My Journey

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

After one last steep incline we reached an enormous ridgeline.....to the north it dropped nearly straight down but to the south and east.....it was relatively flat.....like walking on gently sloping hills.....it wasn't long before we stood on the summit.....



To the northwest we had a great view of the Wanapum  Dam.....



And further to the north.....a shot of the Columbia River / Wanapum Lake.....and the interstate bridge that we took to cross the river / lake.....



The views from the summit.....they were decent looking north, east and west.....not so much so looking south.....this mountain was covered in dirt roads and antennas.....like a whole lot.....even our summit (shown in next photo) was covered in antennas.....



I took a few pictures from the summit.....





.....and I took a few pictures of my hot dogs on another mountain top.....




We spent that night at the Big B Truck Stop along Interstate 90. The next day we drove east.....stopped in Missoula, Montana for yet another test on the heart.....then we continued driving east.....arrived home that night.....

For what it's worth.....my knee didn't hurt one bit after that climb and hasn't hurt one bit since (I've even put in a few 17+ mile days since). Sometimes I think that doctors just need to make a diagnosis.....but.....heck, what do I know.....

 

[furbucket]

And sadly, I have thousands of pictures saved on CD's that I'll never be able to access.....

If you ever find yourself in LA I'd love the opportunity to turn those CDs into a USB drive or an online album for you - I have a large gravel driveway that's currently occupied by a friend in his camper van and there's plenty of room for another for a night or two...
(I realize Los Angeles, people, cities, driveways, etc aren't your thing... one day they wont be mine either)

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

furbucket.....I appreciate the offer but I doubt that I'll ever return to California.....especially Los Angeles. I've tried to figure out how I could do it myself but that never panned out. I'm willing to purchase the hardware if I knew what to buy. If you have any insight to share, I'd sure appreciate it.....



The month of June was another tough one for this family of dogs. We hadn't planned any RV camping trips for the month but we did have one overnighter camping in our tent planned as well as two mountains summits that we planned to attempt.....all in Montana.....

Then the craziest thing happened to Tanner and all our plans were canceled. Tanner suffered hematomas to both of his ears. One evening when I went to scratch his ears, I immediately noticed that they'd blown up like ballons. He had surgery the following morning. The surgeon & my vet have no idea what caused this.....



Hematomas, generally, are caused from a dog shaking his head violently when he has a bad ear infection(s). Tanners' ears were described as "GREAT" by the surgeon so we're left wondering what was the cause. The recovery period is long and bumps along the road are expected. We've had our fair share. We're now into week three of limited exercise.....no camping, hiking, running, etc. allowed.....always on a leash.....



June has been a month spent working at the cabin.....lots of landscaping, general maintenance, and plenty of short walks downtown along Main  Street.....and a just a bit of reading (not so much).....

I may post pictures of the cabin improvements if anyone is interested.....just let me know.....



I'm about to finish up Iceland.....Land of the Sagas by John Krakauer and David Roberts. This picture book is absolutely beautiful.....I now understand why the adventurer adds this place to their must see list. I'm left wishing that I had.....

 

[ITTOG]

Cabin pictures are greatly appreciated.

 

[furbucket]

Assuming you’ve got a laptop computer (although I feel like I remember a post a long while back that said most or all of this thread you do via smart phone?). You would need an external usb CD/DVD drive, can be had from Amazon for around $20, or around $30 from BestBuy or Walmart if you don’t want to support Jeff Bezos rocket ship hobby.
Connect drive to computer, insert CD, drag files to a local folder…
If no computer then there are online services that you can ship old photos too and they will digitize them and upload them to a Google drive which you could access from a smart phone. I don’t see why they wouldn’t do picture CDs- could be pricey though.
Option 3 - got to main street with dogs, stop by coffee shop, recruit someone in their late 30’s to mid 40’s (this is key as you’re looking for computer savvy but old enough to still know what a CD is). I bet they would be cheaper than the online services and you wouldn’t have to ship anything.


