It has been a couple weeks since I posted on here for a couple reasons. One, because for the past three weeks we have been in a continuous battle with Century Link to repair our internet service which appears to have finally been remedied, at least for now. And two, because we have jumped right into fall with the same amount of recreational business that we had this summer! So before a squirrel chews another hole in my internet line, honestly what they said probably caused the problem, I'll update you all on our fall fun!
Two weekends ago Dad, Curt, Ryan and I all met up over south of Boulder, MT for opening weekend of elk season! The weather was supposed to be hot all weekend but we went into opening day filled with excitement as Dad and Ryan had watched about 80 elk feeding into the bottoms the night before so we knew we were going to have a pretty good chance of getting into them. Opening morning we devised a plan to hike into the timber line long before sunrise in anticipation of catching the elk coming back into the trees from feeding all night in a hay field on the bottom. Not being able to sleep with the visions of big bull elk dancing in my head, I got out of bed at about 3AM and slowly the rest of camp got up as well and we headed into the dark timber just before 5AM. Dad and Curt set up on one side of a big draw and Ryan and I went to the other. Unfortunately no elk came by us at first light but it wasn't long before Ryan spotted a nice bull with a few cows about half a mile up the mountain feeding in a meadow. We quickly closed the gap between us and the elk and I sent out a bugle, but with no response we had no choice but to try to sneak up on them in the trees. We finally found the bull but never got any closer than about a hundred yards and didn't get a good shot. We still hunted the timber all the way back to camp with no luck the rest of the day.
The following day we slept in a little since the elk clearly weren't bugling yet, and headed into a different spot to still hunt more timber. Just Ryan and I went in this time as Dad and Curt had a different plan of checking out another area on the four wheelers. We hiked straight up gaining 500' of elevation in about half a mile and immediately came upon a cow elk in her bed! Ryan got ready with an arrow and slowly crept closer to the cow as we were about 60 yards away and he needed to close the gap for a better shot. As he did this his eyes caught another cow who had gotten out of her bed and was onto us. Without hesitation Ryan ranged her at 40 yards, drew back his bow and let an arrow fly! His arrow was redirected form it's course just before reaching the elk by a tree branch and both cows busted down the mountain! Even though the tree branch ruined it for him we were both completely amped up after that! We kept working down the mountain running into elk over and over again and towards the end of the day we came across a spike bull in full velvet, Ryan had a clear shot at him form about 30 yards but unfortunately spikes are the only illegal elk in these mountains!
All in all we had a blast as we always do and it was the perfect way to kick start a busy fall for us! We plan on going back in this week with hopefully a few more talkative elk that are easier to get onto! And if not, we'll at least get a few more days soaking up what is in my opinion God's most magnificent accomplishment!
Remember, sometimes the best remedy for whatever it is that ails you is some peace and quiet in the woods!
In the past couple of weeks Kelli and I have spent enough time on, around, and near water that I am starting to feel a little bit like a fish! It started two weekends ago when we got invited to join the Nagle clan up at Priest Lake in North Idaho for a weekend of camping. We rented two inflatable stand up paddle boards, which we've all been dying to try since first seeing them while in Hawaii, and along with our canoe we had plenty of watercraft to enjoy the lake with! We got there Friday afternoon and immediately set up our tents and set out for the water. The SUP's were everything we had hoped they would be, even the sun dropping below the mountains was nearly not enough to get us off of them.
We came back to our camp, which was just a short walk from the waters edge, and filled our bellies with some amazing pulled pork sandwiches that Ryan had prepared. The rest of our evening was spent hanging out around the campfire until we were paid a visit by a park ranger who easily stood 6'10" and I was asked to move our car to the overflow parking area. "Tall Timmy" as Kelli called him was very polite but this would not be the last time we saw him:) So once the car was moved we let the fire burn out and got some rest for a busy day!
