MOVIN’ ALONG TOWARD THE NEXT EVENT ;’-).

First I want to add these two photos that were taken after I had posted the previous day’s adventures.

Rosalie took this one and calls it “early morning bike ride”.

And finally we were successful at gathering everyone together for a group photo. And what a group this was! Many of them know each other from past outings, but we never felt like we were on the outside of a friendship circle as they were each and all so very inclusive of everyone.

Had we not followed some suggestions that a few of our new friends had given us, we would have missed some not to be missed places 😳. First one is the Bad Medicine Campground in the Kootenai National Forest. 

We lucked into a PRIMO spot with a view of Bull Lake from the top of a hill. We could walk down to the lake for views of the mountains and a cooling walk in the water.

Our campsite (and most others) had lots of room all around, we could have our lunch or reading time amongst the tall trees.

There was a trail from the boat launch back to our site which gave us at least a bit of a ‘hike”. We didn’t get to do any bike riding here, but our bikes had a beautiful resting site.

We agree that this may well be the nicest campground we have ever camped. It was beautiful, quiet, serene and peaceful. 

Not far from the campground is Ross Creek Cedars which was the second suggestion we took advantage of. It was awesome actually. Some of the cedars are over 500 years old, and we enjoyed walking through the forest of some relics and learning more about cedars than we had known. 

Downed trees were indeed giant.

Some had burls or gnarls that were interesting.

The bark on the older trees looked shredded.

Some showed their toes …

Others were simply fun to look at and play around.

Peek-a-boo…

We had to get at least one selfie before leaving this forest of Cedars.

Soon we were Beyond Hope…

A third suggestion before getting to Sandpoint ID was to visit Beyond Hope which is right on the Lake Pend Oerille (say Lake Ponderay). It is quite a pretty setting, but we sure did not like the campground. It was a very huge, upper and lower, field of RVs with marginal space between rigs. We had lunch at their restaurant overlooking the lake, and that was nice. But the campground itself had little to no shade (basically ‘no’ actually) and we had very little view of the lake. Apparently we were so unimpressed that neither of us took a photo of our site. Sigh, from perfect Bad Medicine CG in the forest to this. Ok - take the good with the bad, and you will better appreciate the good ;’-).

We did get to ride our bikes around at least a little. Everywhere along our ride there were deer and signs that said DO NOT FEED THE DEER.

Four bucks watched us as we stopped for a photo. Once the lead buck started to scrape and pound on the ground, we skedaddled quite quickly. But Susan got this great photo of them before we had to beat it!

Then, we got to touch part of the Berlin Wall. An apparent German billionaire has bought a large piece of property and built a very private, gated multimillion dollar estate. He brought with him a section of the Berlin Wall. One side is covered with graffiti (assuming the West side), the other is plain grey.

To think we could have missed all these fantastic things and experiences had it nor been for our Sisters On The Fly 😊. Thank you Sisters.

Susan got her, what has become usual, sunset photo to end our day and our stay here in Beyond Hope.

FUN IN BIG SKY COUNTRY CONTINUES

After our potluck dinner last evening, there was a little cup cake celebration for the August Birthday gals.

Debby, Sally and Ruthie each made a wish.

This (the next) morning I was able to rope Susan into a short bike ride before the heat would be too oppressive. Two things I need to accommodate when Susan will ride with me: 1. It takes her a while longer than it does me to get geared up and ready to ride as she needs her time to gather any and all equipment she deems necessary, no matter how long or short the ride; 2. We will be doing a shorter ride than I would like as she prefers to not ‘ride in circles’ as she thinks my rides are. However, I am willing to accommodate to have her ride with me, and always thank her for the ride afterward.

So, while waiting for Susan to be ‘ready’, I took time to look at the replica of the old mining town on the poperty.

We were then ready to ride. Anything that says anything about “fishing” will catch her eye.

The reason swimming is unsafe…

Looking in the other direction would have you think how beautiful — and safe for swimming this would be.

We were soon at our turn around point and wanting to get back to camp for the mid-morning gathering. On the way we made a stop to pick up sandwiches for later.

Betty Boop is their theme.

I wandered around while the sandwiches were being made and enjoyed the lawn and yard decor shop. There was a HUGE array of things and I took only a couple of photos that were bike related ;’-).

We got back to camp in time to enjoy some of the eggs that Candice was cooking for us, and had our morning chatting time.

