Urban Adventure

After waiting in anticipation, Saturday night finally arrived. Our friends Mike, Rayelle, and Julia Anderson were taking us to the Festival at Sandpoint to see Train with the opening act,  Better Than Ezra.

Our group consisted of the Andersons, the Bennetts, Lexi (Julia's friend), and Ron and Sharon (Rayell's Brother and sister-in-law.)  This was our first time attending a concert at the Festival.

We drove up to Sandpoint at about 2:30 PM and wound around the streets of southeast Sandpoint finding a spot to park. As we wandered, we passed a sailboat parked in front of a house, and low and behold, Jon Totten and Terry Brinton were standing there as we moved past. I waved and shouted hello. Within a couple of seconds, Jon texted me and said to stop by once we got parked.

Mike found a great parking spot and we then took our chairs and blankets over and claimed our spot in line.  Julia and Lexi held our spot and the rest of us walked over to the house where we had spotted Totten.  The house was directly across the street from the concert venue. Jon lives there in the summer.

We went inside and talked for about 45 minutes; Jon told stories and everyone laughed. He has experienced so much and is a great orator.  The band did a sound check and we all looked at each other and said "Why did we buy tickets?" The sound was so good. This house would be a great place to listen to concerts.

After a while, we said our goodbyes and made our way back to our spot in line. Julia and Lexi did a great job. The Andersons ordered pizza that was delivered to Mike across the street from the park. Soon after enjoying our pizza, we were on the move to claim our next spot, in the concert venue. It was a big rush and we were a bit overwhelmed, but we got a good spot and had plenty of room to listen to the concert and watch a little of the action on stage.

Better Than Ezra came on stage at 7:30 PM and did a good job of warming up the crowd. We had listened to their hits the day before the concert and they turned out to be a good opening band. Their sound was a little distorted at times, but what opening band ever gets a perfect sound?

With the crowd warmed up, and Ezra off stage, we waited for Train to take over.  At 9:00 PM Train appeared on stage and they were amazing. Linda and Rayelle headed to the stand-and-dance mosh pit area in front of the stage. They spent the whole concert there. Linda said she sang and danced like she was in her 20s

I have to say that the lead singer for Train, Pat Monahan, has an amazing voice. Very Impressive!

It was a great show and we enjoyed every song.

Thank you, Rayelle and Mike, for giving us our first Festival at Sandpoint experience.

Waiting for the gates to open.

Our little nest.

A concert groupie.

Better Than Ezra.

Let the party begin!

Pat Monahan, lead singer for Train.

HOT @ Kit Price

It's midweek and we had our gear loaded into the camper and ready to roll! This would be the first time we have been up the Coeur d'Alene River in several years. We reserved two spots at Kit Price and would be meeting Rayelle and Mike Anderson for a quick three-night getaway.  The only problem was that our area, like all across the US, was, and still is, under a heat wave of epic proportions. We arrived at our campsite and it was a blazing 96 degrees in the shade. I call that HOT.

We drove up the river road at a leisurely pace. Downriver from Shoshone Creek, we came around a corner and spotted two vehicles stopped in the road. Between the two cars was a yearling moose crossing the road. We stopped and watched as it climbed up the bank and then turned around and trotted back across the road into the brush by the river. Very cool!

Linda and I had reserved our spot for a day before the Andersons were to join us to enjoy some time together. Retirement makes that possible and we love to take advantage of every opportunity we can as "mid-weekers." 

Our campsite was #17, a good one if you are looking for sunshine. There was no shade anywhere near our spot, We arrived, set up, and immediately hunkered down in the shade of the camper.

Most of the afternoon was spent reading and sleeping in the shade. At 5:00 PM the sun dropped lower in the sky and we began to notice a slight cool-off.  I fixed a couple hot dogs and we had dinner. After we ate, we walked to the main river road and took a stroll downriver. The temperature continued to drop quickly and when we arrived back at the camper, the sun was down and it was very nice. The air had cooled and we sat and played cards until Linda had beaten me twice in Skip-Bo. Nothing I could do, she was on a roll and I got trounced!

Darkness enveloped us and the air grew chilly. By the time we went to sleep, it was very comfortable. Midway through the night we both had to crawl under some extra covers. 

The next morning, we got up and I fixed breakfast. Linda did her walk/run as I enjoyed the cool, quiet morning.

This relaxing temperature stayed with us until about 11:00 AM and then the thermometer made a giant climb into the 90s.

When the Andersons arrived it was full-on hot again. Mike backed into their camp spot and got set up.  Their location had shade. A willow tree blocked the sun in the afternoon. This gave us the option to retreat out of the elements.

Once they got set up we sat around in the shade and talked.  When the sun got lower we went back to our camper and heated a dinner of pulled pork sliders, fruit, and veggies. We ended with brownies that Rayelle had brought. After dinner, we walked around the campground and talked.  The heat had taken its toll, we were beat, and by 9:00 PM we were all ready for bed.

The next morning we had a big breakfast that Mike threw together. We then packed everything up and went to sit in the shade, in the water.  We spent the entire day staying cool while checking out the river residents. We caught crawdads, case caddis, and sculpins. I explained fish feeding needs and how that relates to fly fishing to Mike. He listened courteously as I jabbered on. Linda giggled and suggested I stop the lecture. It was a fun afternoon.

That evening Mike barbequed steaks and chicken for dinner and after the feast, we played cards.

