Mother's Day Mini Road Trip

Retired Mountain Man and I went to the Hope Marketplace Cafe to listen to Beth and Bruce play there for possibly the last time since Kally has sold the cafe.   As always, the music was lovely.   I will miss those Sunday afternoons.

Afterward we drove to Cabinet Gorge Dam to check out the water.  It's impressive.

When we returned to Clark Fork we decided to drive up Johnson Creek to check it out.  There were trucks along the way hauling rip-rap to fortify the banks.

Notice the long dock here.  Jon and his friend, John Underwood, used to put in their canoe here every October to go duck hunting.    Jamie and David went with them once when they a chance to use two canoes. 

It was a very big adventure.

There was always lots of very detailed planning about what they would take with them.  Coffee thermos filled with hot coffee, a few snacks, sandwiches and of course all of the necessary gear.  They would get up at 3:00 a.m. and by 4:30 they would be at Johnson Creek, backing the pickup with the trailer into the water to unload the canoe.  (It was always so cold!  I could never understand how it could be fun.  At 4:30 a.m. I just curled back up in my warm blankets and went back to sleep.)

Once they were in the canoe and on the water one person always held the flashlight in the front of the canoe to watch for driftwood.   It wouldn't be daylight until after they paddled almost all the way to the lake and had time to set up their decoys.

 He said that one time there were two other hunters on the other side of the dock unloading their canoe.  One of them headed out in the dark to the end of the dock.  Soon they heard a big splash in the water.  He had walked right off the end of the dock!  There was a lot of splashing around and then the guy came walking back dripping wet and cold.   His hunting partner just said he would be waiting for him while he drove home to get dry clothes.

I used to worry that they would hit a big piece of driftwood and tip their canoe over and end up in the lake with all of their hunting gear on.   They would sink like a rock.  That's what wives and mothers do.  Worry.

Another time Jon and John rescued two hunters who were stranded on an island.  They had been duck hunting and their boat drifted away.  The two hunters had spent the night on the island and were very cold and hungry. 

Today there was a family there swimming.  The father was trying to convince his young daughter to jump in and swim a few feet towards him.  She wouldn't go for it.   I don't blame her.  The water couldn't possibly be warm.

Here's a photo of where some of that water comes from.  The Mission Mountains a couple of weeks ago.