HuckleBerry Rustlers Strike in Northern Idaho...

A new neighbor pulled into camp a few days ago. Karen of Back Porch View rolled her lil' Jet trailer into a spot below us in the Idaho woods.

*Welcome Klbexplores to the neighborhood*

She's one of those who firmly believes in the theory that art is a benefit to the day! Takes her a few minutes to get a proper camp set up.

Not so many can full-time in a lil' bitty Vintage Camper, and she's had some obstacles to climb over getting out here... but what Can I say? It's a fine job of doin' it!

The Priest Lake country, high in the Panhandle of Idaho, and close enough to smell Canada from here... has a bit of everything...

*Priest Lake, Idaho*

Swimming, speed boats, jet skis... and for the culinary inclined drifters... Huckleberry Rustling...

Karen grew up round abouts here so she'd a few ideas on where to hunt the elusive mountain huckleberry. So we piled in her Explorer... ain't that a proper name for an RV'n drifters rig? ... and rolled up into the hills searching for berries in the direction of Petit Lake...

The forest service apparently has someone employed who thinks it great fun posting signs that have little connection with the actual direction of where you're headed. We commented that we're pretty sure there's guys back in the FS offices high Fivin' each other and sayin'; "I wonder how long it'll take THAT one to get UN-lost?"

.. so... we ended up getting a little tighter directions that didn't quite fit either the topo atlas OR the FS directions... or... their signs posted along the road.

The directions we got from OTHER back roaders (who made the same comments WE did) got us headed in the right direction... while the topo atlas that lacked half the roads was of marginal use.

Eventually we found a spot... hidden behind another evil road closed sign... 

You always have to ask yourself; "Self? what are they trying to hide from me?" :)

Then you walk past that sign a ways and standing on the lip of where the mountain falls away below you... There it is!... that elusive purple gold of the Northern Rockies... The Huckleberry...

Funny thing about the lil jewels is... they're hard to see from above. If you look at that picture, it's taken from below... you look down and see a few berries, and climb down to collect 'em up... and then when you turn to go back the whole hillside seems covered now that you're below 'em and can see 'em hiding under the leaves. ;)

*Wounded Huckleberry Rustler*

The three of us gathered up something around a half gallon of the Huckelberry mountain candies in twenty minutes or so and climbed back to the road to compare our haul...

HA! Guess who captured that fullest bag!

*Views of a Berry Rustler*

Well, we filled our need for Huckleberries... so continued our search for Petit lake where Karen had spent much time in her younger years... The forest svc has closed some roads... so it made the finding a lil more of an adventure...

... but with her persistent driving... and my map skills ;)... well... that guy on the side of the road helped a lil' bit. :) ... we found the place... and had ourselves a crackers and cheese lunch, sitting on a bench in a shady lil' grotto by the lake, watching the trout jump all over the whole dang thing...

So... what do you do with Huckleberries? Well... the first thing you do is have Karen go back to her kitchen in the woods and convert some of that mountain Huckleberry treasure to Huckleberry sauce and douse a bowl of Vanilla Ice Cream with it! HooYa!

 Thennnnn... the next morning... you take some more of those precious purple jewels... and...

Shape them into Huckleberry Pancakes... with Huckleberry Sauce!

NOT what you want to be cooking up if you're on some sort of a diet... unless of course you are possessed of the tremendous quantity of self control and discipline that I am adorned with. ;)

So... I've waited the allotted 12 minutes after breakfast... and with that properly executed disciplined self control... it's time for more ice CREAM!! ;)

Gaining in a Hurry... weight that is...
Brian

The "Leaf" Blew over to Grand Coulee... and Got Burnt to Ashes!

HooooolllllllllEEEEEE CRAP! I fergot jussss how hot HOT is! ;) Been on the coast so long I got un-acclimated to the ree-al-i-TEEZE of "Mans' Country"!

Whew! Comin' across the midsection of Washington on a sunny August day is gar-uhn-teed to warm up yer surf chilled tootsies... :)

Pullin' away from the Columbia River Gorge when we left the Wenatchee area there's a long long grade...

Considerin' the age of this Ol' rig and her OH-Kay-shun-al infirmities, pulling a stiff grade, it makes me a mite nervous, what with her tippin' the scales at approaching 20,000 lbs, to look up at the thermometer on the roof of the cab and see numbers that say stuff like 99... or ... 100...

But with my tender coaxing and her actual solid self we climbed up out of that ditch with nary an issue.

Somewhere along in there we got a pretty good look at one of the fires we made the cut north to go around...

