Wanderlust

I have been a bit remiss in posting (ok Emily, here it is). I suppose I will start with the most recent adventures first.

The horse camping area...fully of bity bities.

Walter and I got back today from a trip up to the far reaches of the St. Joe River. I worked until 8:00 pm Tuesday night and was too tired to drive anywhere so we left early in the morning. All of my experiences on the St. Joe have been near the mouth of the river and only as far east as

The Upper St. Joe River

St. Maries, Idaho. Well, there is a whole big long river to explore that reaches darn near into Montana!!!

Scary man wanted by the police

Avery, Idaho is about 130 miles east of Spokane. It seemed to take forever to get there because most of the way is on winding two lane highway. From St. Maries Idaho, the road travels along the St. Joe river on forest service highway 50. Highway 50 eventually splits into two gravel roads about 75 miles east of Avery, one going farther up the St. Joe for 11 miles and the other heading over the Bitterroot Mountains 26 miles to Superior, Montana.

There are a bunch of forest service campgrounds along 50 and unbelievably when we got there and started driving through them along the road, only one of them had an empty spot...on a Wednesday! We just kept driving down the road, through five different campgrounds until we got to the end of the river road. I was astounded. The second to the last campground had been

View outside my tent

overrun by a church which of course pissed me off. So I was not sure what to do. Near the last campground was a stock campground that had some spots so Walter and I stopped there to check it out. It was ok. Not very green, no picnic tables, but it was on the river and quiet, but the place was INFESTED with stinging and biting insects. Within 10 minutes of being there they were driving us nuts. They were drawn to the area by the vast amounts of poo. We got out pretty quick. At the last campground, Spruce Tree, I saw a sign saying checkout was at 2 so I hoped the some of the full ones would be empty by the time we got back around to them. With luck, we got the last spot at the Tin Can Flat campground which is about 12 miles east of Avery. It turned out to be a nice spot.

The swinging bridge and swimming hole

Here is the good stuff about where we stayed: it was right on the river, and though we could not see it, we could hear the water the whole time, there were lots of really big trees, there are only 11 spots to camp, it was $6 per night, it was quiet. Here is what I did not find so great about it: access to the river was not so good...had a walk down the road, it was right along the road but the road was not too busy, there were no trails from the campground to anywhere else. But it was a good spot just to cool our heels. I did find a wonderful swimming spot down the road from us a few miles that is accessed via a swinging bridge, so Walter and I hung out there for a bit and took a short walk on a nearby trail that leads up into the mountains. There was a big rock to jump off which was pretty cool, but Walter did not like the bridge. Aside from swimming, I spent most of the day Thursday reading. I read Tom Sawyer. I cannot believe that I grew up 20 miles from Hannibal, MO and never read it. I enjoyed it.

The swimming hole

A tunnel on the way home along the St. Paul Railway
Walter and I slept until 10 on Friday morning, packed up really quick, to. ok a quick dip in the water and headed home. At Avery I saw a sign to the Hiawatha trail and Wallace, Idaho so we decided to go back that way. It was SOOOOOOO cool!!! The road is actually part of the old Milwaukee Road railroad bed. We had to drive through tunnels and over trestles and it eventually hooked up with three or so miles of the Hiawatha trail that is open to shared use. That was way cool. The road is one lane for much of the way and I had to back down a hill and pull over to let a couple of busses from Post Falls go past. Walter and I did not get in any hiking except for some short walks but it was nice to just sit and relax and recharge my batteries. Nancy and I are planning a trip somewhere in a couple of weeks and we might go back there. The area is beautiful.

Trail on Mt. Spokane

I have also done some hiking up at Mt. Spokane. Walter and I took trail 120 a couple of weeks ago which goes from the park entrance up to the big snowpark parking area. It was cool. The main road in the park is closed so there are a lot less people around, and 120 is not one of the popular mountain biking trails.

My mom at the Throughfare between upper and lower Priest Lakes

My mom was also here to visit me for a couple of weeks. I took an extra day off one week and we went up to Priest Lake and had a picnic. We hung out at Beaver Creek then walked to the thoroughfare trail and down to the river where I took a swim in my skivvies. My mom would not

View from Pass Creek Pass

get in. Then we headed up to Stagger Inn and took the scary one lane mountain road over Pass Creek Pass to Sullivan Lake, through Metaline Falls and then back home. It was a long day but we had a good time and my mom got to see some stuff she has never seen before. We also spent some time in Greenbluff picking cherries and raspberries. MY 72 YEAR OLD MOTHER WAS UP ON A LADDER IN A TREE PICKING CHERRIES!!!!!!!! Thank god I was in another tree and did not see it.

Mama picking raspberries at Greenbluff

I know I have done a bit more than this but I can't remember what else. I don't feel that I have been out enough this summer, but I suppose I have to stay home sometimes and tend to business. Aside from going away with Nancy for a few days, my sister is going to visit and we are going to hit Glacier Park again, then Nancy and I have a few free days at a cabin on Priest Lake in the middle of September. Seems like the summer is almost over!!! I better get going!!!!