16-25 July, 2012 - Fishing, Kayaking, Biking and Eagle Watching

Ugh!  Back to mosquito country!  We took some more time off and spent it along the shore of Lake Koocanusa (or maybe along the Tobacco River depending on where they draw the boundary line).
 

I actually remembered to bring some wood with us this time.  Although it was warm and we never needed the stove it was nice to have some on hand for the camp fire.

We found a developed camping site with a great view of the lake/stream and mountains so we unloaded everything and set up camp.

This was the view to the east.  The channel is filled with water because the lake is at full pool.  Normally there's a river channel out there.

It was hot in the camper so Susan turned on the fan as she placed things on the shelves as she wanted them.  A lot of stuff is taken down and stored in boxes while we're in motion.

These are wild (Oregon) grapes.  They're everywhere around here and make good grape juice, grape jam and, I'm told, wine.  They're about the size of large peas.

One of our river friends perched in the tree.  I didn't know these long-legged critters perched in trees.  I'd only previously seen them in shallow water.

Diapers and plastic pants!  Susan washed them all by hand (with some help from Scott).

She decided to wash his pants too so he obligingly took them off.  (He's much better at taking his clothes off than putting them on.)

Now he decided to help wash his favorite cams.  Actually he'll take any excuse to play in the water.

We left Scott with his aunt for the afternoon and Susan and I took the kayaks down the Tobacco River.  The water was up a little and much faster than normal.   We loved it because we didn't hit bottom anywhere.

You have to watch ahead.  White water like that in front of the kayak usually mean buried obstacles.  Going directly over them will get you upside down. 

I had to stop a couple of times to dump the water out of my kayak.  I forgot the spray skirt and some places were rough enough to splash water over the front and into the kayak.

One of the placid stretches with some nice rock cliffs to look at.

Those cliffs are nothing but clay. The water has cut some interesting features into it.

We took some narrow channels out to the main part of the lake.  We came back on the main channel where the skiers and power boats played.

Susan making pizza from scratch.  We eat well when camping (and at home).

We had omelets with eggs, cheese and bacon.  The bacon was home canned and tasted great.

Getting Scott down for a nap was a real challenge.  The best way was to take him on a stroller ride.  Of course we usually had to walk about 45 minutes before he went to sleep.  Here he crashed with one of his favorite night time teddy bears.  We covered the stroller with a blanket to keep the sun off of him and he'd sleep a couple of hours usually.

He found a comfortable place to "read" where he'd get a good breeze coming through the window.

Some one spun their tires here and mounded up the sand.  I saw it on a morning walk and brought Scott up there with his shovel.  It kept him occupied for about an hour.

I took him on a 45 minute walk and couldn't get him to sleep then as soon as we got back Susan got him to sleep in about five minutes.

The fishing was good ... not!  We saw only one fish caught the entire week and it was only abut three inches long.  (And I didn't catch it!)

The eagle did okay though.  We watched this one catch two.  The first one went well but the second was larger and almost drowned the eagle before he let it go.

Same eagle as above. There was another immature one flying around the area also.

You got to be careful around these parts!

Odie rolled in some very smelly stuff so we went down to the lake to give her a bath.  I had Scott watch and I let him wade out into the lake about two feet.  It was water so he had a blast.  The water temperature was about 55 degrees so we didn't stay too long.

Odie, on the other hand, didn't care for her shampoo and rinse at all.  She sure smelled better though when Susan was finished.

Scott and Susan got back from a bike ride about the time I finished washing dishes.  Scott wanted to play in the rinse water so I left that tub on the table.  He rinsed out the jars I'd already rinsed out.

Then he decided to go wading!

We had some thunder storms move through the area.  We were pretty sheltered at our campsite but a lot of trees got blown down and a few power lines bit the dirt.  The only damage at home was this large poplar tree.  We were very happy.  I've been trying to work up the courage to take it down all summer because it was leaning towards a storage shed.  The wind sheared it off about 15 feet above the ground and dropped the trunk exactly where is would do the least damage.  That was a relief!

Now we just had to do some cleaning up with the chain saw to clear the driveway.

We had several friends come visit while we were out there and one neighbor came out with their tent and spent the night.  It was a good time and a great place to camp.

Now that we're home we have lots of work to do.  The galley for my book is ready so we need to go through that.  The finished book is scheduled to be in print around the first of September.  They've done a nice job on it.  The cover is a collage of photos taken during our time here. 

Susan has another book almost ready and I've got a couple of queries out for books and articles. 

The grass needs mowed again.  We have another mower now.  It's a small gasoline powered mower we were given.  It didn't work.  They'd left it outside for a long time and the safety cable was rusted through so I bypassed that.  The gas tank had water and very old gasoline in it so I cleaned it out then took the bowl off the carburetor and dumped the water out of it then fired it up.  If started on about the tenth pull and ran well for a while.  It's going to need some more carburetor work to smooth it out but runs okay for now.  I tried a round of cutting with it and while it did okay I thought the blade probably needed sharpening.  It turned the mower over and it had a brand new blade on it but someone had installed it upside down.  I turned it over and it cuts great now.  It'll get a good workout the next day or two.

Now, where should we go next week?