Posted: Feb 17, 2005  11:09

Vol 3-1-05

“To a friends house, the road is never long.”
-Anonymous-

Was bemoaning the fact to my editor that I was suffering from acute cabin fever while planning some Wandering trips for this coming spring and summer.

Just as I was about to solicit some “poor guy” stuff from her, a tale of how staring at the gridlines on the forest service maps are making me go cross-eyed, she attacked. Yes, my editor attacked your Uncle Bud!

Gentle soul that she is, it was totally out of character for her to chop off my arguments of why I had not cranked out a Wandering column in a coon’s age, by stating: “Why don’t you get off your dead butt and get out of the house?”

I’m a senior citizen (and then some) … can she talk to me like that? (See Editors note for the real story).

Next day the sun was out (again), and it was shaping up to be another beautiful day so I took this as a sign of running out of excuses for not hitting the road.

Boundary Co. Airport with the mighty Selkirks in the background.

Firing down Route 2 heading west from my home I stopped at the north end of the Boundary County Airport to watch some touch and go practice. (Since I no longer fly, I like to watch others make their approach and critique their landings.) It is almost incumbent upon us seniors to sit around and critique everyone else.

In between observing landings, I was figuring out which way to head next, and what I wanted to see on this short, but fun outing.

How about the challenge of tunnel vision by heading north on US 95 with the awesome Selkirk chain on the left, and the mighty Purcell chain on the right all the way to Canada?

Mini rock cliff in farmers back pasture.

As I’m tooling along, (does the term “Tooling” date me as a teenager of the ‘50’s?) I think of the many things that we can do and see in our beloved North Idaho Panhandle.

I’ve driven by this rock formation a hundred times and it just dawned on me that it would be a good place for rock climbers to practice. (With permission of the farmer of course.) A little further down the road (We’re on Idaho 1 now.) you cannot miss the giant basalt cliffs I respectfully call the exposed backbone of the Purcell’s.

Now here is a real rock climbing challenge for you.

Northeast of Creston British Columbia is a sister to this mountain in case you care to cross over and continue north.

Not today, it is time to turn around and follow the Purcells as they wind their way southeast into Montana. Am thinking we’ll get up into the Cabinet Mountains via CR 24 for some awesome panorama vistas. Sure enough, the morning haze, (not pollution good people … morning haze has a different meaning up here.) blankets my favorite spot and vista.

Kootenai Valley wrapped in its usual early morning mist.

This special place is where I take visitors who have never been to the North Idaho Panhandle. The vista becomes a blackboard in the Cabinet Mountains upon which you can point out the other two mountain ranges, our mighty Kootenai River winding its way back to Canada, and in the far background, the Kootenai Wildlife Refuge … another side trip in its self.

Before leaving our perch in the Cabinets, I roamed a few side trails hoping to get a peek at the Kootenai River as it comes out of Montana. Found the perfect out-cropping a few feet below the road and climbed down there to capture my final photo of this morning's trip.

Kootenai River coming around the bend from Montana.

Take care as you navigate around these mountain roads and trails, folks … and be respectful of the private property signs and warnings.

One factor I hasten to add which always lends to the shear beauty of looking around our mountain chains … silence!

As I clung to a tree to take this last photo of the Kootenai River coming from Montana I was caught up in the silence which surrounded me; I continued to cling to the tree for several minutes just letting the vista and silence seep into this old soul.

Entire trip this morning was a little over 50 miles and look at what we took in. Profound here is fact that no matter where you’re at in our Panhandle, you too can take a short trip and take in a myriad of topographical beauty.

Motivation? You don’t need an editor like mine to get you on the road. It is your Panhandle … get out there and take a look at it. You’ll come home and crawl back into your winter cave refreshed and secure in the knowledge that you did pick the right place to live.

Down the road this coming spring ...

To work off our winter fat we’re installing a supercharger on belch fire then we’ll be checking the performance as we take on the roads in the Bitterroot Range. (We’ll of course begin that trip with a full loggers’ breakfast at the Enaville Resort … Snake Pit to you tourists.)

Was just reading an article about older drivers being a hazard on our roads. Hmmm, will my supercharged Miata make me even more of a hazard? We’ll have to wait and see.

Editors Note: Since Uncle Bud is telling tales out of school again, I must set the record straight: Although I did mention (in a nice way even) that it was time for a new Wandering column, I never told the grumpy old.... to get off his "dead butt."