Dandelions and Daydreams

It’s been two weeks since the grass was cut. I spent about a month being very careful about cutting the grass once a week and I even planted flowers. The dandelions started blooming and I just couldn’t mow them down mercilessly. The grass keeps on growing, and I know that I *should* take the time to mow the grass.

I walk around the yard and look at the flowers that are getting ready to bloom. We have daisies taking over our yard, and I am delighted. I am conflicted though. I know I should mow the grass. I should cut down the clover and the daisies, but I just don’t want to cut them yet.

When we have our own house, I think I will dig up the whole yard and plant it all in wildflowers. I will have flowers bloom all summer long and I can say it is on purpose. Sounds wonderful to me.

I’ve been reading the book 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller. I picked it up because it was recommended by Dave Ramsey. If you are feeling like you lost your dreams or are floundering with the question, “What am I going to do when I grow up?” (regardless of your age), this is a great book for you. Reading this book (which is written from a Christian perspecetive) has helped me to pinpoint after searching for 2 years what it was about camp that I loved so much. Now that I know that, I have a better understanding of what it is that God created me to do. I don’t have “skin” on my calling yet. I can’t define it as a particular job, but at least I know what it looks like now. I haven’t finished this book yet, but I already highly recommend it.It would make a GREAT graduation gift.

If you do buy it, please click through this link to help support this blog.

With spring still being a bit temperamental, Brenton and I are taking every opportunity we can to get out and about when the weather cooperates. Yesterday the high was in the upper 70’s so we went out for a paddle in our new Advanced Elements Advanced Frame Convertible Kayak. We drove to Schweitzer Cutoff Rd and put in Sand creek at the bridge. Sand creek is a fairly well behaved creek with just enough speed to keep you moving (at least until you get close to Lake Pend Orielle).

Right beside the bridge is a nice parking area that can easily accommodate two cars. We were not the first to think of putting in there. A truck had already parked and was long gone down the creek by the time we got there. It turned out that our fellow boater was one of Brenton’s Co-workers, but that’s another story.

We scouted the best path to portage before we inflated the kayak. There’s nothing worse than getting all set up to go only to find out that you can’t get into the water because the bank is too steep. We had to hug the fence a bit to carry the kayak down to the waters edge, but we made it. The bank was a bit steep.

I went into the water first and WOW it was cold. We are still getting some spring melt from the mountains. The rocks were slick with alge and I thought I was going to take a swim once or twice as we were trying to get all situated.

We managed to get into the boat and head down the creek with no major events. Brenton paddled most of the way, I was just there to help around a few rough spots. It’s a good route for inexperienced paddlers, a few shallow places, a little bit of a current, but nothing too intense. Mostly the route is just flat, slow moving water.

It’s spring around here so we saw lots of goslings and ducklings. I have to say the ducklings are cuter than the goslings. We saw a long boardwalk along sand creek that was getting pretty old and decrepit.

As I was looking at the boardwalk, I thought about another time in Sandpoint, ID. This town has always revovled around the lake and water. Whether it was the timber industry or the tourism industry, Lake Pend Orielle is at the heart of Sandpoint.

Last weekend was paddlefest. Paddlefest is when Full Spectrum Tours brings out kayaks for a free test day on Lake Pend Orielle. At least it’s free until you buy one.Brenton and I have been dreaming of buying a kayak for about a year and a half. We had thought about it and debated it, and came to the conclusion that a hard body kayak just wasn’t quite what we wanted. We wanted a kayak that we could pack in and out to remote alpine lakes and that we could easily carry in the car. After a lot of consideration, we decided to hold out for a folding kayak like the ones offered by Folbot. But the price for a folding kayak starts out at about $2000 so that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

We walked down the beach admiring the various kayaks that were available to be tested. There were probably 70 different kayaks of various brands and styles for us to try out. We didn’t test nearly all of the. At the end of the row was a kayak that made me stop and look again.

I have never really been impressed with inflatable kayaks. They all look like beach toys to me, but when I saw the Advanced Elements Advanced Frame Convertible I knew I was looking at the solution to our kayak problem.

