Gold Rush and Landlocked Navy

7/12/2019

Lots of sleep interruption by trains overnight at Thompson Falls, though it really is a scenic campground. The BNSF main line train horns echo across the Clark Fork canyon. Today’s goal will be finding a quiet place to spend the night.

We crossed back into Idaho through Thompson Pass which was high, but a good two lane road. After that, Beth got nervous as we drove up and over another pass into Wallace on a smaller, less well maintained, road.

Wallace was a great example of a western town from the gold rush era. The very cool Great Northern railroad station had been moved and restored when I-90 was built through town on a concrete bridge. 

The station is now a small museum featuring a working crank telephone, telegraph equipment and a Northern Pacific route map. Posters brought attention to two movies that were filmed in the area; Dante's Peak (1997) and Heaven's Gate (1980).

Lots of restaurants, bars, and small shops were getting ready for their annual Blues Festival which starts tonight. We skipped the mining and brothel museums as we wanted to move on and look for a Friday night campsite. 

Long distance bike riders left their saddles outside Wallace Brewing where they could keep an eye on them through the plate glass windows.

There is a story behind this unusual craft parked outside the Starlight Motel.

We did a double take when walking past this Lexor and Volt. Neither vehicle is ours!

Ram hood ornaments used to be a little more pronounced than the flat ram on our ProMaster. It would be fun to find one of these for our hood.

The next town was Corur d’Alene where we stopped at a Walgreens, but skipped Costco because there was lots of Friday afternoon traffic. We did stop at the most impressive municipal dump station we’ve ever seen. 

Four lanes with cleaning hoses in a modern, fully paved lot. Clearly marked fresh water hoses were well separated from the waste dump . There was a box for donations and we were happy to contribute. 

Eighteen miles up the road we arrived at Farragut State Park. With four campgrounds in the park, we thought there might be space, but a sign read “Campgrounds Full.” 

Indefatigable Beth went into the visitors center, found a cancellation, and emerged with a reservation for a pull through site that included water and electric. It cost us $35.74 including tax.

Celebrating with a snack, I chipped my tooth on a lousy store bought ginger snap cookie. Luckily it isn’t painful so will wait to find a dentist on Monday. 

We visited the Museum at the Brig one of the few remaining structures of the 776 from the WWII Naval Station that later became this park. Despite not being on an ocean, it was the second largest naval base at the time and trained thousands of recruits. German POW’s were also housed adjacent to the base. We were a bit disappointed that they didn’t have any displays about the current naval acoustic research being done in the next Bay north. 

We drove to the station, down a windy steep road, but fences and no visitors signs kept our curiosity at bay.

Returning to Farragut State Park, we walked from our Snowberry campsite to the boat launch and onward to a point with a great view of Lake Pend Oreille. A beautiful lake, it is 43 miles long, up to 6 miles wide, and quite deep with spots over 1,000 feet underwater.

Our walk took us past some artillery foundations that had been used for training during World War II. Wooden practice shells were used in 20mm antiaircraft guns  used to shoot at planes that would fly over the lake. 

Ground squirrels were chirping all along the trails. After walking over four miles, Beth’s feet felt okay. Bug bites are no longer visible and the sunburn is only a faint glow. Hot showers, which didn’t require quarters, were a welcome treat after dinner.

Today's Route from Montana into Idaho.