PART 5 – Final Week of Flathead Valley
Habitat Plus!
Sunday, September 21
Mt. Oberlin Summit Hike from Logan Pass
4 miles RT, 1500’ elevation gain
Rick heading up the trail; our destination of Mt. Oberlin in the distance |
Today was forecast to be PERFECT…so Rick and
I decided to worship at God’s cathedral and boy, we weren’t disappointed at
all! What a glorious experience! Rich,
the Habitat/National Park volunteer recommended this hike to us. Kudos to Rich!!
We left at 7:30 to gas and coffee up
and head up the mountain, hoping to arrive in time to get a parking space at
Logan Pass on this most beautiful of fall Sundays! Our 9am arrival guaranteed a spot (thank
goodness, because much later and people were driving around in circles….starting
with Tom and Diane who drove up a little later!) Due to the snow a couple weeks ago and recent
freezing temps, the water has been turned off and winter preparations have
begun (huge snow poles everywhere to help with spring snow removal!) So…we had to wait to use the few chemical
toilets available in the parking area (which were being cleaned when we
arrived!)
Mt. Clements |
We found the trail exactly as Rich
described it and headed up through the gorgeous meadow regions above the
pass. Most of the flowers are past,
although we did see some aster and a couple of harebells. Later a little buckwheat and a few other
alpine succulents I couldn’t identify.
(Sedum maybe?) The first mile was
relatively steady climb but nothing too strenuous. The sun was still low in the eastern sky, so
much of the Logan Pass area was in shadows.
Mt. Reynolds on the east side of the divide was in shadow all day. I don’t think the sun shines on the west side
of it until late in the afternoon! Mt.
Clements, the sphere shaped mountain right above the Hidden Lake overlook, was
a highlight the entire hike. It has some
small ice fields (once a glacier due to moraines below, but I don’t know if it
still fits the definition!)
I just love the colors here...up on top! |
Once we were up above the icefields,
we turned toward Mt. Oberlin and started climbing up the rather steep scree
slope. The route was easy to follow and
rock cairns marked much of the way. As
we approached the ridge itself, it became harder to follow – multiple routes
and cairns. But we slowly made our way
up, climbing steadily. I kept turning
back to catch the beauty of the sun on Mt. Clements. We might have been on scree, but the colored
layers of rock were still quite obvious.
I loved traveling from green layer to red layer to yellow layer,
etc. In a few places we found red cairns
on top of green slabs!
I later read that the NPS prefers
people to use another route for the climb, but since there are NO signs marking
this trail, they can’t really complain much!
Rick is on top of Mt. Oberlin! |
We finally reached the top around 11:30. It took us about 2 hours to make the
climb. Not too bad considering I stopped
to take about 100 pictures on the way up!
(Gosh…that is about 50 ppm*!)
Another couple was just coming down and we ended up on top ALONE for
over an hour. Considering the traffic we
saw on the road below, the chaos in the parking lot, and the hikers we could
see on the Highline Trail and Hidden Lake boardwalk, an hour of solitude was a
gift of God!
Panorama looking northwest from top of Mt. Oberlin |
Ginger and her inuk-suk |
We took panoramas to the east and to the west. We had a 360 degree view. Many hillsides were covered in golden hues
along with the light and dark greens. So
amazing. The west side of Oberlin is a
drop-off of about 3000 feet. You don’t
want to take a step backward! But the
top was incredibly flat and easy to navigate.
I built an inuksuk on top, next to the 2 foot high cairn that had been
constructed at the summit. My biggest
problem in building the inuk was finding an appropriate head rock. Most of the rocks were so flat, shale like
stuff.
We headed back down around 12:30, passing several more couples coming
up the scree slope. (One couple did come
up via the saddle, but they said it involved more rock ‘climbing’ in
places.) The shifting of the sun
highlighted other views, especially toward the Weeping Wall to the north. Driving back down the road, the sun was
really hitting the golden trees and hillsides.
Sooooo pretty.
Fall foliage as we approach Avalanche Creek |
Back to the campground around 3:45, in time for showers and a relaxing
evening as Rick enjoyed his Steelers on TV.
It took me most of the evening to download, edit, and delete the 300
plus pictures I took today! Whew!
More pictures from today.....
MONDAY, September 22
I love the red strata lines as we move through the waterfall area. |
Mountain goats at the beginning of the trail! |
Ginger with Mt. Clements in background |
Heading up the scree slope, one switchback at a time! Check out the red and green rocks! |
Is Rick sneaking a kiss? |
Up on top of the world! |
Heading back down the trail. |
Mt. Pollock near Logan Pass |
View of west side of Mt. Oberlin....looks ominous from here! |
MONDAY, September 22
Rest!
