Blue Goose ~ Day 25

June 25 ~ Polson, MT to Bonner's Ferry, ID

I slept in, waking at 0630.  I cleaned up (relatively) in Walmart, bought ice and drove to the Starbucks in Kalispell, 50 miles north. Kalispell gets busier each time I return. There is now a Cabela’s next to Starbucks. The commercial interests sprawl south for miles, but not as much to the north where I went to a little shop in Whitefish called Sage and Cedar to pick up essential oils for Ginny. Whitefish is one of those attractive little towns where tourists amble up and down the two-block downtown spending money on discretionary items. It's well situated with  Glacier National Park just to the east and Whitefish Mountain Ski Resort visible to the north. Containers and hanging pots were full of flowers and small trees. The handsome two-story Amtrak station is also downtown, as well as the O'Shaughnessy Center for the Performing Arts. And the hospital just south of town even has a resort-like ambience. I was reminded of that when I drove by,  remembering how Maria, who had taken the train out to help me move once again, ended up there overnight after getting dehydrated on the train, and how upsetting it was to see her so sick. But she, at that point, just needed a night in this luxury hospital, and we had a wonderful trip driving back to Michigan. I do remember her saying that a head CT was clear...no evident metastases at that time. 

I drove the back roads through my old neighborhood. Canola, the current popular crop, was in flower with striking bright yellow fields.

Canola in MT

When I first came to the Valley, it was mint which gave the air a lovely scent on summer evenings. 

I did not stop and see my friends although I thought of them all - Loretta, Lori Bell, Nancy, Kelly, Sara, Joey, Joanie.... I need to get to Eugene by the July 4th weekend and had to push on. Which I did to the Lost Trail NWR, a place I never knew about all those years I moved back and forth between Montana and Michigan. 

The directions in my refuge book mentioned going over “Haskell Pass” on a gravel road and I wondered about that. I still had 12 more miles to go when the road got sketchy with steep drop-offs and no barriers. I was asking myself if I really wanted to do this and said no, but continued anyway, and very soon got over the pass with an easy drive the rest of the way. But I would have to return, with the drop-off my my side of the road, so that was a niggle in the back of my mind. The saving grace was that it really was only a short distance. 

I found the refuge office situated in an open prairie / meadow habitat and talked with an articulate knowledgeable woman who told me about the restoration of Dahl Lake. Historically, the refuge had been a huge horse / cattle ranch, and water was managed to benefit the ranch with more than half of the wetland habitat destroyed. An interesting series of events finally resulted in the purchase of this land, now over 9000 acres, and it's designation as a NWR 15 years ago which was: The Montana Power Company, who owns Kerr Dam at the south end of Flathead Lake, manipulated the water levels of lake. When they were raised, the wetlands at the north end of the lake were lost, and there was also water encroachment onto private property. Eventually, the the power company had to pay out tons of money. As part of the legal mitigation settlement, Lost Trail was purchased. One of the management priorities consists of restoring Dahl Lake. So far, it has tripled in size attracting water fowl. The Boreal Toad, a "species of concern" also lives here. The habitat of the refuge overall is varied with an impressive list of birds. The manager and her husband live in a wonderful old farmhouse adjacent to the offices, and she also continues working to protect the north Flathead Lake wetlands. 

Dahl Lake on Lost Trail NWR - MT

I found out, happily, that I didn’t have to go back over Haskell Pass but could get to US2 via Lost Prairie Road, where I stopped for an hour, under Ponderosas and larches, next to an extensive open meadow. I ate an avocado and grape tomato salad, listening to and seeing  Chipping Sparrows and a Warbling Vireo. One car passed me in an hour. It was just warm enough, sunny with very few insects and the air had that good western dry piney smell. 

Lost Prairie Road with resin dripping onto this notice - MT

Back on US2, I continued west to Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, where I had to drive around some to find a spot to stay, but then spotted a Super 1 (grocery store), open 24 hours and saw no signs warning about “Cars Will Be Towed at Owner’s Expense” as did the Safeway just down the street. I wish I had checked out a Forest Service campground west of Libby where the Yaak River flows into the Kootenai but went past it too fast. It would have been a good spot. The Kootenai is a pretty milky jade green with fast flowing water, although nothing like it was before the dam at Libby which created Lake Koocanusa. This river's headwaters are in British Columbia. It then flows south into Montana and Idaho before turning north again, eventually emptying into the Columbia River in BC. It is the second largest tributary of the Columbia. So this is the second river (the first was the Souris in North Dakota) that originates in Canada, flows south into the US for awhile before returning north back to Canada. 

For a brief period just as I was half asleep, there seemed to be a motorcycle contest in the parking lot for which one could make the most noise. But then everything quieted down