Rosalie ran through the plans for the day, first of which was the drive to do some antiquing.

Neither Susan nor I are interested in that activity so we would stay back, relax, read, and I would do a bit of yoga (finally).

We have never made so many crafts at camp!! We have the cards, the pillow case, and this late afternoon activity was to make lights in a bottle ;’-). What fun! The crafty teachers brought any equipment we needed and said no to any request to reimburse them. They said these are all things from their crafting at home or that cost so little to provide.

Dinner and a “white elephant” gift exchange ended our day as well as the outing for this time. As the evening fell, Susan got a last photo of the day.

Most everyone will be checking out today, a few will stay for another day or two. We basically said our farewells and see you ‘round the campfire’ last night and will say more today. Not knowing when I will again have wifi availability, I will try to post this now as it takes some time to go through. If there is any more to add for this outing I will do so later. For now, this will be it until we move along toward Sandpoint Idaho.

FUN IN BIG SKY COUNTRY TWO: SOTF OUTING

We arrived at The Nugget Resort a day early as the gathering would not really start until Thursday. Our leader/coordinator Rosalie arrived early as well, and in tow had Lisa our sewing teacher (you will see more later about that).

The nuggets!

Welcome Campers…

It is HOT in Montana! We got some shade by sitting on the porch of the main building that had rocking chairs set up for just that ;’-).

We didn’t do much but laze around this first day and gradually the others arrived. Carla’s was the most ‘Sisters’ decorated trailer.

We gathered round for introductions and chatting and to have our own prepared dinner together. That was about all the activity we had in us for that day.

The following day — I got to do a bike ride;’-). Susan paired up with Kim who is also a flyfisher, and they went off for one of the fishing areas that Carl had shown to Susan as a good wade-in fishing area. 

Kim got a photo of Susan in action.

They went early morning for their fishing, and Susan got a nice photo of the sunrise over the St. Regis River.

I biked into St. Regis and then onto the gravel road to find them. I found the place where they were fishing but opted to not hike down the rocky trail. I did a bit more exploring on my bike.

Entered town…

…and as I looked down, right in front of my front wheel I had a great find…

I was skeptical of course - you know those fake 100 dollar bills and all — and thought this must be a 20 that had been torn in half! But indeed it was a full sized, legit 20. YAHOO.

Riding along through town I spotted this tribute to an old mountaineer who apparently founded the Mullan trail — now Mullan Rd. through St. Regis.

I thought this next expanse showed an iconic sample of a homestead in Montana.

Could not help myself from taking the photo of the metal heron.

 Once back at camp Sally thought I needed this next photo of myself for the blog — in my full regalia cycling clothes. Lisa has the best smile ;’-).

And now it was time for our indoor activities of the day. We gathered at the clubhouse that our leaders and instructors had set up for the events. Here Susan is set up next to Rosalie, ready for the first instruction.

On the wall behind them is a map that will give you the idea of where we are in Montana. Up there in the left corner.

Card making by Sally and Ruthie began our crafty work. They had brought ALL the materials and supplies for us to be successful at making cards.

Susan intently listens as Ruthie guides her first moves.

Little did I think I would ever be successful at such a thing as I am NOT creative and have no art skill at all. I was surprised that I was at least marginally successful, but if I had a day job, I would not give it up to make cards for a living! Took a lot of time, and mine were far from perfect. But it was fun and something, again, that I have done for the first time ;’-).

This one was the better of mine of the two we made.

This one had some flaws but is passable. Susan’s cards turned out a touch better than mine as she has more patience to be more precise 😏.

On to the sewing event. Lisa had brought all the goods, fabrics, supplies, iron and sewing machine for this one. 

We each chose our fabric and trim.

We had made a bit of a mess of things but Lisa got it tidied up quite nicely.

My Mom, who was quite good seamstress and always wanted me to learn to sew, would have been partially proud of me today. I will never be a ‘sewer’ but do have a finished product for the day.

I say ‘partially proud’ because I did everything from choosing fabric, pinning the cuff and binding, pinning the pillow case. Then — asked someone else to sew it. I did not want to ruin that too!

Susan did everything for hers and it turned out great too.

Full day at camp, and soon it will be time for our potluck dinner after our rest and relax time. I had so many photos to post that I thought I had to do this in at least two sessions to guard against one being way way way too long.