Thunder Mountain Line

After "exercising" with the firewood on Saturday, we took off for Horseshoe Bend, Idaho, about an hour south of us, to catch the Thunder Mountain Line.  This was for an early celebration of Steve's birthday (Oct 20).
The Thunder Mountain Line is a tourist train that uses the old Boise-Cascade Lumber Mill tracks between Horseshoe Bend and Banks.  Banks is about halfway between Cascade and Boise.  The train used to go all the way to Cascade (and may again), but there is a problem with the tracks north of Banks at the moment.  The Thunder Mountain Line also runs east and west between Horseshoe Bend and Montour.

It was a beautiful fall day, below freezing in the morning but near 60 degrees in the afternoon.  We joined 100+ other people (mostly from nearby Boise area), boarding the train at 5:30 for the 3.5 hour ride up and back.

 

The tracks run along the South Fork Payette River canyon.  The tracks are on one side and Hwy 55 is on the other.

 

I never get tired of this drive between Cascade and Boise, but it was fun to see it from the other side.

 

This ride featured a Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre.  For dinner, we enjoyed salad with huckleberry vinaigrette, bread with spinach dip, pork tenderloin with apple chutney, garlic fingerling potatoes, green beans and cheesecake with huckleberry sauce.

The setting for the "who-dunnit" was a circus company enjoying an employee-of-the-month benefit meal at the close of a military base tour, when the head clown is found dead in the "cat" car (lions & tigers, oh my).  I was dubbed the Snake Handler and Steve was the Snake-Skin-Picker-Upper.  There were 5 suspects and we had the opportunity to hear from and interview them, keeping notes on our "Amateur Sleuth" scorecard.  We are seated above with the culprit, Pandora Pushup, the lead showgirl and singer in the circus. 

 

At Banks, we deboarded the train for about 30 minutes.  They have set up a little pioneer village by the old Banks station house.  On some of the tours, they feed guests a meal here.  We were treated to some acrobatics entertainment and a free pumpkin each to take home.  They do "Pumpkin Line" tours for kids and families in the fall.

On the way back, we sat in the open car with blankets and enjoyed the light of an almost full moon shining on the river.  It was a fun birthday outing.  Thanks, Josiah, for mentioning it.  You Idahoans should check it out ! http://www.thundermountainline.com/ 

Rural Idaho exercise program

Saturday was the day to split and stack firewood, only we didn't get to the stacking part yet.  We are a little late with it this year (the rains have already come), because Steve was without a chain saw...and time.  Dale Williams, a friend from church, brought over his splitter.  The three of us worked for 4 hours.

 

Steve staged log rounds, Dale split them, and I tossed them onto the pile.  We didn't stack yet for two reasons...Steve is doing some work on the stairway behind us, under which we normally stack, and Jeff and Diane, our expert stack-ers (pastor & wife) were otherwise occupied on Saturday.  (They like the exercise, too.)

 

So the pile grew from this...

 

...to this.  4 cords, maybe?  Hope it will be enough for an Idaho winter at 5,000 ft.  Fortunately, we get the wood mostly free from the camp and surrounding forest ($10/cord for the tag).  Thank you, Dale, for giving up your Saturday to help us out.

Visit to Montana

Last week we visited YWAM Montana in Lakeside for a conference.  They've done some beautiful remodeling since we were last there for the School of Worship in 1995 and a brief one-day visit in 2007.  Love these new porches!

There were 55 YWAMers there from all over the U.S. - base leaders, accountants and administrators - to network together and learn the latest "best practices" in legal, financial, insurance and immigration issues facing our mission.  This photo was taken during the break.

 

Here's Steve chatting during the break with Rob Abraham, the leader of YWAM International Communications Network in Colorado Springs, CO.

 

After three days of mind-bending intense sessions from 8:30 am til 9pm (not anybody's favorite subjects :), on the final day YWAM Montana treated us all to a dinner cruise on Flathead Lake in this tour boat.  

