First of all, thank you for all of the super nice comments you all left on the blog and in emails for Alan while he stayed home last week and took care of the farm. Being home on the farm alone is a lot of hard work, and I know he appreciated all of your notes. While he was here tending to the farm, I was enjoying a fantastic camping trip with my parents! I took about 350 photos, and here are a few of my favorites... (You can click on the photos to see them a bit larger.)
On Monday, we drove from my parents house (in northeastern Washington) through the Idaho panhandle into northwestern Montana. Mom and I drove together in the Suburban towing the river boat, while Dad drove in front of us towing their little vintage camper trailer with the pontoon boat strapped to the back. Amazingly enough, it's not a very long drive - just a couple of hours (if that).
We camped on the shore of the Kootenai River. Here is the view just a few feet from the back of our camper when we arrived at camp.
Just a couple of miles up-river from the campground we stayed in is the Libby dam.
I really enjoyed taking photos at the dam -- the colors were super, and the lighting was just as nice!
I kept kicking myself for not taking my "real" camera on the trip, instead of just my pocket-sized point-and-shoot.
Dad and his friend Jeff planned a short float down the river that evening, so they launched the boat and headed out with their fishing poles. It was a perfect evening for a float down river.
The next day, Dad and Jeff took Jeff's wife Paula along for the daily float. I put the pontoon boat in and followed along. Mom stayed back at the camper and did a bit of quilting. We had a bit of wind to deal with, which made floating down-river a challenge at times. But at the end of the day, we made it down river just fine!
Paula did a bit of reading along the way.
I took some photos of my toes, and the amazingly clear river.
Jeff caught some fish, and Dad caught some fish! Every fish caught during the trip was safely released back into the river.
Fishing from the boat.
More fishing from the boat.
Dad, fishing from a rock.
Jeff, making some changes to his set-up.
The two guys, fishing.
Love this shot of Dad through the grass on the riverbank.
A real whopper!
What a wonderful afternoon!
We saw at least two bald eagles during the day, and several osprey nests as well. This osprey nest was a fair distance from the river, but I took photos anyway! There are three birds on the edge of the nest, and one other bird from the nest was flying along the river. I really had to zoom in and hold steady to get this shot (not easy to do while you swirl around in the river's current!)
Here is another view of the same nest, pretty far back from the river.
We floated the river until the sun set behind the mountains.
The next day we decided to move down river to the west side of Troy, Montana. We found a great site at a riverside campground and planned an afternoon river float down the Kootenai River to where the Yaak River meets the Kootneai. On this day, Dad and Jeff took Mom in the river boat with them, and I tagged along behind in the pontoon boat again taking more photos.
Here is Jeff fishing the river on one of our many stops along the way.
Here Dad is fishing a narrow channel of the river, off of a long rock bar in the middle of the river.
The sun was sparkling off of one of the many treasures on Dad's hat.
The afternoon sun created dreamy light on the slower parts of the river.
I like dreamy light!
Can you see the water coming off of Jeff's line? That's cooooool!
The following morning, we started our way home. We stopped in at Ross Cedars for a short hike through the old growth forest.
The old cedars are quite amazing. Dad placed his hat on this one for a photo op.
The scenic views were beautiful...
...at every turn!
And when we finally pulled into the driveway, the resident wild turkeys came running to say hello!
