Big Fork, Montana

We arrived in Montana on Sunday afternoon and stopped in Kalispell for laundry, lunch, and grocery shopping. We continued to the east side of Flathead Lake through Big Fork and south for about 15 miles.

We have this adorable cabin rented for the next 2 weeks. It’s a simple one room cabin with bed, table, bath, mini kitchen, and an old fashion potbelly stove for heating the place. Best of all: a large front deck with chairs and a grill and a fire pit out in the yard with a great view of the lake.

Bob’s friend, Catherine, from work had arranged with the owners for an awesome gift basket to be in the cabin when we arrived. Wine, cheeses, fruit, the works! It was so nice and we have enjoyed something from it every day. I enjoyed the wine and dark chocolate before I unpacked. Our first night here we grilled salmon and planned the next day.

Monday we headed to the Jewel Basin in Flathead National Forest. We hiked to the top of Mt. Aeneas, the highest peak in the Jewel Basin.

The hike went pretty much all the way up and then all the way back down; not a lot of bells and whistles. We had lunch at the top and you could see Glacier National Park, Flathead Lake, Big Fork River, and a whole lot of widerness. There were no goat or bear sightings. On the way back down we got turned around on account of some ambiguous directions, but we ran into a prepared and ambitious hiker who allowed us to follow him. His pace was a bit faster than ours (a brisk jog) and we had blazed out to the car in no time. Monday night we grilled out again and had our neighbors (from a cabin across the road) over for a bonfire.

We inadvertently told these neighbors from Seattle that we were not impressed with Washington wine, which they would not accept. Naturally, we invited them over to prove their reds are worth a damn. We had a fun night and went to bed late.

Today we hung out at the cabin reading, laying in the sun, and eating cherry cobbler that I made from scratch from the cherry trees around our cabin. (I know, I’m amazing.) In the late afternoon we went horseback riding. I haven’t been on a horse since Camp Ondessonk 1990 and Bob has never been on one. We were with a family of 4 that had big issues; Compared to them Bob and I felt like real cowboys the way we could take a little trotting and make the horse stop and then go again. Real professional stuff. With the exception of a long train ride, there’s nothing I’ve romanticized more than horseback riding. In fact, we went today to start practicing, as I had planned to trade in the Element for a horse upon our return. However, horses revealed their downfalls to me today: horse flies, poo, chafing, the disarming realization that you’re not the boss. This is not to say horseback riding isn’t great… it is. We had fun and I’d like to go again, but we’ll keep the Element for now. Tomorrow is Glacier Day #1….

Idaho

We left Washington before noon on Thursday morning heading for Idaho for what we thought was two nights. We had been on highway 20 while crossing the western half of the state of Washington, so we decided to continue on 20 for the eastern half. The garmin kept telling us not to take this route for expedience, but we stayed with it. I think we turned a 5 hour drive into a 10 hour drive. This delayed our arrival to Bonners Ferry, ID until around dusk and forced a hasty campground selection. We even scouted a few one-star hotels, but don’t let the rustic exterior fool you, the hotels in sandpoint and bonners ferry are not for the economy traveler. So we settled on twin rivers campground for a couple nights. This is a traditional private campground with a putt-putt course, a swimming hole and lots of close together sites. It was nice but not what we are looking for. This gets to my three primary pet peeves for the trip so far. Third, placing stuff on the dashboard which ineveitably falls off. Second, Christine packed what seems to be a dozen tubes of toothpaste that are down to the last brushfull, which requires angles and pressure placement that test a recently awoken pair of hands. First, I look at a map and measure how long it’s going to take us to get from A to B and by rule it turns out to be 50% more than what I planned. It is a big country.

So we started talking about the Montana cabin around the fire. I was under the impression we were checking in to the cabin on Saturday which gave us two nights in Idaho – but I was wrong. We got the paperwork out and in fact, we aren’t checking in until Sunday. Our first day in Idaho, we went into Bonners Ferry and checked the town out. Then went back to the campground and sat in the river and read for the day. The ground was too soft to put a stake in that deefur couldn’t pull out, so I took a piece of firewood and turned it into a dog-log and tethered her to it. This worked until a squirrel ran through and then the beast of burden hauled that log around the forest. Later in the evening, we played putt-putt and went to bed. I let Christine win by one.

For the last night, we drove into the national forest and quickly set up camp. Then went for a hike in the Idaho back country. We only saw one other party on the trail and it was two fellas on horseback. One of the dudes asked me if I had a firearm with me. I showed him my bear spray. He said he hoped we didn’t run into the pack of wolves that was known to patrol the area. Also, we were in prime grizzly country. It was a nice hike and we didn’t see any predacious fauna.

This morning we are heading to Bigfork, MT for the final two weeks of the trip.

Okanogan National Forest; Tiffany Lake Trail

OH, a hard rain’s a gonna fall! We woke up this morning to sunny skies. As with every morning, I waited for Bob to make coffee and oatmeal before daring out of my polar sleeping bag. It was warm and sunny and we headed off to Tiffany Meadows/Lake with the idea of hiking a long loop around the large lake, 2 smaller lakes, and the meadows.

It was a 30 minute drive and by the time we arrived at the trailhead, doom and gloom had come to this unsuspecting land. Bob said, “That’s why we have all this rain gear!” And I couldn’t argue with that as my parents did buy me some very nice rain gear. We suited up and headed out in a mild drizzle. It rained intermittently for the first 3 miles. We stopped for lunch, which we ate quickly as the clouds loomed above our fresh bread. Just as we got everything back in our bags and zipped up, the hail came.

A quarter mile further the lightning came. The rain never left. We decided this was far enough and turned around several miles short of our initial plan. We were in a large burn area from a forest fire a few years back, so there was very little tree cover. The trees that remained were just telephone poles with no branches or leaves and burnt black. They are a bit precarious; they look like a stiff breeze will cause a domino effect. The lightning did not make us feel better about the trees falling on our heads, so we made some time.

In the end, everything was A-OK and it was actually pretty cool because at 7000 feet we were pretty much sitting in this low lying rain cloud. Everything was hazy, like when an airplane passes through a storm. Only there were no bloody marys or peanuts, or in flight movies; just us in ridiculous pants and not so water tight boots. Tonight there will be a fire (Hopefully), but the horizon appears to have other things in store.