The Muddy St. Joe

Nancy and I took a little trip to the St. Joe River. We put in at Hawley's Landing on Lake Chatcolet (sp?...please don't make me haul my ass up and check the spelling on a map). It was a wonderful way to spend the 15th year to the day that I went over to her house to watch a movie and we never watched the movie (it was Harold and Maude...I have since seen it about 100 times..."Do you think I'm wrong?"

We had a nice paddle across the lake and into the river. We got out on the narrow spit of land between the St. Joe and I think Round Lake and had a little picnic and a nap in the tall grass. Then we paddled upstream some more and cut over to Benewah lake, stopped on the shore for a swim, then paddled back to Hawley's Landing. Just a damn good day.

The wispy clouds across the lake

Our lunch spot

Nancy in the bow

My favorite roadside attraction. This was in Worley, Idaho.

Olive

I forgot some of the biggest news in my last post. I have a new dog. There have been several dogs that I have posted on that were at my house for a while, but they were all adopted out. This one, it seems, is going to be staying. Her name is Olive and she has a pretty crazy story.

Nancy's friend Belinda was out riding her horse in the woods and noticed flies thick and buzzing around something off the trail. Her other friend got down to see what it was. They could see some white fur and wanted to check it out. It blinked and then wagged. It was a little American Eskimo dog and she was in some seriously bad shape. She was torn up with multiple bite marks on her neck and back legs. She had been injured for at least 3 to 4 days because maggots were in her wounds. She also had a huge abcess in her mouth that actually burst through her cheek. She had lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time and was really dehydrated. Belinda picked her up and put her across the horse and took her into the clinic that she and Nancy work at. They doped her up with morphine, cleaned her wounds, and gave her some heavy duty antibiotics. Nancy brought her home and we put her in a quiet room alone, but figured she would be dead by the next morning. She wasn't. We kept her snowed on pain meds for about a week and then Nancy had ten teeth pulled. It was horrible. We have no idea what really happened to her. I would think that if coyotes had gotten her she would not have been left alive. And who ever had her totally neglected her. Her teeth were just horrible.

This little dog is amazing. I am just dumbfounded that she laid out in the hot sun with her injuries for several days and still survived. That is why they did not just put her to sleep at the clinic. They all felt that she had to be given a chance. She is most likely between ten and twelve years old and her hips and knees are really bad; so bad in fact that sometimes her legs fly out from under her. She never seems to be in pain though. She has totally blended in with the crew here. When I walk in the door she gets really excited and starts running around in circles. She is able to go up stairs but not down because of her hips. She is a funny little girl and likes to follow me from room to room and sit on the floor near me. I just decided that since she has gone through so much and is quite old, I want her to stay here for the rest of her days because she deserves to have a good home.

I do not want to post the first pictures because they are horrible, but this is Olive the day after she had ten teeth taken out. She is just a wonderful little creature.

Copper Butte

This weekend, or at least my weekend which is really in the middle of the week, Walter and I headed up to the Kettle Mountains and hiked to the top of Copper Butte, the highest mountain in the Kettle Range. The hike from the trailhead and back is around 6 miles; not a long distance but the last half of the hike is pretty steep.

The first part of the trail which is an old stagecoach road

Breaking out of the trees and into the burn area

The hike up was sort of weird. The area had burned back in the 90s and the forest is mostly silver snags poking up from the underbrush. As we got out of the green trees and into the ghost forest I started hearing this sort of moaning sound coming from the valley below. The sound grew louder as it moved up the hills. It was of course, the wind and what I was hearing was just the start of a really big wind storm that would last all day and into the night.

Copper Butte

By the time Walter and I got up onto the side of the butte the wind was pretty bad. I had been having an ear problem for about a week and the wind irritated it quite a bit. I was a bit concerned about some of the snags blowing down but I did not hear any trees cracking or falling, at least not then. The falling and crashing trees were later on during the day and evening.

