TRIP 06 DAY 02, Tuesday, May 19, 2009: Kuna, Idaho
Determined to beat the heat with an end-around, we left the house by 7:30 a.m. I started walking south on Black Cat Road from Deer Flat Road at 8:00 under an overcast of washboard stratus clouds in air that was warm enough that I did not need a jacket over my shorts and tee-shirt, but cool enough to be a gigantic improvement over the record-breaking heat of Monday. As with many of the roads through the valley farmland, this one followed the edge of a section, a square of land 1 mile on each side. Deer Flat Road also marked a sectional boundary, running east-west. At 1 mile, I turned left and walked due east on W. Kuna Road, and in 2 more miles came into the town of Kuna (pronounced “Q-na”). I stopped at Kuna City Hall to check out the quality of their public facilities. I made a slight jog to the right onto Shortline Street, and Joe was waiting with the car at the east end of that.
We drove back to the beginning, and Joe began walking the route I just described. Meanwhile, I drove the car back to where he had been parked, and I continued my walk from there.
I passed a few blocks of new subdivision with clean-looking houses on cul-de-sacs lined with instant lawns. Continuing south on Luker Road, I reached E. King Road and walked east on that, zig-zagging at Stroebel Road to cross the railroad tracks again, then continuing east on E. King Road to where the car now sat, at Good Day Road (Dead End). We drove Joe back to do this segment, and I drove back here and reparked the car at Good Day Road. I now started my last segment of the day.
I shortly came to Eagle Road and turned south on it. At the southern end of the section, it crossed Mora Canal, a fast-flowing river between engineered banks, and curved 90 degrees left to become Kuna-Mora Road running due east.
The last couple of miles were still through cultivated farms, but the land was becoming noticeably drier as we approached the limits of the Boise Valley’s irrigation network. I passed an old brick building that had formerly been Mora School, but now was boarded up and surrounded by acres of junkyard cars, trucks, and farm machinery. A big, black dog ran over to the fence and wagged his tail and did not bark. Must have flunked out of junkyard dog school.
The car was waiting at Five Mile Road. Again, we drove back, Joe did the last segment. As I waited at the end, I read “Charleston” by John Jakes and enjoyed the comfortable, warm breeze through the open car windows, shooing away yellow jackets every few minutes.
Walk rating: 6.0
Money found: Day: $.01 Trip: $.11 Project: $14.54
Distance: Day: 9.8 miles Trip: 15.3 miles Project: 510.3 miles
Starting point: 43 30.170N 116 27.220W (elevation 2673 feet)
Ending point: 43 27.556N 116 18.856W (elevation 2805 feet)
Significance: Passed through Kuna, the ONLY town we would walk through this trip.
We stopped and ate lunch in Kuna at a Mexican restaurant advertising lunch for $4.50. This was a very good deal, as the daily special was two meat enchiladas with rice and beans, along with good chips and salsa. While we ate, another patron came over to our table and said, “Would you happen to know how to get to Swan Falls?” We had had a short jog on Swan Falls Road in Kuna, so I recognized the name and told him about it. Then I realized I had our walk map for the day in my pocket, so I pulled it out and showed him Swan Falls Road on it. I gave him the map and said, “Keep it. We’re finished with it.” I wonder if he felt he had asked the right person.