The next morning I rose early and started to make coffee before the sun was even streaking through the trees, I was only alone for a few minutes as the Nagles tent soon erupted with two kids who did not like sleeping in a tent very well! The first words out of Ryan's mouth, even before both eyes were open, were "we need to get a camper"! We got some coffee in both he and Jill and ate a big breakfast before heading down to the beach area for a day fill of adventure! We laid on the beach, paddle boarded, and canoed for a few hours before heading back to camp for a nap. The kids took a nap under Kelli and Ryan's supervision while Jill and I drove down to check out the other state park campground to see if we wanted to try it out next year or just come back to this one. These campsites fill up for the season in the first couple months of the year so we decided to scout things out now so we could make a reservation next January. When we got back we took off on our final adventure of the day which was a 5 mile drive followed by a 2 mile hike up the mountain across the road from camp. Jill had done some research and found a natural water slide that we simply had to check out. The hike was pretty brutal, I had the Jax man on my back and I thought he was coming out the top a couple of times! But once we got to the water slide we forgot all about the hike! There was something really special about riding down a shale rock that has about an inch of water flowing over the top of it and grabbing on to the ski rope at the bottom if you'd built up too much speed to stop! It was both extremely exciting and scary at the same time! You'll have to check out Jill's blog if you want to see pictures cause all I got were videos of the craziness. Once we were done with the slide we hiked a little farther to check out a beautiful waterfall at the top then came back down to camp for a spaghetti dinner followed by yet another evening of paddle boarding.
The next morning we packed up all our gear, in the rain I should add, then took the boards down for one more ride. I think it's safe to say that someday I will own one of these boards as I simply didn't want to get off of it!
The next weekend we continued our water theme by hosting the Vollertson family, some friends of ours from Kalispell, while they combined a doctors visit for their daughter with a family trip to Silverwood theme park. We had a lot of fun all weekend! Friday while Kelli worked I took them through nearly all of Manito park, then took them downtown to Riverfront park where the kids got to play on the worlds largest radio flyer wagon! Then we barbecued at our house and got up the next morning to go to Silverwood. There's two sides to Silverwood, a theme park side with regular rides and a water park side with water slides and wave pools. We started out on the theme park side and after we got warmed up with a spin on the tilt a whirl and the octopus we were ready to tackle a roller coaster! They have two wooden coasters there and we decided to try the "Timber Tremors" first. If your thinking the name should have caught our attention and made us think twice your absolutely right! Luke sat next to his daughter, Kelli sat next to Kristi, and I sat next to their son Chase. Luke asked the girl strapping us in if this one is fun and she said "if you like 50mph with a 200' drop then yeah, it's fun" I think if any of us would have heard that before the ride started we would have bailed! She wasn't kidding either, as soon as it takes off you head straight up then make an immediate left hand turn into said 200' drop! Oh and the last half of the drop is inside a tunnel!! I immediately felt myself coming off the seat so I reached over and put an arm in front of Chase cause I thought if I was coming out of mine he had to be floating in mid air! Kelli told us when it was over that her sunglasses fell off and sat there for a split second defying gravity and Kristi snatched them out of the air saving us from buying another pair of Oakley's! I think every one of us was literally tremoring after the ride was over so the name of the ride is very appropriate!
We then headed back over to the water park side where the kids had a ball on slides and riding our backs in the wave pools. We then sat in line for about 30 minutes to ride down a water slide where all of us sat in one tube together. Finally Luke and I climbed the stairs to the slides that go straight down and raced each other to the bottom, this was a blast until I mistakenly let my feet come apart while coming to a stop then gingerly limped away after using the wrong body part to slow myself down! We spent the rest of the evening drying off and warming up before Chase and I hit up one last ride after we ate dinner. As we walked out of the park Luke and I each had one of the kids on our backs and both of them were fighting to keep their eyes open by the time we got to the car.
All in all the last couple of weeks have been a blast! We have got plenty of water exposure which in my opinion is the key to a good summer! As our summer comes to a close I look forward to opening week of elk season this weekend and late season golfing which should last even longer over here! The more I think about it I just don't think our summer will end, we're just going to carry the fun right over into winter!
Remember, you haven't had a complete summer until you've accidentally swallowed a fair amount of water that didnt' come from a faucet!
