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| Bitterroot-Mt State Flower |
We arrived in Helena in late May, after driving up from
Yellowstone NP. Two weeks later, we drove to Anaconda, MT and spent the day
with Art, Susan and Windsor. Art led us on a hike overlooking the town. We also
took a city tour in a vintage 1936 Yellowstone Park Tour Bus. The highlights
included a visit to the 585’ Anaconda Stack, which was used with the copper
smelters when “copper was king”. The stack is so big, the Washington Monument
could fit entirely inside it. We also got an insider’s tour of the Washoe
Theater, one of the most beautiful in the US.
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| 1936 Yellowstone Tour Bus |
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| Butte's colorful strip mine |
The next day I had to fly back to Maryland for a minor
medical procedure. Instead of flying right back, I spent a few days at the ocean,
something I had been missing while we RVed full time. I also had lunch with
Barb and Sharon before Sharon had to fly back to Albania. While I was in MD,
Pat started hiking with the Helena Outdoor Club (HOC). When I returned, I joined
her on some of the club’s hikes.
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| White Mariposa Lily |
In mid-July we started a RV trip to ID, OR and WA. First
stop was Montana’s Old Prison Museum in Deer Lake, MT. In addition, we checked
out the classic cars in the Montana Auto Museum and the Frontier Montana Museum.
Before entering Idaho, we hiked the trails at Big Hole National Battlefield. The
Nez Perce had been chased across Idaho by the US Army with orders to put the
Nez Perce in a reservation. Chief Joseph and others hoped to get the tribe to
Canada. In the early morning hours, 150 years ago, the army launched a surprise
attack, while most of the native Americas were still sleeping. Many Nez Perce
were initially killed, but the Nez Perce launched a counter attack and pinned
the solders down, until most of the tribe could safely leave the area. Chief
Joseph was one of approximately 90 Nez Perce that died that day.
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| Montana Auto Museum |
Instead of taking the interstate, we took a scenic drive
through the mountains of Idaho. It was a beautiful drive with lots of wildlife.
We saw big horn sheep, turkeys, sandhill cranes and a large herd of elk. It was
also very hot, great if you were there to raft the rivers, like most of the
tourists there. We did get to Eagle Island SP and enjoyed some lake swimming
after a short and hot hike.
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Stanley Lake, ID
When we got to Ontario, OR, I found out that my inside dual
tire was flat. Luckily there was a Commercial Tire store around the corner. It
turned out to be a loose valve stem extension connection. They fixed it-no
charge! When we got to Redmond, OR we checked into Eagle Crest timeshare, which
was a very nice resort. We hike at Smith Rock SP which is a very popular and
beautiful park. Unfortunately, there was considerable smoke in the area, so we
tried to limit our outside actives to a few hours per day. Bend, Oregon (just
down the road from us) had the dubious distinction of having the worst air
quality in the Western Hemisphere, during our visit. BC, WA and OR all
contributed to the air pollution from forest fires.
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| Falls on the McKenzie River, OR |
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| It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's a Columbian Monkhood Flower |
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| Smith Rock SP, OR |
After a week in Redmond, we moved up to Whispering Pines timeshare in the
Mt Hood area. The air quality improved and the hiking among the large trees was
impressive. The only downside was the number of hikers on the popular trails,
so we tried to pick less well-known ones. I was excited to go into Portland one
day. We did hike in Washington Park which was large and beautiful, but the
traffic getting there and back, hardly made it worth it. We had to stop at the North American Bigfoot Center in Boring, OR. We watched a couple videos of Bigfoot sightings, but nothing substitutes for a live sighting.
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| Mt Hood, OR |
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| American Asters |
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Timberline Lodge, Mt Hood
Before heading home, we took a side trip to Renton, WA to
see our friend Cornelia. We enjoyed a lunch out at a local golf course with a
couple of her friend. We parked the RV next to her house and one day she said
she smelled gas near the RV. We found a leak at the bottom of our gas tank.
This was the same gas tank that had been ripped open when we had that big
accident 18 months ago. The tank had been repaired, and now the repair failed.
After numerous attempts to stop the leak, Cornelia found a YouTube video that
demonstrated that soap rubbed into the crack would stop the leak! Pat succeeded
in getting the soap into the crack and stopping the leak. We still had a 9-hour
drive to get back to Helena and many miles through hot eastern Washington. We did
not know how well the soap would hold up with heat from the road and the RV, so
an epoxy was applied over the soap. This held up for a few days, but we noticed
it leaking by the time we got to Missoula. When we got back to Helena, the soap
was applied again and held. A new gas tank was installed a few weeks later. Our
trip back from Washington included a stop at the Historic Savenac Tree Nursey
to see our friend, Robert, whom we volunteered with at Savenac back in 2013.
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| That's a big tree |
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| Montana Sunset |
