Packed and ready to go
The night before, Eric helped me load up the truck. We loaded a new bed I had made and some more furniture. Strapped to the top is quarter-round molding made scraps left over from the bed. I primed all the pieces. We left for Lake Wenatchee on Thursday morning at 6:15am and arrived at the cabin two hours later. We only spent 45 minutes at the cabin before heading over to the Knight's for breakfast with the girls and the start of the hike.
Hiking to Dirty Face Falls
Because of group-size restrictions in wilderness areas and different abilities of the girls, we decided on two different hikes. Carolyn lead half of the group on a hike to Hidden Lake and I took the other half on a hike up to Dirty Face Falls.
Below the falls
Everyone packed lunches and ate them below the falls. It wasn't a very difficult hike and a few hours later we were back at the Knight's. In mid-afternoon Carolyn and I were done with our duties and drove over to our cabin to gather our things and then took off for Wallace. The drive down to Wenatchee and then to I-90 is pretty, but the long drive from the Columbia River to Spokane is tedious and boring. The drive from Spokane to Wallace, by Lake Coeur d'Alene and over 4th of July Pass and through the Silver Valley is beautiful.
Carolyn's decorations
We arrived in Wallace in the evening. Our lawn looked great, thanks to our neighbors in the green house next door. They have been mowing our lawn. So nice! The first thing Carolyn did was unpack a bunch of flags and decorate the house for the 4th of July. We ate nearly every meal out on the porch. The weather was perfect the whole time we were there.
Home-made bed
Since the last trip to Wallace I built this bed for the master bedroom. It's made out of cherry and even though I like natural wood, Carolyn and I stained this bed a dark java color and sealed it with three coats of polyurethane left over from spraying the cabin's interior walls. Carolyn made the curtains and we framed three pictures from different hikes. Notice there's no shoe molding around the baseboards. Those were probably removed when the carpet was installed. A few days later I installed new shoe molding.
Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes
On Friday morning we got up early. I wanted to start floor sanding, but didn't want to disturb any neighbors with the loud machine. We pumped up our bike tires and headed up the canyon on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. This is a 70 mile paved bike trail from Plummer to Mullan. It used to be the route of the Northern Pacific railroad until it was abandoned by the Union Pacific in the 1980's. We rode a few miles up the trail before turning around and riding all downhill back to the house.
Sanding behind the heater vent
We spent all day sanding the floor, from 8am until 9pm. We took a break to walk to our favorite sandwich place downtown. The sandwiches were good, but I was so tired and my arms so fatigued from the sanding machine that I could barely stay awake. I walked home and collapsed on the couch while Carolyn stayed and paid the bill. An hour later we started sanding again and sanded into the evening.
Done with the 36 grit pass
There are lots of marks on the floor from previous dragging furniture around. The pressure caused some change to the structure of the wood such that we could never sand out the marks. Out back we loaded the giant plastic bag the mattress came in with sawdust from the floor. Eventually we had to say to ourselves, "The floor is 101 years old and it is what it is." I have sanded a lot of floors, including hard maple floors, and none came close to the difficulty of sanding this old fir. The first few passes quickly gummed up the sanding belts with old varnish. I'd sand for five minutes and have to swap belts. Carolyn sat out on the porch with a wire brush removing the hardened varnish from the belts. When I used the powerful edge sander around the perimeter, the 36 grit disc was only good for a foot or two of sanding before totally clogging with varnish. I nearly went through a whole box of 50 discs on one pass around the room. Normally, a single disc will do the whole room. We went to bed after spending the whole day sanding with 36 grit paper.
On Saturday morning we sanded with 80 grit, including the perimeter. We vacuumed up the whole room and applied a coat of sealer. We needed to wait for several hours for the sealer to dry. Carolyn decided to explore the antique shops in Wallace and I went on a motorcycle ride. I wanted to ride up the logging roads on the mountains above Wallace and take a photo of the city.
End of Hiawatha Trail in Pearson
I rode a motorcycle up I-90 to the first exit where from Google Earth I could see a logging road that takes off to the area I wanted to explore. Unfortunately, the road was gated closed. I headed back to Wallace and up Placer Creek Road which turns to dirt a mile out of town. It heads up over Moon Pass and eventually I stopped in the long-gone town of Pearson, which is the end of the line for the Hiawatha Trail. I was surprised to see so many cars and bicyclists. All of these people are waiting to load on the shuttle that'll take them back to the trail head.
