Have a good screen-free Sunday.
Month: May 2020
workin’ on my country drawl
Sorry friends, but no photos for a few days. Wifi here in hill country is spotty, so I’ll just post a few words about our second workaway here in western Montana.
We are somewhere between Hamilton, MT and Salmon, Idaho. Passed through Darby to get here; the boys liked that, as it looks like an old west town.
Our generous host is letting us stay in the master suite that she rents out to air bnb guests, as we are the only workawayers here at present. Normally, the workers get the trailer out back. There’s a nice creek running right through the property. Cross the creek and you get to the barn and goat corral.
Today the boys learned how to milk a goat, drive a four-wheeler buggy, and fire a pellet gun. We did some general cleaning and are building fencing around the garden.
You get a nice mountain breeze coming into the room at night, the stars are bright as we’re in a valley with no lights from city or town, and the soothing sound of the creek outside lulls you to sleep. Days are warm and nights are cool. The food is good and the boys are loving it. I’ll take pictures of the place and put them up in about a week.
Short Hike
Go south on the 93 and turn toward the hills to the west at Hamilton and you drive a couple miles to the Canyon Creek trail. We didn’t have time to do the 5 mile hike to Canyon Lake so we just did the 1.5 mile route up the ridge, which offers a great view to the east of the Bitterroot Valley at Hamilton, and the Canyon on the west side.
I thought they were extracting oil with novel pumping systems, but the farmer on the tractor said, “Nah, it’s just art.” The big wheel turned on just a trickle of water.
Hey y’all. Thanks for reading the blog. Today we are heading to our 2nd workaway location. The wifi is very spotty so probably won’t be putting up a post until we get back to the Hollingsworth’s next week.
If I manage a post it will just be text only. Otherwise, check back on June 4th for an update.
Dan
animals around here
There are also chickens here at the Hollingsworths, and they’ll be getting goats soon. Other animals around the neighborhood- cows, horses, dogs. Tons of birds, prarie dogs, yellow-jackets, wasps, bugs galore- but no mosquitos so far and only Allen has been stung, by a bee when he was on the bike.
So, we’ve cut wood, washed windows, washed cars, cleared old brush, and done some odd things. We’re waiting on materials to do a fence.
The kids here are into cards, board games, insect collecting, and general wandering around the 4.5 acre lot and beyond. The dog has a ton of energy and needs 3 walks a day.
Allen and Owen help me in the morning. Kick back a bit in the afternoon. Play chess or a card game with the kids here; do their homework in the evening after dinner; maybe give their brother, sister and mom a call before bed, etc.
Next: local bike ride
What’s goin’ on here, anyway?
Workaway is a system where tens of thousands of hosts around the world offer food and lodging at their homes, farms, B&Bs, etc. in exchange for work. The idea is, you start in the morning and put in 4 or 5 hours, Monday thru Friday, and you get the late afternoon, evening and weekends off, plus room and board.
I figure that on the guest side of the equation, it’s mainly for young folks looking to travel the world on the cheap. Recent college grads and such. Nevertheless, I signed up and sent out a few inquiries. You can narrow your search to families who don’t mind you coming with kids. The Hollingsworths, of Victor, Montana, responded and said we’d be most welcome. Now we’ve been here a number of days and they are indeed super-welcoming hosts.
The East side of the Bitterroot has gentle, sloping hills that lead to higher mountains, like the foothills of the alps. Our side, the west, has deeper, steeper canyons that are wooded, or rocky, and rough. Each canyon has a creek and a hiking trail. The hike a few days ago was in the nearest canyon- trailhead is about 5 minutes from the house.
Right now we’re just doing odd jobs like cutting wood and cleaning windows, and I’m doing some educational stuff with the kids. Everyone’s getting along pretty good, and Finn, the dog, is super-happy with people all over the place.
Next: some photos of Rancho Hollingsworth life, and the pets
Bear Creek Trail
I’ll get into some details and put up some photos of our workaway situation later, if anyone’s interested. For now, here’s a hike we took yesterday.
Bear Creek Trail parking lot. I thought my cousin’s Prius would be rare in these parts, but here’s one right behind Owen. By the way, that’s a pit bull. No leash and he just came right up to us. OK, he’s 13.5 years old and the owner was nearby telling us he’s friendly. He had a beautiful coat of fur and you could feel how solid he was petting him. I said, “He feels awfully strong.” Owner: “Yeah, he could do some real damage, but he probably won’t.”
Obligatory wildlife shot. This one is just for my Japanese readers who will say, “かわいいい!”. Didn’t see any bears or cougars, but there were dogs aplenty. Saw a black mouth cur, which isn’t a variety of bass, but rather another dog breed, which has a grey mouth and looks like a German shorthaired pointer. Also saw a Goldendoodle for the first time. Both breeds were duly noted in my portable journal, a la Muir.
When we got back to the parking lot, it was full, with cars parked along the road coming in. About 20 to 25 cars. Only two from out of state, and only two Priuses. I think the NY folks were relieved to be able to park next to their eco-conscious, distant coastal cousins. Or maybe they were just halving the odds of getting keyed.
last leg
Kamiah, Idaho to Victor, Montana.
This church was where I stayed for a week in the summer of 1983, on a high-school church mission/outing.
Here I remember playing some dumb game where we jumped onto a pile of sleeping bags. I smashed my head against another kid and was out for the afternoon
This was the mess hall.
Leaving Kamiah, we filled up at a gas station/mini-mart. I came back from paying the cashier and said to the boys, “They got a lot of nice guns in there.” Their eyes lit up and they had to go see. Guns at the gas station! The clerk got a kick out of these half Japanese kids staring in wonder at the Winchesters and Glocks.
After Kooskia, you follow the Clearwater river east, come to a pass and head down to Lolo, Montana, where you meet the 93. Turn left and Missoula is ten miles North. Turn right and Victor is about 20 miles south, in the Bitterroot Valley.
goin’ hikin’
Have a good Screen-Free Sunday!
Boise to points north
So many beautiul river valleys in Idaho. One rest stop approaching Hell’s Canyon claimed this area was the kayaking/rafting capital of the world.
It’s a steep climb when you come out of Hell’s Canyon. Owen looking down on Butcher Hollow.
Hell’s Canyon has the rugged, rocky hillsides. After Grangeville, heading up the 95 to Kooskia, the river valleys are still steep, but much greener, and very unpopulated. Some of these valleys have little towns that could have been used in scenes out of Deliverance.
The sign said open, and there was a cool wooden bridge over the river with a horse pasture. Nice grassy areas. Nothing about camping but I knocked on the door so I could inquire about pitching a couple tents here.
(slingblade voice): “Reckon I’d like to fly one of them stars ‘n stripes ‘n bars from the F250, uhumm.”
The KOA office in Kamiah was closed, but the night clerk was available. She came to the door with a little shihtzu. “I used to just clean around here but now I’m running the office, taking care of the owner’s dog n’ everything. I guess you could say I’m an essential worker!”
We had a fire but the rain came and forced us in our tents, which held up under a downpour. Next: Montana at last.
Carson City to Boise
This stretch is pretty desolate in summer, but it’s been a snowy/rainy spring in these parts, and we saw a fair amount of green. Lot’s of beautiful terrain out in the middle of nowhere. The Idaho portion of this leg was in the dark, so no photos.
Lovelock, Nevada is the first place we found a restaurant with the dining room open.
I want to say, “Lovelock has seen better days,” but was Lovelock ever the happenin’, swank place? Was this place, for example, ever somewhere you’d want to include in your travel scrapbook?
If they once bothered to construct public building like this, then yes, Lovelock has seen better days.
dwshumway 