That smoke was all east and south of us... which was the plan... one finally worked!

We'd been thinkin' that we'd do a casino night up at Grand Coulee... Well... sure... if you're a mountain goat and a small one at that. There's a casino there but you'll be better off to be drivin' a car, and one with a decent parking brake... 'cause the only flat spots (or close) are only gonna fit something with four wheels.

If you've got 10 like us... and don't like sleepin' standing up? you'll keep on looking.

We'd already passed a "community" park where they wanted 25 bucks for dry camping in a gravel lot... yeah... uh... No.

We found, three miles east of Grand Coulee, a Park Service camp... set up mostly for Morris Minors pulling tear drop trailers I think... and managed to squeeze in for a $5 night.

Managed to get unhitched and brushed up in the shade under some trees in the center of the place until the sun went down enough to think about goin' down for another episode of the Grand Coulee Dam Light Show...

* Grand Coulee Dam *

I tried... I truly tried to capture the light show with a camera... It turns out that doin' such a thing is like chasing a humming bird with a freight train...

They open up the gates across the spillway a bit, so that there's a sheet of white water running down the face for a picture screen... then cut loose with a battery of laser projectors...

Your free to guess at what these were...

... cuz I ain't got no recollection...

They do make kinda nice abstract pictures though...

... when those lazers are dancing all over the face of the dam... a digital camera just can't keep up.

We got up fairly early... took care of some secret business ;)

... and hit the road for wherever we were to end up...

Now, one word of warning... iffn' ya'll are in a hurry, and you're travelin' through Spokane? get on the Interstate and roll on... The thing is... somebody in that burg has an affinity for two  things; Traffic lights and... RED ones.

I mean... they've got 'em every 12 feet and then their engineers have 'em set so you get to look at each and every one of 'em for about two minutes. Lordy... I had two birthdays gettin' through there!

But, we did... and then dodged up to Priest Lake in Idaho and found THE LAST CAMP from what I'm told in the Luby Bay area. And only got THAT one, cuz a young couple who was grabbin' camps for three couples, decided they could all fit into one site and let us have the only non-reserved that would be available for more than one night!

That'll leave us plenty of time, I'm hoping, to scout around and find us a boondock to set up for a couple of weeks maybe. Still haven't recovered from all the repairs... and need to let the bank recharge... if I can figure a way to get something flowing to it! ;)

... and, just like Klbexplores advised a week or so ago... I got 4G bangin on the air card so I can work! in this one lil part of Idaho we've not dipped into before...

Anyhoo... after putting a dent in my head... again... from that #&%$@  *%#%@ fiver nose unhitching... and cooling out with a Full Sail brew and a nice cool, Rocky Mountain night... I'll be bustin' the keyboard on that next book today... and tomorrow... and tomorrow...

* Another Grand Coulee Abstraction *

* Grand Coulee Relections *

Well.. that and ride the bike back down to Priest River for some of those Huckleberry Shakes we saw on the sign boards when we rolled though...

Back in the Rockies
Brian

Yeah It's Smoky... But This Time It Ain't The Truck!

We hauled out of Longview yesterday morning rolling a short ways up I-5 to make our turn east at Hwy 12. Bound for Idaho, Lolo Pass and Montana!

Uh huh. Why don't I never learn? Don't say so loud in public, where I'm headin'?! It just makes Murphy's job that much easier for him... 'course, I suppose a fella could have looked at news and such a little better... to see what lay ahead. ;)

At first I just thought it was just cloudy and foggy, but after a bit it started to sink in, these clouds aren't grey... these suckers are blue... and then, the occasional faint scent of burnt pine trees. Yeah... forest fires.

Got a text from some friends down near Cottage Grove in Oregon.  We apparently went through southern Oregon just before a surge of fires erupted all through there.

Up where we're running now, it turns out there's a good sized blaze north west of Yakima and another south west. Maybe it's just me, but when there's enough smoke to have my delicate ol' eyes burning, it takes the shine off a mountain trip.

No problem right? Just keep her pointed east and drive away from 'em! Not so easy. There's six fires straddling the country we were heading for... and four more down below those! I pulled it up on the smartphone... and there's Icons for fires all the way to Yellowstone.

A lot of the same country that was on fire when I rode through in September last year. I guess I/we should get used to it. There's many millions of more acres that have to burn to erase the mess built at the Sierra Clubs et al. behest... The woods themselves are beyond saving. Gonna take a few years to burn all that up so we can start over with a clean forest. Our only hope can be that few more men sacrifice their lives fighting the inevitable blazes.

