aint much west left from here to the sea, but i'm gon' see it

one last idaho hurrah

drove up mount schweitzer for one last look-around idaho. man, that mini can really eat up some switchbacks; i even got it drifting a few times. big fun, big views... so long idaho

the road calls me again

man its been awesome here on lake pend oreille; the camraderie, the view, the mountains, the lake... my lil bro and his fiance have been impeccable hosts, taking me to see wonders or chill spots everyday and filling the nights with song and drink. but ever being the ornery old bear i fear to overstay my welcome so i feel i must go. hate to leave it behind but the road calls and strings from home call me too, i feel the indecision pulling at my seams can only be settled on the road, on my own.

ghost town huntin'

so i travel back a ways into montana and then cut up into the green monarch mountains; up prospect creek canyon rd to coopers gulch and a janky gravel forest service road up over the pass back into a different part of idaho(damn rough going, making less than 10mph progress most of the way over the pass, i opted to take the freeway back through cour d'alene for the return). as i came down into the valley below i started passing what id come hunting; theres a line of ghost and semi-ghost mining towns coming down off the mountain left over from the silver boom. all these towns were involved in the mine wars around the turn of the last century. in most of them, little is left but tailings trailing down the mountain sides, but a few had considerable ruins left, even the tiny bit left over from the frisco mine that was dynamited by miners on the commandeered train labelled the "dynamite express" in 1892 and never rebuilt. one of the first houses i came to inexplicably had dried animal carcasses hanging in the windows above handstitched curtains. kinda creepy... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeur_d'Alene,_Idaho_labor_confrontation_of_1899

hikin', motorbikin' and drivin' the mountains behind nathan-n-mary's

then a lake finish

lake life

2400 miles pt 2

2400 miles

made it to idaho... wow, its gorgeous and not a potato field in sight. the little brother's mountain home is perched above a lil burg that rests on lake pend orielle, pronounced ponderay by the locals, a gorgeous glacial lake of cold mountain water crowned by the cabinet, bitteroot and selkirk mountain chains. we be fishin', swimmin' and drinkin' on his 1968 starcraft all up and down this piece. in most areas the mountains come right down to the water line in awesome contrast, like in hawaii, but in others nice pebble beaches are afforded a few feet of space down to the water.