Things cooled off nicely and we all went to bed.

The next morning we packed up and drove down the river. As we went, we past flotillas of people on anything that floated drifting down the river. There were hundreds of people slowly moving down that cool ribbon of water.

We stopped at the Snake Pit Bar in Enaville. There we found a table and had a great lunch. Everything we ordered tasted wonderful and was almost way too much to eat.  By the time we departed, the place was packed.  We headed out into the heat, said our goodbyes, and headed home. What a great way to spend a few summer days - wonderful friends, a beautiful river, fun times.

Life Changes

When I posted my last write-up about our Alaska cruise, I had forgotten that I had alluded to a "bitter-sweet change" in the week following our return from Oregon. In our last post, I failed to explain that statement and one of our good friends called me on it. Jacque asked, "Dean! What was the "bittersweet" cliffhanger from your last post???"  Here is the entire story.

Prior to leaving for Oregon, Linda and I sat down and had a heart-to-heart dealing with one of our favorite adventures, river running. If you look back at this diary of our adventures, you will find that we have taken many trips on whitewater.  Prior to my creating this blog we ventured on rivers all over Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Idaho. Our weekends were filled with exciting runs down spectacular rivers. Our friend base was built around river running and we met and enjoyed a ton of amazing people. For a long time, it was a huge part of our life.

As time went by our family priorities changed and we discovered new ways to explore the world around us. Our river trips went from every weekend to a couple times a month, then to three times a year to once a summer.  We were getting older with more responsibilities and new interests.  

After our float down the Lower Salmon River in August of 2022, we talked about how our lives have changed and how few river trips we had taken in the past several years. The topic of my age and physical health was a large part of the conversation. We looked back at the past two river trips and evaluated how I had fared on the river and in camp. I admitted that it was getting harder to do all the tasks needed to get Linda and myself safely down the river and comfortable in camp. I had to ask myself one question. If we had an accident and I was thrown out of the boat, could I rescue myself and swim back to our boat and climb into it quickly.  At this point, probably not. With two knee replacements and numerous other factors, it would definitely be a problem.

Linda admitted that she was slowing down a bit which made the adventures more of a challenge. When she returned home last August it took her a little longer to bounce back. Again, Linda was not the concern. I rowed the boat, so we needed to feel good about my abilities to keep us out of trouble and make good runs.

This was one of the hardest conversations we had ever had.  After the past two adventures, we talked at length about how I felt, how long it took for me to recover, and should we try to keep rafting in the future.

Another factor in all this was the fact that our boat, the purple cat, was growing old also.  I purchased her in 1995 which makes her 28 years old.  28 years of rivers!  The boat's record is really amazing. In all those white water descents, our boat has never flipped! I have only been thrown out of Old Purple once. It was on the upper stretch of the Lochsa River. My exit was my fault. I was hole hunting and stood up on the mesh floor to push into the hole. The river hit the floor and launched me 6 feet into the air and over the back of the boat. I shouldn't have been standing at that time.

Linda got tossed once on the Main Salmon River.  We were floating along and I was doing my usual, paying attention to everything except the river. We came upon a smaller rapid called Pine Tree and I was gawking up at the tree and misjudged the run. It took us directly into a huge hole and the boat hit a partially buried rock and stopped, tossing Linda out of her seat. She was able to grab a dry bag and hold on with one hand like a bull rider. She pulled herself back onto the boat. Her grip on the dry bag ripped the handle on the bag, which shows how strong her hold was. I got a little earful once we were on our way again for not paying attention.  That evening we had a great story to tell around the campfire.

The boat is such a stable performer, but she is getting old. When you look at the seams, the threads are breaking down leaving the seams held by the rubber welding alone. This should be good enough, but I worry every time the tubes are in the hot sun where they grow hard if not attended. Accessories that we have purchased or sewn, have deteriorated and needed to be replaced. We could still run rivers in our girl. She would probably last many more years, but we decided it was time to part ways.

Our river stories are endless. We regularly ran the Moyie River, the Clarkfork River's Alberton Gorge, the Lochsa River, the Clearwater River, the St. Joe River, and the Lower Salmon River. We were invited on many rivers trips on rivers calling for permits.  This included rivers such as the Main Salmon River, the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, the Snake River through Hell's Canyon, and even twice on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. 

We ran the Grande Ronde River and the Rogue River in Oregon. The Spokane River, the Yakima River, the Tieton River, and the Wenatchee River were ones in Washington. All are wonderful rivers with scenic runs.

The decision was hard but after we looked at all factors, we made the decision to sell the cat, trailer, and all our gear. Well, not all our gear. We kept everything we need to get on a river if we rented a boat and joined a trip. We just couldn't bring ourselves to get rid of it all.

I advertised the equipment on FaceBook Marketplace and had two folks interested. One guy was a bit goofy and didn't show up to look at the gear, and offered lower than we were willing to take. The other person, Ryan, was a young man from Ellensburg who had cash and would take everything we wanted to give him. He was very nice and during the boat pickup, he also bought my fly-fishing cat for the same price I had paid ten years ago.  We were happy that our boat had found a home with someone who would take care of her and appreciated getting everything at our asking price.

Once we exchanged money and loaded the cat and trailer with old gear, Ryan pulled away. Both Linda and I stood there in silence, tears on our cheeks. We were saying our final goodbyes to a trusted friend. It was so hard to let her go.