Hmmm….today’s entry will be as short
as yesterday’s was long! We relaxed and
read books, went out to lunch at the Cimarron Café (eggplant Panini sandwich
for me, Rick had some sort of melted chicken hogie), did laundry, and went
grocery shopping. Whew! That took until 3pm!!
I got two drawings finished during
the day and caught up recording my journal entries in the actual journal!
And then we had campfire time! Tom had invited a couple of the other ‘neighbors’
here in the park to a 7pm fire. We met
Howard and Joanie who are next to Arletta and Carl’s ‘spot’ and Bill, a retired
Chicago cop, who lives in a permanent little trailer between Hinkels and
ourselves. Interesting conversation, but
Howard seemed interested in perhaps coming to volunteer sometime this week!
TUESDAY, September 23
Drop-In Build, Week 2
Tom and Diane discovered they had ‘brake’
problems in their truck Sunday upon descending the Going-to-the-Sun Road from
Logan Pass. (Does that make it the ‘Leaving-from-the-Sun
Road’?) So, we picked them up at the Les
Schwab dealership enroute to the job site this morning. Their truck is going to the doctor today for
new brakes!
And it was a rather quiet job
site. Just the four of us, Boss Steve
and Steve M, the other local volunteer!
Steve T had office work to do, so once he got us going, he disappeared
into his little trailer for much of the morning. Diane was busy still cleaning paint supplies,
Steve, Rick and Tom were putting up ceiling sheetrock in Nycci’s house, and I
tackled the massive 12’ piece that goes behind the kitchen wall in Lexie’s
place. Rick and I had taken most of the
measurements before we left on Saturday.
The 12’ panel had 14 ‘penetrations’ or places where I had to cut the
sheetrock to make it fit. It took me
until break time to measure and cut everything.
Then after break, the rest of the guys came in and helped me get it in place
and put a few screws in. Then they went
back to their ceilings. I spent until
lunch screwing in the big piece, cutting and installing the last remaining
smaller piece for that wall and checking the entire wall for screws that needed
to be deeper.
After lunch, Rick and Tom tackled
the stairwell ceiling and walls on the west side, while I volunteered to go
into the stairwell closet in Lexie’s place and finish the walls in there. I don’t mind the closet work, and the pieces
are small enough to handle by myself.
Plus, Steve doesn’t mind if you patch in that closet so I was using up odd
pieces of sheetrock. I ALMOST finished before our 2:45 quitting
time.
The day started out rainy and damp,
but the sun broke through soon enough and by lunch the sky was almost clear and
it was warming up. Then….as we left, it
started to sprinkle again lightly!! The nice weather will hold for a few more
days, but next week looks ugly.
Wet!
I finally stopped enroute to WW and
took pictures of Annie’s Garden center.
The west wall of her gift shop is lined with built-in flower boxes and
on the other corner is an OLD truck filled with flowers. Love it.
Stop at the Thrift Shop near
downtown and found it is closing tomorrow – everything is 50% off. So I picked up a pair of work jeans, a little
loose fitting, but that’s ok for the job site.
The grease I got on my other pair hasn’t rendered them unusable, but
they sure feel grimy…even after washing.
Dinner and then some time talking
with Diane and Tom about the southwest and solving Facebook issues! Also heard tonight that my good friend Midge
is having major medical problems and hospitalized in Tri-Cities. Prayers…lots of them.
WEDNESDAY, September 24
Drop-In Build, Final Week – Sheetrock!
Malachi gives Rick and Tom treats! |
Today was a regular build day, so a
crew was here from Lowe’s Home Improvement store, as well as Rich and Steve and
the return of Tina! Good to see familiar
faces who greet you with, “Are you STILL here??” – with a smile!! As Steve was trying to get through all the
introductory safety stuff, Lisa Little-foot and Malachi came out to head for
school. Malachi walked right into the
middle of it all explaining that he had two mini shrimp kabobs and took them to
Tom and Rick and instructed them to eat them for lunch. It was pretty amusing, but then Steve said to
come stand next to him while he got to talk, which Malachi did. Suddenly his hand went up. Steve acknowledged, and Malachi proceeded to
give us his own safety talk about wearing proper shoes – not just socks! – and looking
out for danger. Then he said he had to
go to school to learn to build with Steve.
We were all cracking up and Lisa just had that, ‘Welcome to my world!’
look on her face!
Nycci shows off our door piece before installation and trimming! |
Then it was to work. Most of the Lowe’s group was put to work in
Nycci’s house sheetrocking and I went back to finish my closet in Lexie’s
side. But Steve brought Nycci and her
mom, Fawn, down and asked if they could be my ‘crew’ for the day. Fawn mostly organized all the sheetrock
scraps and moved them out of the way (thank you!) Nycci and I managed to muscle and think our
way through the rest of the closet and one wall of the bathroom. It was work!!
