Koocanusa

A chance conversation led us to finding Koocanusa Lake, a lake unfamiliar to both Ed and I. We have traveling friends who thoroughly research their routes and the features along the way.  Not Ed and I. We just kind of bumble our way along discovering as we go.  We engage in the let it unfold style. You know, no expectations no disappointments. On occasion, of course, we have regrets that our lax style keeps the treasurers hidden and that is almost what happened with Lake  Koocanusa. Looking at our road map we clearly see a national forest and a large lake, but there are hundreds of such spots and regretfully, even at our slow pace, we can't explore them all.

We were destined to missing Lake Koocanusa when a grocery resupply saved us. Ed asked a question of the checker about all the Canadian influence in this little Montana town, Eureka. Her answer was that the Canadians come down through the Rooseville border entry for "the lake". Ed and I gave one another a puzzled look, "The lake?"

Leaving the grocery store, I snapped this picture from the parking lot, which hinted at local beauty...

                          

Turning again to the map we see a long lake stretching up into Canada and well down into the US, with scenic highways on both sides, an absence of development, but graphic little tents showing camping possibilities. Needing a campsite for the night we headed to the lake.

We found the perfect little dirt road leading to boondocking paradise. These photos are from our campsite and evening walkabout...

Kootenay River is the source of Koocanusa Lake, which is ninety-three miles of beautiful isolation and peace. In the summer we imagine another reality unfolds when the boaters arrive for summer water play, but for now silence dominates.

The next morning we stopped at Koocanusa Bridge to explore, making a number of very interesting discoveries, including one that surprised us. Caribou live in this lake region. Also present, according to the sign at the bridge, are mountain lion, mountain goat, and grizzly bear. We saw none of these creatures. In fact, we barely saw another human, and only then encased in an automobile.

View of Koocanusa Bridge from the east side...


                          

Koocanusa Bridge from the west side (that little white speck to the right of the bridge is Thistle)...

                                 

The bridge was built in 1969 and is Montana's tallest and longest bridge. It is 215 feet above the river. We walked entirely across the bridge being serenaded along the way with a forlorn haunting tune as the wind played the bridge struts. Only about half a dozen cars passed us the entire time we were walking the bridge adding to the forlorn feelings we were experiencing. The reason for this huge engineering feat escaped us.

Each evening as Ed and I sit down to dinner, we pause to say something we are grateful for. This evening I was grateful for discovering Koocanusa Lake and enjoying its peace and quiet and solitude.

~~~

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Posted with Blogsy

Closed for the Season

Closed signs greet us everywhere. So far we're spent four nights camping in four closed campgrounds. No services but free. We're thinking this is classy boondocking.

Campgrounds are not alone in being "closed for the winter". Many small restaurants and food stands report they'll see us again in the spring. Motels, B&B's, boat rentals, and private RV parks are also sporting closed signs along with gated entries and shuttered windows. Even the zip line we passed was closed for the season.

Despite all the closures we are enjoying our off-season travel. We like the weathering drama and the empty camp grounds plus with so few people are out and about we can scofflaw a bit and let Benton run free. And on clear nights it is free of lights, giving us complete night sky dark for star and moon gazing.

Last night there was no star gazing. It was raining when we arrived in camp, raining when we went to bed, rained all night and is still raining this morning. We have one very wet dog! And, if the weather forecast is to be believed, it will continue to rain for several more days.

Nelson, a sweet little town, was on our route yesterday. The typical town sprawl was nicely contained with a river on one side and a mountain on the other.

The courthouse and museum were particularly charming...

Leaving town we crossed this lovely bridge...

Kokanee Creek Provincial Park, our closed, but not, home for the night...

The next morning we backtracked to Nelson for coffee and then continued along Highway 3, crossing Kootenay Bay on a too-cute-for-words free ferry...

This highway is a crazy squiggle running east-west but along the way heads north, then south, then north, and then south again before we leave it and return to the US...

Moyie Lake Provincial Park becomes our day's destination and provides us with a rainy larch-surround home for the night...

Ahead of us is another full day and night in BC before heading for Whitefish. Our departure from home was way too late in the season to head further north on this trip.

~~~

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”

~ Henry David Thoreau

Posted with Blogsy

On The Road Again

I've been pondering for quite some time why travel is so compelling and conversely why home's draw is so powerful. How can both conditions be so desirable yet competitive with one another? We can't do both at the same time yet the yearning for each pulls deeply.

Our first on-the-road-again campsite is a beautifully forested North Cascades spot on the edge of the Skagit River, not far from Ross Lake. The ground is littered with maple and alder leaves, plus a jumble of fir, cedar and hemlock needles. There are only a handful of campers and because there is no water or garbage service, camping is free.

Fall's beauty surrounds us and we know, come morning, it will be kick-the-leaves time as we explore new trails. And it will be dog play time. And even better, it will be leave politics behind time. No internet, no Facebook, no news, no email, no phone.

