Camping

 We went on a little camping trip.

Up the Yaak River.

Just upstream from the confluence with Hellroaring Creek.

 The weather was fine.

A bit windy, which meant no bugs.

 The food was over-the-top good!

Dutch oven enchiladas, calico beans, chocolate birthday cake

homemade from scratch everything...Mmmmm!

 Good company, long walks, campfire, fireworks....

 Gorgeous site.

 It was deeply relaxing.

Weekends are wonderful!

Camping

View out the camper door.

This was a lovely scene each morning,

The Lake, beckoning us to jump in!

Weekend at Priest Lake

This is the view through the screen at our camp site,

Reeder Bay Campground, Priest Lake, Idaho.

View through the camper window, same camp site.

Mike "built" me this nifty paper towel roll.

It worked really well.

Camping Night 2

Saturday was a gorgeous day but a bit breezy which made it cold, but lovely to have sun.
We found our next camp site and then went to Libby to get the new battery.
We came back to camp, set up and then hiked around a bit.
Our camp site had a little stack of wood all ready to go near the fire ring and a nice view of the reservoir. This time we were above the Dam, which made me more comfortable!

Here is our spot.

I climbed this perfect climbing tree, conveniently right in camp.

So, I climbed the tree and hung out and took in the views.

Looking down the bole of the tree.

See those perfectly spaced limbs?

What a wonderful tree!

First Camping Trip of the Year

We got invited to a 60th Birthday Bash that was at a location about 50 miles from our house and I thought that was just too far to drive home after a potentially wild party and with all the deer grazing on the fringes of the road with all the new spring greens....so we busted out the camper for the first time of the season! And what a treat that was! Early spring camping, with all the ammenities.....well, no toilet or shower, but, Hey! It is not really camping if you have those!

This is the view from the bunk, or the kitchen table, they are really very close to on another! Kootenai River just downstream of the Dam.

A view from the waters edge of the camper.

Another view from camp.

Mike was worried that the camper might leak, {he found some water on the floor last year after our Labor Day Weekend trip...but I poured water on the roof while he looked and we din't find any leakage} and that the heater was going to be too loud, {he was working on stuff a few nights before our departure and the heater sounded really bad, but he did some magic to it and it was FINE, but he packed us earplugs just in case!}  and it did get rather chilly Friday night, but we didn't have a thermo with us so we don't really know how cold it was!

But we did great! We were warm and comfy.

We left the party about midnight, I was glad we weren't driving home then!

We drove up the road about 3 miles and found a sweet little spot, VERY developed but, HEY! We were the only ones there AND we were going to fast asleep really soon!

Mike brought a back up battery as the truck battery was the original that came with the truck (craiglist, baby!) and he was afraid it would not support the camper.....it did fine all night, but he was corrrect {as usual!} and the next day when we were all packed up, in the truck seats, NO POWER! Rats.

He tinkered with it while I walked to the road and flagged down assistance and we were running in no time.

We did go to Libby and buy a new battery before our second night out though!

See the Dam.

Not the best view from camp, but I thought I'd show you the not-so-good stuff too!

Hiawatha Trail

The Hiawatha Trail is a "Rails to Trails" bike path in north Idaho.

It is amazing! There are many tunnels and trestles and the terrain is

incredibly steep all around; it was quite the feat to put train tracks through that country!

It would have been thrilling to ride a train over that route!

It is an easy grade up and down the trail and being labor Day weekend, it was very well used.

There is a shuttle bus that takes folks to the top so you can just ride it one way if you choose.

Mike and I rode up and then rode back down.

The weather was perfect, slightly overcast with sun peaking through, not too hot, not too cold.

Trestle on the Hiawatha trail.

Looking straight down!

As I recall, this one was nearly 300 feet high!

There are many interpretive signs along the trail.

All very interesting, but time consuming if you are just wanting to ride.

Mike was a very good tourist and read them ALL!

You need light (and lots of it!) for the tunnels!

On the day we rode there were many other riders and that was helpful.

On our way down the crowds had kind of peetered out and we did go through a couple of tunnels

just the two of us and it was rather disorienting and dark.

Some of them are rather short so you can see the light at the far end from the entrance.

I forgot my headlamp! Oops!

But I did have this handy mag-lite in the camper so I duct taped it on and it was helpful!
It made a fetching ensemble, but it did chatter a bit!

Mike, ahead of me, just exiting a tunnel.

Labor Day Weekend Show

Here is my bike, I am sitting on the settee in the camper looking out the backdoor.

The following shot is Mike waiting for breakfast in the same location

with the morning light filtering in through the pop-up windows.

And the third shot is of the kitchen, note the fabulous upolstery fabric on the settee seat!

You can also glimpse our bedroom...

Our new road trip caravan!

It is really convenient, comfy and fun!

Views from the maiden voyage of the camper and the bike rack and the pick-up truck all aquired by Mike through craigslist!
Mike has been driving the truck, but this was the first trip the truck took with the camper on it.
The bike rack fits on the hitch and the sweet thing is that you can open the door and have access with the bikes on the rack!

Here is our camp site, the second night out.

We were in a sweet spot along side the North Fork of the St. Joe River.

The foto below is our first nights camping spot,

it was along Bullion Creek up the NF of the St.Joe when we were enroute to

the Hiawatha bike trail.

We left home and travelled over Thompson Pass into Idaho, went over some other pass into Wallace and then took some 30 mile dirt road toward the

Hiawatha Trail Head nearest to Avery Idaho.