Off Roading Western Style...

Last weekend we canceled plans to go camping and stayed close to home...the weather cleared on Monday and Lane, Kevin, and I spent some quality time with Teddy and Jo Ann Boggs.

Kevin spent some time learning from lifelong cowboy Teddy Boggs all about horsemanship, neck reigning, and one handed control...

Teddy and Kevin head for the hills...

Lane has other ideas...

The dynamic duo makes their victory lap...

Getting Ready For Take-Off

My good friend Perry surprised us, pulling into Newport this week and getting a good soaking in the process. Pulling a "B-Train" these types of combination units are unique to the west and way easier to back up than a set of traditional doubles with a con gear connecting the front and rear pup trailers...in a "B Train configuration, the rear trailer connects to the front one...whereas with traditional doubles, there are two points of connection and thus far less stability. Here is Perry's current ride, a Kenworth W 900 (L to R Kevin, Tim, Perry)...Perry runs throughout the western US and Canada and has competed for HMR at the Calgary IGRA Rodeo...

A great cause...

A friend of ours is getting a Habitat For Humanity home. She's a hard working single mom and we'll be following the home's progress over the coming months....Here are the first photos....

We have a winner!

Thanks to everyone who participated...

We have a winner in the contest to guess "who" was in the picture featured a few blogs back...

The correct answer is Tricia, from the story Graced By Amazing...

This shot is from near where the beginning of the story takes place... The Stuart Range in central Washington. Prime Apple Country.

Congradulations to Mike in Salinas, California who was the first one to come up with the answer...stay tuned and we'll do this again...

A tale of trails-The newest trail guide for this area...

For those folks who'd really like to get out and experience the Selkirks-here is a great guide featuring local trails. One of our favorite artists and an amazing chef Taneesha Smith (Think the Squeeze Inn in Clark Fork, Idaho) helped author Dennis Nicholls scout out many of these trails. You can purchase the book by following the links found on the home page of http://www.Selkirkloop.org

The Amazing Selkirk Loop

Views from the Selkirks...

On Mother's Day Kevin and I took a road trip...We started out by checking on the wildflower situation on the home front...As I've previously mentioned, I did not sell off all of the land I own when I sold my home last fall...here are a few shots taken there...looking west-northwest toward Dalkena---and across the river toward Saddle Mountain...
Here is the private drive-recently all the blowdown and deadwood was removed from here and hopefully it will recover quite quickly...

These shots were taken from Millpond Historic Site near Sullivan Lake Ranger Station and the small town of Metaline...

Kevin stands on the edge of the Boundary Dam viewpoint...which dang near straddles the Canadian Border...
Those power lines extend toward Seattle nearly 400 miles to the southwest...Over the hill lies Gardner Cave, the second largest cave in Washington...When terror levels are elevated in the US, this view point is closed and snipers are dispatched to protect the dam...
Boundary Dam...is an impressive engineering feat...
Its a long way dooooooowwwwwwnnnnnnnn. And then some...
Power lines extend out from the turbines....
Looking downriver from the dam, the Pend Oreille River flows into British Columbia, Canada...the dam was used as a movie set with an entire town built on the Boundary Dam face for Kevin Costner's monumental flop "The Last Postman" which was filmed almost entirely in Pend Oreille County. Part of the movie Benny and June (starring Johnny Depp) was also filmed in our county....


So, we wound up right on the Canadian border and decided to cross and get something to eat in Nelson...During this entire trip we never traveled more than fifty miles from the US/Canadian Border... After chowing down in Nelson we drove upriver toward the lake...Here Kevin shows his talent at shoveling dirt...got dirt? He'll give you the scoop...

Here is the scenic harbor on Kootenay Lake near Balfour Ferry Terminal...The mountains across from the dock are the mighty Selkirks, which also extend down into the states of Washington and Idaho...
The Purcell Range...
The 100 vehicle ferry the Osprey 2000...
Loading on our ferry...The two boats servicing this run comprise the largest free auto ferry system in the world and run neary 18 hours a day across Lake Kootenay...
This is the smaller of the two boats...and only has a capacity of around 50 vehicles...
The Osprey is much larger and even offers foodservice....cool eh?

Heading out of the harbor toward what is known as "the big water"...
All this fresh water eventually becomes the Columbia River...this Lake is fed by the Kootenai/Kootenay River (different spellings on each side of the border...) The river originates along the Canadian Rockies near Cranbrook BC and then flows into northwest Montana, west into Idaho, then back into Canada....
Kevin strikes a pose...and then another...


A bit unnerving...we were parked at the end of the boat, on an incline...
Sunset was simply stunning...
In every direction we looked-Mountains, Sky, and water...

Looking south toward Creston as alpenglow glanced off the higher peaks...and we were only a little over an hour from the house...Later that night we almost hit a moose outside of Tiger, Washington and a herd of Elk near Nelway BC...reinforcing the wild country we call home...

Come visit our stunning scenery-the Selkirk Loop-

For more information click here:

http://www.selkirkloop.org

A contest of sorts....

Pictured here is a very special lady...in fact she stared in a story I penned. Here's the deal...the first person to guess "who" she is and in which story she appeared will win a free HMR baseball hat...

To get to the stories mosey on over to http://www.highmountainranch.com


The rules:

You have to name her by the name used in the story-as well as include the title of the story...

If you were also featured in the story-uh you're disqualified from participating...

Anyone who has met our heroine on her many visits to the ranch is also uh...well not eligible to participate...

No one in either of our families is eligible to participate-which includes previous partners, boyfriends, or co defendants...

Send your guess to Highmountainranch@povn.com. Include the words "contest guess" in the subject line...As soon as someone gets the answer correct, we will make an announcement here...

From Bloomsday With Love

The following posts chronicle "Bloomsday"-the 30th anniversary edition... My good friend and neighbor John and I have done this several years running. Each year we straggle further and further toward the end of the finishers, enduring nearly eight miles of various obstacles- an unheralded acheivement in itself. The first shot is of Kevin and John, Kevin having no idea what he was in for...
Just sayin cheez...
"If you can read this my 86 year old mother is kicking your ass (scratched out), butt (also scratched out), rear... For the record, she finished the race and came very close to beating us...of this we are so not proud...
The trees along the race route bear the rare bloomie fruit...discarded clothing shed by racers...
Folks far smarter than we offered us their pity and occasionally their garden hoses...
Yep---That's how many folks started out in front of us....another ten thousand passed us...give or take...
Costumed fans cheered us forward...
Somehow knowing that it was about to rain on us...
And then there was entertainment....
At the finish line, spring run off provided a refreshing backdrop on the recently updated Monroe Street Bridge...
See what I mean? Like we even had a chance of finishing first...by the time we crossed the starting line, the first finishers had already crossed the finishing line...uh...45 minutes before...
We celebrated and ate really bad but delicious food...ensuring that next year our time will be even more pathetic than our spectacular effort for this year...