An old hiking trail re-opens. One of my favorite walks.

It has always been one of my favorite walks/hikes over to our neighbor John's place.   Over the years we've spent many happy times there hunting for mushrooms, going for walks, and snow shoe hikes in the winter.

The trails were always so nice plus there were two branches of Cougar Creek to cross over and one of them had a really neat bridge over it.   I'm certain I have a better photo of the bridge than this one, but it's the only one I could find.  Cousin Marty built this bridge.

March 2014

The bridge has been taken out since then and replaced with a very large culvert but it's still nice to cross the two creeks.  The last few years there were too many trees down across the trail to make the hike worthwhile, but we met John on a walk this spring and found out that he had cleared the trails.  I have been walking there every day the past week.

Treasures on the table. 

 Where else can you take a hike in the woods and have a bench to sit on to take in the view?

 


Then it's time to head back down the hillside.

There were a few flowers and the Lady Slipper below blossomed on April 27th.

I also found the first mushrooms for 2019, three pig's ears.

They've already been eaten with some scrambled eggs a few mornings ago....

We've had some nice sunny days this past week and then fresh snow on the ground one morning.   We're certainly looking forward to warmer sunny days.

I'm waiting for my iris to bloom.  Here are some photos from 2013.

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.

We, the people....

In December of 2017 Hope Coalition decided to help gather signatures to put expanding Medicaid on the ballot.  In November 2018 the voters approved this initiative by 61% and now it is up to the state legislature to fund it and implement it.   Reclaim Idaho arranged for a rally and meetings with our legislators in Boise on Feb. 4th.  There were seven of us from Hope who decided to make the trek to Boise.

 We arrived Sunday evening and after checking in at our motel we set off walking to find a restaurant for dinner.  We had thought we would eat at Asiagos but it was closed.  Since none of us were really that familiar with the downtown Boise area, we spent quite a bit of time wandering around trying to find somewhere else to eat.  We ended up at Bardenays on the Basque block in downtown Boise. 

 The Super Bowl was in the final quarter and not very exciting to watch, but the food was really good.

The next morning we walked to the capitol building.  It was only about six blocks from our motel.

The plan was to find out if the Senate was in session and/or attend a committee meeting until our rally which was at noon.  When we arrived we happened to run into Sen. Woodward just in time to find out that the JFAC meeting would resume in ten minutes.   We listened in on the budget hearing for Mental Health Services.   Prop 2 will be saving that portion of the budget 4.2 million dollars.  One more reason to fund it without restrictions.

The Idaho Senate was in session next so we watched that until it was time for our rally for Prop 2.

The rally was on the front steps of the capitol building.

Kally, Vera and Linda made these great signs.

Everyone at the rally was very enthusiastic despite of the cold temperature and the wind.

Linda, Michele Marcy and Kally

with Luke Mayville

 We are Legislative District 1!

The photo below is one of my favorites.  The last speaker was Emily Strizich holding her sweet daughter.  Emily and her husband, Garrett, were the initial supporters of the Prop 2 effort along with Luke Mayville.  They have driven the Medicaid Bus up and down the length of Idaho several times to support the initiative. 

The most popular ride in Idaho

After the rally we decided to attend the Senate Education Committee meeting.  Senator Woodward, who is a member of the education committee, introduced us.  It was something we had not expected and it was very nice to be acknowledged.

 One of our members, Marcy, lives in Boise.  She was our chauffeur and tour guide while we were there.  Marcy was very familiar with all things political and the ins and outs of the legislature.   She drove us everywhere and recommended all the best places to eat.   It made our experience so fun!  We had lunch at Mai Thai and dinner at the Fort Street Station.

The second day we decided we wanted to see the House of Representatives in session and watched them debate and vote on several bills.

We had lunch with Senator Woodward at a very nice restaurant called Richards. After lunch we did a little shopping and then walked back to the capitol where we toured the governor's office.   As we walked out we met Governor Little and the chance to talk to him for a few minutes.

 I think this chair would work for me...

We decided we needed a photo under this sign for the fans of West Wing.

 Breaking news:  Tuesday evening that the Idaho Supreme Court ruled in favor of Prop 2.  The Idaho Freedom Foundation lost their lawsuit.   We couldn't be happier.

Michele, Judy, Susan, Connie, Linda

Our return flight was good and our driver, Linda, got us all home safely.  There is a lot more snow here than when we left and it's really cold!

We had an action-packed trip.  I'm not sure how we could have added anything more to our schedule.   I had a fabulous time!

Justice

Our neighbors were left with this mess after purchasing an adjacent piece of property.  The previous owner had 30 days to remove all these junk cars, boats, jet skis, campers, pickups and trucks. 

The seller had rented a piece of equipment (without chains) and attempted to drive it down a steep road to pull out all of junk.  There's quite a bit of snow, so he was soon stuck in the snow and had to call another neighbor to pull him out with a CAT.  This whole operation last Saturday blocked everyone's driveway and created a huge mess.  He told our neighbors that he actually wanted all of this stuff and was going to move it.   

He pulled all of this junk to the side of our road and then took several of the items to another property farther up the road.  The rest of it, which he had said he wanted, he just left by the side of our driveway.

Notice the pickup on top of the U-haul in the photo below.  There's also a camper, another pickup and jet skis that have been moved to this location.

The 25' boat and trailer that you see below has been moved up the road to this property and it is now blocking the entrance to the driveway into that property.

I do not have a photo of the boat at the new location, but I will update this post later.

Today our neighbors are loading the rest of the the junk that he left beside the road into a dumpster to get rid of it.  They have been left with the cost of removing all of this.

 I think justice has been served with the placement of the boat across the driveway entrance.