Friday, August 20, 2010

The Priests


Walter and I just got back from a quick but very restful and fun trip to Priest Lake. I packed for a possible stay at the upper lake but decided to wait until I got up there to actually figure out what I was going to do. I arrived at Beaver Creek around 11:00 am and decided I was too tired to do anything. I only had one full day off last week and worked this past Tuesday at my on-call job so I have been a bit tired. I put the tent up and Walter and I immediately crawled in and took a snooze. All the rest of the day I either went on short little walks with Wally around the lake shore or I read (The 19th Wife). I stayed outside reading until the moths were flying around my head lamp. At some point in the night the coyotes started howling and it sounded like one was very close, possibly on the road right behind the campground. The wind was blowing really hard all day and I could hear the waves on the lake. The campground, often a RV, ATV, generator, 10,000 children circus was very quiet.
The next morning I was packed up, fed, and on the water by 9:00am for a paddle to the upper lake. To reach the upper lake from where I was, I had to paddle across the bay and either go around a big breakwater fence or portage over the sand spit to get to the thoroughfare, the river that connects the lakes. At 9:05 the wind started in again and by the time I got to the breakwater there were white caps. I broadsided the canoe on the beach and several waves rolled over the top and dumped a bunch of water in. There was a guy who had paddled over in a row boat and he was using his oar to put sand in the boat for ballast. He did not have a life jacket with him.
The thoroughfare had calm water but the upper lake was a bit breezy. We stopped at Geisingers and hung out and talked to some nice folks who had just spent a couple nights up there. They said that that the wind the day before was pretty bad. We hung out at Geisingers for a few hours just sitting on the beach, walking around, and swimming. Then we paddled up the lake a bit but the wind was picking up so we headed back to the thoroughfare.

I have to say that I was absolutely shocked at the number of motor boats. In a 30 minute period there were at least 25 that came into the lake. There were jet skis, a big ass jet boat with the big engine thing on the back, a couple of house boats and people water skiing and tubing which I thought was illegal on the lake. There was a blue oil exhaust haze hanging over the thoroughfare. Really a shame. I passed at least 15 more motor boats on my way out, most of them not clear on what "no wake" means. Too bad. I think the lake should be off limits to motors but everyone we went past seemed to find Walter's presence in the back of the canoe rather amusing.
Because of the wind I toyed with thought of carrying my stuff up the portage trail and walking the 3/4 mile to the boat launch at Beaver Creek. It would have taken me two trips up the 1/4 mile portage trail. But I figured this was a good way to see what the boat and Walter could handle. The water is pretty shallow along the shore and I figured that if I had to I could walk the boat back to Beaver Creek but that was not necessary. The waves were between 2 and 3 feet with white caps but the boat and Walter did great. I promised Walter and Happy Meal if he did not fall or jump out of the boat. He got his burger even though he is vegan.


The morning waves from the sand spit


Number 36


Quiet thoroughfare from the sand spit


Upper lake from Geisinger beach ...before the motor boats showed up

Sunday, August 15, 2010

St. Maries River


On Thursday Walter and I headed back to Idaho for a paddle on the St. Maries. We put in right in downtown St. Maries where the St. M river dumps into the St. Joe. It seems like I have been spending an awful lot of time in Idaho. The river is really mellow and just meanders along with lots of oxbow turns. The weather was a bit less than ideal but we paddled for a few hours until the wind picked up, the sky got a bit ominous and the leaves on the deciduous trees started curling up. It never did storm though. After the paddle we sat by the river and had dinner (cold quesadillas). I got off work early tonight because my caseload is down and went for a lovely paddle on the Spokane river. I put in by Upriver Dam and paddled to Donkey Island where I took a darn cold swim in my skivvies. I have still been having trouble with my vitamin D levels. I am on my third round of mega dose. It seems that I go on the loading dose, finish the ten weeks, start to feel better, go on the maintenance dose and then crash. My levels have gone from 11 to 24 and then to a whopping 25 three weeks ago. My rheumatologist wants me at 75 minimum. I sort of feel like I have missed a bit of the summer because I have had to push myself to go out and do thing. Hiking has been out of the question for the most part. Currently I am not taking any medication for the lupus because at this point it is too hard to tell what the cause of the joint pain is. I have been back on the big dose of D for almost 3 weeks and am starting to feel better. The suckiest part of all this has been the deep bone pain which seems to be easing up a bit.

At any rate, here are some pics of the St. Maries.







The St. Joe and St. Maries rivers



Really wild spawn on a log. The log was covered in about an inch of goo with thousands of egg clusters that go down into the water about a foot. The cells look really divided but the color out of the water looks weird. My guess is they will not hatch. I wanted to call Molder and Skully to come take a look.


Nasty sky




Cute little snake at the put-in. You probably need to click on the picture so you can see the little guy.



Pretty

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Bobble Head Bike Ride

This past week I worked in Kennewick again. The company paid the hotel bill so I did not have to drive home late so I took my mountain bike with me for a little ride along the lower Columbia Plateau Trail. I have been on the northern parts quiet a bit (it runs 130 some miles from Spokane to Pasco) but never on the southern end. It was quiet an adventure. The first 2 miles from Ice Harbor Dam were on good gravel, much like the bits around Turnbull, but after that it all went to hell. The trail is an old rail bed and it is still covered in rip-rap that even sucks down fat tires. It took me 4 hours to go 20 miles. At one point the basalt gravel was so thick I just got off and pushed my bike because it was faster. There is a big park (already forgot the name) that had the sprinklers going on the lawn so I rode through those for a bit to cool off. I felt like I was 10 years old. The trip was fun, the weather was in the 90s when I got back to the car around 1:00pm, the scenery was cool, and I took back roads all the way back to Spokane. I finally visited a lot of little towns I have only heard of because they all have a band and float in the Lilac Parade. I checked out the Kahlotus tunnel which was pretty cool.

Basalt road bed

Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River



Way cool basalt layers...this is about where a coyote ran in front of me for a bit

View


Ummmm.....like, no problem







Other stuff.......


The week after my dog bite along the CdA river trail, Nancy and I took the boys back up along the North Fork for a couple of nights of camping. We stayed at Big Hank. If you do not like dogs running after you in the campground, do not go there. The campground host is one of the biggest idiots I have ever met...they were her loose dogs that kept chasing us. We still had a good time though it rained the first night we were there and I thought we were going to freeze to death. I wore and hat and gloves to bed. We visited Fern and Shadow falls and took a drive up to the upper reaches of the river. Mostly we just rested and read...and napped.

A cool spot along the river near Magee work station. I waded across the water (up to my waist) and decided that I have to go back there to camp one of these days.


Behind the falls (not sure which one)


Why look, it is raining


Did we really get all our crap and two big dogs in that car?

Benewah Lake

Walter and I took a nice day trip to Benewah Lake. The lake is really shallow but there are tons of fowl, heron, osprey and even a couple bald eagles. Walter is getting the hang of the boat and does not move around too much. He likes to look over the edge and watch everything going on. I am not sure what he is going to do the first time a we see a moose in the water. It will most likely result in both of us getting wet.


Wally in his spot behind me


Under the train bridge


The St. Joe River valley


Nancy and I also did a great bike ride along the Trail of the Coeur d' Alenes. We did not do the whole thing this time. We started at Heyburn and rode to Lane (where?). On the way back we stopped at the ice cream shop in Harrison. We were both feeling sort of silly and kept seeing things that cracked us up.


Stack of bikes on the back of the car

I think this is a warning but it just makes me hungry for pizza

Yes, that is a pay phone on the island


This was in the hallway at the casino gas station


Sharps container in the bathroom of the casino gas station


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