Cow Country

I had no idea there were so many cows in California. We've moved on from Vacaville (vaca = cow, in Spanish?) and the Napa Valley, up Route 5 to Red Bluff.  We're staying at Durango RV Resort, a very nice park with wide, long, flat concrete sites; plenty of grassy space between sites; landscaping that includes fountains and some trees; a dog wash! (that's a first); a pool and a hot tub. We've been enjoying the hot tub.  : )  It's right on the Sacramento River so Kona gets a little swim almost every day.

Red Bluff is another small agricultural city in the central valley, but cattle seems to be the mainstay rather than grapes and wine. Almost as many cowboys as South Dakota. This draws fewer tourists, though some pass through on their way to Mt. Lassen. It's pretty flat right here, in the Sacramento River Valley, but only a few miles in any direction leads to foothills and then snow covered mountains. We can even see Mt. Shasta sometimes, which from here looks huge.

Mt. Lassen in the furthest south active volcano in the Cascades. It's not blowing sparks or smoke or lava now, but it was pretty active throughout the 19th and early 20th century. In 1915 it blew like Mt. St. Helens. Mount Lassen Volcanic National Park does still have an active hydrothermal area with mud pots and steaming water.

We visited Mt. Lassen one day last week. going in as far as we could given the winter conditions. The main road through the park is closed all winter, but the visitor's center is open (barely).

Snow banks along the roads and parking lots were easily 6 feet.

The visitor's center.

Mt. Lassen and the peak of the visitor's center roof.

Countryside between Mt. Lassen and Lake Almanor.

We met the rangers and agreed to come back on Easter Sunday for a snow shoe hike. That's today. Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day, with plenty of deep snow still on the trails. I hope to take plenty of pictures.

A few days ago the three of us took a 4 mile hike in the Sacramento River Bend Trail. It's BLM land so Kona could come with us, even without a leash, as opposed to National Park land where dogs are usually not allowed. It was an idyllic day for a hike: sunny, but cool.  Although it's been a dry winter, there's been lots of rain around here in the past month, so the wild flowers are coming along.

 Great lava rocks cropping out everywhere and a grand view of the river bend.

Gnarly black oaks and lots of green grass for the cattle soften the scenery. Yes, the land is used for grazing too, so when you walk through here, you're in their territory.

I also took a little sunset adventure on my own up into the foothills to take some photos one evening and hit the jackpot with these cloud formations. Anyone know what kind they are?

Just caught a few deer my way home to top off the evening.  

No prizes

Well, there were many creative guesses for the photos, but no correct answers. The first photo was of mayflies, looking like bats or birds. The mayflies swarm along some of the shores of the lake. No wonder there are so many fish in the lake.

The second was of yaks! Turns out there are quite a few yak farms in Montana, Idaho and Canada. Native to the Tibetan Himilayas, they do well in high altitudes and cold weather.  The literature says they are smarter, cuter and more playful than cows, and hardy like buffaloes. They can be used as pack animals, and are raised for their long hair and for meat.

There are no answers to the other two mysteries. The heartworm pill never showed up and the pictures are still tilted. I assume it's the way I'm holding the camera. It does have a really comfy grip on one side and not on the other, which may cause me to tilt it.

Here is the consolation prize for us all. (Corrected somewhat in Picasa for the tilt.) Notice the tiny line of irrigation sprayers at the bottom.

Catch-up Days

Today is a catch-up day. The weather here has been so gorgeous and we do so much adventuring that it's hard to find the time to stay inside, take care of chores and write the blog.  I have to say this is a very nice problem to have. I would prefer to write little entries more often, but this week I'll do a big one to cover some of what we've done recently.  Rick will probably wash the truck while I do this.

This week seemed to be all about water, so I'll start with a little orientation to the bodies of water around here. We are in the Flathead Valley, which was formed by a glacier in the distant past, and was once the massive prehistoric Lake Missoula.  North of the present day valley is Glacier National Park, which has a few glacier lakes of its own, including Lake McDonald.

Flathead Lake, which is fed by the snow and glaciers via the Flathead River, is at the center of this huge beautiful valley now.  It is also drained by the Flathead River out the south end. It is a natural lake, but is now regulated by the Kerr Dam. The next four photos are of the Kerr Dam and the Flathead River flowing out of it.