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[halseyt]

wishing Tanner a full recovery..
always good to see cabin pics

 

[Ace Brown]

Always interested in the cabin.


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[Arjan]

Cabin pictures are very much appreciated.

Tanners ears could have been hitting something solid.... Ask me how I know... Had this once happen to a Golden Retriever of ours and like now, the ears were clean etc. We think perhaps a fly, or something like that, caused him (was Hogan, our 1st Golden) to shake his head...

Long and slow recovery...

Bon Courage !

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

ITTOG & Ace.....here you go.....plenty more to come (I think).....

furbucket.....you're correct that I don't have a computer but I'm not opposed to purchasing one. I may go to Best Buy and see what they have. The other options wouldn't work for me as I much prefer to go it alone. I really wish that I could access those photos. I know that there's a few good ones in there.....

halseyt.....thanks. Hopefully tomorrow morning he'll have the stitches removed and life will get back to normal.....

Arjan.....I wish that I knew the cause so that I might avoid it in the future. I'm told that once it happens to your dog, he'll be more inclined to have it happen again. And I'm really pleased that I didn't play a role in the cause for his suffering (so say the experts). A likely culprit could be the ticks that we encountered on our last trip.....but who knows.....



I like to think of the month of June as the month of thinking. Since we were grounded with Tanner's ear situation, there wasn't a whole lot to do. So we spent a lot of time at home.....alone. At this point in my life I much prefer thinking over speaking.....so we were afforded the perfect situation. No traveling.....no planning.....and of course, there was no worrying.....just accepting of what was. The month seemed to drag along so slowly yet now when I look back at the month of June.....I think "the time sure did fly".....



So the first project that I'll share with you is the construction of yet one more stone wall. When it comes to construction, I don't think that there's any other project that I love more.....especially here in Montana where the initial phase of construction is the gathering of the stones.....which, of course, requires a trip to the National Forest.....



The same road.....the same views.....the same scenery.....yet it never seems the same.....each trip I seem to see more.....



Nobody comes here.....all alone collecting my stones.....again, thinking and more thinking.....my little paradise.....



The south side of the cabin was an area that I had always ignored.....there was a stretch along the cabin wall, maybe three feet wide where grass refused to grow. The dogs loved to dig here and weeds seemed to thrive. So it was that I cleaned and leveled out this area and constructed a new stone wall.....pulled weeds and encouraged the grass to grow.....



And at the ends of the wall (at the corners of the cabin), I replaced the river stone that I had installed under the chains with large boulders from the mountainside and piled them up plenty high.....it was indeed a striking difference.....more the feel that I was looking for.....



Flowers are beginning to reach out to the stones and it's quickly turning into something quite beautiful.....




Now that the stone wall is complete and the newly coveted grass has grown in, the field mice have already moved in. I'll see them occasionally when they let their guard down which would be a fatal mistake if they do it when Trapper is around.....she's a known mouse killer.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

The favorite spot for the mice is in the barn. They can be a PIA. It's fairly common in this area to have cats if you have a barn. I've been told that the guy across the road may have as many as thirty. That seems to be a bit much to me but who am I to question his actions ? He was born and raised in Montana.....he's actually really a cowboy.....



As far as my barn goes, I made a few changes.....one of which was to add more Buddhist prayer flags on the north side and the south side. I brought a bunch of these home from my travels years ago.....I figure that I may as well make use of them.....



I made these hanging things (that you see in the picture below) for friends and neighbors.....the little pieces of wood I collected from the beach while on our recent trip to the Pacific Ocean (you may recall me mentioning that I had collected drift wood while on that trip).....



One of my Trump loving neighbors was evicted from their mobile home.....they'd been there nearly 25 years. That just about killed me.....and them too. I absolutely loved those people.....political beliefs never once got in the way of our friendship. I bring that up cause they gave me so many gifts before they hit the road.....I think that a sign of a real friendship.....



A bird house with an antique license plate was one of those gifts.....several old John Wayne posters, a toy rifle, and an old Army helmet.....stuff not worth moving.....stuff that'll bring me fond memories of my Trump loving friends.....




