DAY 29 - Richfield, ID - 573 miles from home
- Esther Lisa Tishman
- Aug 1
- 3 min read
Quaking Aspens grow fast - 2-5 feet a year, apparently; maybe even more in "ideal" conditions - but still and all: it's quite something, I think, for the owners of the farmstead I passed today to have thought some 20-30 years ago straight into the future... planting the seedlings that would in 2025 provide the only full shade I've yet encountered on Highway 26.
What is it to think into the future like that? And were these trees definitely Aspens? I don't know for sure, but their leaves rustled ("quaked") just so, and there were hints of yellow at certain places, and the trees stood so tall and wise - and sort of alien, if truth be told. I remembered what I'd learned about Pando - the world's oldest living organism... and these tall and nearly silent (apart from the quaking) sentinels felt clonal in the way that Aspens are: each tree in a stand actually part of the larger organism, a single genetic entity, their main life force sustained in the vast underground root system connecting all the apparent singular parts.
I remembered my Windmills and thought: Ah. More clones. (And so what does that make me???)
Today's walk from Gooding through Shoshone to Richfield was delightful. Yes, there was noisy, shadeless Hwy 26 - but then there was something a bit magical in Shoshone, and then after Shoshone the landscape seemed to swell up and out from the road, in gentle hills and placid farmsteads. That's where I saw my Aspen sentinels. And a field of cattle so mellow, curled up in the pasture, peaceable kingdom of cows and sheep and dogs. To be fair: Bob and I have been trying to make friends with cattle for hundreds of miles. In Oregon, our mere presence walking on the side of the road would startle the herd - they'd thunder into the distance. Gradually, as we've moved deeper into Idaho, the cattle have seemed tamer, more domestic - less ranch-y, more farm-y. Less of a herd, and more something of a little village: slightly annoyed but not alarmed by the foreigner's arrival.
In Shoshone, we stopped for a spell with pastor Mark Crothers of Twin Falls First Presbyterian Church. He manages the Shoshone Golden Years Senior Center, and on the suggestion of Helen - our new friend (and future pilgrim, maybe?) from Gooding - we dropped in for Friday lunch. Ed and Bob had already finished their day's walk, and welcomed the beef stroganoff and fellowship. I said hello - and continued on my way through town... but managed to connect up again with Helen and the utterly perfect Jebediah (coon hound and lab mix, and quite prepared for the challenge of skritches and face rub).
I felt so good in Shoshone. Not sure what it was or why, but the town seemed determinedly open: a train track literally runs right through it - zips down the middle of the main thoroughfare. This is a town designed to be traversed. Even if both Union Pacific and Amtrak seem to have abandoned their posts here. All the same: a friendly canal, surprisingly green and shady park, and active community pool. A house with prayer flags hung on an outdoor shed, along with a"no trespassing" sign that warned "we're tired of hiding the bodies." A hipster mercantile store just opening for business, alongside
a faded wall mural. Something in the air here. But then again, I'm just passing through.
And then we made our way to the Community Bible Church in Richfield, where Glen Brannon and little Missy greeted us, helped us get settled. Glen who is 90, spent yesterday digging up 5 lbs of potatoes, and was off - after helping us - to mess with his 28 (did I hear that correctly??) vintage tractors. Oh, and he's been suffering from shingles for something like 14 years - acutely painful right side of his body. Even the breeze agonizes as it touches his skin. Missy, for her part, was just there for the belly rubs. (Goldendoodles, you know the type.) We'll be here for two nights.
Richfield, too, has a touch of magic. A fancy pasta food truck on the nearly empty main road in town. Mace Mason ("my parents must have wanted to make me miserable") building on his 30+ years in the food business with a new catering business, custom sauces, snazzy truck. Mason's Food Infusions. A family business: his son Gauge was at the stove.The dirty mac & cheese with smoked kobe beef was pretty darn tasty, too.
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