SHAKE DOWN CRUISE TO LAKE MC DONALD

I am very excited. Kinsey is starting to make preparations for our upcoming trip to the Heart of Everything That Is aka the Black hills of South Dakota. Kinsey read this book over the winter and it got her all worked up about the area. She wrote about it on her blog: Finding Red Cloud & The Heart of Everything That Is.

Yesterday she de-winterized our girl Clementine and began systems checks.

Our Clementine patiently waiting to be rescued from storage.

It has sort of become our spring time ritual to make a run up to Lake McDonald, in Glacier National Park, to see how Clem is feeling. Happy to report she was as frisky as ever. Clem has a little Mercedes diesel engine and it runs like a top even towing Shadow.

It was an awesomely gorgeous day and not surprisingly people were already enjoying the park. At this tinme of year you can just drive in as the park isn't officially open. They have opened Going to the Sun Road to hikers and bikers so many were there for that.

Surrounded by snow capped mountains Lake McDonald is always a site to see. In the photo below some folks are enjoying the sun along with the beauty.

Lake McDonald Glacier National Park

Of course, even gorgeous scenery cannot help but be enhanced by the presence of moi. It's not my fault I think I'm beautiful. Everyone tells me so even with my funny summer hair cut.

Molly Montana at Glacier National Park

There seems to be a lot less snow around than last year. For comparison check out the photos from April 20, 2014. If I remember correctly they didn't get Going to the Sun Road open 'til way late last year.

Kinsey is always amazed and delighted by the lake's clear water. In the photo below it's hard to believe the stones you see are underwater.

Crystal clear water at Lake McDonald Glacier National Park

Other people were out on the lake doing a little kayaking.

Kayaking Lake McDonald Glacier National Park

I had to wait around for like hours whilst Kinsey tinkered around with Clementine. From her tinkering she determined the stove was working as was the refrigerator. Us girls can do without a lot but when it comes to our grub things have got to be right. The house batteries were working as agreed but a check showed they needed their water topped off. So, far things are looking good!

After Kinsey finished fooling around we took off on a walk along the lake. At the campground just before you hit Going to the Sun Road we met the nicest young people. A brother and sister from, would you believe, South Dakota! Well, you can imagine that was grounds for a good deal of talking and sharing of information. We now actually have a contact in Rapid City, their mom Pete who is a travel agent and knows everything about the area. I don't know how Kinsey does it but this sort of thing happens all the time. People just come into our lives just at the right times. But, I help. People are always wanting to meet me so Kinsey gets to meet them too. I am a very effective goodwill ambassador if I do say so myself.

Shea & Tanner our new friends from South Dakota

So, it was a great dry run. After we got home Kinsey drained out all the anti-freeze, treated the pooper and we are looking good to go. The last thing that needs to be checked is the water heater but I'm betting it's working too.

Ciao for now,
Molly Montana

©Kinsey Barnard

Picture Perfect Day in Montana Frolicking in Lake Koocanusa Photos

Yesterday was a picture perfect day here in NW Montana and here's a picture to prove it.

Lake Koocanusa

That's Lake Koocanusa and those are the snow capped Canadian Rockies in the background. You can see that the lake has been drained to a very low level. They do that every spring to make room for the kajillions of gallons of water that will soon coming flowing out of the mountains. Kinsey says this may be the lowest she's ever seen it. The lowest before she captured in "HEAVENLY EYE" Click on it to see what you think. Looks like a toss up to me.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day to be sure. Kinsey had finally decided to try and capture my athletic abilities with the Frisbee. Well, it's not really a Frisbee it's a flying disk made by the Chuckit! people and it's called a Paraflight. I really love that thing. Sometimes it kind of hangs in the air and changes direction. You really have to keep your eye on the ball, I mean disk. I like it!

Kinsey collected her pal Faith to act as disk thrower whilst she tried to catch me with her camera. Let me just say I don't think Kinsey has much of a future in action photography but God bless her she tries and beggars can't be choosers, right?

Look at me I can fly!

What Form. What Style. Such grace!

Cooling my jets

Another cooling technique I invented

Would you get a load of that tongue!

After they wore me out with the Chuckit! we had a picnic there beside the lake. It was very, very nice.

While we were eating we heard helicopters circling overhead. We figured it had something to do with the control burning that was going on in the area. Sure enough a Forest Service truck stopped by to let us know about the burn and the helicopter. The helicopter wasn't just observing, as Kinsey had thought, but it was actually starting the fires. News to us they were doing it by dropping incendiary ping pong balls on the forest. Get outta here!

Warning Sign

There you have it another day in wonderland doing the most outrageously fun stuff.

Be sure and checkout Kinsey's new blog The Liberated Photographer.

©Kinsey Barnard

Sutton Creek - Montana

Today we took a hike in bear country. We didn't see any though. Sutton Creek is down along the east side of Lake Koocanusa. It has been so dry in this area the foliage already looks like fall in the area.

I don't know if you know how the Koocanusa came by it's name but in case you don't here's the story. The lake stretches ninety miles from the Libby dam all the way into British Columbia. So, the Koo is for the Kootenai National Forest which was named for the Kootenai Indians (Kootenay in Canadian) Can for Canada and USA for, well you know, USA.



We were looking for a water fall which we didn't find. I'm beginning to think I need a new map reader. Even though we never found the falls it was a very pretty hike. The forest was mostly ponderosa and those great big red tree trunks are beautiful, or so my mom says. After wandering around in the forest for about three hours we gave up on the waterfall and headed back down the mountain.

On the way home we stopped at Sand Hill. It's a place right on highway 37 where they blasted sheer cliffs when they made the Koocanusa. Anyway, rock climbers love this spot for climbing so we stopped and watched them for awhile. Looks like fun to me but mom practically fainted just watching them :)

We got back just in time for a little, very welcome rain to start falling. That's about it for this day.

Until next time.........

©Kinsey Barnard