August 27, 2020 – We found the bees’ weakness – Rum

Today we move from our little spot by the Koocanusa to Rexford MT.  It has been a quiet couple of days and this morning I can feel Fall definitely in the air.  Here is a shot of the Koocanusa at last light – nothing can actually give an accurate picture of the beauty of this place.  Go see it!



Yesterday we went to Libby (the closest town) and purchased a butt load of yellowjacket traps.  Apparently they are just plastic one-way bags with a mixture of water and sugar in them.  Well, we had noticed that the bees liked Russ’s rum and coke a lot better than my pinot grigio (well, it is not Italian duh).  So an experiment where a bit of rum and coke added to the trap confirmed our beliefs.  There are about 5 times as many trapped bees in that as in the commercial bag.  Suckers.  In any event, it helped with the bee situation, immensely. 

 

There was a little beach close by our campsite and I was able to swim the past two days.  In the hopes that the next place has one I will not deflate my air floaty.  Russ is out fishing for a long time this morning – hoping that means a few.  We will see. 

 

Yep, he got a bigger one today!!  Looks like enough for both of us.  Too bad I’m not a fan of trout. 




We found a perfect spot in a USFS campground called  Rexford Bench, still on the Koocanusa, near the town of Eureka, MT.  This place is a bit pricey by normal standards.  For a retired person with the pass it is $12 a night.  The amenities are pretty nice though.  Here there are real flush toilets (Russ says he has been in hotels with much worse restrooms), a huge boat ramp facility (not something we need) and a real beach where the bottom is walkable without shoes (must have brought in the "sand").  This place is so put together they have 2 campground hosts for 51 campsites, another host for the "terraced" campsites and another host for the boat ramp.  Sounds like a pretty desirable post.  Besides all of that, there is, as you can see, cell service here.

Ceilidh and I found the swimming beach so Russ drove me and my floaty down there this afternoon to take a dip.  Of course, there are no dogs allowed on the beach so Russ and Ceilidh stayed in the truck.  What to my surprise -- the first thing I see on the beach are 2 dogs running with no leash.  I guess the rules are not for everybody.

Oh well, people are the same everywhere.  

I wish I had my kayak.


Comments

  1. Helen GrahamAugust 27, 2020 at 5:00 PM

    Are you ever coming back?
    must be waiting for the smoke to subside

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Been a quiet two days -- August 29, 2020

Image
Back in this civilized camp I have spent 2 days reading, swimming and hiking.  We went to town (Eureka, MT) yesterday for lunch and had a really good and huge cobb salad for $11.  The town kind of reminded me of Virginia City.  I can't exactly explain why but it was set up to take advantage of the tourist trade in the old downtown.  I asked one of the merchants there how business was and she said "not so good."   Before we hit Eureka, we drove down to Rexford which is merely a post office, a bar/restaurant and few trailer parks.  There was, however, a big field where Russ could through the frisbee to Ceilidh.  As we turned around to leave, these critters greeted us: After lunch in Eureka we explored the history a bit.  This place has a pretty good set up.  All of their old buildings are set in the same place.  Fortunately there was a lot of history to see outside for, alas, the museum itself was closed.  COVID.  Here's som...
Read more

Windy, Windy Night!! Glad we are still standing.

Image
Wednesday, February 24, 2012.  We broke camp at Walker Lake and continued our journey south towards Death Valley.  A totally different route, we passed through Beatty, Nevada and over the summit into the Valley.  We were totally surprised at the accommodations that have been made for the masses that want to visit and stay in Death Valley.  Of course there are the old standby campgrounds but they need to be reserved 6 months in advance and therefore are impossible to secure.  Now, however, the park has opened up a huge “parking lot” sort of facility that allows campers – RV’s, Trailers and Tents – to camp in the gravel.  This sounds unattractive but it really isn’t.  The spots are really wide and the fact that lots of us can stay in the valley now more than makes up for the non-campground feel.  You still get the incredible vistas and dark sky that Death Valley is known for.  We (because we are old and have a senior pass) only had to pay $7 a...
Read more

Missed a day -- sorry. Gone from Clear to Smoky September 13, 2020

Image
Yes, well yesterday I was able to kayak twice.  Once in the morning and once at night.  And look at how clear it was. Today, the smoke settled into Montana like this I fear it is going to be like this for the rest of our journey which, of course, makes me less sad to have it end. The last two days have been full.  Saturday we visited Philipsburg, MT which is the site of another ghost town called Granite.  This one has not been tended to as carefully as Garnet as you can see from the pictures but it has a lot more stuff in it including the stamping mill.  Most of the photos show what is left of each building and most of that is masonry and granite.  The boards that formed the homes or offices on top of the rock foundations have either just collapsed and  been left to lay where they fell or are gone altogether. Here is a picture of the only bank in Granite.  I assume that this is just the vault because it was only big enough for money -- not people....
Read more