Lochsa With The Interns

The best shuttle drivers in the world.

Linda, Kobi and I loaded up and drove down through Lewiston and then headed up the Clearwater River to the Lochsa. We were invited up to camp with the NIC Outdoor Program on their whitewater team building training trip. Arriving a day early, we enjoyed a nice day of exploring, reading and enjoying the sun.

On Tuesday, the NIC crew arrived and we all moved out so that the interns could hit the water with the Jon and Jacob. The sun was out and the water was at a good level. I so wanted to go with them, but my Lochsa days are probably past.

The first days run was clean with no problems. What a beautiful place to ride the water!

River running is hot work!

Back at camp we played bocci ball and ate a great meal. We reminisced about past trips and adventures, or should I say misadventures. Jon Totten told the story of the flaming banana, the time we set a raft on fire. Everyone loves that yarn.

The next day the boaters ran a longer stretch of the river. Jess, Linda and I watched and took pictures when we could. Both boats flipped in Lochsa Falls and I got some good shots of the event.  The yellow boat also flipped in a rapid called Termination, but we were down the river a ways and didn't get any photos.

The sun was out every day and we really enjoyed our visit with the folks.  On Thursday, we drove home through Montana.  Such a nice way to spend mid-week. Our plans are to stick around the house for the big weekend.  Let everyone else enjoy the outdoors with each other.

What I Have Been Up To

Caught this 5.48 lbs. smallmouth bass out of Lake Coeur d'Alene today. I have been going out every other day and fishing for bass and pike.  I caught it on a deep diving Rapala and I hooked it deep. I prefer to release all that I catch but this one would have probably not made it.  

Life Beyond Hope

The drive North was uneventful. Well, that is if you toss out my choking fit at Athol and the fact that I was had a big head cold coming on. The choking fit was due to a small fleck of Dorito that got sucked down the wrong pipe and was held there by the by-product of the head cold. It was one of the worst fits I have ever had, I had to pull over and stop the truck. I survived and we drove on.

Our destination for this jaunt was Sam Owen Park on the Hope peninsula. We have heard about the area and that it is very busy in the summer so we thought an early spring stay might give us a taste of the park without the hoards of summer campers.

Found a way to slow Linda's running down.

The park was empty! Yes, every site was empty and that was due tho the fact that the park was closed. We drove by the locked gates and scratched our heads.  We had looked on the computer and tried to figure out if we needed to reserve a spot, but there was nothing stating that the park had not opened for the season.We turned around and drove back out to highway 200 and took a right.

Now we were definitely beyond Hope and heading into Montana.  Linda pulled out the map and started giving me options for camping.  We looked at the Johnson Creek River area that shows camping on the map, but it is just a put-in and a mess of a parking lot with very dirty toilets.

Next we dropped into a campground Big Eddy. This area has about seven primitive sites that are somewhat close together.  It would be OK in a pinch but. we were still early in the day and we decided to keep moving on.

The next intersection was the junction of highway 56 and highway 200. If you go left you are driving up the Bull River in the direction of Libby Montana. Going straight we continued on about a mile and found the Bull River Campground.  This looked to be very well maintained so we set up camp there.  Our view is of the mouth of the Bull River with the highway, Clarkfork River and railroad tracks as background. Take out the highway and railroad and the view would be beautiful!