Day 13 – Anaconda, MT, to Winchester, ID
This morning, we left the beautiful Philipsburg Bay campground and drove north on Highway 1 to I-90. The interstate took us west to Missoula, where we got off and took U.S. 12, following the Lewis and Clark Trail into Idaho.
It was another spectacular drive – along the Lochsa River with steep slopes covered in pine and cedar rising sharply on either side.
Not far from Missoula, we pulled off the road at a historical marker for lunch. It was such a pretty, sunny spot, and as I breathed in the heavily pine-scented air, I was overcome with a sense of peace and happiness – and most of all nostalgia. The smell of the air and the warmth of the sun on my head brought back some of my best childhood memories – of pine forests and sunny days and roadside rest areas and trips like this, when my family was with me and everything was safe and comfortable and hopeful. I hope our children look back on this time and remember it fondly, as well.
After lunch, as I was packing things back into the car, I noticed a hissing noise coming from the propane tank on the front of the trailer. It was leaking gas, and despite Keith’s attempts to tighten the connection, it continued to leak. We don’t know how long it had been doing that. Keith left us all at the roadside stop while he drove back into town to try to fix the problem, but whomever he talked to at the gas station did not want to deal with a leaky propane tank. So Keith came back, we took the tank off the trailer, left it, still leaking and hissing, at the park. Then we called the regional Forest Service, which oversees the rest area, so that they can deal with it. What else could we have done?
Back on the road, we enjoyed the beautiful views – especially when we crossed into Idaho, and the vista seemed to open up to include snowcapped mountains in the distance. At several points, we saw kayakers shooting the rapids, and once we even got out of the car to cheer on a group of white-water rafters. But following a winding river at 40 mph for three hours gets rather tedious – and a long stretch of road construction didn’t help. (The kids were getting a little punchy, too, resorting to drawing disguises on the characters in Charlie’s Star Wars coloring books for entertainment. R2-D2 now has a blonde wig and a mustache. Go figure.) So we were happy to pull off for grilled cheese sandwiches and cherry pie at a lonely little diner in the dusty town of Kooskia.
From there, it was a little more than an hour to Winchester Lake State Park, just south of Lewiston, ID. We had splurged a bit and reserved a yurt – a 20-ft round tent with a wood floor and a wrap-around deck. It was almost dark when we rolled in, so it was nice not to have to set up a tent or cook dinner (we’re without water AND gas now, so cooking dinner would have been a challenge). But we discovered that the yurt comes equipped with a gas grill as well as bicycles, life vests and access to canoes, so it’s too bad that we won’t be staying longer.
The yurt is furnished with a futon and a bunk bed. And even though the kids were trashed from riding in the car all day, there’s something about a bunk bed that gets them all riled up. So it took a while to settle them into bed. No doubt, they will be up early, bouncing around on the furniture again.
This morning, we left the beautiful Philipsburg Bay campground and drove north on Highway 1 to I-90. The interstate took us west to Missoula, where we got off and took U.S. 12, following the Lewis and Clark Trail into Idaho.
It was another spectacular drive – along the Lochsa River with steep slopes covered in pine and cedar rising sharply on either side.
Not far from Missoula, we pulled off the road at a historical marker for lunch. It was such a pretty, sunny spot, and as I breathed in the heavily pine-scented air, I was overcome with a sense of peace and happiness – and most of all nostalgia. The smell of the air and the warmth of the sun on my head brought back some of my best childhood memories – of pine forests and sunny days and roadside rest areas and trips like this, when my family was with me and everything was safe and comfortable and hopeful. I hope our children look back on this time and remember it fondly, as well.
After lunch, as I was packing things back into the car, I noticed a hissing noise coming from the propane tank on the front of the trailer. It was leaking gas, and despite Keith’s attempts to tighten the connection, it continued to leak. We don’t know how long it had been doing that. Keith left us all at the roadside stop while he drove back into town to try to fix the problem, but whomever he talked to at the gas station did not want to deal with a leaky propane tank. So Keith came back, we took the tank off the trailer, left it, still leaking and hissing, at the park. Then we called the regional Forest Service, which oversees the rest area, so that they can deal with it. What else could we have done?
Back on the road, we enjoyed the beautiful views – especially when we crossed into Idaho, and the vista seemed to open up to include snowcapped mountains in the distance. At several points, we saw kayakers shooting the rapids, and once we even got out of the car to cheer on a group of white-water rafters. But following a winding river at 40 mph for three hours gets rather tedious – and a long stretch of road construction didn’t help. (The kids were getting a little punchy, too, resorting to drawing disguises on the characters in Charlie’s Star Wars coloring books for entertainment. R2-D2 now has a blonde wig and a mustache. Go figure.) So we were happy to pull off for grilled cheese sandwiches and cherry pie at a lonely little diner in the dusty town of Kooskia.
From there, it was a little more than an hour to Winchester Lake State Park, just south of Lewiston, ID. We had splurged a bit and reserved a yurt – a 20-ft round tent with a wood floor and a wrap-around deck. It was almost dark when we rolled in, so it was nice not to have to set up a tent or cook dinner (we’re without water AND gas now, so cooking dinner would have been a challenge). But we discovered that the yurt comes equipped with a gas grill as well as bicycles, life vests and access to canoes, so it’s too bad that we won’t be staying longer.
The yurt is furnished with a futon and a bunk bed. And even though the kids were trashed from riding in the car all day, there’s something about a bunk bed that gets them all riled up. So it took a while to settle them into bed. No doubt, they will be up early, bouncing around on the furniture again.
We are in Missoula tonight, planning on going the same route you took on Rte 12 through Idaho. I'm a little worried now, but think we'll go ahead and try it.
ReplyDeleteAll Oles-Pete, Alisha, Sue, Steve, Fran (honorary Ole)-we spent our first night out in Northfiled, walked up the hill so Tom could see St Olaf. The town was busy.