Day 23 - The Kootenai River is great!

Captain's Log - A thing of beauty!

It's late so I will be rather brief tonight. Sorry. At least the pictures uploaded! Anyway, we were traveling along, not taking any pictures (cause Dawn is really tired of me stopping and said if I stop one more time she is going to take off without me! Like, I'm gonna stop after that threat? No way!) So her butt is sore, right? She now wants to stop. So I pull into a Newport, Washington, a quaint little town near the Idaho border. At the visitor center they had this gargantuan old steam engine. I mean look at the size of that flywheel, would you?! This sucker was the sole energy for an entire sawmill (belt drive) for over 50 years! Ohhhh, to stand next to such shear power!

So we ride all the way through Idaho - couldn't get any pictures sorry, Dawn was holding a gun to my head at that point. No way I'm stopping with that threat!

But then we came to this pullout along US Highway 2 in Montana that is advertising a scenic overlook, waterfalls and a swinging bridge. My Captain's training immediately took over so I overpowered Dawn, disarmed her and insisted that we hike down to these fantastic attractions. Little did I know, she had a sore butt again and wanted to take a break! When we got to the falls, there were kayakers filming each other as they jumped off the falls. We didn't know that, so we basically had a heart attack when we saw the first one go over then disappear. (They would paddle to a cove out of our sight and climb back to the top to do it again - how would we know?) They were CRAZY! Dawn wouldn't let me try... something about the fact that she doesn't know how to drive the bike so how would she get back home. Oh well.

This really was a worthwhile stop and one which I would recommend to anyone traveling through this area. It is out of the way and very undeveloped. Dawn felt like a real explorer and thought she was the first to discover the place! [I didn't want to break it to her, but there was a big bridge built over the railroad tracks, a trail to the falls and a cool cable suspended bridge over the river downstream!] By the way, Dawn braved the suspended bridge over this raging river which spanned about 75 yards and hovered about 40 feet above the river! All kidding aside, she really surprised me with her bravado. Don't worry, I took a movie of that too.

Then we came to this small town, Libby, Montana. They had all kinds of artwork through the town as giant sculptures. As you can see, they have dubbed themselves the "City Of Eagles". I know my dad and Dawn's Uncle Dan really like eagles, so guys, this pictures for you. There were cool eagle sculptures on the way into town and out of town as well. There was even a really cool 20' fishing rod with a 3' fish on the string.

We finally stopped for one last break for the day at this peaceful little lake. The lakes and streams throughout the area were all crystal clear and beautiful. They all called to me to take their picture, but, like I said, Dawn was armed and dangerous so you will have to use your imagination!

Tomorrow is Glacier National Park, Montana, so before we leave, I will make sure that Dawn is unarmed so I can stop and take as many pictures as I want. That way, you guys will be able to see ALL the great views that we got to see. I know that you are dying to see all 5,243 of them! See you soon!