Summer 2010 Travels - Page 3

tommylewis · #21 07-10-2010, 10:29 PM

After camping for almost two weeks, we packed up our stuff at Johnson Creek and flew over to McCall for some fuel and then headed northwest to the Idaho Washington border and then north to Sandpoint, Idaho. This route took us over Hells Canyon and some other awesome country. This picture is of Hells Canyon.

As we approached Sandpoint, I snapped this picture (yes Bonnies turn to fly today) of Lake Pend Oreille. Our lake rent house is on Bottle Bay which is between the two points on the right side of the picture. It was a beautiful day to fly this route. Check out the route on the Spot link in our signature line below.

When we landed we asked about hangar rental, and found a place to park two RVs for the week. Keep pounding those rivets.

Garrett3374 · #22 07-12-2010, 07:04 AM

Tom....Your killing us back here in Granbury......... Its rained here alot in the last few weeks, looks like your having alot more fun.... Looking forward to getting my RV finished!!!

Oh yeah....I have to start it first......(Preview Plans in Hand)

tommylewis · #23 08-07-2010, 10:01 PM

Tom and Bonnie are heading west again in our RV10 after a few days in Rapid City, a couple days in Minneapolis, 10 days at Oshkosh, and a short week at Mom's in South Dakota. Yesterday, Friday, we left Mom's and flew to Gillette, Wy to visit Devils Tower.

Our flight to Gillette was smooth with light head winds and blue skys. We overflew Sturgis, SD, and observed several open fields turned into camp grounds for the arriving motor cycles. We deviated slitely to get a view of Devils Tower from the air. It was interesting, but the size of the Tower was not impressive from our altitude.

After landing, getting N143EB buttoned up, and finding our motel, we headed over land to the Tower. As we approached we realized that we had been deceived about it's size. The Tower is immense. and it's structure is fasinating. After studying the facts and myths of the Tower in the visitor center, we took a hike around the base of the Tower and it's boulder field. We were treated to great close up views of all sides of the Tower. Amazing to us were the number of rock climbers we watched climbing up and down this rock. We were truely impressed with this natural monument.

From the Tower we continued north to the small town of Hulett. We found it's 5000 ft. airstrip on top of a mesa next to a beautiful golf course. It is unattended, but has self serve fuel, a pilot's lounge accessed by using the unicom freq., and a courtesy car. As an added adventure, we decided to begin our return to Gillette by a 30 mile gravel road along the Blacktail Creek.
It was a beautiful drive with forest, creek, wild flowers and deer.

tommylewis · #24 08-08-2010, 09:06 PM

Our Saturday flight from Gillette, WY, to Driggs, ID, began later than we had hoped. However it worked out perfectly. Our weather briefing showed only one small storm on the entire western radar, but it was red and yellow and headed straight for Driggs. Many thanks to XM weather in the cockpit as we watched it's movement all the way. When we reached Togwotee pass east of Jackson Hole, WY, the storm was just clearing the north edge of Jackson Lake leaving the way open for us to round the north end of the Tetons for landing at Driggs. The flight was reasonably smooth and the Tetons were beautiful.

The Driggs airport is always delightful with it's view of the back side of the Tetons, gourmet restaurant, sail planes and museum. We managed to get N143EB cleaned up and tied down as well as getting settled in our rent house in spite of the recurring showers throughout the rest of the day.

Sunday was a picture perfect day so we headed for the Grand Targhee Resort in hopes of making a hike that we have been rained out of several times in previous years. We rode the Dreamcatcher quad lift to the 10,000 Ft. summit of Fred's Mountain. At the top there is a magnificent view of the back side of the Teton's.

From there we hiked the 2.8 miles down the Teton Vista Traverse trail back to the parking lot. We added one extra mile to take a side hike up (and I do mean up!) to Mary's Saddle. The view of the Tetons from Mary's Saddle was spectacular. We marveled at the scene as we sat on the rocks and ate our sandwich. An added surprise were the mountain flowers. The mountains were carpeted with every color possible; red, orange, blue, purple, pink, red, yellow and many shades inbetween. They came in all sizes and shapes. I couldn't stop taking pictures. Of course our knees are getting stiffer and stiffer as I write this, but it was a glorious day.

