Posts for March, 2009

Finally we are in the last week before departing and Nina is telling me it's time to get all that test data off the web site, so that we don't confuse friends and family.

We are (finally) on our way.

Despite the regular noisy goods trains that punctuated the night, we slept well last night. For Nina that meant no iPods or radios were needed to induce sleep. Hope for her sake that is a portentous sign.

We took our time getting under way this morning as we decided to enjoy the amenities of the Hells Gate campground, a nice warm (?) shower, paved walking track and beautiful setting.

We woke to the noise of semi-trailers, they were also parked in the rest area with us, and about 4 inches of fresh snow. The storm that dropped snow on us yesterday along the Clearwater was still in force last night.

A very short drive today. We spent most of the day saying our good byes to Rick and Lizzie and finishing some last minute business chores.

Our day started with a stroll down the streets of Virginia City, an old gold town that is being maintained as both a historic site and a living town. Some interesting old buildings displayed a way of life that is now gone. Not far from Virginia City is the town of Nevada City an even smaller town again with a good collection of late 1800 buildings and a lot of railway relics and a workshop in which some locals maintain a train that runs from Virginia City to Nevada City. Both these towns were major centers of gold production in the late 1800's and at one point Virginia City was the capital of the Montana Territory.

From our camp at Bannack State Park we returned to highway 278 and through Big Hole Pass and into the Big Hole River valley. Winter had not yet departed from the valley. There was a carpet of snow across all the fields and the whole valley was white, except where it was dotted with cows and hay.

Well the pump repair did not work. This morning when we investigated the area under the seat, it was wet, and it seemed to be newly wet. A bit more investigation and it was clear, the pump was still leaking. A new one was in order.

The saga of the leaking water system continued this morning.

We woke to a light covering of fresh snow, maybe an inch, the last traces of the fire sending up little wisps of smoke, and blue sky above the low cloud or mist that was swirling around. Back on the road everything was covered in fresh snow, and the morning light was making it all glisten. It was a very pleasant drive into Libby

There is not much to say about this day. We got the vehicle to Car Toys at the scheduled time and they had fixed the issue within half an hour.

The Wal Mart parking lot proved to be a most adequate place to sleep. You would not call it a great camping spot. Certainly not the kind of place you would want to sit in a camp chair, next to the motor home and drink a beer, but flat, safe and relatively quiet. Also in the morning a short stroll to the store provided very clean and warm rest rooms.

We could not resist a walk around the town of Leavensworth, the cute always seems to win out over the kitsch. We were a bit early at 9:30 so most of the shops and businesses were closed; probably a good thing as we didn't need to find any more Washington souvenirs.

We had morning coffee with Brenda and a bit more catching up and then we had to leave to make our next visit.

We continued along Hwy 99 this morning into Whistler. The highway is much improved from a few years ago with a lot more 4 lane sections but there was still a tremendous amount of construction and road work going on. I sure hope they get it all done before the Olympics in 2010.

From our camp we continued north west along highway 99 following Cayoosh Creek. The river valley was really spectacular, winding river, steep sides, and rocky crags atop the mountains all covered in fresh snow. As a consequence the road was twisty and steep in places, even in this weather there was road work in progress and signs along the way identified a number of projects to start once the weather improved. We were surprised that neither of us had much memory of this part of the road.