territory is impossible to resist. I walk up to the girl cool and calm like, so as not to give away my true interest.

I soon learn her name is Special Deluxe. Special has a companion and body guard named Walter. Walter is known in town as a honest dude who earns a day’s pay through working with his hands. Walter is married and has lived in these parts for 25 years. I am a bit surprised to see someone like Walter hanging in the company of Special Deluxe.

After a closer look at the merchandise, I learn Special has a few bullet holes on her left hip and a Skull tattooed on her chest. Special Deluxe also packs a pistol and we’re not talking a Derringer in her in stockings.

I tell Walter and Special that I am a professional photographer on the lookout for interesting subjects. Walter looks normal, Special Deluxe has intriguing written all over her.

Walter and Special agree a photo-shoot would be to their liking. They invite me to their ranch south of town. I say I’ll follow if they can wait for me to fill up with gas and 16 ounces of Sumatran Reserve – with a bit of Half and Half.

As we head south with me tagging behind, I cannot help but notice that Special Deluxe is turning heads.

During the photo-shoot I learn that Special Deluxe is 78 years-old and has lived a full and colorful life.

—— Jeff’s Thoughts and Other Worthless Trvia

Chevrolet introduced the mid-size Special Deluxe in 1940. There were many flavor’s and configurations (coupe, station wagon, two-door, four-door). It’s street price was around $900 (or $16,342 in 2019).

From 1942 – 1946 All automobile production for personal or commercial was halted to support military uses for WWII.

A Retrieval and A Sunrise

A Spot Once A Connecting Point for Hope and Promise – Now the Resting Place for its remnants.

Running Into A Girl Carrying A Surfboard and Packing A Pistol

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