Highlights

Oh, where to begin.
Swimspot.

This is the beach I go to almost every day. In this photo, the Lake Roosevelt reservoir is drawn down a bit. A month ago, the water came right up to the edge of the bluff. Fae and I swim alot because most days it is too hot after work to do much else. If I took her to the park to play Frisbee, I'm positive she would pass out. It is supposed to get 100 degrees again tomorrow, so you know where I'll be.

My one friend here.

This is Megan and I standing in the middle of Hwy 25 on the bridge over the Spokane River on her 22nd birthday. We had just walked up from the government housing at Fort Spokane to the Two Rivers Casino, which is dry. Note suspicious water bottle under left arm. She got to play $5 free since it was her birthday. I cheered her on and sucked down a few free sodas. She made it last about 30 minutes and walked out with 5 cents. The cashier was like, really? She was my roommate in my FEMA trailer here for 3 days before they moved her sixty miles south to the Fort. I came down and camped this night in the field behind the maintenance pole-building next to 'seasonal circle'. The stars there were amazing. The Fort is built on a flat, now grassy terrace above the confluence of the Spokane and Columbia Rivers. It was a magical, warm night with stunningly bright, clear stars and deafening crickets in the pasture.

I know everyone in this picture NOT wearing a cowboy hat. This guy suggested that Megan could strip for him and his buddies at their what-the-hell-ever event party gig thing. On her birthday, she got called a stripper by a random drunk ass in a cowboy hat in a golf course bar in the middle of nowhere. Why are a bunch of Park Service employees at a tiny golf course bar at closing time in central WA? It is the ONLY place to get a drink within a 30 mile radius, thats why. So, we tolerate guys like this.

Sherman Pass.

The last pass you come over traveling east on Hwy 20, directly west of Kettle Falls, is the high country around here. This photo is at 6000-6500 ft. and it is very peaceful up there, with good views. The pass was an important route for natives traveling to the Columbia River to fish. It was named after the Civil War veteran General Sherman who crossed the pass in the late 1860s when it was still a wagon trail.

I haven't had a chance to figure out what this old cabin was used for exactly. A good view, no doubt, but not fire-lookout good. It is off the Kettle Crest trail and there are some wrecked telegraph poles and wires 50 meters away, so I guess it was some sort of a communication outpost. All the timbers are labeled and it appears the Forest Service is intending to dismantle the structure and want to be able to put it back together correctly. Maybe they intend to refurbish it. There are carvings on the inside going back as far as 1933, so it seems it was unoccupied and home to passers-by after that.



I backpacked a portion of the Kettle Crest trail two weekends ago and camped at near 7000'. I did not see another person the entire two days I was out there, and it was a weekend. It is remote in this corner of the state, and I love it. I even made Faelan carry her own water this time, since everything is dry. No free rides, dog.

Remember what Smokey says...................

Just don't be crushin' mine.