Steep trail

From the trail and top of the butte I could see a fire burning in the Okanagan that started a week before from lightening. I could even see the North Cascades way in the distance, though the sky was not completely clear. There were tons of wild flowers along the trail. Lots of lupin and Indian paintbrush and some cool purple looking daisies. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures from the very tippy top of the mountain. For some reason the camera has been occasionally taking pictures that are just white. The highest pictures I have area from about 800 or so feet from the top, and only of the west side. That is ok though because the view to the east is about the same as from Wapaloosie, and I will be hiking back over Copper Butte to get to Scar Mountain anyway. I also tried to get a picture of a cool spot of flowers but those turned out totally white too.

Flowers along the trail

Looking towards the North Cascades

Toward the Okanagan

After we got to the top of the mountain, I tried to take some pictures and then immediately headed back down the trail. We sat in a more sheltered spot by the last switchback and had a little rest, and then had more of a snack at the saddle between Copper Butte and Midnight Mountain where there are some real trees.

Northeast

Again

Walter checking out the view

We were back at the Canyon Creek Campground by around 3 and tried to take a little snooze in the tent but there were lots of sticks and branches falling out of the trees and onto the tent. I finally got up and climbed into the car so I did not have to worry about getting beaned by a branch. As the evening wore on the wind became stronger and trees started crashing in the forest. A tree even fell on the road into the campground and some guys took their axes and lumberjacked it out of the way. There were several times I actually felt the fallen trees hit the ground, and one fell over near the end of the campground. I slept in the car until around 4 in the morning and went back into my tent after the wind calmed down.

Amazing flowers

Very interesting log

The next morning I picked a quart of huckleberries at the campground and Walter and I headed home. While we were dodging branches, a pretty big fire had started in Spokane and spread quickly in the wind. The fire started in my favorite Dishman Hills and has burned over a thousand acres. There was also a lot of smoke in the Columbia River valley from new fires and ones in then Okanagan that had blown up from the wind. It was actually a really bad storm.

Huckleberry fingers

Smoke above the Columbia River the morning after the wind storm

Not sure what my next plans are. My mom is coming to visit for a couple of weeks so I might drag her out somewhere. My next weekend will be spent cleaning the house and getting caught up on stuff I have neglected.

Points North and East

Walter

Walter and I have been out and about quite a bit the last few weeks. Nancy's friend Fabiola was here visiting from Guadalajara, Mexico and we had a lot of fun taking her around to some cool places around here.

We went on a little camping trip to the North Fork of the Coeur d' Alene River for a couple of nights, a nice stroll on Mt. Spokane, and today I went by myself to the Idaho/Montana border to ride the Hiawatha trail.

Not much to tell other than we had a good time together. We did a lot of laughing on our camping trip. Walter and his sister Lily went with us and they had a nice time. We camped right on the river with a little trail from our camping spot down to the edge of the water. We went to Fern and Shadow Falls and tried to get to a wonderful old growth forest but the recent flooding had taken out a couple of bridges on the road. On the way home we drove over Thompson Pass into Montana so that Fabiola could add another state to her list. I had never driven over the pass before and it was pretty cool. There was still quite a bit of snow in places. All in all, a good time has been had by all.

Mt. Spokane still with a little snow on top

Damaged portion of trail on Mt. Spokane...we had a really wet spring

Lake Coeur d' Alene at Wolf Lodge Bay

Our little spot of river

Our campsite

One of the waterfalls...not sure which is which

The waterfall

Fabiola in the snow

Look close...an elk carcass down in a ravine

A pretty mountain

Thompson Pass

A shot taken while we were just driving around

Fabiola at the upper waterfall

The Spokane River

The west side of the Taft tunnel on the Hiawatha trail...the tunnel is about a mile and a half long...gotta have lights. Tons of water flowing through and dripping down from the mountain above.

The light at the end of the tunnel

Me in the tunnel. It was really cold.

The east side of the Taft Tunnel

A waterfall just outside the west entrance

My bike in the tunnel

One of the big trestles to ride over

A view from the trail

Another view from the trail


Link to the Hiawatha trail: http://www.skilookout.com