Looking for Silver

As I mentioned in the previous post, we took a mine tour in historic Wallace.  This area has produced an unbelievable amount of silver.  Of course, I don't have the exact statistics, but it was a lot.

Here we are properly suited up for our tour.

Our guide, whose name tag said 'Sam I am', was a retired miner and gave us a great tour.  He even demonstrated some of the (LOUD) equipment.

This wall was set up to show the blasting pattern to take out an 8x8 foot section.

I'm sure glad we'll be out of here by 2:20.

Of course, I'm just kidding.  This mine is no longer economically feasible, except as a tourist attraction.

He demonstrated this shovel thingy that scraped out the tunnels.

And this bucket thingy that threw the ore in the cart.  All of these items are really LOUD.

Despite all this, Sam I am's hearing was very good.  That really amazed me.

At the end of the tour, he showed us some rock samples.  This first shiny rock is iron, not silver.

While this is silver - quite a disappointment.  How could they even pick it out down in that dark mine?

This pretty one is peacock copper.

And what did I learn from the tour?  I learned that this is another job I would never want.  (But I kind of knew that already.)

Wallace, ID

If anybody is following our route, this may be confusing.  Leaving Coeur D'Alene, which is almost at the western border of Idaho, we drove to the state line on the eastern side.  Of course in this narrow part of Idaho, that's only 67 miles.  One of the WINs found an excellent place for us to park.  It's at exit 0 of I 90, which is actually a Montana exit number.  Lookout Pass is a ski area, but in the summer they run buses for the Hiawatha Bike Trail.  More on that in a future blog.

They (claimed) that they were happy to have us there for a week and we gave them a contribution for their free children's ski school in thanks.  The parking area is huge and available for free RV parking.

One day we visited historic Wallace, Idaho.

If you want to read the fascinating story, you can click on the following sign, but here's the short version.  When the interstate (I 90) was planned to go right through tiny Wallace, the whole town was put on the National Register of Historic Places to prevent this from happening.

Instead, the interstate was built as a raised roadway.

Now I would usually think, "Wow!  What a waste of money!"  But in this case I really think it was justified.  Wallace is squeezed in between mountains to the north and south and the interstate really would have taken out the whole town.

The cute railroad depot was moved to a safe location and houses a railroad museum.

While wandering around town, our friend Dan met a buddy.

I believe this is the only place I've seen one of these.

The girls were seductively posed around the lobby.

As well as luring customers upstairs.

We also toured a silver mine, for which this area is known.  But that will be the next post.

Marathon Biking

One day Ron and I drove south along the east side of gorgeous Coeur D'Alene Lake.  Idaho certainly has more than its share of beautiful lakes.  I think this one is special because of the interesting inlets and shoreline.

Idaho has fully embraced the 'rails to trails' concept. Their Trail of the Coeur D'Alenes stretches across the state utilizing decommissioned railroad right-of-way.  And best of all, most of it is paved!

We got the bikes out of the car and headed east along the Coeur D'Alene River and Chain Lakes.  Immediately we were amazed by the water lilies along the way.

And charmed by this family of osprey.

We screeched to a stop when we came upon these precious deer, not tiny, but still with their fawn spots.

They seemed fine just watching us.

But when another biker showed up, the flag went up and they were off.

We passed multiple lakes

And rode through some gorgeous countryside.

One more shot of the river.

After nine miles, we turned around for our return.  I know it isn't that far for some people, but I couldn't believe I rode 18 miles.  Of course, the trail being very level and paved certainly helped.  What a great day!

Fun at Farragut SP

When you're with the WINs, the activities never stop.  One day we packed lunches and toys and caravaned to Farragut State Park, about 20 north of Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.  Farragut is located at the south end of Lake Pend Oreille, another huge lake.  It's 43 miles long and 1,150 deep in some places.  It has an interesting history, but first it's time to play.

Biking

Hiking

And kayaking

Now for the history - What is now the state park was used during WW II as a navel training base.  Since the lake is so deep, we were under the mistaken impression that they tested submarines there.  Of course the major question was, "How did they get the subs there?"  Actually, there were no subs, but the truth is pretty amazing nonetheless.  During the 30 months of its existence, 293,381 sailors received basic training at the Farragut facility.  It was also used as a prisoner of war camp with 900 Germans who worked as gardeners and maintenance men.  The Navy still maintains a submarine research center at nearby Bayview, the Acoustic Research Detachment.  We toured the Museum at the Brig which was interesting and had a terrific movie which I enjoyed.

This unique sailor bust commemorates all the recruits who trained here.

You have to get close to fully appreciate how unusual it is.

We also took a ride through cute little Bayview.  Built on the hilly shore of the lake, some of the residents got pretty creative.

We stayed in Hayden, ID, just north of Coeur D'Alene at an Eagles lodge.  It's a real bargain at $5 a night and there are some electrical hookups, mostly 20amp.  Since, once again, we arrived late, we were on our own. You have to be an Eagle or a guest of one, but some of us are Eagles.  (I'm still playing catch-up with the blog, so I can pass along the good news that we later moved into a spot with electric.  Luckily our air conditioner works fine on 20 amp, because it's still hot.  That's one of the advantages of having a 30' rig with only one AC unit.)

Leaving Montana

We caught up with our WIN friends in Kalispell, MT, staying at the fairgrounds.  Once day we drove up to Lone Pine State Park which has an excellent view of the town and surrounding mountains.

We could even see ourselves parked in the fairgrounds.  It was a bit pricey at $12.50 a night, although the early birds got electric.  You can't see our rig but it's buried in the tress behind the red building on the right.  Needless to say, it was hot.

One day, Ron and I took a drive around Flathead Lake, 27 miles long and 15 miles wide. This is a big area for growing sweet cherries and we stopped at one of the hundreds of roadside stands and bought some.

When we left Kalispell, we headed south to I 90 by way of some very pretty back roads.

BTW, Ron wasn't driving on the wrong side of the road here.  I took this backwards out my window.

Another shot out the windshield.  Ron is always washing it, but I think bugs are attracted to a clean windshield.

We stopped overnight at the 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar at exit 16 off I 90.  When we were there years ago, it was 10,000, but I guess the name will change again, because . .

It started with silver dollars inset into the bar.

But now they're just everywhere.  Behind the bar,

And hanging from the ceiling.

Each one mounted with the 'owner's' name.

This is pretty interesting to read.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that they have free RV parking among the trees behind the bar.  They even offer free electric, but I was afraid to hook up since I read online that they might be wired wrong.  However Ron checked several outlets and said they were fine.  (We still didn't plug in.)

Glacier Park Finale

Before we left the park, there was one more thing I really wanted to do - see a moose.  With that goal in mind, we went back to the Many Glacier area and the Swiftcurrent Trailhead.  We had heard that moose are commonly seen at Fishcap Lake, just a short distance from the trailhead.

At the lake, we settled ourselves along the shore and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  This guy helped us keep a lookout.

But to no avail.  Finally we gave up and moved along to Redrock Lake about a mile away.  On the way I saw this moose walking through the woods.  See him?

(Really, he is there.)

But nothing at the lake.  It was a pretty spot for our lunch.

We headed back to the trailhead, but on the way met a hiker we had earlier pointed toward Fishcap Lake.  He gave us the good news that there was a moose there now, so we hustled back.

Ohhh, what's that?

Cool!

My day was made!

If you ever want to start conversations with fellow hikers, or even just make them smile, just wear your net hat.  Did I mention there were a lot of bugs?

This concludes our trip to Glacier.  We saw just one more animal right along the road.  This coyote looks pretty healthy.