View from Moon Pass
On the way home I passed three older guys not particularly in good shape pedaling their mountain bikes up a long 5 mile grind. I stopped to talk with them. They were from Spokane and rode the Hiawatha Trail with their wives. The wives were taking the shuttle back to get the car while the husbands rode the 20 miles to Wallace. They were going to meet at the pizza joint for dinner. I admire those guys for riding from way down the valley (in this picture) to where my motorcycle sits. From there it's 15 miles all downhill to Wallace.
Hamilton Beach No. 18 milkshake machine
While I was gone, Carolyn found and purchased this vintage milkshake maker found in the basement of an antique shop. They often go for several hundred dollars on eBay, but she got it for a fraction of that. It had a cracked cord and scary plug, but she was able to test that it worked. Since then, I replaced the cord with a new one.
Now that the sealer was dry, Carolyn and I sanded the whole floor with palm sanders and 220 grit paper to remove any raised grain from the sealer. We vacuumed the floor again and put down the first coat of a 2-part polyurethane.
GPS track of Pulaski trail
We now had several hours to wait for the first coat of floor finish to dry. We decided to hike the Pulaski trail that starts just out of town. It's about a four mile roundtrip hike. The trail is really pretty as it follows the West Fork up the steep canyon. There were mine ruins along the trail.
Old mine - Pulaski's tunnel
During the huge fire of 1910, a Forest Service leader named Ed Pulaski and his 45 men hid in this tunnel when the fire overtook them. A few of them were overcome with fumes and died, but most lived and they were able to hike out through a landscape of nothing but ashes back to Wallace. Pulaski is remembered as a hero in the area for saving his men.
West Fork
When we arrived home around 6pm the finish on the floor was still tacky. We decided we'd have to wait until Monday to put down the second and final coat of finish.
BBQ Smoke House
It's now Saturday evening. We cleaned up and walked to a BBQ restaurant a few blocks away. Can you spot Carolyn? The food was really tasty.
Downtown Wallace
We ate outside. It was a pleasant evening. Lots of bicycle riders, presumably from the Hiawatha Trail, stopping in town for dinner.
Transportation
I get a kick out of the fact these kind of vehicles are street-legal in Wallace. These 4-wheelers aren't even legal on dirt roads in Washington.
LDS chapel in Silverton
On Sunday morning we went to church in Silverton, a few miles away. There were only 29 people there. After church we went back home and made lunch.
Idaho Statehood Day parade
This afternoon was Wallace's Idaho Statehood Day parade. It started a couple blocks away. We walked over to see what was up. The whole parade passed by in about 45 seconds - not too big.
Parade guy
I talked to this Wallace resident (John?) at the hardware store the day before. He told me he was entering the parade with this car. The VW bug was originally red and he painted the white sections with a spray can.
Murray, Idaho
On Sunday night Carolyn and I drove up Wallace's Nine Mile Canyon and over Dobson Pass. We turned off on a Forest Service road on a shortcut and dropped down into the tiny town of Murray on Prichard Creek. Murray is where gold was first discovered in this part of Idaho. It used to be the county seat before silver was discovered a couple of valleys away.
The Spragpole - a bar, a restaurant, and a museum
Murray only has a couple of commercial building now. The Spragpole is the most famous and a popular destination for adventure bike motorcyclists.
Mineral collection
The bar/restaurant has several buildings connected together. All of the other buildings house a huge collection of artifacts from the area.
Blacksmithing tools
Dredge tailings
One of the reasons we drove to Murray was we heard the Spragpole was going to put on a fireworks show this evening. The fireworks were going to be launched from the old dredge tailings next to Prichard Creek. Around 1920, the Guggenheim brothers from New York financed a gold mining operation here to dredge the placer gold from the valley. A deep pit was dug and a five story dredge was built in the pit. The gigantic dredge was powered by five large electric motors. The pit was filled with diverted water and the dredge began 24-hour-a-day operation. Continuous buckets scooped out rocks, boulders, and gravel down to the bedrock. The rocks entered the dredge and across sluices inside and the spoil spit out the back on a conveyor-belt-driven boom. This picture shows the lines of piles as the boom swung back and forth spewing its contents and then jacked itself forward for the next bite. The whole valley floor was dug down to bedrock in search of placer gold. I wonder if we're doing something now that in 90 years will be the equivalent of this massive change to the environment.
