Chair Pockets and Rain Gauges

What the heck are chair pockets???  Well I found out—granddaughter Katie and I made 30 of those things over the last two days!

 Katie will be teaching second grade this fall, saw this pattern on the internet and enlisted the help of her grandmother—me.  Katie’s late mother, LoraLee had as all quilters do, a large fabric stash.  It was a good feeling knowing LoraLee’s fabric stash was going to a good cause!  We toiled away for two days cutting, sewing and keeping this little guy happy--

All done this afternoon, ready for those second graders and their chairs.  Geez times have changed—teachers spend so much of their own money supplying and decorating their classrooms—has it always been that way and I just wasn’t aware??? 

Remember this photo and my plea for identification help??

Well, a blog reader came through—“My husband retired from the National Weather Service and says this is a rain gauge.  It has to be above tree tops so the amount of actual rain collected is not compromised by what would fall off the trees.  The pointy things hanging off the top are wind shields to prevent the rain collecting in the gauge from being blown out before it is measured.”  Thank you so much Sharon for taking the time to send an email and thanks for reading the blog!!

The cowboy repaired our riding lawnmower then mowed the grass today—good job!  We are experiencing fantastic August weather with highs in the 70’s and no humidity (sorry Al and Kelly!)

Home Alone and Elk City, Idaho

Emmi is wondering what happened to all the people laps she has enjoyed for so long???  After spending over a month in the company of our good friends Larry and Geri as well as Elmer and Henrietta we are now home alone.  Just after 8am this morning both rigs were rolling down the driveway.  Michael and I spent the day being bums—I had a bit of a stomach bug and it just felt good to “be.”

We did manage to finish emptying the truck camper, washing and cleaning it so it can find a new owner!  And Michael also washed all the dust off the RZR—it now looks new again.  In the month we were gone we rode 821 miles in the RZR in 18 days of riding—that’s a lot of miles!!

One of the small towns we visited was Elk City, Idaho—in the middle of nowhere!  Elk City has a population of 200 people and is located 51 miles from the town of Grangeville with a population of 3000.  Even Google recognizes that 51 miles is dang crooked—Google states it take one hour and twenty minutes to travel those 51 miles.  Crooked is an understatement for that highway—crooked and bordered by steep mountains on one side and the river on the other.

On February 18, 2016 a massive rock/mud slide blocked the only highway access to Elk City, Idaho.  On July 25, over five months later, the debris from the slide is still being hauled.  Traffic is being flagged through a one lane passage over the slide debris.  This photo is an aerial shot by the Idaho Transportation Department shortly after the slide occurred. 

This photo I took as we approached the slide from the east—you can see Larry and Geri’s rig then Elmer and Henrietta’s little red camper.

An Elk City resident told me the slide happened on February 18th and work to remove the debris did not start until April 1.  All the different government agencies couldn’t agree on how to proceed with cleanup.  In the meantime, the USFS allowed the residents to use a road normally closed in winter but only three days per week.  All traffic had to go out at 8am and not return to Elk City until 3pm to discourage heavy traffic on road which was prone to fill with mud and slush. 

The woman at the restaurant—my source—said it had been a very trying time for the residents of Elk City.  They had t-shirts made which said, “I survived the slide.”  There is a three minute video on YouTube which shows the slide escalating out of control taken by a highway worker who had a close call--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY5zqUzMx2k. 

So, poor little Emmi is back to having only two laps for napping—instead of six!  We had a great time this past month—thanks Geri for all your planning and leading!!

Another Trip To Blue Lake

The cowboy and I thought it was necessary to shown Elmer and Henrietta some of our beautiful country here in the Montana—Larry and Geri had seen Blue Lake once before and unfortunately remembered how rough the trail was getting there—they were game in spite of their memories! All of Friday’s photos were taken by Geri as this dummy left her camera at home on the kitchen counter with the GPS! 

Blue Lake is located in the Absaroka/Beartooth Wilderness—no ATVs allowed and the “parking lot” is about 200 yards from the lake—thus the hike so we could lunch by the lake.  Often when we’ve been to Blue Lake the mosquitoes are nasty—Friday we had none!  Awesome!! 

The next photo is for snow comparison—last winter our area of Montana received little snow and these two photos taken in early August show the difference in snow pack.

