28-29 Bad Medicine CG

While at Lisa’s, we poured over the Atlas and asked for recommendations for which direction to set our sails for the next short stretch of our journey keeping in mind that we want to get to Glacier National Park right around the beginning of August. Since we enjoyed our time in South Eastern Idaho we also thought we should spend a little bit of time in the northern parts as well. We scoped out a few places near Coeur d’Alene but there is very little camping there and far too many tourists. Thus we found a compromise that was still in north western Montana but close enough to the Idaho border for a day trip to the beautiful lakes.

Our first night at the Bad Medicine (hmmm, maybe an omen name) campground was pretty routine but Natalie woke up in the middle of the night with some pain in her tooth. She has had this recurring dental issue that we put off getting resolved because of coronavirus and it wasn’t causing her any problems prior to departure. At our most recent regular dentist visits they advised the same, wait and see. Leave it to travel to stir up some medical drama. We woke up and still set our sights for Coeur d’Alene but added Spokane Washington to the agenda for access to a bigger city and doctor/dental facilities if necessary. We called our Denver dentist and he called in an Rx for Natalie at the closest Kaiser office. So while this day turned out to be a much longer diversion with some unanticipated medical issues we were grateful to have access to what we needed and Natalie has started a course of antibiotics to keep her tooth problem at bay until we return to Denver in September. The drive around Lake Pend Orielle and Coeur d’Alene was really beautiful and I’m actually glad we didn’t stop because Coeur d’Alene in particular was flooded with people, traffic, and congestion that we have been trying hard to pretty much avoid this whole trip. We’re definitely not jumping back into that pace of things, especially in the midst of this pandemic.

30 giant cedars

We took a quick hike that was close to camp today through a grove of the oldest growth cedars in the area. Some as old as 500-1000 years! What a magical forest stroll. We gained some local plant knowledge through the placards dotting the trail and also gained a greater appreciation for all that these majestic trees provide. After the hike we took a close mountain drive in hopes of finding water for the paddle board. I’m still broken-brained about the lack of altitude despite being surrounded by mountains. The one we drove today topped out at about 4300’

The turn

We did find a small lake but it was crowded by a dozen or so drinkers and smokers, it really smelt like a bad bar up there. So we returned to camp early while the kids settled for the murky lake closer to our camp. (They got really spoiled having their first experience on Flathead Lake, I keep telling them not all lakes are going to be that crystal clear.)

Tonight my spirits got down about humanity. First it was the gross people at the smaller lake, then our camp neighbors blasting some ultra conservative news podcast (didn’t we all go into nature to escape from the yelling and divisiveness?), throw in an endless pursuit from the unrelenting mosquitos, stifling heat, our camper fridge on the fritz, a cooler filled with spilt coffee and no ice, propane troubles outside and having to cook dinner in the even hotter inside – I was just done with this particular visit. I apologized to my family and excused myself from the rest of the day’s activities. What do you do during times like this? I know a lot of times I sadly go into my phone for a distraction. However, we are lacking in those diversions at the moment. So it boils down to me and what I can do about MY attitude. Instead of staying grumpy all night, I went and sat down alone for awhile, studied my Spanish (that is still an almost daily occurrence and available offline), reset, then went on a sunset walk. I don’t have answers about humanity and fixing humankind, but I can change my attitude and perspective and let the other stuff go. Please let there be less mosquitoes at our next stop 🦟