And license plates.....oh my gosh did they ever give me a lot of old license plates.....




Some of them were so old.....like really, really old.....dating back nearly one hundred years.....



Those people.....they didn't have much.....they never did.....but they both sure did have big hearts.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Tanner's check up at the vet went really well and we were finally cleared to go camping.....and swimming as well. After we got the go ahead, we still had to wait out a period of several days.....three to be exact.....of scattered thunderstorms. As soon as we saw our opening, we were back on the road again.....

We took Interstate 90 east, made a stop in Livingston, Montana for an early dinner.....



With my stomach full, we then drove north on Highway 89 for half an hour.....passed through Clyde Park, Montana.....a half mile north of town we made a right hand turn and took Upper Cottonwood Canyon Road east.....



For the next thirty minutes we drove through some of Montanas' finest lands.....these fields provide prime habitat for an array of wildlife. On this trip I spotted a Golden Eagle (first time for that), several sightings of deer, and of course, Pronghorn Antelope.....



The old ranch machinery that must have died in the fields years ago still dot the landscape.....I never tire of their beauty.....




A roll of old, rusting barbed wire fence almost looks decorative.....to my eye anyhow.....



The contrasting colors in the next photograph caught my eye as we neared our campsite.....



After thirty minutes of driving along the well groomed gravel road I picked an informal campsite.....yes, alongside the road.....



Nearby us was a small irrigation ditch.....it ran fast and it was full to the top of its banks.....inspite of the current drought conditions here in Montana.....



Just across the cattle guard.....maybe several hundred feet from our campsite.....the cattle were casually grazing in the rich, mostly green fields.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Dark doesn't come around until maybe 10 p.m. and maybe even just a bit later in this part of Montana at this time of year so we still had plenty of time to get out and walk along the road.....to take in the sensational sights.....



The dogs and I.....we walked along the Forest Service road.....we dropped into the valley and then returned back to the higher ground. It was the higher ground where I found the most pleasing sights.....yet down below, it too had its appeal.....the sage brush and the pines.....offered something entirely different.....



The moon began to rise and we watched as the most beautiful Montana sky developed.....



At this point in the evening I did something that I rarely do.....I returned the dogs to the camper and went out alone.....to see what I could see.....



The fields that surrounded us were covered in Springs' wildflowers......



And it was truly a majical moment in the mountains of Montana.....




It must have been just about 70 degrees.....there was that so common slight breeze that you often find in the mountains......and humidity.....of course not.....it was a perfect night.....




The fragrances from the fields of flowers was overwhelming.....you couldn't help but breathe in deeply.....repeatedly.....and think....."I'm so grateful to be experiencing this".....

 

[Foy]

Thanks for the preview. We'll be passing through the Shields Valley enroute to White Sulphur Springs soon.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Foy.....what's your schedule ? I'm back at the cabin now but I may be back in that area soon. I'm watching the weather (no longer so fond of being in the truck camper when it's 90+ degrees). Also, I'm soooo sore from my last outing that I'm trying to heal.....



Eventually I found myself lying down on my belly, almost becoming one with the earth (but not really). I just had this urge to see things from a different perspective.....



It was incredible.....the varieties and colors of the wildflowers.....white, yellow, orange, red, blue, and purple.....and different shades of each of the variations.....



The moon continued to rise as the sun continued to set.....this truly was a moment of bliss.....



I found myself crawling around in the field of wildflowers.....



.....as I attempted to take photographs of the setting sun as it disappeared into the wildflowers.....



Crazy you might think ? Yeah, maybe a little. If a bear had passed by at that moment, then certainly it was a crazy idea.....



I didn't want the evening to end.....and as the sun set I was back on my feet hiking down the fenceline.....



I was able to eke out a few extra minutes.....



.....but then the sun finally disappeared behind that mountain.....



It was well after 10 p.m. when I returned to the truck camper.....the dogs were sleeping and it wasn't long after that.....that I too was sleeping soundly.....

 

[Ace Brown]

Flower and sunset photos were pretty cool.


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