Friday, June 24, 2011 (Seven Mile Dam, Pend d’Oreille Valley, Trail, BC)

After a great night’s sleep (Don said it was the great Kootenay mountain air!) we were ready to go riding!  Don had invited his friend, Darrell, to join us and he arrived just before 8:30.  After introducing himself, he off-loaded his ATV.  Don arrived a few minutes later.   

There were some big ugly clouds looming around today, but some sun was also managing to break through.  Hopefully, we wouldn’t run into any major rain.  With the quads packed with our lunch, extra water and, of course, rain gear, we headed out at about 9:15. 

This is Don, me and Darrell...

  Don and Steve by a beautiful waterfall...

Don and Darrell picking up some firewood left at a camp by the river...

Another camp by the river...someone got very industrious and built a platform...

We are very close to the United States Border...this is Boulder Dam in Washington State...

Can you see Darrell, Steve and I way up on that rock bluff??

...Oh...there we are...I had a very hard time getting out there!  Come on, Don, hurry up and take the blasted picture!!! LOL

The water is coming through the dam so fast that the river is just frothing...

This is Darrell with the Boulder Dam in the background...

We climbed way way up into the mountains...beautiful scenery...Boulder Dam in this picture...

Okay, let's zoom in a little...

Don and I on one of the many trails...

Oh, oh...we ran into snow...do you think we can make it through???.....

Nope...guess not...time to turn around...once Don get's out of this mess!

This is a picture of the Seven Mile Dam from way up the mountain...

It was early afternoon when we stopped for another break and looking at the sky, decided that should we run into rain as we headed into the next valley, we would head back down to our camp.  We had been very lucky so far because there sure were some dark clouds!  But sure enough, it wasn’t long before some big rain drops started falling on us so we headed down the mountain.  And down...and down we went...arriving back at our trailer at about 2:30.  We’d been gone about 5 hours...that was a good day’s ride!

We sat and visited with Don for a bit and then he headed home.  He and Linda were picking up spaghetti from their favourite restaurant and coming back out tonight around 6pm.  Sweet! 

We loaded up the quads back into the truck because Don was taking us to another area tomorrow.  Then despite the threat of rain, Steve decided to get a campfire going.  We were sitting trying to keep the wet wood burning when Don and Linda arrived.  I put dinner in the oven to keep warm while we had a drink by the campfire with Don and Linda.

We had a very delicious spaghetti dinner complete with Caesar salad and buns.  And after a little more visiting by the campfire, Don and Linda headed home.  Linda was driving to Kimberley tomorrow morning to visit her Mom.  And we would be leaving here at 8:15 to meet Don at his place so we could follow him to “The Bombi”, a mountain pass not far away. This is the area where Don has suggested that Steve should go to for his Elk hunt in October. Although we didn’t see any Elk there was lots of sign so Steve thinks it looks promising. The only negative according to Don is that there are lots of hunters.