Day One: Hayden, ID to Camping at Flathead Lake, MT 9.04.09
Greetings!
Day One: Map
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Started the day later than we expected, which was great since I got a good nights' sleep in the comfiest of snuggly beds. How nice it would be to bring a bed like that for tent camping! HA! I got up and made my way through the woodland path to the beach dock for some minimal yoga stretching while Barb and Marty went rowing.....snapped a shot of them as they came back in. After breakfast they tested the Yukatat inflatable kayaks. I especially liked the way they deflated them. See morning photos here:
Dock Yoga:
Barb and Marty Rowing:
Deflating kayaks:
Drove north to Sandpoint situated on the northwest edge of Lake Pend Oreille, then picked up Rte 200 through Hope ID. Stopped at Pack River where it empties into Pend Oreille (Clark Fork River also empties into this 1150 foot deep lake...5th deepest lake in the US). Beautiful reeds, plants, birds, grasshoppers, big clouds, hot dry weather. Barb marked waypoint on Garmin Oregon 550t hiking GPS. Read about rich history of Native American life in this area with birch bark canoes, fishing, hunting, gathering plant foods. Basically everywhere we traveled in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Ontario, Michigan, and upstate New York was Indian country, First Nation land and we were keenly aware of a presence....a feeling of their belonging to the earth: nature reverence.
We met Troy, a young energetic biker riding from Virginia to Seattle at the mouth of the Pack River. Good natured, friendly, full of life. Undaunted or jaded after crossing the Rockies: good golly! Felt pampered and privileged to be driving a car...5 speed Nissan Maxima.
Stopped at hydroelectric dam on the Clark Fork River with signage explaining glacial and geologic history. Barb had told me about the great Missoula floods and this explained in more detail that a humungous lake called Glacial Lake Missoula had formed above the Cordilleran Ice Sheet glacier to the depth of 2,000 feet. An ice dam kept melted water in this massive lake and when the ice dam failed at the end of the last ice age the flood water roared across Idaho, Montana, and Washington to the Pacific Ocean in the largest floods known to have occurred on earth. Never heard of this. It was so humbling driving east and north toward Flathead Lake along the rim of the surrounding mountains realizing we were driving along the old bed of an ancient lake that when active only showed the tops of the mountains barely visible ringing the surface of the old lake.
Stopped at Belknap Store on the right (Route 200) in Belknap, MT. Large signs offering produce for sale attracted us to stop and get some fresh veggies and fruit for our to-be- determined camping spot for our eventual campout dinner. We thought corn on the cob would be yummy and easy. The Cabinet Mountain range was along the north side of the road and the Kaniksu National Forest was along the south side of this road following the Clark Fork River. The few towns we drove through were sparsely populated with just an occasional store or gas station. When we went inside this rural shop we were amazed to find organic produce, many kinds of flour (white rice flour, brown rice flour, high gluten, vita spelt organic, rye flour, white rye flour, harvest king unbleached, wheatland organic unbleached, self-rising, organic corn flour, organic hard white wheat flour, organic hard red wheat, etc etc.), dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, dates, 6 kinds of raisins, homemade jams/jellies, large crates of fruit for canning, canning supplies, bushels of corn...you name it....they had it. I guess there's some gosh darn good cooks and bakers in them thar hills but all we were seeing for miles upon miles were mountains, rivers, trees. The store was run by Mennonites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mennonite and we continued bumping into people from this peace loving Anabaptist sect through MT and then into North Dakota. We were grateful to stock up on all the goodies we purchased here. We set a WayPoint on the GPS we brought with us so we'd remember such a great source of organic food and homemade canned goods. First we took a photo of the store front (false fascia front like old wild west movie set) ...then we set the WayPoint and made comments and/or set icons to remember why the heck a WayPoint was set). Of course we needed closeUp glasses to read the wicked small screen and to figure out all the multiple screens and interface buttons needed to enter comments etc. Basically we were learning on the fly. This took time, of course, so our meandering style was established, making it deliciously impossible to get anywhere quickly.
Stopped for lunch in the small mostly deserted town of Plains at Phyllis's Outdoor Café. The big sign offering buffalo burgers, buffalo dogs, buffalo tacos and huckleberryade was too alluring to pass up. Who'd have thunk I'd ever see Barb eating a hot dog? But here you have it.
When they found out I was from Boston they asked who I thought would be picked to replace Ted Kennedy's vacant senate seat. They admitted they admired him and many of his accomplishments even though they were conservative Republicans themselves. They had watched the funeral and were especially moved by his son Edward's eulogy. However, in their opinion, the rote nature of his grandkids' politically charged speeches were inappropriate. I had just heard an emotional testimony from a friend in Somerville a few days before saying exactly the opposite! She thought it was important to use his funeral as a soapbox to help spread the word about issues he fought long and hard to win. People are so different!!!!
So we pushed onward toward Glacier National Park and ended up finding a camping spot at one of the 6 state parks flanking the banks of Flathead Lake. West Shore State Park had some space so we bought a small bag of firewood from the ranger who also politely asked if we needed a site big enough for 2 tents? Then she apologized adding she didn't mean to pry into our private lives by asking us directly if we were a couple or not. Thus began the first of many obvious remarks by people wondering: Do They? Or Don't They?
Quickly found a site with panoramic view overlooking the lake from up above then set up the tent. Barb got out her new backpacking stove and started boiling water for corn. I grabbed my bathing suit, sarong and towel after a friendly couple walking by with their dog mentioned the 2 choice campsites right on the water. Since I wanted to go swimming before dinner I walked down and flipped over the clear warm water and the 2 empty campsites. I snapped a few photos to bring back to Barb so I could rally her to pack up and re-set up camp here at lakeside. Since the sun was setting I knew I had to act quickly. I ran up the hill, huffing and puffing right into the rangers who told me these sites were reserved for marine campers until 6pm. If none came, then anyone could have them. They drove on toward Barb to collect our money and when I got there Barb thought I was nuts, but she said if I wanted to move then she'd do it. What a pal!!!!! The rangers warned us we've have to park at the top of the hill and walk our stuff down about 150 yards into the site (quite a schlep). I was determined and since Barb was willing, she extinquished the fire under the corn, wrapped the warm cobs in tin foil----then poured water on the wood fire. I collapsed the tent with bags inside and folded it in half into back seat of the car. All this while wearing wet bathing suit, towel around waist, and wet hair. We drove to new site and ran back and forth with the rolled up squashed tent in hand and re-set camp as night fell. The other campsite stayed empty so we were the only ones down at lakeside. Just us, the smooth flat multicolored stone beach, the bright stars...and soon the full moon rising in the east straight ahead of us over the water. We unwrapped the warm corn and ate dinner in front of the fire. Yum.
Anti-Grizzly Bear Food Locker near our campsite: yikes!!!!!!!!!!
Moon Woman Ruthie
Moon Woman Barb
End of the day lakeside campsite:
Day is done: mileage_231.