 

Since we were so close, Steve and I headed up to Glacier National Park with our kayak for the weekend before returning to Idaho.  Here we are ready to embark at the foot of Kintla Lake in the NW corner of the park, up close to the Canadian border.

 

Six miles later, here's some of the view at the other end of Kintla Lake, where we spent two nights in the campground there.

The next day, we took a 6-7 mile day hike up to Upper Kintla Lake.  Here's a view of Kintla Creek along the trail.

 

And another.

 

We saw this pile of black bear scat right on the trail, but no bear.  He apparently found lots of berries.  We were advised to sing loudly or clap our hands frequently as we walked along the trail.

 

As we drew nearer Upper Kintla Lake, the Kintla Glacier came into view.

Upper Kintla was very serene, with crystal clear water.  Wish we'd had the kayak up there, but we settled for a brisk dip in the cold water instead.

Short, but very much appreciated mini-getaway with awesome scenery in God's fantastic world!

Our Own Kayak Adventure

 

Last weekend we hung out with our houseguests, Brian and Louise Hogan, who were here to speak for the Backpackers DTS.  They had gone out on the trail with the DTS and Brian had injured his knee hiking in the snow.  We thought a visit to Gold Fork Hot Springs might be just the thing for that knee (which it was), so we drove out there Saturday evening.

On the way out there, at times the road paralleled the Gold Fork River.  Steve remarked that it looked like a great river to paddle in our tandem flatwater kayak.  So we asked about it at the Hot Springs.  They informed us that there was a dam on the river, but couldn't describe exactly where, although they said there was a short 1/4 mile spur road that leads down to the dam.

So on Sunday afternoon, we got onto Google Maps and zeroed in, using satellite view, on what looked like a likely spot for the dam.  After a few tries on some back roads, we found our way there.

Just a nice little dam out in the middle of nowhere.  An irrigation canal forks off of it below the dam.

 

The stretch of the river that we had admired was upriver from the dam.  Was it safe to put in right next to the dam?

We were a little nervous, but the current didn't seem too strong right there.  We had to think about getting back out at the end of our paddle as well. Steve seemed fairly confident we could do it, so I trusted him.  It was only AFTER I got in the kayak, that he said he was mildly concerned what might have happened if I'd fallen in while boarding the kayak from the muddy bank. The water was fairly deep, probably over my head, and might have swept me directly towards the dam.

 

Fortunately, we embarked safely and docked safely at the other end of our trip.  The current was flowing much stronger further upriver and we finally gave up after paddling with effort for 45 min or so, stopped for a picnic lunch, and floated back downstream in about 10 min.

We are so blessed to be able to jump in the truck and be paddling on a beautiful mountain river or lake in less than 1/2 an hour!  Steve just keeps the kayak on the truck, so we're ready to go at a moment's notice.

Kelly's Whitewater Park

This last weekend Kelly's Whitewater Park in Cascade was the venue for the USA Freestyle Kayak National Point Series Championship.  Okay, I didn't know anything about freestyle kayak competitions either.  But it was a lot of fun to watch on a beautiful summer day. 

These kayaks are so short they seem almost like a pontoon molded around the kayaker's legs, which enables them to do tricks like spins and flipping upside down.  The yellow kayak in the foreground of this picture is called "open canoe style".  Also, in this picture there's actually a surfer out there demonstrating for the crowd on the main wave feature which is called "Big Nasty".

Here's a better picture of the surfer, taken by Mike Leeds, whose photos appear on http://www.kellyswhitewaterpark.com/about.html

Actually Mike had a lot of better pictures than I got with my phone.  Here's a photo of some of the competitors practicing the day before the competition.

 

And a kayaker rolling over.

 

Here's another one of Mike's photos that shows the calmer channel through the whitewater park, the rock island in the center of the river, and the visitor center.  Cascade is so blessed to have this whitewater park that opened 1 year ago.  Our county and town are very economically depressed and this park has put us on the tourist map again.  Many thanks to our mayor who had a great idea, Hans Barbonus who donated the land on the riverfront, and Mark and Kristina Pickard of Miami Beach, FL, who financed the building of the park grounds and the 5 wave features in the river.

