Bonners Ferry always calls . . . .

I’ve got Bonners Ferry on my mind this week and for many reasons. Next Tuesday, Feb. 17, I’ll be driving the 25 miles to Bonners (as we often call it) to give a speech for the Lutheran ladies. I belong to St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Bonners. Bill’s first-ever Idaho job was in Bonners.

My dad’s parents taught in Bonners. He grew up there and graduated from Bonners Ferry High School in 1934.

We heard stories at the kitchen table for years about Harold's experiences riding horses belonging to Simon Francis, the Kootenai tribe's interpreter. We heard often heard the story of how he broke his leg horse logging north of Bonners when a team ran away with him. We heard of deer hunts at none other than Deer Ridge.

And, we heard lots of stories about Meadow Creek where his mother taught in the one-room school house, and Harold brought in the wood for her each morning.As a family, we often went to Meadow Creek and up the Moyie for fishing and picnics. Bill and Willie planted a geocache at Meadow Creek a few years ago.

The trend toward going to Bonners has continued through Bill and my marriage. We not only go to spots where Harold hung out while growing up, but we also go to places where I worked for the Forest Service---the Kootenai Valley and the Westside Road, which was being built during my engineering survey days.

We go to places where Bill worked in the early '70s on U.S. Forest Service timber crews---Smith Creek, Cow Creek, Boundary Creek and Katka.

We considered moving to Bonners Ferry until we found the Lovestead. Now, we're just a hop, skip and a jump from the area, and we take advantage of the proximity whenever possible.

Yesterday was such a day. Brilliant sunshine throughout the morning and afternoon meant the need to get out and see things. We took along snow shoes and dogs, as usual. Yesterday's trip took us through the Meadow Creek area, the Moyie, and to Good Grief to stop briefly and say hi to Katherine who runs the restaurant up that way.

We saw an eagle, a coyote, a moose and more than a dozen deer. We worried about the mulies standing on the railroad track.

We took time out of the sun and snow-shoed in the blue shade of the Snyder Ranger Station, which sits by the Moyie River. The place is available to recreationalists for renting, and Bill suggested that sometime I oughta bring Lily (ain't she pretty down below) up there, keep her in the corral and set off for a few trail rides. Not a bad idea.

Of course, on the way back, we stopped at the Boundary Trader, one of my favorite grocery stores, and while ordering some chicken from the deli, I saw a former student Debbie who lives next to the store.

I told her about the gorgeous view to the east as we drove the Kootenai River bridge into town from the north. I wished, as I often do, to have a better camera with a sharper lens when I snapped that photo. The photo hardly does the view of that full moon over those pink mountains justice. But I figure folks can use their imagination and conjure up just how pretty it was.

In the meantime, I'll keep thinking about Bonners Ferry cuz I need to finish my speech, which once again gives me an excuse to go up there again next week.