You either CHOOSE to do proper logging operations to do the work that natural fire does or you CHOOSE to let natural fire burn... or you are CHOOSING to have the forest grow to a thick, sickly, badly overgrown mess that burns with catastrophic rage.

I admire the WISH to nurture a "Natural" forest. It's a pretty fantasy. There's only one problem with it. There are few, if any, natural, un-impacted by man, forests remaining on this continent. 370,000,000 people have a way of spreading their "Impact" around a bit. That means, we have a responsibility to "Manage" the land we live on properly. To make it as abundant and healthy as is possible.

That doesn't mean leaving it to the "whatever happens happens" mindless Disney World fantasy of Fire Fighting Grizzly Bears playing with Rabbits in a sunny meadow. It means realizing that using the products of a forest for the betterment of mankind is NOT an evil, and doesn't require the destruction of the forest either.

The curious thing here is, the devastation of these fires; largely the consequence of litigious intervention by the previously mentioned et al's ... is far deeper and longer lasting than that which even improper logging ever did...  kind of like plugging in a non-native, invasive, species of wolf...

Ahhhhh... In the mean time... in an effort to climb out of the smoke we're taking advantage of that bit of hardware we've got on this rig, a steering wheel. So, when we hit the boundaries of Yakima sometime early today I'm gonna cut it hard to port? I think that's sailor talk for left? and roll up the eastern face of the Cascades a ways. Likely cut back east again along Highway 2.

I've heard that the air is clear along through there. Rather than dropping into the Valley between Lolo Pass and Lost Trail pass, around Hamilton... it looks like we'll go through Lake Pend Orielle in Idaho and maybe the Kalispell country of Montana...

It's a rough life when your back-up travel option is Glacier!

Just Rolling Along
Brian

I Think Some Might Not understand me...

 So I offer a feeble attempt at explanation.

I am a man born for the open country. The open road... and possessed of a Passion for Liberty.

Born in Ohio and raised in Arizona, I started Cowboyin' at the foot of the Catalina Mts. North of Tucson. My Cowboy education continued in the Santa Rita Mts. East of Green Valley. From near the Mexican Border to the Southern reaches of Montana I've chased cows, trained horses, hunted coyotes, mined copper, bucked off broncs, packed mules and rustled mustangs. I've sold hardware, cleaned carpets, hauled tractors and even raised sheep! I've lived a glorious life.

I admit to being... abnormal. Possibly an anachronism. I admit that in my words I express the belief that there is more to life than Healthcare. That Freedom Trumps Healthcare. That Liberty is of Greater Value and Treasure than Life itself. I freely admit that few hold that belief any longer, and that maybe my attempts to get that point across leave others as dumbstruck as I often find myself.

Do I have regrets? You bet. There have been heart ripping sorrows that still wake me in the night. Would I like to be able to go back and wipe those from my memory? At times, when I feel close to choking on them? I would... but then I think... it is those scars that have carved me into who I am. With all my many faults, I still like... Me.

For all of my life I've heard and been told that Cowboys were a dying breed. I should take on something more acceptable with my life. It would appear from some comments of the past couple of days that there's those that don't think I've done that and would appreciate the loss of one more of us. Sorry to disabuse ya'll of that idea... but I think I'll hang around and keep stirrin' the pot a mite more.

I love this land in ways I cannot put into words. I've served not only this land with my sweat, and my blood. I've placed my life in service to the people of this land, on more than one occasion. I've paid taxes since I was 14. I have NEVER complained about or tried to duck my fair share, and take offense at that Idea, made by implication. I do however complain when effort and success is punished and parasitism is rewarded.

I as well am astounded by the claims of those who try to tell me that I am required to seek the permission of a bureaucrat to wander around the lands not within the city limits fences. While the Wolf and the Coyote are "Granted" the right to go where and when they please, without permit or fee.

I claim the RIGHTS granted to Wolves and Coyotes. I will by God set my camp on uninhabited land without seeking the kings permission. The King does not, contrary to popular belief, own all the land and everyone on it. I will camp my rig on the Boss's land, where I choose to.

There is something I have noticed in conversation when the subject of service is discussed; Most of those, a heavy majority, who seek the entitlements that I have spoken of for the past few days always seem to have found such service inconvenient when it was their turn. They expect to be defended, hell they demand it! But lo and behold, when it's their turn to place their lives on the line in defense of their community, or just an individual within it... they are remarkably absent.