Driving into Goodell National Forest Campground last night it was already getting dark. I immediately began making chicken soup with the bones left over from a roasted chicken dinner we'd shared with our cherished Brad and Yessi the previous night. Ed busied himself with starting the hot water heater, signing the camp register and walking Benton. Alone in Thistle, with only the sound of the rushing river for company, I pondered why our Thistle Adventures have such a powerful pull.

There is of course the obvious. Seeing new things, meeting new people, uncovering new experiences. But it's something else. It is the feeling of edgy, while home is the feeling of easy.

The edgy feeling is sneaky, unexpected. It creeps up on us. We like it. With dark moving in will we find a camp spot soon? Will we boondock? Where? Then there are the night prowlers. What's out there? A cougar, bear, perhaps a rattle snake. That's what I mean edgy. What's that noise? Where will we stay? When? Will we be rousted out when boondocking? And edgy isn't a night feeling only. Watching to avoid stepping on a snake when hiking in the desert or getting lost in a strange town are edgy too or even huge rogue waves at the ocean are edgy.

Home, on the other hand, is that easy feeling. It is familiar and comfortable. It's known and trusted. Home offers a gentle belonging that blunts rough edges. Family, friends and community lull us into a feeling easy life of contentment. Even storms are less edgy than when we're on the road.

Both edgy and that easy feeling are wonderful! We travel for one and we return home for the other. They duel for our attention.

Today we drive over Highway 20, stopping at a Ross Lake Overlook to enjoy the view.

Then we stop at Washington Pass for views that knock our socks off.

The leaves along the route are just changing but still provide subtle turning colors, especially as they stand in contrast to the northwest's majestic evergreens.

We lunched in Winthrop, paused in Twisp, and then headed for British Columbia. At the border we experienced that edgy thing. Border patrol wanted us to pull aside so they could do background checks. Ed's Canadian birth alerts border patrol to an out of the ordinary situation. Twenty minutes later we are waved on.

Our route in B.C. is Highway 3 headed east in the direction of Glacier National Park. Our first night in B.C. is in the town of Midway, offering winter free camping along side the Kettle River. It drops to 30 degrees. Thank goodness our broken heater works again.

May life continue to deliver both an edge to our travels and that easy feeling of home, with all the wonderful delights of both.

~~~

“For how can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?”

~John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Posted with Blogsy

Trip Delay

This isn't the first time trip delay has happened, in fact, it happened on our first Thistle Adventure too.  Yep, Mr. Ed was not blessed with good teeth.   His teeth want to die before he does so his non-travel days are filled with fillings and extractions and impressions and implants and dentures and bridges and huge outlays of cash.  The dental work, planned to be wrapped up in September, has slid into October. Our Rocky Mountains trip from Alberta to Colorado has shrunk to something much less ambitious because we're getting a late start and the snow is already flying in Banff.  We now have a departure date, God willling and the creek don't rise of October 8, with Ed wrapping up his dental commitments for this fall on the 7th.  

My teeth seem to be doing fine.  Other parts of my aging body, however, are acting up.  Having managed to put the digestive tract health issue behind me, I've now been diagnosed with osteoporosis.  As they say, we don't get out of this life alive, but wouldn't it be lovely if loosing our teeth and doubling over with bad posture didn't need to be part of the game plan.  I could forgo the wrinkles too.

Aah well, complaining won't help my bones, exercise will.  My wrinkles?  I think I'll find some relief with candlelight and no mirrors.  For the osteoporosis I now have my list of stretches and twists and balancing acts along with high impact exercises.  I've biked for years to avoid high impact exercise because of my fused ankle.  High impact exercise is now on the top of the list of what I'm supposed to do -- running, jumping rope, hiking, dancing.  Yikes.  Do I sacrifice the ankle for a straight back?  It feels like a "between a rock and a hard spot" kind of dilemma.

Examining my life, even the struggle parts, I am always able to find gratitude -- wonderful family and friends; beautiful home and community; years and years of high energy and good health; happy childhood; meaningful and stimulating work and leisure activities; and money enough to consider myself rich by world standards.  I'm even grateful to discover there is a payoff to being older bringing with it a sense of maturity I never imagined possible.  Our retirement years, or as I recently read and prefer, our "refire" years, can be full and rewarding!  Long held relationships grow even richer and there is free time to spend as we desire.  A contented feeling, like surround sound drowns out not all, but much of my younger life's anxiety.  And then there's patience.  I have much less for stupid stuff, but much more for a delay or postponement here and there.

So, with a bit of a late start on our fall trip, soon we'll depart.  Reduced in scope yes, but no matter, we definitely are looking forward to another Thistle Adventure.  We'll spend time in the North Cascades, head east to Glacier Park, and then backtrack to Idaho's panhandle.  To explore the panhandle we will drive south on Highway 95, searching for bike trails and sweet small towns, basking in Idaho's scenic beauty.  Fall colors are in our hope-to-see plans too.

One trail we'll seek out is the Pend d'Oreille Bay Trail off Highway 200 (referred to as Idaho's Highway 66).  Highway 200 begins at a junction with Highway 95 in Ponderay, just north of Sandpoint.  A short sweet trail that has Benton wiggling with anticipation.

                                 

                                  

Our plan is to get far enough south before too much mountain snow and then home before it snows here on Whidbey.  We'll be home for the holidays. "Let it snow!  Let it snow!  Let it snow!"

Early January our first 2017 Thistle Adventure will begin.  Branching out from our southwest travels of these past two years, we currently have two destination bike trails in our sights.  First is the Natchez Trace Parkway, 444 miles from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee.  The second is the 200 mile Katy Trail State Park in Missouri, along the Missouri River.  But before the trails, we're looking forward to meeting up with Ed's brother and his wife at Big Bend National Park in Texas.

