8/9/12–Chores at the RV and Errands in Superior, MT

While I took care of some things inside the RV, Ken spent the morning outside working on adding a piece of plastic to the ATV to help keep the heat off our legs.  He got to a point where he needed a part to attach the piece to the ATV, so we headed to Superior in search of a hardware store.  We looked all around town and finally went into the lumber store and picked up an item that might work.  We decided to stop for a hamburger in a diner that is in an old school house in town.  They were apparently short handed and it was quite a long wait for our meal, but well worth it once we got it.  Our waitress was quite the trusting soul, as she kept dropping off her tips on our table and left Ken in charge of watching over it.

After lunch, we went to the grocery store in town to pick up things we needed before heading back to the RV.

8/8/12–Campground Owner Appreciation Day

There are quite a few RVers in this campground who love it here so much they’ve been staying here for a long time…Lee and Barb are among that group.  They originally planned to stay for a week and it will be close to two months by the time they finally leave.  Anyway, the owners of the campground are Jim and Shirley and they have been so great that it was decided to have an appreciation day for them complete with cake and ice cream.

This is our neighbor Nancy serving lemonade and cake.  She and her husband were given the use of a golf cart and were designated as the Senior Irrigation Team as they’ve been busy watering the grassy areas between RV sites.

Shirley is the campground owner along with her husband Jim.

Hmm…I just see I did something crazy in the editing of this photo and will try to fix it later (or not).  Shirley’s husband Jim is toward the center of this photo in a yellow shirt.  To his left is Barb and Lee is in the right foreground.

Later that day while visiting at Lee and Barb’s campsite, the wild turkeys ran through the grass in about the center of this photo slightly above the gravel road.

8/7/12–Our Loop Ride Doesn’t Work Out

We started our Tuesday ride around 2pm taking just snacks.  Barb had scouted out a trail where one map indicated we could make a round trip, and her other map indicated there was a break in the road with no connecting road to go through.  It was our hottest day out on the trail in the high 90’s and here are a few photos from that trip.

I wonder how long this guy has been stuck under the pile of logs?

We stopped at one point on the trail where we could look down on I-90.

Later that evening we met at Lee and Barb’s for a campfire.  I’m not sure what Lee is smoking here.

These few weeks in Montana bring back memories of a trip to Colorado in the summer of 2008 where we called ourselves the Traffic Light Gang.  Our ATV is red, Lee and Barb’s is green, Don and CC ride a yellow ATV, and Bryan and Susan followed along in their white pickup.  We sure wish the yellow and white part of our gang could be here to join us.

Day Trip to Missoula and a Picnic in Paradise

Ken and I drove to Missoula on Saturday to make a few purchases.  The truck battery has been dropping it’s charge at times, so one of our stops was at Walmart.  While there, they checked out the battery and told it was okay.  We decided why buy a new battery if it’s not really needed.  We had to go to a couple of different ATV shops to find them, but we each got a new half helmet to wear while ATVing.   Hmmm…why didn’t we have them before last Monday?  We also stopped back at Walmart before leaving town to pick up miscellaneous items that didn’t require freezing or cooling on the way back to the RV since we had about 70 miles to go one way.  While living in Cataldo, we made several trips over the years to Missoula, and one of our favorite places to eat was at a Greek gyro café in the mall.  The Greek owners sold it several years ago, and we had been back once for a meal that wasn’t all that great.  However, the gyros we had Saturday were very good.

Bruce and Nena have been on their property for close to a month and they’ve been tentatively planning on leaving sometime this week.  So, we’ve been emailing back and forth trying to make arrangements for another get together.  Several years ago when we were at Camp Newmar in Nappanee, IN we met Bruce and Nena and it was at a time when Lee and Barb were also there.  We had been having several happy hours and potlucks while there.  So we planned to bring Lee and Barb along for a picnic in Paradise, MT which is about the halfway point for each of us to drive.  Ken and I brought chicken that we marinated and barbecued last night, Barb brought cole slaw, and Nena provided rolls & butter along with plates, napkins, and silverware.  We all met in Paradise at the city park between Hwy 200 which is very busy with weekend traffic and the railroad which is also very busy with train traffic.  We had a good visit, a good meal and when we lost any breeze we had in the high 90 temperatures, we decided to call it a day.

From left to right:  Lee with his back to the camera, Barb, Ken, Nena hiding behind Bruce also with his back to the camera.

Bruce, Barb, Ken and Nena.

Nena made a sandwich using one of her rolls, the chicken, and cole slaw and she didn’t want me to get a photo of her taking the big bite.  But, I couldn’t resist anyway.  Bruce and Lee are to her right.

Nena, Bruce and Lee again still eating.

