Wet, Wild and Wondrous

Yesterday, when I saw photos on Facebook of high waters at Lightning Creek and mentioned it to Bill, that's all it took for us to soon be in the pickup (with Liam along) and head to Clark Fork. 

Bill had been at Clark Fork High School Friday, teaching some enrichment classes to the students.  After his classes ended, he drove up Lightning Creek to check out the waters, with fishing in mind, of course. 

So, the fact that the water had gotten a bit out of hand over the weekend piqued his curiosity and gave me a good excuse to take along a camera.  Talk of the Pantry, which had supplied the sandwich makings for the visiting staff on Friday, inspired a mini-plan to stop by there and pick up some goodies. 

First on the agenda was Lightning Creek.  We drove the road for about six miles where some knocked over signs announcing "Road closed"  gave us a pretty good excuse to turn around. 

"The Rhime of the Ancient Mariner" came to mind virtually every inch of the way.  Water was cascading off hillsides next to the road, water was running alongside the road, water was pooling up in flat areas between the road, water was winding its way elegantly from distant mountaintops and the creek, water was gushing from secondary streams into Lightning Creek.

Lightning Creek, itself?  Well, it was not exactly pristine but definitely thrilling with its magnum-decibel roar, its wild and crazy rapids, its newly forced tributaries, its messy, muddy consistency and its rabid eagerness to get downstream as fast as possible.

Unlike our excursion to Katka Road on Sunday, we were not able to influence Mother Nature into turning off the spigot. Rain just kept falling throughout our entire drive.

That atmosphere made it all the more emphatic for us to stop at the Pantry when we returned to Clark Fork, and I can report that the cherry pie ala mode tasted mighty good last night.  

Before returning to Sandpoint, we took a quick look at the Clark Fork River and then turned up Spring Creek. That's where Viggo lives but we had no plans to stalk him.  

Instead, we stalked some of the deer that hang out on his property and throughout the neighborhood, which is thick with beautiful Bambi's and high garden fences. 

I had never been on some parts of the road and was truly amazed with some of the beautiful places we saw. 

I have to say that it's nice to have Bill retired because neither of us enjoy too much time in the house, so I have a feeling we'll continue to do more rainy-day escapes in the future. 

Today looks a little better, just socked in but dry.  

We'll probably work on some projects around the place and, of course, keep checking on Annie, who has landed in Biarritz, France, and has just sent me a note, "You would love it here . . . lots of pretty farm country."

Yup, I would.  

Happy Tuesday.  Enjoy the photos.