 The park also hosts outdoor events like concerts and art shows.  You can learn more here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V67zbh_aT0

And, finally, here's my photo of Steve just to prove we were really there!

New YWAMers from China

This is Jian Pan and Xiao-ling Su...otherwise known (in America) as Gene and Sherry.  They arrived May 30th and are hoping to join our staff if their American visa is approved (prayer request there).  Here they are enjoying the snow at the top of the pass (6600ft) on the way to our camp.  They are from SE China where it is warm, so they have not seen very much snow.

Gene and Sherry stayed with us for the first two weeks of June.  We have very much enjoyed their company.  They both have servant hearts, are filled with joy, and have a great sense of humor.  Their English is pretty good.  They have been in America for 9 months.  They took the Crossroads DTS in Kona, HI, last fall.

 

Gene loves to take pictures.  I served them berry shortcake for Memorial Day (red, white, and blue) and he just had to have a photo.  (He also likes to cook, so was very curious about how it was made.)

Steve challenged Sherry to eat it with chopsticks, so she gave it a whirl.

They have returned the favor with several wonderful Chinese meals at our Bible school.  Gene and Sherry are fixing lunches and dinners for us on weekdays at the school.  Sherry is also helping me in the office.  We are so blessed!

 

(Gene took this picture, too!)

Building Materials!

On a recent trip to Seattle to move Jackie and attend my niece's wedding, we visited the World Vision Storehouse in Fife, WA.  As you might know, we are in the middle of a big building project at our YWAM camp.  We are adding bathrooms to four of our cabins this year, which is part of our winterizing project.  Who wants to walk outside to an old, unheated bath/shower house when there's snow on the ground and it's freezing outside (which happens in October around here)??  Hopefully, students and camping groups won't have to do that anymore come this fall!

Our friends at YWAM's Mission Builders International in Montana told us about the Storehouse program at World Vision, so Marty thought we should definitely join up.  They have a HUGE warehouse full of donated building materials and all types of supplies...

...and very organized!

They were in the process of filling a container of disaster relief and building supplies to send to Atlanta, GA, to help with the aftermath of all the tornados.

 

 But at the other end of the building they have the Essential Supplies section (cleaning, hygiene, office, books, worship CD's, clothing, Sunday School curriculum, etc).  No additional charge to member non-profit organizations who work with families, youth and children in need.  I had fun shopping this section, although we were somewhat limited for space, as you'll see below.

But Steve got to go crazy in the Building Materials Center.  He got faucets, doorknobs, tape, paint rollers, a saw blade and a drywall square here...

...a new washing machine for our office and a large water heater for the camp kitchen here...

 

...and 3 interior doors here.  Unfortunately, they didn't have the size of windows we needed.  Building materials are charged a modest handling fee, but still a great deal for new merchandise, if they have what you need.

 

Then it was time to pack everything up.  We'd brought this flatbed trailer all the way from Idaho to take home Steve's dad's Kubota tractor which we bought from his dad's estate.  It will come in handy for all sorts of things at the camp and for snow plowing in the winter. You can see the water heater box behind the tractor and the doors on the right side.  The back of the truck was also full.

At a fuel stop in OR, Steve was checking all the tie-downs and discovered that the strap on the water heater had loosened up.  How thankful we were that it hadn't fallen off the back of the trailer on the interstate and hit someone or wrecked the water heater!!

In Ontario, OR, we stopped here to see if our friend of YWAM Idaho, Joe Recla, who runs this place, had anything we could use.  He had an extra wide door (handicapped accessible) for Cabin 1 and two windows that aren't quite the right size, but maybe we can use them somewhere.  Joe gives us stuff for free if he has it. 

 

Those items went up on the lumber rack.  Then it was up the mountain back to Cascade.

 

Oh, and here's some hand tools Steve brought home from his dad's house that he is sorting through today.

We're so thankful God provides in so many ways!