August 2008

Aug. 29th it is our last day off and we took advantage of it by packing and getting ready to start or eastward journey. We took a boat out for several hours on Cliff Lake and just took in all of the beauty of the area. Probably the last time we get to see it. While on the lake we got mooned, in that a pontoon boat with about 12 people on board was fishing on the lake and a young girl went to the rear of the boat and sat on a 5 gallon bucket to do her business. We were probably about 75 yards away and it didn’t seem to faze them. Some time your see more wild life than you want to.

Aug. 26th clean up began as we know that it was a success by the amount of garbage that was generated. LOL. Even though it was a great event we were surprised at how respectful was, in that everybody chipped it to help us out. We still had to get to clean up 4 units as they were rented out for Sunday. We even surpassed that as we worked a little ahead. We wish the bride and groom a long and happy life together

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Aug. 22nd & 23rd we are getting ready for a large wedding that is taking place here. The wedding party had the entire place booked for Friday & Saturday nights. There was a bachelor party pt. #1 Thursday night at the lake and the party goers spent the night at the lake in tents and as they awoke on Friday morning it was 28 degrees. Didn’t seem to faze them and it continued on through Friday night, not at the lake but at the retreat and they stayed in the cabins that night. Again on Saturday morning the temp was 28 degrees. Picture taking lasted for over an hour and they used a lot of the rustic buildings for a back drop. The wedding was beautiful as a large tent was erected and aside of that the ceremony was in the round, such a picturesque event.

Aug. 20th we have the day off but with no plans except to work on the Motor Home. Just a lot of little things that need to be taken care of. We did mention earlier that we wanted to do three things while here in Aug., the 3rd think was to rent an ATV but after going up to Sawtell this past Saturday we decided against it as it is so dusty and dry here it is not worth the time. We saw a lot of people driving the ATV’s that were all bundled up to protect against the dirt we felt we would pass. In the evening we decided that we wanted to go to see the IMAX movie Lewis & Clark, since we saw Yellowstone the other day and saw the trailers for this movie we were not disappointed.

Aug. 18th we went into Ennis just to relax and we did play some golf, as this might be the last time we get to play here. Probably was close to 90 degrees and we are glad we weren’t out in the heat of the day. After that we stopped for a snack and did a walk around town to do some window shopping. We than went to do some grocery shopping and got gas. Upon leaving Ennis as we looked south about 40 miles away we could see a lot of smoke from the fire that is burning in Idaho. As we were about 20 miles from Wilderness Edge we could start to smell the smoke, and as we were about 6 miles from Earthquake Lake we could not see the mountains that surround it, because of the smoke. We are hoping that it doesn’t burn north into Montana or we will have an early leave.

Aug. 15th This turned out to be a bitter/sweet day, as in the morning I was attaching the bikes to the car the owner here, Janet stopped to tell me that RT & Donna had to leave as Donnas’ son had to have a heart operation. As we were talking she mentioned if we knew of any workampers in the area that might fill in for them along with some other ideas on how to replace them. I than found Kathleen who was already talking to Donna, as we wished them the best and we found out that they were leaving tomorrow. As it was our day off and we had the bikes loaded up we took off and on the way out of the retreat we meet Chris and were informed that she was going to put some food together for a farewell party that night, we told her when we were at the store we would call her to find out if she needed anything. We than went towards West Yellowstone but instead we went to Island Lake, ID to go to Sawtell Mountain. It is a drive of about 6 miles on dirt and near the top as you are going around corners looking across your hood you see nothing but sky as the road is narrow and the drop offs are long, also no guard rails. What a view from the top as we were over 9900 feet up. You could see over Yellowstone NP as well into the Tetons NP, we could probably see 75 miles in a lot of directions if not more. Coming down was no picnic either as it was probably worse than going up. We than went to see the Pages’ at Lonehurst CG and told them about the job opening at the retreat, they said that they would think about it. We than went into West Yellowstone and as the bikes were covered in about 1 inch of dirt we changed our plans and did a couple of Geocaches and than went to the IMAX theater. After that we did some shopping, at this point it was 5:30 and we headed back to the retreat. Getting home and unpacking we received an e-mail from the Pages and Leigh is going to take the job for a few weeks. It made Donna feel a lot better knowing that someone was taking her place, we than had a great Farewell Party with nine people attending. John (a very good guest and friend) Janet, and her husband John, Chris, Glenn, RT, Donna, Kathleen and Jon. The day was long but all in all it was a good day and we wish RT & Donna a safe and uneventful when they leave tomorrow.

