A Birthday Trip to Sam Owen

View from the Veterans Memorial at Hope City Park.

Sam Owen Campground is located on the Hope Peninsula near the thriving towns of Hope and Clarkfork, Idaho. To get to this spot from Post Falls, we drove north through Rathdrum, Athol (hehe, I always laugh at that name) and Sandpoint. Once through these urban areas, we started edging northeast along Lake Pend Oreille. 

We were on a mission, and our task would lead us to the East Hope City Park, where there is a memorial honoring all residents who have served our country in the military. One of the name plaques has been paid for and reserved to honor our aunt Irene Dunn's husband, "Uncle" Jack Dunn.

Jack served in the US Navy and spent most of his time on the island of Guam. He was a resident of Hope and operated his family dairy. I spent many days up at his farm helping with chores, picking cherries, and harvesting hay. It was a memorable time in my life, and I know it instilled a strong work ethic in my soul.

Uncle Jack's nameplate has been purchased, but we found that it hasn't been installed. We walked through the small park and checked out the monuments. It's a pretty little park, and we will definitely have to return as soon as we know the nameplate has been installed.

It was a short drive to our campsite at Sam Owen, and we arrived just after 2:30 PM. We set up the camper and lounged around in the shade until Rayelle and Mike arrived at about 5:30 PM.

We spent the rest of our evening chatting with the Andersons. By 9:00 pm, we were ready for bed.

The 24th of July was Linda's birthday. We loaded into Mike's truck and drove to Clarkfork, where we found the Clarkfork Pantry, an amazing bakery.  What a wonderful selection of baked goods and foods! We bought coffee and various sweet breads covered in frosting. We were in heaven.

Birthday Apple Fritters. Yum!

For Linda's birthday, I gave her some flowers and a card. The two items were supposed to accompany her main gift, but that didn't happen because that gift failed to arrive in time for this trip. Linda and I had gone to a jewelry store and replaced her cubic zirconium in a ring with a real stone. We combined her birthday and our 40th anniversary into one event.

A fish in a bikini.

That evening, the celebration continued, and we found our way into Hope, where we settled into the Old Ice House Pizzaeria. The pizza place is very popular, but we found a table with an amazing view of The Green Monarchs and Lake Pend Oreille. We ate pizza and played a trivia game that Rayelle found in a game box. It was a fun meal and very educational.

Our next day was spent in two locations. The beach or at camp in the shade. The relaxation was exactly what everyone needed.

For our evening dinner, Linda and I cooked brats and provided potato salad and fruit salad. I baked a fruit cobbler in the Dutch oven, which we devoured with no problem. The evening was topped off by playing two rounds of Mexican Train. Julia and I won a round each.

The last day of our stay was spent sunning and enjoying the beach.  We all met at the Andersons' campsite for a great dinner of hamburgers, potato salad, and chocolate brownies.  After we finished dinner, we spotted two immature Great Horned Owls sitting on a dead tree stump. The sun was setting, and my photos were not as clear as most due to the distance and lack of light, but the one shot I got works well enough to show that we did have these beautiful winged visitors.

Sam Owen Park

Sometimes when we get together with the Andersons, it's the little phrases that get us laughing the most. This week it was Linda who uttered the six words that made us laugh til our sides hurt,  "Big buck, big buck, big buck!"

We were on a drive to find a couple of places up in the Clark Fork area. Mike wanted to visit the fish hatchery and Rayelle and Linda wanted to hike Scotchman Peak. We left our campsite in Sam Owen Park, drove into Clark Fork and immediately found a bakery. Of course, we ate lunch and tasted a couple, three, or four of their baked goods. Once we were stuffed we waddled out to the truck and drove out across the Clark Fork River in search of the fish hatchery. At Heron, Montana, we turned around. The hatchery was definitely in Idaho and most likely back near Clark Fork. We got back on the highway and found our way back to the "big" city. We never did find that pesky fish hatchery 

"Big buck, big buck, big buck!"

At this point, our attention turned to Scotchman Peak. Linda went back into the bakery and asked directions. One of the staff gave Linda some vague directions. We headed back out on the road. We took the first left and followed the Lightning Creek road out of town. It came to a split and Linda had a feeling we should go right down the Mosquito Creek road, so we went left. We drove a bit and again Linda mentioned that she felt we should have gone the other way, so we turned around at a wide spot where a deer was standing and backtracked. (The deer was a coincidence.)

Back on track, Linda told us that the lady said to follow Upper Mosquito Creek road, which we did. It led us to road 2294 which, at this point, we questioned the validity of the directions. We kept true to Linda's gut and after a few miles, we rambled across a dried streambed to the parking lot at Trail #65, the Scotchman Peak Trail.

By this time we were a bit too late to venture up the trail to the peak, so we looked around and headed back down the road. We swung around a corner of the road and Linda shouted, "Big buck, big buck, big buck!" Mike hit the breaks and we all started laughing. 

The buck was just off the road and was not a bit concerned about all the attention he was getting.

We drove on down to Clark Fork and back to Sam Owen. Our goals of visiting the fish hatchery and climbing Scotchman Peak Trail never came to fruition, but we had a great time exploring this wonderful area.

Pizza was on our minds when we arrived back at the campsite, so we loaded up and drove into East Hope to Icehouse Pizza. We ordered and while the girls enjoyed the wonderful view of the lake, Mike and I played pool. The pizza was great! 

Spending a total of six days up at the park, each day the weather threatened to get better, but it didn't.  Part of the fun of this trip was spotting the sun, running to the beach, and retreating when the sun hid and the rain fell.

Mike and Rayelle's friends, John, Jerianne, and Dylan came up to visit. Dylan brought his boat and took Mike, Julia and I fishing. We caught some good smallmouth bass but had to watch the weather on the lake.

Prehistoric bug from the sky!

Linda's collection of heart rocks.

s'more s'mores!

Perfection!

Skipping stones.