July 1st – 7th, 2016
Koocanusa Mapped
Following an old friend (on the ground) Hwy 2 past Pack River to travel to, and then over the Yaak. Dirty Shame of Yaak is in a loop, everything including the clientele remains the “same as it ever was”. From the pass, Lake Koocanusa can be seen as stacked bends where the mountains have bellied up to the steep shorelines.
Once the Kootenay, a river roadway for First Nation peoples, now, due to the dam at Libby, the lake laps at abrupt shorelines. Koocanusa is a made up, mash up contest winning name combining Kootenay, Canada and USA. From the growing shadows along a forest service road spur, the east shore mountains catch the evening sun and clouds become a vicious pink. Overhead, Nighthawks “peent” and “boom” dive as they sweep through the sparsely pined hillside.
Truck sized erratic rocks in the shape of skulls randomly rest among the brush and ponderosa. A Golden Eagle glides out of the forest, passing only yards overhead, easily turns gaining altitude, and with audible “woo woo” of wide wings, circles twice before dropping down into the canyon below. The long span Lake Koocanusa Bridge sings in the wind with the faint voices of rock climbers high on the cliffs above. Pictoglyphs watch from a rock face along a roughly graveled access road that ends abruptly at the waterside. The dead end hides a campsite along a long spit with a private sandy beach.
The lake waves wave in dreams.
Morning swims in warm sun, then over Lake Koocanusa Bridge north to Eureka. Tobacco Valley Historical Village 5 star immersion in the local past. Bowl shaped valley views along a Whitefish ridge on a revisited hike of March. The drab late winter colors are replaced with the shades of assorted crop green while flowers are seen scattered from the wooded trail. The day, an appetizer for food with friends.
On choppy Whitefish Lake, attached to the anchored “Black Pearl” while “enemy” ships swing slowly into range. 
From a pressurized pvc bazooka, a wet nerf ball (“fire in the hole”) broadsides a nearby pontoon. Perfect porch BBQ rib dinner followed by fireworks over the Whitefish City Beach watched from a boat. Food, friends and fireworks.
A bushwhack over dense down climbs up along ever higher cliffs finally ending at top of the world views. Glacier peaks are distant while nearer Tally Lake seems a pond. The two mile hike aches with lactic acidosis and a guarantee of weary legs.
Hockaday Museum of Art makes the last stop in Kalispell before Highway 2ing to Libby. Then north along Hwy 37 and the east shore of Koocanusa. Scouting the route leads to several water access areas with sandy beach and dispersal camping sites. Over the bridge again and down the west bank south on mountain road 
“National Forest Developement Road 228”. After a short walk to Little North Fork Falls, falling asleep to rapids rushing below.
Adding a few more dispersal sites and a sighting of a shy Western Scarlet Tanager on the return to Libby and Hwy 2, Troy, Bonners Ferry, past the Pack River to home.
