Yaak Attack

It has been a while since we have been able to get out and go camping. The knees affair slowed our adventures way down and now that we are about 9 weeks from the surgery I feel more comfortable heading out.

Kootenai River Falls

We spent the weekend cleaning and loading the camper. It is amazing how dusty the interior of our home gets if it just stays in the driveway. Linda spent a morning doing a super clean of the entire interior and now the place looks as good as new. I did my usual duties of packing our necessities, filling the truck with fuel, and making sure all the air pressures were up to snuff.

Monday morning we stashed away the few items that we needed for morning and we were ready to roll.

Linda put the leash on Kobi and he immediately looked like a prisoner on death row. I hollered “Dead Dog Walking!” and we loaded him into the truck.  We cross-checked our list and once we were sure everything was ready we hit the road.

Pano of the falls araea.

Our destination this week was the Yaak River Campground just off Highway 2, northeast of Bonners Ferry. We drove the 106 miles and avoided all highway incidents arriving at about noon. Bill and Terry Burch joined us less than a half hour later each of us getting very good camping spots within walking distance of each other and the river.

The weather for this week was projected as very hot and the weathermen did not let us down one bit.  All days were well into the 90’s and it took to about 8:00 PM each evening to cool off.  We spent a lot of time in the shade and around the water when we were not out exploring.

Bill and Terri towed their car and this gave us an air-conditioned means to roam about the areas around the Yaak and Libby Montana.

On Tuesday, we took full advantage of this and drove up through Troy, MT to Libby, stopping for a hike that led us out to Kootenai Falls and a swinging bridge that led across the Kootenai River. The hike was very shady and relatively easy walking. It took us first to a rock overlook where we could see the falls in all its splendor.  From there we walked to the swinging bridge, crossed it, took pictures and returned. Once we had taken all the photos we needed, we walked back to the parking area and gathered at the concession stand. Everyone bought lemonade and we loaded back into the car and continued on into Libby.

Photo bomb!

It's been over 13 years since I have been to either of these two towns.  I stayed with a friend in Troy once and we had a couple adventures in the Libby area many years ago. One of the trips included 20 new students, four vans, eight flat tires, Les Schwab, a pizza shop, and transporting many drunk students late into the night.  It's a long story, ask me about it sometime.

On this visit, we noticed that the town of Libby has a unique feel to it.  They are really into placing life size items on poles and using them for advertising. Check out my photos that I placed on Facebook for a little view of this phenomena.

We looked around the town, Bill stopped and bought some river sandals, and then we drove back to the Yaak. We ended our day with a dutch oven dinner of crab stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon. I tell you there is not a bit of fat in that meal.

Wednesday we got up and went down the road to the Kootenai River where we spent the day in the water, sun and shade.  The water in this river is very cold. The water comes out of the bottom of the dam, which keeps it very cold.  The Colorado River in the Grand Canyon does exactly the same thing.

Swining bridge pano.

We played in the kayaks, sat on the beach and tossed endless sticks for Kobi.  When it got too hot we returned to camp and played games in the cool temps of  the Burces' air-conditioned RV. When dinner rolled around Bill made us hamburgers and we had a feast.

Thursday morning we packed everything up and drove home. Linda and I took Highway 2 east through Troy and turned south on the Bull River Road. This led us down to Highway 200 where we looped back through Clark Fork and Hope to Sandpoint and then home.  We had a great week, a bit hot, but a wonderful stay in a very nice campground.

At the boat put-in on the Kootenai River.