MOUNT HOOD

Last weekend we stayed in White Salmon, Washington which is across the Columbia River from the town of Hood River.  Saturday afternoon we had a nice visit with our daughter Michelle and her two kids Nemo, and Mia.  They drove over from Portland. 

Just couldn't wait to see Grandpa and Grandma I guess :)

Sunday we decided to drive up to the Timberland lodge at Mount Hood.  We've been to Portland lots of times and always said we were going to go up there but just never made the time.  This turned out to be a beautiful day with great visibility.  

Timberland lodge was built during the great depression as a WPA project and is still in use today. You can ski year around at Mount Hood and there were lots of snow boarders on the day we were there.

The exterior was used during the filming of the movie "The shining".  Who can forget that famous line...."Heeeere's Johnny!!".

On our way back down the mountain we stopped at several fruit stands.  At one we had a beautiful view of Mount Adams to the north.

  The Hood River area is noted for it's orchards and produce in what is called the 'Fruit Loop'. 

At one farm they were having Van Gogh days, so here is my interpretation of sunflowers.

Until later.

AVALANCHE LAKE

While we were in Kalispell we (Judy) decided we should do a hike in Glacier National Park.  We chose the trail to Avalanche Lake.  This was approximately 5 miles round trip with an elevation gain of about 500 feet.  

You start the hike on the Trail of the Cedars and then branch off on to the Avalanche Lake trail.  This is a very popular day hike.  We saw close to 100 people coming and going and,  yes Linda, some even had bear bells. 

The reward at the end of the trail is Avalanche Lake.  We found a place to sit for a while and enjoyed our homemade powerbars. 

While we didn't see any bears we did see a little wildlife.  Little in size, but not in determination. 

The hike up was challenging both on the lungs and the legs, and the hike back down was rough on the knees, but it was a good workout with some beautiful scenery.  

We have enjoyed our stay in northern Montana and look forward to our next visit. 

Until later.

GOING TO THE SUN

The other day Judy packed us a picnic lunch and off we went, including Mollie, to explore the "Going to the Sun" road in Glacier National Park. 

When we were in Medora a few weeks ago we decided to purchase a yearly National Park Pass.  This one costs more than the one our senior citizen friends have, but still saves us money. It also makes getting through the entrance faster. 

It is roughly 50 miles from the west entrance to the east entrance using the Sun road but it is slow going.  We stopped numerous times to take pictures and sometimes just to sit and look.

When we are in places like this it's almost like going to church.  Man's feeble attempts to build churches and cathedrals pale next to God's handiwork. 

When we were close to Logan's Pass, which is also the continental divide, construction slowed us down.  That's ok, more time to enjoy the scenery, and even the occasional mountain goat.  Even Mollie seemed to enjoy the outing.  We stopped at the top end of St. Mary's lake and ate our lunch and soon it was time to head home. 

I wonder if this is what it looked like 100 years ago?

Until later.

Missoula to Kalispell

Today was travel day. About 120 miles and 2 hours after we left Missoula we arrived at the Rocky Mountain "Hi" RV Park in Kalispell and we are now in Glacier Country for the next week.

One of the things we were hoping we would have here in Kalispell is better and faster internet and cell coverage and we are very happy travelers, we have both! We really enjoyed our stay in Missoula and the campground was nice but internet was painfully slow and we barely had one bar on our cell phone. That's not to say we plan on spending lots of time on the internet and cell phone this next week, but it is nice to have them available when we want them.

The air hose replacement part arrived on Tuesday. It took about a minute to attach it to the hose and now it once again works great.

Our drive up here took us to Polson and around the east shore of Flathead Lake. This area is cherry country and we passed many roadside stands selling cherries and cherry products. Some orchards even let you pick your own fruit.  Michigan is a big producer of cherries, and we love them, so we may have to go back down there and buy us some before we leave.

Tomorrow we are off to explore the National Park.

MISSOULA

We are currently in Missoula Montana.  We are in a very nice campground.  One of the reasons we are here is a stupid boo-boo on my part.  When we left Medora we went through our normal hookups between the RV and Explorer including tow bar, brake light connections and the brake air line. Twenty miles down the road when we stopped for fuel Judy discovered the air line had come loose and we had been dragging it.   

  As you can tell brass doesn’t hold up too well.  After checking numerous supply houses it became apparent that this was not just any normal fitting.  So Friday morning I called SMI to order a new one.  Of course it cost more for the shipping than the part.  To be continued....

We arrived in Missoula Sunday afternoon.  It’s a great place to stock up and also to play tourist a bit.  We are staying at Jim and Mary’s RV Park. 

  Nice place, wide spots.  This is where I had the package sent from SMI.  Well the package didn’t show up today.  I placed a frustrated call to SMI only to find out that they hadn’t shipped it.  No reason, just a mess up.  But they recovered well and shipped the part out overnight with free shipping.  So now it’s in the hands of UPS not to mess up. 

This afternoon we visited a little museum at the local airport. It was called the museum of mountain flying.  I won’t bore you with all the details, but it was fun to be able to climb in and around these old planes. 

And how many of you remember Sky King and Penny.  Do you remember who sponsored their TV show in the late 50’s and early 60’s?

 

 

Tonight it was fresh veggies and ham steak on the grill.  Good eats!! Even Mollie thought so.

 

Until later.