Taken by me on my first trip to Blue Lake with Lonn and family--August 10, 2009

We hauled the ATVs to the Great Falls Creek trailhead, unloaded and headed up the Boulder.  Three hours of bouncing later we arrived at one of the most beautiful spots we’ve ever seen in all our travels.  And not a soul in sight—unusual in spite of the fact Blue Lake is so difficult to reach.  Before we were ready to go four young people arrived and as we traveled the trail down hill, we met several people on ATVs heading for the lake.

Today we all gathered in town for lunch before Michael and I went out to Nat’s for a visit.  Nat was very glad to see Emmi (and us too!)

And one last photo of Blue Lake (just because I like this photo) taken in September, 2015 on a trip to Blue Lake with Gina and Rollie.

Fires are springing up all over Montana and Wyoming.  The Hamilton, Montana fire which stopped us from some of our planned ATV riding is now 8000 acres, has claimed 14 homes and two lives.  Today the news revealed this fire was started by an unattended campfire!!!!!  How incredibly awful! 

It’s Good To Be Home

We had a fabulous time this past month riding with good friends and now, it’s good to be home.  The good friends are still with us and we will do some more day rides from our house.  When we leave Michael shuts off all water coming into the house which means no lawn sprinklers.  It was very hot, dry and windy while we were gone but the lawn survived surprisingly well. 

Tuesday we traveled from Missoula to a OHV trailhead at Pipestone, Montana where it was 95 degrees—UGH!!  Tuesday night at 10pm it was still 86 degrees both outside and inside—another UGH!  This is a developed OHV area and we’ve ridden here before when we first started ATVing.  Our Honda 4-wheelers were 50 inch machines so we had no issues.  Tuesday and Wednesday we rode these trails again finding many to be 50 inch.  One couple in our group has a 60 inch RZR so 50 inch trails were out. 

A hot wind howled Tuesday night causing the Hamilton, Montana to explode growing to over 7000 acres.  The wind brought a cold front dropping the temperatures to more reasonable levels for this time of year. 

The Ringing Rocks are located near Pipestone and we spent some time with hammers in hand making music!

The OHV trailhead at Pipestone is a large gravel parking lot with a pit toilet just off I-90.  At 10pm Tuesday night car lights cut across the camper and someone parked near the rear of our ATV trailer.  Michael got up to look outside but couldn’t see much.  Car doors slammed several times and the pit toilet door opened and shut.  Finally all was quiet and we went to sleep.  The next morning we were surprised to see the person getting out of the late model Volvo SVU—a very attractive woman in a cute little sundress and sandals, with a dog—a German shepherd!  Brave woman to pull into a parking lot at night and sleep in her car—but then again—not many people are going to mess with a German shepherd!

After riding Wednesday morning we headed for the Boulder stopping for groceries in Livingston.  We enjoyed a group dinner in the evening and today we’ve just hung out here at home.  I worked at unloading the truck camper and doing laundry.  The rhubarb was ready when we got home and tonight we had rhubarb crisp and homemade vanilla ice cream—YUM!

 

More adventures to come!

Back In Montana

Summer in Montana means fire season and this year could be a bad one.  Temps are too hot, no rain and a dry wind makes for big forest fires.  Our plan was to leave Idaho Monday morning arriving in Darby, Montana on Tuesday afternoon to ride the Montana side of the Magruder Corridor on Wednesday.  This fire in Hamilton, Montana changed those plans!

So, this morning we headed up crooked Highway 12 out of Idaho, over Lolo Pass and into Montana.  We are camped for the night in a commercial park near Missoula, hopefully quieter than that park in Grangeville, Idaho located right on busy, busy Highway 95! 

We experienced culture shock today after being in the boonies for so long—the traffic in Missoula was atrocious as usual and the morons at the gas pumps in Bonner, Montana about sent me over the edge!  Half the pumps were out of service for repairs and the other half were occupied by people who weren’t concerned with the number of people waiting in line behind them!  GRRRRR

A couple more days of riding then home where I hope this truck camper and I part company!  We are the second owners of this 1999 Lance camper—the first owners FULL TIMED in this box—?????

The Magruder Corridor

Blog number two for today, July 31.  We are spending the night in Grangeville, Idaho with full hookups and internet!!!!  Monday we will head up Highway 12 into Montana. 