Here’s the stats about this little beauty:

SPECIFICATIONS:

Length: 15’

Width: 32”

Weight: 56 lbs (25 kg)

MaxWt.: 550 lbs (249 kg)

Color: Red/Gray

The bottom is made out of the same PVC tarpulin that is used to make white water rafts. There are 6 air chambers. The two main chambers both go all the way around the kayak so you would stay afloat even if one of them punctures. The main air chambers are protected by three layers so a puncture is pretty unlikely. The seats clip in. There are three sets of clips so you can convert it from a tandem to a single kayak. Set up and take down took us about 10 minutes a piece on the first try. I’m sure we will only get faster too (in comparison, my friends with solid body kayaks say it takes them about 15 minutes to get the kayak on and off their roof racks). And I can fit the kayak, paddles, and PFDs all in the truck of our car along with two sleeping bags and a cooler. That’s some sweet stuff. We’ve been out 3 times since we bought it. I would buy it all over again.

I love spontaneity. That being said, It’s no surprise that last Friday night when Brenton came home in an out-of-sorts-mood we threw two sleeping bags in the back of the car, loaded a cooler with ham, cheese, and bread. Fifteen minutes after the idea struck, we were on the road and headed towards Montana for a night of camping in the back of the car.
Any good adventure has its setbacks. Our obstacles proved to be trains and red lights. You know, those things are nothing but annoyances when you are trying to run away from civilization. I thought I was going to pull my hair out before we got out of town.

As we headed East on towards Montana on Highway 200, I snapped a picture of the green Monarch Mountains. This was taken right before the rain started pouring down. We kept on driving east chasing a patch of blue sky that we didn’t actually find until the next morning. It was getting dark and we had driven about 100 miles, so we found a national forest road that headed north somewhere past Thompson Falls, MT.

The road caught Brenton’s attention because it headed up into a valley between two mountains. He was thinking of how much fun it would be to fly into the valley. While he was thinking of airplanes and flying, I was keeping my eyes open for a place to pull in and park for the night.

It’s still pretty early in the season up here for camping. Most of the parks will open on Memorial Day weekend. We actually came across several campgrounds that were still closed for the season. With no worries, we kept on driving. The national forest roads are just dotted with campsites along the road. These campsites are little more than a parking space and a fire ring, but they do the job. we found one beside a nice river in the valley between two mountains.

At this point I should probably mention that we didn’t bring any matches or lighters or flashlights or a tent (of course I brought the important stuff–a camera and accessories). I scrounged around the car a while and found a flashlight buried deep down in the glove compartment. We had actually planned from the start to sleep in the car, but we hadn’t planned out the logistics of it.

I had thought of putting the back seats down and sleeping with our feet in the trunk, but I dismissed the idea. As we were trying to figure out how to sleep Brenton suggested folding the back seats forward and sleeping with our feet in the trunk. It took a little extra padding and wiggling around to get comfortable, but sleeping in the trunk of the car was definitely not the most uncomfortable sleep I have ever had while camping.

The next morning we planned on having sandwiches for breakfast, but there is nothing like a hot breakfast after a cold night of camping. We did what any logical person would do after heading out on a spontaneous camping trip. We headed north on the national forest road into uncharted territory.

The road followed the Thompson river. Any road that follows a river snakes back and forth incessantly. There were places where three roads ran side by side just ten feet apart. I thought that the road crew could have planned that a bit better. I was getting hungrier and hungrier until I finally gave in and had a ham sandwich. Brenton on the other hand was still holding out for a stack of pancakes.

We finally came out of national forest about 40 miles East of Libby Montana. By this time I was hoping we would have enough gas to get us into town. Brenton was easy going as always.

About a mile outside of Libby we picked up a hitch hiker. Brenton asked the man if he knew where there was a good place to get a bite to eat. The hitch hiker recommended Torgys. In fact that’s where the gentleman was headed himself.

That was a good breakfast! Brenton had pancakes, eggs, bacon, and coffee. I had eggs, bacon, and toast (and of course coffee). The food was just right. The coffee a bit weak (but then I like it so you can stand a fork up in it). Overall the price wasn’t too bad at Torgy’s Restaurant. I think my plate was $4 and Brenton’s was $5.

Back on the road we drove home to Sandpoint where we rounded out our camping weekend with opening day of the Farmer’s Market, sighting in my rifle, and hauling horse manure in for the garden. At the end of the weekend, It was a good weekend.

During the whole trip we kept a count of wildlife sightings. Here are the totals and my conclusions:

White Tail Deer: 36

Mule Deer: 3

Black Tail Deer: 1

Bald Eagles: 8 (including one juvenile who didn’t have the characteristic white head yet)

Geese: WAY TOO MANY TO COUNT

Bear: 1–in my dreams, no really I dreamt about a bear.

Conclusion: if Bald Eagles are endangered, the moose must be extinct because we didn’t see any of them.