Missoula

We met Vickie and Ray several years ago at this very fishing outing that Karl and Maura host each year. Vickie and Ray had just relocated to Missoula from Ballard at that time. The four of us have formed a very warm and close friendship, and we try to make a visit with them whenever we are in the area. Our visit on Sunday involved watching the Seahawks come close to losing their game against Cincinnati. But, as Ray put it, they won “on paper” by one point.

The next day would be a drive out to Ekstroms Stagecoach Station where some of the fisher people had extended the weekend by adding a “small streams” outing. Susan and I had invited V & R for a lunch there at the Inn. But lo, the restaurant is closed on Monday and Tuesday. We took a walk around the grounds and down to the riverside and chatted with a couple of the fisher people. 

We could have possibly eaten until it ouched us, but not here on Monday or Tuesday. The grounds include camping for tents and RVs, and some flavor of the old west. As well, there are wild turkeys. Ray counted 23 of them crossing.

Rental cabins are cute...

Stage coaches and teepees show us how it used to be done.

Another example of a mining cart was on display.

Not surprisingly, our final stop was to peruse the fly shop ;’-)

What a creative mind to see this piece of driftwood jiust waiting to become carvings of fish...




Outing over, it was time to find an alternative place for lunch. It turns out that Monday is not the best day to go out for lunch as three places we tried were closed. Undaunted, Vickie and Ray found us a great lunch at the Unitverstiy of Montana’s Golf Course —- the Iron Griz (U of M being the Grizzlies).

A wonderful day spent with our friends in Missoula, and now time for R&R, and for Vickie to get to her woodcarving meeting.

Montana

We drove to Superior in all day rain with a stop at the $50,000 Silver Dollar restaraunt/cafe/gift shop/motel/casino/free RV camping place. We learned that there is free camping behind the large building that has trees and picnic tables as well as free electricity. Good to know “just in case”.

As I am a few days behind in blogging, this post will mainly be photos as there are few stories to tell anyway ;’-). 

We arrived at Superior for the fly fishing outing at Karl and Maura’s cabin on the Clark Fork River.

This collection is at the Ranger Station.

This is an annual outing for Susan’s Fly Fishing club and I have written about it in the past. In July of 2013 we had that horrific forest fire directly across the road from us. If interested, you can look at past entries listed on the side of this post and click on 2013.

Each year we have come for this outing, I have biked on my own to where the others were fishing. This time Susan biked with me and we wandered to the Lolo National Forest road. She was sure to bring her fishing gear and we stopped at a couple of places along the way.

On the way to town I spent some time with this guy who was oh so friendly and looking for some love.

In his yard was this pink pig...



We reached the road that took us through the area where Diamond Match sticks were made. None of the old buildings have signs of what they are or may have been in the past, and some industry is still working out there, so we do not know if any were part of the Match industry.
 

At one of the fishing spots we had our lunch, and Susan had brought our backpacking screen tent for bug protection.

Retracing our route brought a few more interesting things. I always wonder what stories these old abandoned family homes hold. 

A drift boat of fishermen enjoying the river.

Montana



On our final day in Superior I left after breakfast for a solo bike trip on Mullan Road that parallels the river. Susan stayed back to say her farewells and to pack us up for the drive to Missoula.

Mullan road presented a wonderful ride on this Sunday morning, but I doubt it would be as pleasant on a weekday. It is a main road that is narrow and winding and has some truck travel that would make biking rather unpleasant and possibly unsafe. This day I had the road practically to myself with only a few cars and no trucks.

On the way to town I stopped for some love time with donkey again. 

Superior is in Mineral County, and this is mining country — mainly ore I think. I stopped to look at this old mining cart as yard art.

Another look at the Clark Fork River.

When I think of Montana, this is what I envision...






We arrived at our friends Vickie and Ray’s home in Missoula in the mid afternoon yesterday for some wonderful visiting time and time to watch the Seahawks game. A bad game for the Seahawks though they won (on paper as Ray says) buy one point! 

A BIT OF IDAHO

With no solid destination in mind for this night we meandered slowly and took in a few sights. There is the Trail of the Course de Laines that I have written about in the past — perhaps my favorite bike trail —- but we would not be biking on it this year. Before entering Idaho we drove through Coulee City for a snack and another view of The Columbia River. The Columbia is a long body of water — if you recall earlier we camped on the Columbia on the Washington coast and now we are in eastern Washington. 

Here we passed by Banks Lake before heading further east to Idaho.

Deciding that we deserved dinner out this evening, Snake Pit came to mind. There is quite a history of this place in Enaville, Idaho that goes back to the 1800s when the railroad was being built. That was the heyday for the Snake Pit and this whole area. We have eaten here several times in the past, and when we were here two years ago it was closed due to the owner being ill. Someone new has purchased it and has brought it back to life

We did not opt for the Rocky Mountain Oysters as we have no stomach for bull testicles!

The building, being from the 1880s or so, is not looking to bad .. except maybe for the steps!

A corner of the inside of the Pit...

I tried to get Susan to order the moonshine, but no..

A seven mile drive from the Snake Pit brought us to the Bumblebee campground in the Panhandle National Forest. The pit toilets and hand pump water made it a little more rustic than we had had so far, but our ‘geezer pass’ made the half price (10.50 instead of 21) quite attractive ;’-). One night is all we needed and our van is self sufficient so we were all set.

The Ranger gave us a warning of a thunder storm due to hit us this late evening. That didn’t happen, but it rained in the night. Heading to Montana tomorrow.

FALL 2019 ADVENTURES #3: WASHINGTON, IDAHO, MONTANA

We left home on Wednesday and this is already Saturday morning...so I guess I am a little behind with blogging ;’-).

Noon departure was a bit later than we anticipated, but at least it gave me the early morning to do a bike ride, and Susan time to do whatever finishing touches she needed to make on the packing end of things.

After a stop in Leavenworth to give Mary and Phil the tour d’RV, we drove to the next town of Wenatchee to camp at Confluence State Park on the Wenatchee River. Our plan was to bike around the river on the 12 mile paved trail, with a stop at Pybus Market that Mary had suggested for our dinner stop. We pulled in to register behind one car so had little wait before we got to the registration attendant. Well, that young couple ahead of us had gotten the last available camping spot. Sigh. The attendant gave us a list of possibilities further east so we checked out the first one.

The camping sites were quite spacious even if there had been other campers nearby, and were strategically off set for some privacy for each camper. Oh, and this one shows a bit of our new ‘swing away’ bike rack that we needed to get so to have access to the rear of the RV. The necessary accessories seem to never stop ;’-0 ;’-0




No indication, that we could find, about where or if a Rock might be, but we loved this campground. Being just off season, there were very few campers and we had a site right on the Columbia River. Having a view and access to the river was a plus, but finding that we had a boat ramp that seemed to be ours alone (remember off season) was the icing. 

Having dinner on the dock was fine dining for us...

Dinner was so enjoyable on the dock —— we had breakfast there the next morning and enjoyed the quiet river and delightful views surrounding us.

This one shows a few of the other docks along the river that belong to more campsites. In season boaters can reserve a spot on the dock and camp there if they like. Off season we are the only dockers ;’-)

Soon it was time to pack up for the next leg of our trip and we would enter Idaho.