Prichard Creek
Carolyn and I walked all the way across the dredge tailings to the creek and then we walked back. We didn't find any gold nuggets missed by the machine. By this time there were hundreds (thousands?) of people parked along the road and out on the tailings waiting for the show. Around 10:30pm, the fireworks started and they were really good. They lasted a long time, probably 45 minutes. After the show we followed a huge snake of cars back along the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene until we turned off to head up and over Dobson Pass back down into Wallace.
Finished floor
On Monday morning I cut and installed the quarter-round molding in the master bedroom. I found the paint in the basement used to paint the baseboards and masked and painted the shoe molding. Then Carolyn and I sanded the whole living room floor with palm sanders followed by vacuuming. Finally, we applied the second and final coat of catalyzed polyurethane. We now had a few hours to get out of the house while the finish dried. Carolyn went on a walk and read her book on the porch. I went on another motorcycle ride.
Bike ride to Montana border
Back up a second. On some morning I can't remember, I got up early and rode my bike nearly to Montana. I rode up the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes until it ended in Mullan.
Mine tailings near Mullan
Mullan, Idaho
In Mullan the unpaved trail continues as the Northern Pacific trail, but it gets sketchy in some parts where the old railbed has been destroyed.
Road section of the trail
These few miles were on the road. Lookout Pass and the Montana state line are just around the far bend.
Back on the railroad grade
Soon I was back on the old railroad grade but turned around not too far beyond this point. The ride back to Wallace was all downhill. It was a fun and beautiful ride in both directions.
View of Wallace
Ok we're back to Monday afternoon waiting for the floor finish to dry. I've poured over Google Maps to see if there's another way to get to the logging roads on the mountains above Wallace. I see that if I go another exit on I-90, it looks like there's a way. After 45 minutes of exploration, I finally find an overlook to the town.
Wallace close-up
This is a zoomed in shot of the town from the same vantage point. Our house is visible near the high school.
My route to the overlook
Mount Pulaski?
On my ride in the mountains looking for a view of Wallace, I had great views all around. At the time, I thought this was Mount Pulaski, but now after looking at topos, I'm not so sure.
My Wallace vantage point
The I-90 highway is below me from left-to-right. The first canyon on the far left is Nine Mile Canyon, the one we drove up last night. The second canyon on the left is Burke Canyon.
Wildflowers galore up there
Old railroad cut
I worked my way back down to I-90 and headed up to Mullan. From there I followed the same old Northern Pacific route I rode on my bicycle but this time I kept going.
Tunnel on the Montana side
The old railway goes right through the Lookout Pass ski resort on the state line. I followed the route down into Montana and through this tunnel.
St. Paul Pass tunnel
When I reached Taft, Montana (the town is long gone, it's just a desolate exit on the freeway), I rode two miles to the beginning of the Hiawatha Trail. It starts with a pitch black ride through a 2-mile long tunnel. At this point I've now ridden my motorcycle to the beginning and end of the Hiawatha trail. What I *really* want to do is a 55 mile mountain bike loop ride. We start in Wallace and ride the 20 miles of Northern Pacific railbed to Taft. Then ride 15 miles of the Hiawatha Trail downhill to Pearson. Then a long grind of 5 miles on a dirt road up to Moon Pass. Then 15 miles downhill back to Wallace. I want to do this ride in the fall, late September or early October. Let me know if you're interested! Back to the ride. I turned around and rode my 250 on the highway up and over Lookout Pass and back down into Wallace.
GPS track
This is a track of my motorcycle ride from Wallace (on the far right) up to the viewpoint and then continuing on the Northern Pacific railbed to the start of the Hiawatha Trail (far left) in Montana.
Installing shoe molding
In the evening of the 4th of July, the floor was dry enough to walk on. I started cutting and installing the shoe molding I had made and brought to Idaho. Around 10pm we decided to go on a final walk around the town. We saw some pretty spectacular fireworks launched nearby and walked to a neighborhood party. The show was good.
On Tuesday morning I finished installing the molding. We still need to paint the room. We packed up, shut the house down, and left for home at 10am. We stopped at the dump and dropped off the mattress-size plastic bag full of sawdust and garbage. We arrived home around 4pm. It was a great 4th of July vacation of working and playing hard. Can't wait to go back.
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