Cabin Fever Road Trip

Snow.  Snow.  More Snow.  We have sunny days but there's still three feet of snow (lots more in some places) on the ground.  The cabin fever has set in because it's really that time of year when we should be able to get outside and muck around in the mud.

We decided a drive to Creston, B.C. would help get us out of our funk and yes, we remembered to take our passports.  Fortunately, they haven't expired yet.

We didn't look like criminals so the border patrol agent at Canadian Customs allowed us entry.

Creston is only about 8 miles from the Porthill entry so it didn't take long to get there.  Almost all of the city of Creston is above the highway on the hillside.  We just enjoyed driving around the area looking at the houses and eventually found main street.

You will notice from the photos that there's not much snow left here.  How can that be?

We found the Columbia Brewing Company (Kokanee Beer).  No tours on Sunday.   Darn.

We did stop at a gas station and we bought some snacks to keep us going on the return route.   U.S. Customs thought we looked innocent and they let us back across the border.  Whew!

Next, we made an immediate right turn and headed to the town of Porthill.   In 1967 Retired Mountain Man lived right across the river near Porthill with Kermit Kiebert Sr. and Kermit Jr.   They lived at the ferry landing on the other side of the river in a large white farm house, which is no longer there.  They were logging until August of that year when they were pulled off the job to go on the Sundance Fire.  The ferry landing on the other side of the river is in the middle of the photo.  If you look on the mountains above the river, you can see a small east-west strip of snow which is the cleared Canada/U.S. border. 

Back in 1967 all the Canadians from Creston used to go to the Porthill Tavern (pictured below) because that was the only place open to get a beer on Sunday. The beer was served in quarts because it was cheaper for the Canadians because of the exchange rate.  The placed would be packed with people.  At a quarter to midnight the bartender would ring a bell to let the Canadians know they had 15 minutes before the border crossing would close for the night.  The bar would empty and the only people left were the three loggers and some very tired barmaids who had been carrying trays with quarts of beer on them all night.

The Porthill Mercantile.  There was only one other building in the town.  It is not a booming location.

Down below the town were huge fields of hops.  We think they are owned by Anheuser-Busch, but not certain.

I've included a closer shot of the place where the Porthill Ferry used to be.

It was a nice 4-5 hour trip and got us out of the house.  Today it's even warmer than yesterday, maybe 55 degrees.  We hope that spring is on the way.

Father's Day Road Trip to Ross Creek Cedars

Our plan was to drive to the Ross Creek Cedar Grove.  The plan changed just outside of Clark Fork when Retired Mountain Man asked me if I'd ever been to Antelope Lake.  The answer was no, so we turned the car around and started to drive up to the lake.  It didn't take long to realize that this last winter was hard on the road.  It was steep. It was rocky.  It had a LOT of washouts, but we had X-mode in our Subaru, which means it can cling to the road like a mountain goat....  It's a good thing.

RMM explained that Antelope Lake was carved out by the flood waters from Glacial Lake Missoula.   It's difficult to visualize the size of Glacial Lake Missoula and the magnitude of the floods carving out rock to form a lake, but...here it is.

There were some nice flowers blooming there, honeysuckle and a lot of wild roses.

These trees have mistletoe and are clinging to life on the edge of the lake.

Stromatolites on the rocky outcropping next to the road.  They are the earliest fossil evidence of life on earth.  Retired Mountain Man loves fossils and rocks.

Then we were back on Highway 200 headed to Montana.   Our next stop turned out to be Heron, Montana.  We had never been there either so we decided to check it out.  On our way we spent quite a bit of time driving towards a place named the Amber Bear Inn, but turned around and went back towards Heron.  There was a post office and an all-in-one cafe/bar/mercantile, with a few houses near.  That's it.  A very small secluded spot in Montana and in some places a very nice view of Scotchman's Peak.

Near Heron, they are in the process of replacing the one-lane bridge over the Clark Fork River.    The old bridge must be about 100' above the river.

Okay, so now we are finally just going to drive to Ross Creek Cedars.  No more stops.   Prepare yourself for a zillion photos....

I love the tree trunks with their "fingers" clinging to the earth.  Beautiful.

There's something in the water.....

It doesn't show in the photo, but the log is crushing the corner of the bench.

These two trees look like a front view and a back view.  Plus, I've always loved that other backside....

What is it?  It looks scary to me.

The End.

I forgot to post this photo.
My first picking.  These have already ripened and I've eaten most of them.   Bring on summer!

The Last Port of call. We are so sad.

Ocho Rios. Our tour takes us to Dunn's River Falls. The falls start from the beach and is about 180 feet height and 600 feet long. We are going to walk up the falls which takes about and hour and a half.

Dunn’s River Falls are fed by spring water, which is rich with calcium carbonate and is depositing travertine. Such waterfalls are described by geologists as "a living phenomenon" because they are continuously rebuilt by the sediments in spring water.

 Dunn's River Falls is one of the very few travertine waterfalls in the world that empties directly into the sea.

The photos are courtesy of D. Ramey Logan.  We were told by our first tour guide that we could not take our cameras on the hike up the falls.  We put our cameras and other things into a locker and went to the beach and then found out that our guide who would actually take us up the falls, would have carried our cameras and taken pictures for us.

We did purchased a video of all us hiking up the falls, but it is too long to post and it can't be edited.
 Plus, I have taken a vow that there shall be no video of me in a swimsuit published on the Internet.

The falls are beautiful and at first the water seemed cold, but actually it was not.  It was difficult going at the bottom where the waterfall was the strongest, but it is a very slow hike.  I needed a helping hand most of the way.  Retired Mountain Man refused to go as he would get wet.

 Congratulations to OKC Malcom and Linda, who went all the way to the top!  The rest of us quit after the first section, which turned out to be the most difficult.

We like the falls but did not like the vendors in Jamaica.  The only way to exit the park was to walk through their gauntlet of vendors, who were very aggressive and in your face all the time.

As we waited for the bus to take us to our next stop, I took some photos of this tree and the blossoms.  They didn't look real and they even felt like they were plastic.

 I wish I could remember the name of the tree.  I searched for it on the Internet with no luck.

 The dolphins put on a show at Dolphin Cove.

 There were also sharks. 

The water off of Jamaica was so beautiful.

Next:  A day at sea and back to Fort Lauderdale - 743 nautical miles.  Then we board our first plane for the torturous trip back to Spokane.  Total miles:  14,606.

I still hate flying.