One more day trip north along the Selkirk Scenic Loop and we made it to Bonners Ferry.  This was where the gold prospectors needed a ferry to cross the river to head to Canada for gold and one very enterprising man built one and a town for supplies.  Our plan was to continue into Canada for an international day but someone forgot the passports until we were 25 miles up the road!

We did find a very nice river where a few people were taking a swim!  I wanted to join them, the water looked wonderful but there was only an outhouse to change and it just wasn’t that inviting!

Sometimes where we are out exploring this wonderful country it is hard to tell what state you are in; everywhere has the same stores, restaurants but once in awhile I am reminded I’m not in California anymore!  Our at least not in the Bay Area!

Shell casings!  

The clouds were amazing against the trees as we drove along the Selkirk Byway.  Just another Friday afternoon in the life of the Roberts!

Golfing could become a habit if I had enough money!  We found a really nice course and played on a beautiful afternoon.

Keep your head down! I’ll watch!

Deer Park Golf and RV Park!

They had deer everywhere!  They marked the Tee Boxes in blue deer, white deer and gold deer!  I played from the gold since there were no red and this course was very long!  They had one hole that was over 500 yds from the gold!

We decided to take it easy one day and headed into town just to check out the Pend Oreille Museum and learn a bit about the area.  Paul loves museums, me I enjoy looking for something interesting that I might remember.  The museum had lots of interesting artifacts about the Pend O’reille Valley but we learned from the curator that we had been pronouncing the name all wrong!  It’s pronounce Ponderay!  It’s French and we thought it was Irish.

Not automatic at all! No wonder women had to stay home! Laundry would be an everyday event, not once a week!

There was lots of old farm equipment, tractors, a fire truck and lots of collections that had been donated by local citizens so that they could be enjoyed rather than sitting in someones attic!

Like he is going to use that!

We had a nice enjoyable day wandering through the museum and then we walked along Main Street where we stopped into the local Soda Fountain and had a rootbeer float!  Yep, we sat right up at the counter and watched the girl fill a boot with rootbeer from the tap and then top it with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream.  It was served on a saucer and it is a good thing cause Paul had the rootbeer overflowing!

Just a Wildflower

How simple is that?

This morning I had the chance to just sit and listen to the sounds of the forest before anyone was awake.  The animals were very awake!  Duke needed to go out which is very odd (we realized later that he wasn’t feeling well). Once he had me up and we saw a very large deer I decided that 6 am was a pretty good hour to get up!

Hard at work, 7 am

This guy was huge and right above our RV working away on a hole for about an hour while I watched.

His finished work

The hole is up about 50 feet and very easy to see from the ground!  The squirrels were also very busy but didn’t have time to sit while I took their picture.  Usually later in the day they are friendlier.

We are hanging out for a few days near Little Diamond Lake, Newport WA.  It is in the Northeastern corner of Washington and today we took a hike that we had to enter in Idaho and then back to Washington before getting there.  We also ended up 10 miles from the Canadian border!  Beautiful country with lots of lakes and the Pend Oreille River.  

Today’s goal was to get onto one of the many hiking trails.  I found one, Bead Lake Trail that would have went part way around the lake, was moderate difficulty and the dog was welcome.  It was about a 20 mile drive and all the information stated that it was hard to find and not very popular!  Sounds great!  Only when we finally found it, the trail took a steep descent into the forest and didn’t look well marked so plan B!

We continued up the road along The Pend Oreille River to Lake Sullivan where it was suppose to be a lakeshore trail around 1/2 the lake for an 8 mile round trip hike!  We found this one after only asking the ranger guy and it was a very nice hike only it wasn’t really along the lake shore.

Ready to hike the Lakeshore Trail

Lots of beautiful forest

The lake

Most of the trail was either away from the lake or high above it!  We did finally find a spot where Duke could get to the lake and get a drink!

Crystal clear waters

It was a beautiful hike, although the fear of poison oak is always on our minds.  We saw lots of greenery with 3 leaves!  After awhile every piece of folliage starts to have 3 leaves!  This was a very narrow trail and when we got home everyone got a shower and the clothes are being washed!  If we survive this hike without an outbreak I might get Paul out into nature again, otherwise we are going to be stuck on paved walking trails!

Paul trying to get Duke to pose!

We only hiked about 2 miles in because this wasn’t a loop trail,  Paul was concerned about the greenery and I had other spots to check out on our trip back down The International Selkirk Loop,  280-mile scenic drive encircling the spectacular Selkirk Mountains in eastern Washington, northern Idaho and southeastern British Columbia.  We did only about 40 miles of it today.  I think we will do another section later next week!

Just outside of Metaline Falls, where we stopped into the post office to send some mail we found a short little walk to Sweet Creek Waterfalls.  What a very nice little rest stop with picnic tables and you can get right down into the creek!

If you look closely you can see a couple enjoying the falls between the upper and lower cascades!  We climbed up to the break and met them.  A very nice couple who were ready to leave and let us enjoy the spot to ourselves!

The upper falls, where Duke and I walked into the creek and got a very nice photo!

A very nice day and I got some much enjoyed time out in the woods!

Wild Berries

Back at our home in the woods,  a shot of some wild berries!  The area just north of here boasts about Huckleberries and it is picking season.  They only grow wild and they make all kinds of things out of them.  Picking them is a bit of a sport as they are a favorite of the bears in the region!  Careful!. I wonder if these berries that are right outside of my door are huckleberries!  I soon will be finding out!