A Fair Day

Our park had a booth at the 150th annual North Idaho Fair.  We volunteered to work a 4 hour shift. 

Mostly Mark worked and I walked around looking at all the booths and exhibits!  This fair was very large.  There were lots of 4-H activities, food booths, and information booths for the area. 

Our booth focused on the Museum at the Brig here at the park.  Unfortunately, most visitors to the park don’t know that Farragut started out as a Naval Training Station during WWII.  After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US decided it needed a naval training station that was not on coastal waters.

Of the 800 buildings that were built within 11 months, only one remains.The Brig (Jail).

The Museum at the Brig is open Memorial Day to Labor Day and is a wonderful history of life at Farragut Naval Training Station from 1942-1946.

Our last work assignment will be to help out at the annual reunion for the Farragut Naval Training Station sailors and/or their families.  This year it’s September 6th.

We're not sure when we will be leaving here but we will be back next year.

Factory Tours - Lots of Fun

I love to go on factory tours.  They are so interesting!  So far I think my favorite one was the potato chip factory in New Brunswick, Canada. (See August 6, 2011 blog).  It certainly was the tastiest!

The factory tour we went on this morning is probably my 2nd favorite tour.

The Buck Knives factory gives free 45 minute tours of their 128,000 square foot plant. (Reservations are required, fully closed shoes are mandatory). 

The first Buck Knife was produced in 1902 by Hoyt Buck. 

We saw the knife production from the raw materials to all the different stages of the different products they make. Our tour guide gave us detailed information about the history of Buck Knives and the history of their products. 

Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed on the production line.

There is a store where you can purchase their products (pocket knives, hunting / fishing / sporting knives, and cutlery.)  They also have factory seconds at a huge discount.

After the tour we went upstairs to the small museum.  I was able to take a couple of pictures through the windows into the factory from there.

Up in the museum there were a set of mammoth tusks and a couple of teeth.  Our tour guide told us that these tusks will be kept whole but that the company does have a small supply of mammoth tusk that they do use to make knife handles. 

There were a lot of nice display cases:

If you find yourself in Post Falls, Idaho, this is a very interesting factory tour.

Into the Abyss - What a Ride...

Before we got to Idaho we started to research things to do in the area.  One thing that stood out was a "Rails-to-Trails" conversion that stretches from Montana all the way over to Washington (not that the Idaho Panhandle is all that wide).  Rails-to-Trails is the term for converting an abandoned rail line into a hiking/biking trail. The grades are gentle and all of the expensive tunnels and trestles that the railroad built are already in place.

We decided to ride the Route of the Hiawatha as it is considered the most scenic part of the route and offers a shuttle to take you back to your vehicle.  The route is about 15 miles long, goes through 8 tunnels and across 7 tall trestle bridges. We were required to have lights on our bikes because of the tunnels, so we visited a sporting goods store the previous week and bought what we thought we good lights. More on that later.

The days had been warm here, so we decided to start out early and beat the heat.  Turns out that a front had blown in and it wasn't warm at all. In fact, it was downright cold! We were wearing our bike shorts and tee-shirts, and had each brought a long-sleeved cotton shirt for the sun.  It turns out we were woefully underdressed, but after driving an hour to the trailhead we decided to go for it. Brrrr!

Into the Abyss

We started at the East Portal in Montana, and the very first thing that we did was enter the St. Paul Pass Tunnel.  This tunnel is 8771 feet long, which is 1.66 miles.  The tunnel is about 12' wide, and doesn't have a single light. Our brand new bike lights cast a puny little cone of light out in front of the bikes, but did nothing to actually light up the tunnel.  So I led the way with Teri close behind, and we peddled, and peddled, and peddled though that cold, wet, dark tunnel for about 20 minutes until we finally saw the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel".  It was an interesting experience, to say the least!!  At the halfway point we crossed back in to Idaho, but we didn't see the sign because (have I mentioned this already?) it was really dark!

Inside of the Tunnel - Flash Picture

As we approached the end of the tunnel we heard the sound of water running, and emerged next to a beautiful little waterfall.

Once out of the giant tunnel we continued on a gentle downhill grade through a number of smaller tunnels (as short as 178' and as long as 1516') and over spectacular trestle bridges.  The highest trestle was 230' above the creek below.

Railroad Trestle

In spite of the cool, cloudy weather, we enjoyed beautiful scenery throughout the ride.

It took us about 2.5 hours to reach the lower trailhead where the shuttle was parked.  We made sure to get there on time as the shuttles run on 90 minute intervals and we didn't want to wait in the cold for the next one!

So we boarded the shuttle and got taken (almost) back to the truck. I say almost because they drop you back at the end of the long tunnel, and you get to ride back through to the beginning, This time there were quite a few people coming down as well as a few going back with us.  With extra riders and brighter lights around us, we could actually see the inside of the tunnel this time.

We may try it again when it isn't 40 degrees outside and cloudy. It was an interesting and beautiful ride.

Mark

Insects, Bugs, and Not Bugs...