Aug. 13th while this was a day off for us we took on a job to stain the cabin of the managers here at the retreat. They have a Cabin about 6 miles from the retreat, and as they put in a lot of hours here we decided that we could handle this job for them. We started out in the morning and as the sun came up it got rather warn, but as the day wore on a North wind set in and we could feel the chill in the air. Even though it is mid August we know that cold weather is around the corner. We did check our voice mail in the afternoon and received our messages. We had one positive message for a job next summer; we will talk more about it later if we decide to accept this position. We will say this now, it is in an area we would like to go to for a season. It was somewhat unusual for us to work on our day off, but a few extra bucks always helps.

Aug. 12th after work today we along with RT & Donna went to a workampers outing at Lonehurst Camp on the shores of Hebgen Lake. There were about 20 workampers at the event and everyone had a great time. As we all travel around the country it is nice to meet up with some of our peers. It was set up by the Page’s and they did a great job, and got a lot of pictures. Many of use would of stayed longer if it was not for the mosquito’s, after the wind died down they came out in force and drove everyone off. We look forward to seeing some at another time.

Aug. 9th as we had off today we decided to try a restaurant that was suggested to us for breakfast, this was not a very good choice as we had a long wait, the food was so-so and it was rather expensive. We than went to the visitors center at Earthquake Lake and had an enjoyable time there. This is about the earthquake that happened in 1959 and killed 28 campers that were camping in the area that night and how the side of the mountain came down to the other side of the canyon wall and created an unwanted lake. From there we went to Virginia City and took a steam engine ride to Nevada City and back, our return trip was delayed by about 15 minutes for an afternoon thunder storm. Returning to Virginia City we went to a ole time photo shop and got some pictures made as old western vigilantes, it was a lot of fun but I don’t think look the part. We than went back to Ennis, got a bite to eat and did some grocery shopping before heading back to Wilderness Edge. Not really a great weather day as in was rainy, damp, and cooler than it has been for a while.

Aug. 8th after work it was mail day for us so we decided to drive out the 4 miles of dirt road to the mail box. My original thought to ride the bikes but, as we got to the mail box it was raining very hard. On the way back, and not having a camera, we saw a Mountain Lion as it came out of the brush onto the road about 50 yards in front of us. At first it didn’t realize we were there and starte to walk down the road, when it sensed us he leaped back into the brush and hide behind a tree and watched us. As we pulled up even with him we sat there and we both were watching each other. We looked up towards the top of the canyon about 100 yards away was an Elk grazing on the side, and all of this with no camera.

Aug. 6th we were working today and as we said before that we are surrounded by BLM and grazing land. About 40 head of cattle got through an opening in the fence and got into pasture they were not supposed to be in. The managers called the ranch and we knew that it would be a while till they got there. We got on the golf carts and rounded them up and drove them back through the canyon into there own pasture. When we took this job didn’t think we would be herding cattle, it was great.

Aug. 3rd we started in the morning to tidy up the MH and repack some of our equipment, throwing out some old and making better use of space. After that we went Geocaching as there is a cache about 4 miles from where we are parked. We have use of rental boats here at the retreat and we took a boat on Cliff Lake the would get us closer to the Cache. After mooring the boat we hiked 1 ¾ miles to the cache. It is a beautiful area and the hike was awesome. We passed through a meadow that is only for animals in the wild as it was totally flat about 700 feet across and ¼ mile long with a creek flowing through it. We didn’t see and wildlife, but we did see a lot of signs of wildlife. After returning we took a ride around the entire lake which is several miles in length. It was another great day to be full timing.

Aug.1st we have three things that we want to do while in Montana and today we did two of them. First after getting ready and leaving the MH we drove two hours through the North West side of Yellowstone to the town of Gardiners. On the way we did stop to look at Mammoth Hot Springs and as we were driving around the parking lot loop we spotted a bear and as we watched we saw it get startled turn around run back 15 – 20 feet and jump 5 – 6 feet in a tree. It than looked around came out of the tree and in a fast trot continued on its way. Now I am thinking if the bear was that scared what should I be wary of? Back in Gardiners we first went to a dude ranch and did a two hour horse back ride. Now it has been many. many years since we were riding and our bones and muscles reminded us of our age. After that we went back to town and changed into swim wear as we did a two hour, eight mile white water rafting excursion. There were three rafts and 9 people on each raft. The guides were great and made the trip a lot of fun, the one raft had a squirt gun on board and they would get close to the other two rafts and wet them down. At a short rest on the side of the Yellowstone River, Jon snuck around the rafts and stole the squirt gun as we all hopped into our raft and took off. Can you imagine the oldest person in the whole group steeling the squirt gun diving into the river and swimming to the raft? This did set up quite a few water battles and the original raft got the squirt gun back, but Jon was a target the rest of the trip he loved it. After stopping in West Yellowstone for a few groceries and a bite to eat we returned home. On the way home we saw a lot of smoke coming over a mountain less than 20 miles as to where we are parked, we did find out latter that it is a managed fire.