Montana’s Big Ski Country Welcomes Yukon on the Scene

  Meet Yukon our traveling companion who has come out of hibernation. He actually joined the family in the summer of 2003 when we traveled through the interior of Alaska. You’ll be hearing more from him as we travel on through Canada. Montana brings truly vast and spacious with rolling hills, river and green valleys galore, and lots of horses. The Libby Dam Project along the 90 mile Kootenai River was fascinating. 

Just north at Rexford Bench Camp we met Dave, a Canadian from Calgary, who is bicycling onward and down along the Pacific coast to San Francisco. He pitched his tent and enjoyed the invitation to share supper and breakfast with us in the motor home. Yukon did a short one day trip with us in the Toad crossing the border into B.C. to visit Fort Steele Heritage Town. 

 We had a treat getting to see Clydesdale horses up close, several two week old colts, and a real live wedding at the Fort. Canada’s Most Famous Mountie, Sam Steele, spent a year posted at this Fort later named after him while in the NWMP and Canadian Military. We’ve looped back into Montana for a few days with only about 50 miles left ahead to reach Glacier National Park. Life is sweet on the road...rain,rain,rain.                            

www.FortSteele.ca.

Hello from Oregon and Idaho

 

The Swiss Alps of Oregon at Wallowa Lake found us confronted with snow. We way laid over several days for the weather system to pass through an incredible mountain resort area of eastern Oregon. Hot toddies helped to keep us warm. It was a good respite. Prior to the snowfall, we’ve enjoyed blue sunny skies while driving passed lovely alpine meadows and farmland pastures with grazing cattle, horses, and sheep. We find a whole new definition of the phrase, ”quality of life” here. It is obvious spring is in the air with the abundance of wildflowers in bloom. Birds and their fledglings seem to be out and about everywhere. Wildlife continues to keep our interest peaked for special Kodak moments. Relaxing at an RV Park in Sandpoint (a recreational area alongside Lake Pend Oreille) just north of Coeur d’Alene in Idaho has provided for some time to enjoy an indoor swimming pool, Jacuzzi, and sauna. The journey traveling the Top 10 Scenic Drives from Washington, Idaho, and Montana is enabling us to retrace segments of history and see much of the land as Lewis and Clark did: rugged, awesome, beautiful. 

Blue Bucket Mining Camp

The early pioneers on the Oregon Trail were hearty souls indeed, but they took flatter safer trails than our one afternoon dare devil ride. Christa suited up in her back brace and we went off road 4-wheel driving along some narrow dirt paths with the Toad (Jeep). At a lookout mountain peak we got a glimpse of an Oregon Trail section. Look carefully above at the snapshot for the third path furthest right and you’ll see what few if any travelers discover today.

What fun we have had during our rendez-vous with JR’s brother Dennis and his friends at the Lost Dutchman Mining Association/ Blue Bucket Camp. Christa wasn’t allowed to ride the quad, but JR enjoyed roaming around on one. Gold mining and panning has been a hoot. The fellows have entertained us with fine meals, gold mining processing, and lots of prospector lore. Experimenting with our Nikon digital camera and birding have become new hobbies. The upcoming days find us on the scenic byways of Oregon at Hell’s Canyon (the deepest gorge in North America) and the Wallowa Mts. known as Oregon’s Swiss Alps before arriving to Glacier National Park in Montana June

Gold Mining Processing Steps:

Stake a claim
Pick axe area to loosed rock to the bedrock
Shovel material over a classifier grate to separate dirt, smaller and larger rocks into buckets
Take material to a water source
Separate the smaller gravel and dirt through a high banker sluice box
                                                      with a water pump

Allow material to run down the screen on top to catch the smaller sands and gold


Catch larger runoff debris into a tub so it doesn't wash into the pond


Run the remains left in the sluice box through smaller sized classifers

Pan wash material to separate the sand, gravel, and gold



Voila.... Hopefully you have some gold for all your efforts!

Week One on The Road

The first week out on the road found us camping for several days near Hat Creel, CA. JR had a chance to fly fish and got five hits. We spotted white pelicans and Canadian geese nearby at Baum Lake. A snow flurry dusted our first campsite and the mornings were a chilly 30 degrees. Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta and the surrounding mountain ranges up the northern California Central Valley were spectacular all laden with snow. We’ve spotted black tail deer, blue jays, woodpeckers, hawks, egrets, gray squirrels, a long ear jack rabbit and a duck nest of broken eggs in the grassland. Stops in Oregon to visit the John Day Fossil Basin Monuments, Sumpter Dredge, and Oregon Trail Interpretative Center near Baker City were great highlights. We were able to rendezvous with JR’s brother Dennis at his frequented gold mining camp near Durkee close to the Oregon-Idaho border.
The Oregon roads seem sparse with traffic and gas station attendants actually for customers pump one’s tank. With some 825 miles behind us we are heading north through the lush green Wallowa Mts. into Idaho and Montana. The open farmland pastures, evergreen forests, mountains and rolling hills are very lovely and picturesque. Our great escape continues on toward Glacier National Park come June 1. We are having fun with our cameras. Be sure to bookmark our blog site to tune in again if you haven’t done so yet. We hope to post updates every two weeks depending on WIFI access.