Now for August

When we came back from our last trip, the baby sparrow in one of our bird houses was getting ready to leave home.

On Aug 5th, we decided to kayak from Dead Man's to Wilson.  This is a more technical kayak since you have to negotiate the waterways.  The river braids and if you take the wrong one, you may have to carry your kayak across the land to the other side.  We did this once on this trip.  We had Carol and Earl Tripp, Lynn and Linda Laymon,  and Bob and I.  The first half of the trip to Moose was an easy relaxing float, with a view of the Tetons all the way.  Some eagles but no moose. The second half from Moose to Wilson was more complicated and tiring.  We all made it back, but we were some tired puppies.

Carol Tripp

On the 7th, we went camping again.  This time to Southwest Montana.  Spent the first night at a free campsite at Clark Canyon Reservoir. Got in early, so took in some of the scenery.

Resting Antelopes on sight-seeing drive

View from the rig, pretty good for free

Next morning, we head up to Anaconda, MT.  But since our generator quit the night before, we're busy making phone calls to determine what's wrong and where we can get it fixed.  This is a total dry camping trip, no hookups.  No one in the area works on  Generators.  Looks like possibly Missoula or Billings, MT is our only options.  Missoula is only 100 miles away, but can't get with us until Monday.  It's Thursday, so we go ahead with plans to a Forest Service Campground on Georgetown Lake.  Bob talks to the mechanic in Missoula and we decide to try to get a part if possible in Anaconda and see if he can fix it himself.  Call Napa in Anaconda, don't have the part, but can get it the next morning.  We get to the campground, see the camp host cleaning the vault toilet and ask about electricity. First she says there's not any, then remembers that one site (was a second host spot) has electricity and sewer, no water.  And that if it wasn't reserved, the people on it were leaving that day.   Talk about luck, it was $25 instead of the $4 without electricity, but that's cheap.  So we set up camp and go touring. Our friends had been here in July and there were lots of Bull Moose around, so of course this is our objective.

He just took a dunk

These 3 bulls were cooling off in the lake across from the picnic area in the campground.

After the moose went inland, we decided to drive up to the Ghost Town of Granite that is only about 15 miles.  This is outside of Phillipsburg, MT. Granite was a mining town in late 1870's.  Very interesting, but not well maintained.

The view was great

 No moose after we got back to camp, but the next morning, Just behind our campsite.

After picking up the part for the generator, Bob replaced it and everything was great. Generator worked, so we took the afternoon and drove up to Gem Mountain to search for sapphires.  Bucket of dirt cost $27.00.  But it was 2 or 3 hours of fun, first washing the rocks and sorting thru to find sapphires.  We did rather well, 3 cut able about 1 caret each and 12 either small or flawed.  It was fun.  Then we went for a drive up to the pass.

 

We were looking for a waterfall that was up at the pass, but being late in the summer, must not be flowing or we couldn't find it.


So back to camp for dinner and smores and a visit from our local moose.

The next day, Sunday, August the 10th, we are staying at camp since it's going to rain.  That morning, we take a walk  around the camp and of course, our resident moose.

7:00 am

We're sitting under the awning since it's raining around 3:00 pm and the see the moose out behind the rig.  We get umbrellas and sit behind the rig.  Bob gets this video.

On Monday, we head to Pioneer Scenic By-way for several nights. We stayed in a Forest Campground.  Big sites, no hookups, but vault toilets.  Several things we wanted to see here besides just the beauty of the by-way.  We're going to Elk Horn Hot Springs and to Crystal Park to dig for Crystals.  We also went to Coolidge Ghost Town.  Coolidge was a later mining town than Granite and the ruins were more maintained.

Saw this wagon several times along our journey. She was traveling the bike route across the Continental Divide starting in New Mexico.  

Bob digs I much bigger hole than me.

digging for Crystals

Came back on Wednesday since we had massages scheduled for Thursday.  But after we got home, our air conditioner in the rig broke.  This is the only hot time of the year in Star Valley.  Up to 90's during the day but thankfully down in the 50's or even 40's at night.  We were able to get an appointment in Idaho Falls at the camping world on Friday.  We load up again and head to Idaho Falls.  They didn't realize we had basement air and would have to order a part.  Took all day to tell us that.  It wouldn't be in until Thursday.  So we head home.  We have plans to go to The Tournament of Champions in Brigham City, Utah on Thursday, so we make an appointment for the Monday, August 26th.  On Monday, they call and actually have the part and if we could come in on Tuesday (the next day) they would fix it.  Of course we do and the part isn't' the right part, so they take the air conditioner out and find the number for the correct part.  They don't have it, but could get it by Thursday.  So back to Star Valley.  After 3 trips to Idaho Falls that is 90 miles away, They finally fix it.   Their communication with customers suck.  Wouldn't recommend to anyone.

But since we couldn't do anything about the air, I went UTV'ing with Judy, Rita, Peggy and Anne.  Beautiful drive, dusty but lots of fun.  I rode with Judy in her 2 seater.

Anne and Peggy, Judy's 2 seater is exactly the same

Peggy and our view

View from the top

Headed to TOC on Thursday, 22nd.  Stayed with friends Jeff and Lynn Gardner.  Our friends from Clyde Park , Wayne and Nancy Muggli, also stayed with them.  We played games, had a great dinner that Lynn cooked and sacked out.  Next day, attended the tournament to see the finals of some of the pro games and to an awards ceremony that night.  We all received awards for our contributions to making TOC a great tournament.  We were all the ones running it in the beginning several years ago.  Thanks to John Gullo for his efforts in creating one of the First Pro Tournaments.

After getting the Air Conditioning fixed, we loaded up to make sure everything was working.  Air conditioner was working fine, but we wanted to get away.   We went just up the Snake to the Falls National Forest Campground.  Been wanting to check it out. 

We got there early but plenty of campsites.  Decided to go back into Swan Valley for lunch.  On the way back around 2:00 pm, we were blessed to see a Moose in the river.  They are not normally out during the middle of the day.

 We then went exploring the area, the same area I had UTV'ed the earlier in the month.  Great drive, and the first of the fall bushes were starting to show.  No moose that evening.  We hiked around the campground and Bob found evidence of Beavers.  But even after putting a night vision camera around, no sightings.

The next morning, we checked on the moose and to our surprise, she has 2 calves.  We got some great shots of them.

Crossing the river with the mountain view in the background, gorgeous sight.

This is the same waterfall that we normally see from the water in our kayaks. 

Well it's the end of August and we've had a great summer so far.  The weather will be changing, but we don't plan on moving on to Happy Trails until middle of October.  It's still too hot there.