Peterk · #25 08-09-2010, 07:29 AM

Tom, Bonnie,

Good to see you at OSH. We're thinking of renting your house out for the summer next year to a couple from up north that likes hot weather. By the way, in my younger days (many, many years ago) I too used to climb Devil's tower. The scariest part was when the jets from Ellsworth AFB used to do tight turns around the tower and of course we were facing foward straining a handhold. They did maintain the 3nm distance requirement you discovered...thank god!

Glad you're enjoying the wonders of Wyoming (that does not include Gillette!). I just left Sheridan a week ago to check on your house...all is good.

Bob Brown · #26 08-09-2010, 08:35 AM

Sounds like a great adventure you two are having, thanks for posting and for the great pics. Hope you're able to make it out for Homecoming. The summer weather in the NW has been awesome this year, we hope it holds for a while-

tommylewis · #27 08-09-2010, 09:56 AM

We are off to a slow start today because of the stiff muscles from yesterdays hike.

Pete - Good luck with finding any northern folks wanting to experience the Texas August heat!!! I am impressed that you climbed Devils Tower. There were several groups climbing it Friday afternoon. It must be quite a rush to climb.

Bob - We are considering the homecoming, but would have to leave our rent house on Orcas Island a couple days early. Sorry we missed you at Oshkosh this summer.

tommylewis · #28 08-15-2010, 11:35 PM

Our stay in Driggs, ID, was great. On our hike along String Lake and Leigh Lake in Teton National Park we saw a mule deer and a black bear each right on the trail.

We really enjoyed sharing a few days with Jim and Debra Lane (RV8) when they joined us from Missouri. With them we hiked the Cascade Canyon in the Teton Park. The views are spectacular on the 10 mile in and out hike including waterfalls, glaciers, mountain peaks, rivers, ponds and moose.

The Cascade Canyon hike starts out with the Hidden Falls.

In the Canyon we saw three bull moose, two cows and one calf.

Mount Teewinot lies on the south rim of the canyon.

View of the Glaciers on the back side of Mount Teewinot.

Can you see the cascade of glacier melt?

End of the canyon in the distance, our destination.

Saturday Jim and Debra headed home and Tom and Bonnie flew on to Lewiston, ID. Here is a picture of the two RVs at Driggs.

tommylewis · #29 08-18-2010, 10:28 PM

Last Saturday, we flew out of Driggs for Lewiston, Idaho. The weather was great, except for a cloud layer at our cruising altitude of 10500, so we climbed and had favorable winds which resulted in ground speeds of 195-200 mph. Not bad for a westerly course.

Eventually the clouds disappeared giving us a view of the beautiful Idaho mountains.

Part of our route took us over the Salmon River crisscrossing parts of Lewis and Clarks' historic journey.

In Lewiston we visited the visitor center in ****'s Gate State Park on the east side of the Snake River. There we were reminded of the history of Lewis and Clark and their Native American friends. We also took a long winding drive down the west side of the Snake river canyon.

Along the west side of the Snake we took a short hike at Buffalo Eddy to climb around a rocky area looking for petroglyphs.

We were rewarded with many petroglyph finds, but I am sure we missed many more than we found.

The next day we flew up to Orcas Island.

tommylewis · #30 08-19-2010, 10:01 PM

Sunday, Aug. 15, We left Lewiston, ID, for East Sound, Orcas Island, WA. As we approached the Cascade Mountains we had a great view of Mt Rainier in the distance off our left wing. It is 75 nm away, great visibility. This was the clearest, smoothest ride over the Cascades we have had in a long time.

Here is a panel shot after we were established at 10.5k, wind off right wing, and 198mph ground speed. I believe the TAS displayed on the EFIS is lower than actual, a project for next winter is to correct this error. The RV10 is really a nice traveling machine.

The Cascades were beautiful beneath the wings.

We passed on the north side of Glacier Peak. The glaciers were sparkeling in the sun.

Passing Mount Baker, it is time to start down as Orcas Island is only a few minutes away.

Part 2 to follow.