Thursday morning (July 28) we left our spot on Nelson Creek driving to Elk City for laundry, grocery shopping, a little internet use and breakfast/lunch.  Elk City is a community of only 200 people—there is a mid size laundromat and two grocery stores—both stocked with a surprising amount of groceries/hardware/camping gear/etc.  There are several restaurants/bars and even a hotel.  Elk City is a long, long way from anywhere—60 miles from Grangeville, Idaho and 110+ miles from Darby, MT via the Magruder Corridor.

And speaking of the Magruder Corridor, can you believe it—we rode the ATVs almost 120 miles in one day!!!  Sometime in 2015 I read an article in our local paper about a road which traveled between two wilderness areas—the 1.2 million acre Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and the 2.3 million acre Frank Church River Of No Return Wilderness—the Magruder Corridor.  The road was open only in summer, could be traversed in a high clearance vehicle and went from Darby, Montana to Elk City, Idaho.  Michael was intrigued and began his research.  This past winter season in North Ranch the cowboy convinced Geri and Larry we should ride this 110 mile trail. 

The original plan was to ride from Darby, MT and then spend the night in Elk City, Idaho returning to Darby in the next day or two.  Well, Mother Nature intervened—this spring a large mud slide blocked the Magruder Corridor at about the halfway point.  Geri and Michael hatched Plan B—ride from both ends to the midway point.  The road will open on August 1 and we could have waited but decided to proceed with Plan B—ride to the halfway point from the Elk City area. 

The road starts out as well maintained gravel for about twenty miles then gets worse—the road becomes more narrow with multiple tight switchbacks, ascending and descending several times.  Starting elevation is around 4000 feet with the road climbing to almost 8000 feet and descending to 4000 feet several times.  We met three pickup trucks on the road and it was a tight, tight fit for us to pass. 

Scenery along the Magruder is breathtaking even with the hanging haze of smoke from forest fires.  The Idaho side of the trail is heavily forested to start but as you travel, evidence of forest fires over years and years becomes the norm.  We stopped to let a cowboy with truck and loaded horse trailer pass—he paused to talk and when Geri asked him when the fire occurred, he replied, “every year.” 

Fireweed everywhere

Anyone know what this thing is—I was hoping for a cell tower but nope, not happening!

An old forest fire with new growth. 

The Margruder Corridor is named for Lloyd Magruder who in 1863 was using the trail to bring back gold dust earned from selling supplies to miners at Virginia City, Montana when four other travelers joined the Margruder party.  These four travelers attacked and murdered the Margruder party fleeing to San Francisco with their stolen goods which included Margruder’s very recognizable horse.  A friend of Margruder’s pursued the murderers to California, spotted the horse, arrested the party and brought them back to Lewiston, Idaho for trial and eventual hanging.

It was a long, long ride and a spectacular day! 

 

In The Middle Of Nowhere

Number one of two blogs posting today, Sunday, July 31.  We are spending the night in Grangeville, Idaho with full hookups before starting up Highway 12 into Montana.

Our current boondocking location is less than twenty miles outside Elk City, Idaho and less than twenty miles from the Red River community.

After our 120 mile roundtrip ATV trip, we decided to take a day off.  Geri had read about a hot springs and restaurant located at Red River—so off we went.  We just thought Elk City was in the middle of nowhere!  Eleven miles of gravel road leads you to an off the grid hot springs in the middle of nowhere!  There were children swimming in the pool when we arrived and I asked one of adults if he lived near Red River hitting the jackpot!  His great-grandparents were the original owners/developers of Red River Hot Springs--

The young man told us the resort was very busy in its hay-day but has seen better days.  In the early 70’s (I think that’s the date he said) the restaurant literally blew up.  Someone left the automatic ignitor on the gas grill open all night—when the owners opened the door the next day the gas exploded—luckily no one was injured.  The gas line fire then spread to the 5000 gallon propane tank—the folks in the town of Elk City, 10 miles as the crow flies felt that explosion! 

The new owner has a food trailer on site and served us a passable hamburger—he is trying to bring life back to the resort--unfortunately, he has his work cut out for him!  The original owner’s great grandson told us people just don’t want to drive the distance any longer preferring instead to take their children to water park resorts.  The resort has no electricity or phone and runs with satellite internet and a huge generator.  The owners would like to have a full service restaurant and bar as the original owners did but with today’s regulations, that may not happen. 

We wish them luck!