We are continuing to present our Interpretive Programs here at Farragut State Park.  We typically do a program on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Evening, as well as programs on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

This morning's program was a new Junior Ranger program, and we invited the kids to catch some type of bug and bring it to the program to be identified. The park has a small collection of insects that we brought along, and Teri and I caught a few things beforehand just in case.  But we shouldn't have worried, as kids (and their parents) came up with plenty!!

The first young man to arrive brought a great big slug with him.  I don't have a Field Guide to Slugs (though one does exist!!) so we weren't exactly sure what kind it was.  Turns out it was a Leopard Slug.

Watcha' got in the bag??

Leopard Slug!

As more folks showed up we got an assortment of bees, moths, butterflies, ants, beetles, etc.  Plenty of bugs to go around.

We had a group of girls show up with the best (biggest) beetle of the day. I gave them the field guide and pointed them to the beetle section, and in short order they identified it as a Yellow Douglas-fir Borer.  These kids are good!

Got a big beetle!

And when it came time to release the bigs, some of the kids let them crawl around on them first. Much to the dismay of a few squeamish parents.

Yellow Douglas-fir Borer

Overall, we are getting good response to the programs.  It seems like kids have enough energy and imagination to make just about any program work.  You've just got to get them there!

Mark

You Don't See This Everyday...

Teri and I were checking our nest boxes this morning, and were getting close to the end of our route.  The final boxes are back in an area that requires us to drive our Kawasaki Mule along the "Horse and Buggy" trail.

About halfway down the trail we saw what we thought was a horse pulling  a buggy, but as we got closer we discovered it to be a llama pulling the buggy!  We immediately pulled our Mule off to the side and shut off the engine, as we know that stock animals can be easily spooked.  The first llama passed by without much fuss.

Llama Pulling Buggy.

But there were two more llama/buggy combos, and those llamas were not the least bit interested in passing us by.  Those riders had to get out and have a little discussion with their animals.

Trying to Reason with a Llama.

About the time we thought that we'd need to reverse course down the trail just to get the llamas through, the riders re-mounted and with much coaxing got going again. 

Do we have to?

We half expected some sort of excitement as they passed us, but things went smoothly after all. 

The End!!

Mark

What The Heck Are We Doing?

We’ve been extremely busy volunteering these last two months. 

During the last two weeks in May we gave interpretive programs to 402 school kids.  Just when we thought we were through with the large groups of kids, we got word that a Girl Scout troop (55 girls) would be in the park and wanted us to to give them a program.

Starting the last full week of May, our “real” volunteer jobs started. We give interpretive programs three evenings a week (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).  These can take an enormous amount of time to “create”.  It takes Mark a full week to set up a new presentation.  He takes lots of photos and spends many hours putting together a Powerpoint program. 

Some of our programs consists of showing a movie, such as a documentary about bears.  But, there’s more than just showing the movie!  For the bear movie, we bring out the bear furs and skull, various books and Mark starts the program with a 10-15 minute talk about bears. 

A program created by Mark.

These programs start at 8:30 p.m. as it stays light very late.  Luckily we have a very bright projector and are able to start the programs when it is still light outside.  They usually last about 45 minutes.

Two mornings (Saturday and Sunday) we also have interpretive programs.  One is always a Jr. Ranger program that is geared toward kids.  These have been scavenger hunts, owl pellet dissection, and hauling out all the furs and skulls.   

Furs, Skulls, and Deer Antlers

Usually on Sunday mornings we offer a 1 mile hike along one of the “kid friendly” trails here in the park.  There is a lot to see and talk about on this trail and this hike usually takes about 1 1/2 hours.

It is very green here in the park!

We have a lot of fun programs set up for the coming weeks.  A disc golf clinic is on the list.  Have I mentioned that there are 4 disc golf courses in the park?  Three 18-hole courses that are progressively difficult and a 9-hole course that is great for kids and beginners.  The park has a box full of disc for use during the clinic.  If we can catch a full moon at the right time, we plan on having a night hike.  We also want to have programs on staying safe in the woods and a nature scavenger hunt.  It seems like each week we think of other programs we can offer.

We had friends from Texas visit for a week.  Even though it rained the first 3 days, we were able to get out and play tourist.  We went through a couple of museums, something we probably would not have done if it hadn’t been raining.  They turned out to be quite enjoyable.

Bonner’s Ferry Museum

We’re still monitoring our Bluebird houses.  So far we have had about 80 Bluebirds fledge and many Chickadees and Tree Swallows.  Many of our birds have started 2nd nests.

Feed Me!!!

We are already at the half way point in our time here.  We’ve been here 10 weeks and have 10 weeks to go. Time flies when you're having fun!

Teri

Our Babies are Growing Up!!

We are still checking our 50+ nest boxes once a week, and we've seen some nests go from eggs to empty.

This week we found many of the boxes with older chicks. We won't see these chicks next week.  They'll be out and about!

Bluebirds close to fledging

What are you looking at?

We also have Mountain Chickadees ready to go. Notice Mom in the corner of the box.

Mountain Chickadees

The Tree Swallows were the last to nest, and so far we have only eggs. Tree Swallows always have a few feathers in their nests.

Tree Swallow eggs

We have nests with all ages of chicks in them, including a few that hope for an easy meal when the box opens up!!

Feed Me!!!

Mark