I have sacrificed my safety, my income and my future in defense of friends, and even on occasion in defense of those I never knew simply because it was the right thing to do. I don't say this as boast, but merely to define the code of behavior I was taught.

Does my ego, ideas, or intelligence make me in any way a person I believe worthy of climbing up on some pedestal ?... well, you bet!... If you set the damn three foot thing in a ten foot deep hole first.

Before I get back to straight up conversation about Yondering through the land I love, and a Life of Glorious Liberty... Granted to me by the Boss I serve as well... let me leave you with this film...



It is the amazing work of JD King, a young fella from Southwest Montana who has an amazing future ahead of him. Do Him and the states of Montana and Idaho a Favor. Get as Many of your friends as you can to watch this man's work. It contains lessons about far more than wolves. Amazing for a man of his youth.

I'll bet you didn't realize that the Wolf you tried to see in Yellowstone was all tied up in this mess too did you?

The film not only discusses a few truths about the Wolf in the Intermountain States... but opens a window through which you can glimpse the face of the resident evil I have described.

There is something to consider. All we have, is each other. The government doesn't care about us. It cares about it's power. It is simply a tool of the real unseen power that owns it. What we are left with is each other.

The divisiveness you see around you these days is no accident and it is The Threat. It is the tool used by those in power to keep us fractured and fighting each other. It is cliche'd but no less true - Divide and Conquer. Those doing the dividing have exhibited exquisite skill.

All of us together are difficult to control. But if we can be kept fighting against each other the smaller groups are easy to manipulate. We are used against each other, to control each other. We are serving as our own Jailers.

All we have, is each other. If you can SEE the cage we are keeping ourselves in, the bars disappear. Your awareness is your greatest strength. Our greatest strength. We have divisions and disagreements. And, we have two choices.

We can either work together to achieve solutions. We can Force Government to obey the will of the people and regain some honor and integrity... or...  we can all give each other a big hug, bend over and kiss our backsides good bye, because the game will be over.

Some Days You Just Have to Stand With Your Mouth Hanging Open in Amazement
Brian

Lake Pend Oreille Idaho... Water, Skiers, People, Boats and Wild Critters...

Lake Pend Oreille is an odd mix.

For one, it's a huge lake. So huge, if a a person wasn't knowing where they were, you could easily expect to see the tide go out, standing on the shore!

Another, it's really a busy place. It pulls in a Lot of Boaters. They come from Spokane, and from across the border in British Columbia and Alberta. It's so busy you'd expect it to be crowded, but, that's where that size comes in I guess. You look around and you don't feel crowded.

Even the Deer are pretty comfortable here... Maybe... TOO comfortable?

I'm not a big one for staying a long time in a developed camp, dry camp or no... but, we've spent five days here on the banks of Pend Orielle and it's been nice... even the one windy, overcast day that had the surf shovin' rocks up on the shore. Big, the size of your fist, rocks! :)

But then the front passed, the sun came back and there was a nice, soft sunset...

*Lake Pend Oreille Sunset*

... and a few Boaters hurried out to slip in a bit of end-of-day Sunset Skiing... before the light was all gone...

*Water Skier on Lake Pend Oreille*

It's been a pretty good camp. Heidi and the dogs have spent most of their days down on the "beach" collecting interesting stones for Jewelry projects and teaching Buck to Dock Dive...

First you get him comfortable, in the big water...

Then... you move to the Dock and he takes the "safe" way off the Dock... into shallow water...

... and slowly... ever so painfully slowwwwly...

 ... you keep inchin' him down the dock... jumping a lil' farther from the shore, each time...










... Until he's goin', pretty much... off the Deep end...

Now that's something I should likely stay away from huh? ... "Goin' off the Deep End?" :)

Yeah, well... I won't be holdin' my breath on THAT any!

Anyhoo... while they've been playin' at the Lake, I've gotten quite a bit more of the next book I'll be publishing put together... a couple more chapters closer to completion...

So... to keep from getting used to things runnin' smoothly, we'll be moving today! :) Heading into Washington State...

We'll be cutting across the Northern section, rolling toward the North Cascades National Park... and maybe turn a bit south toward Wenatchee... as always... I can say where I'm goin'...

... but the likelihood of it actually workin' out, just that way... is pretty darn thin! :)

My Dance card is fillin' up for the fall... Been wantin' to get back to the Olympic area since before last fall... Planning on seeing Mark and Bobbie around Anacortes... plan on clippin' Yellowstone again, on the way back through Denver for Heidi to go to a baby shower for our second grandkid... in October... and have to be in Phoenix... to be a NASCAR driver again :) in November...