~~~

"When I reflect upon my life, the best things were like a fine wine.  It took more time than I wanted but how glorious the taste when it had matured."

~ Ron Sims

Whizzpopper Words

Words, words, words.  At one point in my life I decided to learn a new word a day.  Now whatever happened to that idea?   I guess the word "forgot" came into play.  As a little kid attending San Antonio School in Ojai, California, as I struggled over my lessons,

 I'd ask my mom how to spell or pronounce a word.  She always said, "look it up."

As a result I spent lots and lots of time with my nose in a dictionary because my spelling was abysmal and my vocabulary pretty darn inadequate.  And finding a word you cannot spell, wow, now there's a time consuming challenge.  Did the word start with a 'c' or  's'?   Maybe a  'sh' or  'ch'.  What followed?  Was it an 'e' or 'i' or 'a' or what?  In the process I decided I hated the dictionary despite my heavy use of it.  But,  slowly, very slowly, over the years I began to admire, if not love, this book.  It became my right-hand.   Look it up became my mantra.

And now, in our modern world, word fascination can be propelled out of bounds with the Internet.  Dictionaries, Thesaurus, Google, lists and lists of synonyms and anonyms along with spell check and grammar check reign.  I  have daily word assists that can morph into anti-assists.   Like, if you have a good friend named Drury,  as I do, it routinely gets changed to dreary.  Or apostrophes, good grief, they are confusing enough before my computer takes charge -- often improperly I might add.  Rereading my work often finds me gasping in exasperation.   Between the computer's not so helpful help, and my own failings, the results can be quite alarming.

Then there are the words that my trusty computer doesn't recognize.  It diplomatically suggests, "did you mean …?"  For coffiwomple, on the other hand, it bluntly says, "No results found."   But wait, digging deeper, Goggle says coffiwomple means to "travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination."   Aah, it does exist and that's exactly what Ed and I plan to do this fall.

Our destination is a trip to the Rockies, with an unstructured, boondocking-shunpiking Thistle adventure from Banff to Colorado.  Given it's snowing in Yellowstone and the Sierras right now, who knows what the route will be.   But, at any rate, the idea is to follow the changing fall colors, observe wildlife in their winter preparations, and bask in glorious rugged mountain scenes.

                               

One day for fun I found myself searching for travel words and I found some whizzpoppers.  Feeling delight at my findings I wrote this little story about our upcoming trip (translation included for non Scrabble masters): 

Right now, here in Langley, Ed and I are hygge. 

Right now, here in Langley, Ed and I are experiencing cozy feelings enjoying the good things in life with friends (hygge). 

Before we depart eleutheromanaia hits us.  Wanderlust overtakes us!  Or, is it fernweh?

Before we  depart we’re hit with an intense and irresistible desire for freedom. (eleutheromanaia). A very strong and irresistible impulse to travel (wanderlust) overtakes us.  Or, is it an even stronger urge (fernweh)?

Unfortunately, before we hit the road, resfeber engulfs us. 

Unfortunately, before we hit the road, a restless race of our travelers' hearts engulfs us with a mixture of both anxiety and anticipation (resfeber).

 But, once on the road, we'll coddiwomple along feeling our life is eudaimon. 

But, once on the road, we'll travel in a purposeful direction towards a vague destination (coddiwomple), with the feeling that our life is being lived well (eudaimon).

 Nemosphlisht lulls us into complete comfort, right before we're jolted into yugen.

Our fondness for forests and forest scenes ( nemophilisht)  lulls us into complete comfort when suddenly we're jolted into  a strange universe that triggers emotional responses too deep and mysterious for words (yugen).

 It’s a whoopsy waffling world!

It's a great (whoopsy waffling) world!

A 'biffsquiggled' Fran

~~~

"Don't gobblefunk around with words."

~ Roald Dahl