New brakes: before and after
First things first. The Suburban's brakes were so bad they could barely stop the car, let alone stop the car pulling a heavy trailer loaded with another car. I ordered new higher performance discs and pads and they arrived the Friday before we left. On Saturday I replaced all four discs and pads and now the Suburban will stop with just the pressure from my toe. On the following Tuesday after work, Carolyn and I drove to Wallace, Idaho, arriving around 11:30pm. Everything at the house was in order.
Restored Northern Pacific station, Missoula, MT
On Wednesday morning Carolyn and I ate breakfast, loaded Allison's Bianchi bicycle into the car and headed over Lookout Pass to Montana. We stopped for gas in Missoula and noticed this cool old train station.
Missoula's old terminal
The Northern Pacific tracks used to head up the St. Regis River and over Lookout Pass and down to Wallace. The tracks were pulled up around 1980 and parts of the old railbed can now be hiked or biked.
Glacial Lake Missoula shoreline tracks
In an earlier trip report I wrote about Lake Missoula and how when its ice dam broke, flooded Washington and carved the coulees and scab lands. In Missoula the ancient shorelines tracks are visible on the surrounding hills and mountains. The geologist Bretz in the 1920's was a total genius to tie the two events together. His hypothesis was laughed off until accepted in the 1960's.
Dillon, MT
Back in the car, we put a lot more miles behind us, finally stopping in the old ranching town of Dillon, MT. We dropped by the Patagonia store and bought a couple of things. I asked the women behind the counter, "If there was one thing not to miss in Dillon, what is it?" Without looking at each other, they both said at the exact same time, "The taco bus!"
Another train station
Walking back to our car we passed another old restored train station.
The taco bus
Before hitting the road again we had lunch in the taco bus. Mmmmm. Next stop Rexburg, Idaho. We pulled into Allison's apartment late in the afternoon and delivered her bike. We met her boyfriend and really liked him. After an hour of visiting we hit the road again for Provo, driving into my parent's driveway around 11pm. Paige and Chris had already set up home downstairs. After a long day Carolyn and I crashed out.
Graduation, part 1
On Thursday morning I took Gypsy on a hike up Rock Canyon. At noon Carolyn's parents took my parents, Eric and Tanya, Paige (Chris stayed home watching Fox while he napped), and Carolyn and I to the Brick Oven for lunch. Then we all went to the Marriott Center for the first part of graduation. That night I took everyone to Cafe Rio. It's the best!
Friday's first hike up Rock Canyon
On Friday morning Carolyn and I hiked up one of the shoulder mountains of Rock Canyon on a trail I've never seen before. This was the first of three hikes up Rock Canyon this day.
Graduation, part 2
Then we went to the second part of graduation in Marriott Center where Eric's name was called and he was handed an empty diploma. He actually has one more class, finishing in June. Then he's headed to a fulltime job at Microsoft as a financial analyst. It'll be great to have Eric and Tanya come back to Washington. Paige snapped this photo. It's a sad commentary about our attention spans these days. Everyone, including us, are looking at cell phones. The guy in front of us had his laptop open developing CSS code for a website. He and his wife and baby had a Mac laptop, two iPads, and two iPhones between them.
Congrats!
Tanya, Eric, Carolyn, Allison, Paige
Los Hermanos
After graduation my parents took everyone to Los Hermanos for a delicious lunch.
The Troll Cave
After lunch Eric wanted to hike to the Troll Cave up Rock Canyon. Eric took Tanya up there a few weeks ago but couldn't find it. When I told Eric that I made up the Troll Cave name myself when he was little just to motivate him to hike there, he was shocked. He said, "No wonder I couldn't find anything on google search." Allison said a similar thing, that no one knew what she was talking about when she mentioned the troll cave in Rock Canyon. Everyone else wanted to veg so just Eric and I hiked up the canyon to the old mine adit.
