North West BS Thread

Two beers down - time to leave work.

 

Threw a little sunshine in mine, for taste. Good thing I don't have neighbors close, they would of called the padded van on me for taking yard beer pics.

 

You lucky son of a...

 

You and that view…

 

Definitely not taking it for granted.

 

Wife and I were supposed to have a chat with the kids tonight...time to reset expectations. But I'm three beers into an empty stomach so I think we'll defer parenting until tomorrow...

Just spent some time Google-mapping camping spots in North ID and MT for next summer. Makes me want to sell everything and move out there now. Then @NWPirate can be jealous of my view.

 

Lol…yeah. Kids can see through the glaze eyes pretty quick.

What spots/areas you looking at in ID/MT. Grew up there. Was just chatting with a guy about fishing the Yaak.

 

That I would!

 

Ha...I actually thought of you went looking around Boners Ferry (Yep, I got cheap there). We're going to spend some time on Lake Koocanusa for sure, so digging into destinations in-between. Think we'll spend a day or so at Silverwood Park to run the kids, but want to find a few places up in the hills to disconnect and clear the head. Got two weeks stashed away so going to make it a good trip...

Feel free to propose any places...always appreciate recommendations.

 

I like the Priest river/ Priest lake area for ID. Kalispell/Whitefish area for MT.

 

Book spots at Farragut State Park now. Camp there and drive to Silverwood. You'll have just as much fun there as you will Silverwood.

 

I haven’t been there in a long time, but Lions Head on the north end of Priest Lake is amazing. Watched an F16 throw a rooster tail down the lake there once when I was a kid.
Silverwood is a no brainier for the kids.
Sandpoint is an interesting town - you’ll see as many people that fit in in Seattle/Portland and you will open carry side arms - someone’s in the same person. Get beers at Laughing Dog. East of there, we used to spend 4th of July at Sam Owen campground (HWY 200 east of Sandpoint) but that lake really is best for people with power boats.
I’ve never done any RV/Trailer camping myself. Round Lake near Sagle was a place we went for Memorial Day every year for about 6 years- small lake good for canoes and kayaks. Dunno if it’s still nice though.
Koocanusa has lots of options.
Between 200 and 2 in Montana is the Bull River cutoff - the Ross Creek Cedars is a neat short hike and there’s also camping at Bull Lake and the mouth of Bull River into the Clark Fork (hwy 200).
Cabinet Gorge bring in Libby is decent.
Whitefish is kind of like a mini Jackson Hole it seems any more, but still a special place for me.
I know National parks are a shit show any more, but you’re so close, I’d figure out a way to hit Glacier NP and do the Red Bus Tour. You get to see the best parts of the park that you can get to by road, but you get to ogle instead of having to concentrate on the road (which is something you have to concentrate on if you’re driving there). It’s not cheap, but worth it. Book it WAY in advance.
Haiawatha Trail near Wallace ID is a long downhill grade bike ride on an old rail grade that goes through some long tunnels and stuff. I haven’t done it, but heard cool things. You can rent bikes rather than bring them. Wallace is an old mining town with an interesting history that includes the beginnings of the forest service and the invention of the Pulaski, and some houses of ill repute that operated into the mid-90’s.
I’m sure I’ll think of more…

 

Totally forgot about Farragut!
They test Navy submarine technology near there (deepest lake in ID and one of the deepest in the US at ~1300 ft in spots

 

Amazing recommendations! Thx. The friends we are camping with used to live in Kalispell, so they are stoked to head back that direction.

Need to save all this info…

 

Lots depends on if you want mainstream and close to action or way off the beaten path and isolated. For isolated, head up Yaak River road from HWY 2 west of Troy and keep going past the “town” of Yaak. There’s places scattered along the river, but be sure you’ve got everything you need with you… you’ll be damn near in Canada and a long ways from town or cell reception when you get there…
Down low on the Yaak, before it hits the Kootenai (pronounced KOOT-nee in the US and KOOT-nay in Canada), we used to swim at Yaak Falls. There’s a spot you can jump off the cliff into the river and you’ll pop up just about as you are passing by the rock to climb out on to do it again (or get pulled into the next small set of rapids )

 

Athol! Best name for a town
Really love that area too

 

I bought my Pitts & Spitts grill in Athol, at the Super 1 Foods. Traeger can’t hold a candle to this thing…
And yes, we always joked about not needing to ask what to call someone from Athol (though they’re really no different than anyone else in north Idaho).

 

Ever heard the phrase.. Your North Idaho is showing?

 

Yup.

 

We won’t talk about living on the next ridge over from Ruby Ridge in the middle of that whole thing…
Or the commune camp up Camp Nine that literally is tarps, teepee, and non-driving micro-busses and that is snowed in for ~6 months every winter.

 

I remember that. I thought it was crazy. Still do, but I still don't know why it really all went down.

 

I didnt know them personally, but many people that I went to school with did.
Long story best not told here…

 

Dunno how accurate it is, but that showdown is in the early parts of the Waco special that Netflix put out

 

Around 1970, I was camping out on priest lake with a brother and a friend. We had been spending the summer hitch hiking across the states and we would make agreements about where we would hook up together next. One morning setting down by the water drinking beer I see a canoe floating down the lake. Thinking it might have slipped a line and it could add some fun for us, I stripped down and swam out there to it. As I started to pull myself over, I realized that there was a girl in a bikini asleep sunbathing in the bottom of the canoe. She and I paddled back to shore and I introduced her to Steve and Jim, persuaded her to come back that evening with a couple of her girlfriends. Damn, I miss being 15 sometimes…
They were staying at the campground at the end of the lake.

 

Seems like I saw an adult movie with this plot when I was 17 or 18…

 

Are you still talking about the catch can?

 

RV winterization question for you. How do you treat your water hoses and sewer hoses? I read about soaking in bleach water and the drying out. Any other techniques?

 

The reality was much better than the movie!