After saying our goodbyes, Lee, Barb, Ken and I headed back to the campground in St Regis.  We unloaded all of our things from their truck and after getting things put away, we headed back to their place for happy hour.  After one happy, and making plans for a ride on Monday, we were all nodding off and went back to our respective RV’s for the remainder of the evening.

ATV Ride Up Little Joe and Down Dry Creek–St Regis, Montana

For our ATV ride today with Lee and Barb, we packed our lunches and headed out from the campground around 11am.  Our first stop was down the street to top off the gas tanks.  From there, we continued west and turned off on the paved road we took on Monday.  After crossing the river, we went right past the right turn to Ken’s Road and continued on up the Little Joe.  We turned off before getting to the Idaho border, but Ken and I remember taking this road several years ago while on a camping/hunting trip with former neighbors in Cataldo, Idaho.

Ken, Barb and Lee are checking over the maps to make sure we’re on the right route.

Barb is relaxing after finishing her lunch.  They pack along a table and two chairs for a fine dining experience.

This is one of the fantastic views we had looking across the valley.

During our 53 mile trip today, we found two geocaches.  I’d been telling Barb that I wanted to look for huckleberries while out on the trail and she wasn’t sure what to look for.  I was able to find a fairly good patch of berries starting to get ripe and it would have been nice to have more time to pick enough to do something with them.  We also found a place along the route with wild raspberries where I tasted one that was not quite ripe, but it sure was very tasty.  I do believe I have a couple of destinations in mind for next week now. 

Earlier this week our truck battery has shown signs of needing to be replaced, so we’re going to avoid the weekend warriors and drive to Missoula tomorrow to get a new battery for the truck and take care of some other shopping.

That’s it until my next update!

Back in the ATV Saddle Again

We decided that today we needed to get back on the ATV and get in a short ride, so we planned to meet up with Lee and Barb after lunch and head for the hill that sits behind the campground.  We had looked at it on the map, and it looked like the was a route where we could leave one way out of camp and come back in from the other direction.  As it turned out, we just seemed to run into roadblocks aka USFS gated roads.  We were able to be out on the trails for close to two hours and we did get in some very scenic views.  The two photos below are from our first stop overlooking the St Regis Valley, a horseshoe in the Clark Fork River.

Not too far from this viewpoint we also found a geocache, so we did find something today.  We decided to attempt the hill from the east side of the campground and had no success that way either, but we had to wait while a dozen wild turkeys (or more) crossed the road in front of us.  We also saw a couple of deer along our route.  Once we returned to the campground, we made plans to have happy hour at Lee and Barb’s.  We were delayed a bit by a phone call from Ken’s cousin, but when we got together we made our plans for another ride on Friday.  We’ll be leaving around 10:30am, packing a lunch and making a loop ride.  Lee and Barb have already checked this one out, so we don’t expect to have any problems with it.

A Day Trip to Bruce and Nena’s on the Clark Fork River

Today we took a drive in the truck from our campground in St Regis, MT to visit our friends Bruce and Nena who bought some property along the Clark Fork River between Plains and Thompson Falls, MT last year.  Here are a few pictures I took along the way.

Once we got to their property, Bruce and Nena gave us a tour.  They have set up this firepit along the river in the area where they eventually want to be able to park their RV.  Nena has been busy placing a rock patio surrounding the firepit and it looks very nice.

There was a nice breeze and we sat outside the RV overlooking the river and visited throughout the afternoon.  Here’s Nena, Ken, and Bruce.

The following photo shows Ken with a few of his injuries from our ATV mishap on Monday.

And here’s a view of Bruce and Nena’s RV.  They backed into this spot from the driveway in front of it and that’s where we parked when we got there.  The area where they want to park is about 850-900 feet further behind where they are now.  There is an old road that follows the river on their property and they don’t really want to use it much since there has been a lot of erosion to the bank caused by high water.

Bruce and Nena had two other couples from the neighborhood join us for dinner of sirloin kabobs, rice, and salad.  It was Nena’s 60th birthday so we enjoyed cake for dessert.

On the way back to St Regis, we had some wonderful views of the full moon.

There were a few Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep across the river.

We saw numerous deer and elk in the fields along the River Road West before getting back into Plains.

This next photo is a bit dark, but it is a wild turkey dragging itself up a hillside.  It’s legs appeared to have been injured so we’re assuming it may have been hit by a car.

After leaving Hwy 200, we continued south on Hwy 135 toward St Regis.  Ken had to avoid a deer that tried to run out in front of us reminding us why we don’t like to drive in this area after dark.

So far, the plans for tomorrow are to get back on the ATV that bucked us off and go for a ride of a longer duration than than Monday’s ride.