Inside the mine
Sealing the deal
On Saturday morning we said goodbye to Eric and Tanya and our parents, loaded up the car, and drove to SLC to pick up a U-Haul car trailer. Then we drove to Katy and Steve's and loaded up the old 1989 4wd BMW. They gave the car to Allison for one dollar.
A long drive
Paige was worried about Fox on a long road trip, but he was great. Poor guy was strapped in his car seat for many hours. We drove to Rexburg and dropped Allison off at her apartment. Sad to say goodbye. We kept on driving, stopping in Dillon again for gas and Missoula for dinner, finally arriving in Wallace that night.
Carolyn operating the secret door
On Sunday we all got ready and went to church in Silverton. They have a new branch president. After church we walked up to John and Natalie's house to check it out. The house became theirs just a few days ago and the keys were sent to my parent's house. My dad made a lot of copies of the keys and we tested all of them to make sure they worked. It was a beautiful day in Wallace with temps in the mid-70's. We went on a lot of walks. While Fox was napping, Paige and Chris walked around the city.
The kitchen is done!
My litmus test of declaring the kitchen done was making chocolate chip cookies. I made a batch Sunday evening so now the kitchen is complete.
Chris, Fox, and pregnant Paige
Paige is expecting #2, a girl Jane, in July.
Even though Sunday was a clear blue day, we woke up to a tremendous thunderstorm that night. Lightening would flash accompanied by thunder. The thunder would echo back and forth in the narrow canyon. The whole house would shake and the windows rattled in their frames. Gypsy kept moving closer and closer until she was right on my pillow. The next morning it was blue skies again.
Broken spokes
The previous week on my bike commute home from work, I heard a rear spoke break. A few minutes later another spoke snapped. By the time I made it down to Redmond where Carolyn could pick me up, about half of the spokes on the drive side had broken. I brought the wheel with me to Wallace in case I had some down time and could rebuild the wheel. On Monday morning before the action in the house got going, I removed the broken spokes and started relacing the wheel with new ones.
Truing the wheel
I finished rebuilding and truing the wheel just about the time I heard Fox wake up and people walking around upstairs.
Huckleberry pancakes at the Red Light Garage
We went to the Red Light Garage for pancakes. Back home we started to pack up and prepare for the final leg of the journey back to Redmond. Before we left I mowed the lawn, and sprayed round-up and dandelion killer.
Fox in the Redlight's UFO
Still a lot of snow in the mountains
Somewhere in all this I rode a motorcycle up to Burke to enjoy such beautiful weather. The snow can't melt fast enough for me.
Stairs to nowhere
Thousands of people use to live up here when the Hercules and Hecla mines were in production. Now there are abandoned stairs and foundations visible on the steep canyon sides.
Old Hecla mine in Burke
Headframe visible behind building
Ore storage and loading building
Same building back in the day
Mine tailings high on the mountain
Heading back down the canyon to Wallace, I spied a dirt road heading up the mountain. Naturally I took it. Eventually the road ended at a tailings pile high on the mountain side.
Stopped by snow
I explored another road branching off and climbed until I couldn't go any farther because of snow.
Hecla mine far below
At the bottom of the canyon are the Hecla mine ruins I took pictures of a few frames earlier.
Zoomed in shot of the mine
Mine entrance
Up on the mountain side there was a mine entrance or shaft of some kind.
The back way home
Instead of riding on the highway (left side of the river) home, I rode over the mine tailings down the right side. If John had been riding with me, maybe he would have complained about the lead dust. :-)
Another mine entrance
I wish I knew more about the history of this area. What mine is this?
Still riding the tailings
The tailings piles go on and on. Eventually I got back on the main road and rode home. We packed up the car and shut down the house. Wait, we actually didn't. Normally I turn off the water, but we left the dishwasher going. I hope it didn't flood the house. We drove back to Redmond. Chris flew back to LA the next morning (spring break is over and classes resumed), but Paige and Fox stayed another week. It was a fun week with all our kids.
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