... Sheesh!... I thought this "Full Timin' " gig was s'posed to be slow an' easy?

... and somewhere in amongst all that Goin' Slow... I have GOT to get that book buttoned up! :)

... maybe I can try some of those lil' bottles of energy pills they sell at the truck stops?

That's JUST what the west needs... a cranky old pussgut buster... roamin' 'round the west... hyped up on Energy Boosters! :)

Pickin' 'em up... and puttin' 'em down across the North Country
Brian

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Hunting for Boondocking Camps in North Idaho.

Parts of NW Montana as well as up in the panhandle of Idaho are a bit of a tough go for finding good boondocking camps.

*Along the Cedars Trail in Glacier*

The timber is so thick, you know it's daylight, but ya'll sure ain't gonna get much sun! :) Just shafts of light slicing down 'tween the trees.

We walked a short trail just north of McDonald lake the day before we pulled out. They built a boardwalk back through the thick, Red Cedar forest. It's another of those places that's a beautiful place to walk through, but a miserable place to try and capture it in a photograph.

*Boardwalk through the Cedars in Glacier National Park*

Your skills for making pictures have to greatly exceed my feeble efforts for sure!

This Cedar Forest is a contrast to the long views and Far Country of most of the park. You walk through an area of cool and quiet, at least if you time your visit right. You can miss some of the crowds, and maybe even the likes of the One Fine Lady we saw, lead her dog up to and stare for LONG SECONDS at, the NO DOGS on this trail sign... before proceeding to take her dog on up the Trail... ANYWAY!

Lucky for me... and her... I was on my way OUT at the time... and managed to keep my mouth shut...

Ah well... some peoples kids...

*Cedar Forest in Glacier*

It's a different "Feel" down in this thick timber.

We loaded up and hauled the rig out the next morning, bound for the Lake Pend Oreille (Pon-der-Ay) area of Idaho. Being as how I'm slow and lazy these days, we only made it that first day, a bit south and west of Libby. A little place called "Bad Medicine" campground on Bull Lake.

... Just back up the road in from the highway is another Cedar Forest. The Ross Creek Giant Cedars Forest. There's a short trail through there as well, so I unhitched the truck, so we could take a toot back up there 'fore it went dark on us...

*Ross Creek Giant Cedars SW of Libby Montana*

No boardwalk here... but just as serene a sort of place... It can quiet some of the rattling in your head... if you let it.

If you'd never been to Sequoia or Yosemite, you'd call these big Trees. :) though they are a bit more sizable than those over to Glacier... We made the mistake of not grabbing some supper to eat sitting in the grove. There's benches and logs a person could sit on to take in the quiet for a while... you might want to use 'em.

Somehow those red berries on that unknown plant... look kinda lethal to me... I left 'em hangin'!

Yesterday, a couple hours after sunrise, Buck took his morning swim in Bull Lake...

 ...'fore we pulled the rest of the way to Lake Pend Oreille... where he got in another swim in the evening.

We ran a couple back roads 'tween here and Sandpoint yesterday afternoon... getting miles back in, and into switchbacks I'd rather not drag the fiver over... and haven't yet found a camp that toots my whistle... We may just sit here on the lake for a few days... 'fore we slide over into Eastern Washington...

No hurry either way... It may just take a bit more time to adjust to the "lay of the Land" around here.

The thing that is pushin' me is; That although a lot of people still labor under the misconception that we're "Retired", and use that word when talkin' to us... that just ain't so... Retired I ain't! To make matters worse,  I've been lazy for a month or more, and my Work is stackin' up.  If I don't get to that Work purty shortly, the beans we put on the table are gonna get fewer and fewer! :)

So... I'm needful of finding a long camp to occupy for a couple weeks anyway, to catch up on those Work Duties.

I can't complain though can I? I mean, I get to work in the Montana, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Wyoming... backwoods... I get to earn my living, as I'm walking high mountain trails through far country, and riding a fine motorcycle on a never ending ribbon of highway...

So... Many thanks to SBI, Smashwords, Amazon and Most of All, to the many readers that keep me goin'!

My only real complaint is... I need to find a lil' more discipline to do a lil' more of my Work... rather than a lil' more playin'. :) But then again, I'm lucky that I have my Work, and not a Job!

So, gonna go do a lil' more exploing, a lil' more Work... and ride through another day...

Settled for a few days in Idaho
Brian

Return to the main site of goin' RV Boondocking or Visit my Sister website Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road