Pretty dramatic.  Notice the water color? That is typical glacial water. We've been told that the tiny rock and clay particles created by the glaciers are suspended in the water and create this color somehow. I don't quite get this, as the water seems crystal clear to me, like the water in the Caribbean.  But I trust the sources who know a lot more about this that I do.

We took a rafting trip down the Flathead, which we didn't get many pictures of. It's kind of hard to take pictures while you're paddling down class 3 and 4 rapids.  After the heavy paddling we floated sans boat, 

along a flat stretch in that heavenly clear turquoise water. Saw several bald eagles in dead trees on the shore line. I'd say this rafting trip was a high point.

Another day we drove through the Swan Valley, a smaller glacial valley running parallel to the Flathead Valley. Less developed, with more trees, so the views are closer, less expansive. We stopped at several lakes along the way. The above photo is from Salmon Lake State Park. The little yellow dash in the water is Kona.

Here might be a good time to relate that we spend a good portion of our time finding places for Kona to swim. Being a golden retriever, she lives to swim. As we travel this gives us great motivation to stop, get out of the car, dabble around, get us all some exercise and see some great sites we might otherwise miss. 

This was the same day we ate dinner at Latitude 48, which I wrote about earlier. Here's the sunset we caught on the way home.

A few days later we spent the day kayaking in Lake McDonald in Glacier Park. Sounds perfect, and it was, but let me tell you frankly, it was also a big friggin' deal.  Lake McDonald is about 2 hours away. We unloaded three bags of kayak parts, a bag of water gear, a bag of tarps and pads to kneel on, two coolers, a back pack with dry clothes, cameras and Kona. 

Then we had to assemble the kayaks, which is supposed to be a snap by now, but is not. After struggling for about an hour with mine, I was pretty darn cranky. But a little paddle out on this incredible lake in perfect conditions helped my mood a lot. The Folbot kayak I have paddles smooth as silk. 

Then we assembled Rick's and he got a paddle in. Because we had Kona with us we had to paddle one person at a time. (We're planning another paddle day with Kona in doggie day care.) There was no one around much of the time, with only a flurry of picnickers around mid-day. You'll see how different the light is between my paddle (early in the day) and Rick's (later). At the end of these long Montana days the sun shines on the mountains and makes them look almost bleached out and kind of surreal. But it's real. 

A thunder storm precluded much more paddling, so we packed up all our stuff (easy to say, but disassembling is as hard as assembling) and had dinner at Eddie's in Apgar, a tiny cluster of stores in the park at the tip of Lake McDonald. 

We have to find a way to do this kayak thing with less effort. Maybe we'll figure out how to transport the kayaks assembled - some kind of a rack on the truck? I sure hope so.

Anyway, after a nice drive "home" along the lake we caught another sunset back in Polson. 

Travel days in Wisconsin and Minnesota

Now we are really traveling. We had a brief rapprochment to Holiday Hour for one night to have a few technical difficulties taken care of. The Flanagan family and their employees have been great to us, but it was finally time to say goodbye and strike out on our own.

We drove from Cortland, IL to Lacrosse, WI, then camped two nights at Pettibone Island RV Resort. It's an island in the middle of the Mississippi, which spreads out and flows around many little islands at that location. The first night it was crazy crowded with bikers and others, but most cleared out on Sunday and we had a quiet, beautiful day. Did laundry in a gourmet coffee shop/laundromat, took a long bike ride along the Great River Trail and had our first long lingering sunset on the banks of the Mississippi.

Today we drove across Minnesota and landed in Sioux Falls.  Sioux Falls is named after, yes, the falls, which are now surrounded by a lovely, very accessible city park. 

Had dinner at a great little local place downtown called the Phillips Avenue Diner. Everything you'd hope a diner to be and more. Delicious food and an imaginative menu as well.

The historic downtown is about 10 x 3 blocks and there is a fine sculpture collection lining the two main streets.  We walked around and then headed home. There is a tornado and severe thunder storm warning now as I write, so we've loaded a few back packs with basic survival supplies in case we have to go sit in the storm shelter later. Oh boy.

Tomorrow we cross South Dakota and will spend the night in the Badlands. We are moving quickly, passing by so many interesting things, but are eager to get to Spearfish, SD where we will spend a month and have the chance to really give our surroundings the attention we want to.  But even now, we are having so may new experiences, and enjoying ourselves tremendously.