But…we did it!
Jennifer speaks at lunch |
Rick and Tom worked all day to
finish up the ceilings in Nycci’s side.
Another group prepared the ground for the sod which is coming in
soon. The backhoe was supposed to come
today to compact the foundation and level, but it didn’t arrive.
During lunch Steve
put Nycci on the spot and asked her to speak about her Habitat experience. We had heard Nycci’s story earlier, but Steve
also asked Jennifer to speak. Jennifer
moved into her home a year ago. She told
how her husband AJ, who didn’t have a good work ethic, learned to work side by
side with Steve, eventually put in 200 plus hours MORE than necessary, and got
a job at the building trades store which he still has. Habitat homes can change lives. Pretty cool to hear.
Preparing to trim the door. |
Our neighbor at the RV park, Howard,
rode with us this morning. After our
campfire the other night he decided he would like to volunteer, so he was ready
and waiting this morning. He spent the
day sheetrocking as well. Steve is
anxious to get the houses all ‘rocked’ because he is hiring the mud and taping
done by a subcrew next week. That should
speed things up!
We stopped at the Thrift Shop
enroute home and picked up a few things, but Rick didn’t find any pants!
No campfire tonight. I was trying to catch up on church stuff and
relaxing a little. Luke is going to call
later.
THURSDAY, September
25
Drop-In Build, Final
Week – Sheetrock & Paint
Another beautiful, albeit warm,
day! The skies were absolutely clear
this morning as we drove in to the site.
Howard came with us again, but will be leaving at noon when his wife
picks him up.
Foundation work! |
All of us were assigned to work on
the sheetrock today, and I was transferred to the west side (Nycci’s house) to
get started in the tiny little closet under the stairs. (Apparently my trademark! I don’t mind!) Rich and Catherine arrived shortly after and
Steve assigned them to work with me. We
got the two ceiling boards installed and were working on the end boards when
Steve came down and asked one of us (not Rich!) to join Diane painting. Catherine let me go although I know she wasn’t
keen to spend another day in a closet!
After two days of solid sheetrocking, I relished the brief respite to go
outside and paint soffits!
Diane had the area all set up and
ready to go. We painted 10 soffit panels
and then ran out of paint! By that time,
the bulldozer had arrived to backfill the foundation, compress around it. I went down to take pictures of the
sheetrockers and the foundation work. We
spent the rest of time before lunch cleaning more of the paint roller mesh
grates, as our paint still hadn’t arrived!
Right at lunchtime, AJ arrived with
a lot of trim boards to paint and two more gallons of Jazzy Olive trim
paint. We helped unload and then
everyone enjoyed lunch sitting in the shade of Lisa and Heather’s home. It was warm in the sun!
Rick and Tom at work in the stairwell. |
Our finished pile of soffit boards all stacked up. |
Metal grate partially cleaned. |
Diane and I finished painting the 18
soffit boards, plus 5 partials. We
cleaned up the area and decided NOT to start the other trim boards at
2:15. So we went back to cleaning the
mesh grates!
Rick and Tom worked together all day
in Lexie’s stairwell, finishing up the sheetrock there. That side should be finished by the end of
the day tomorrow, especially if another group comes.
Diane at her paint cleaning station! |
We invited Steve and Genia, Steve
and his wife Lindsey, Rich and Catherine and Howard and Joanie to Happy Hour
tonight. Rich and Catherine begged off,
as they knew by the time they got back to Whitefish, walked the dog and
showered, they wouldn’t be driving back to Columbia Falls. Can’t say I blame them! But it was fun to have Steve and Lindsey join
us for the first time. Steve has a
reputation of being grumpy (self-proclaimed), but he is a riot in small size
groups. We have really enjoyed getting
to know him better in the past couple weeks.
Heard back from Bozeman today. The director there found an open RV park east
of town (20 mile commute one way, but…) that will accommodate us. We need to call and finalize plans. I was impressed that he went out of his way
to find us a place with sewer for us.
Guess we will stick around to work for them now! We also told Steve today that we would
probably stay through Wednesday and work a couple more days. Cleared it with Leon here at the park as
well. We just can’t seem to leave!
Rick, Steve M and his wife Lindsey |
Genia and Steve Tartaglino |
FRIDAY, September 26
Drop-In Build, Final
Week: Scottibelli’s Ristorante!
Raindrops fell during the night, I
sliced my thumb while preparing an apple for breaktime, and it is a cloudy, ominous morning as we
gather at the site. We are joined by
random local volunteers (Tamara returned!), and a group from the Methodist
Church in Kalispell. Katy makes her
debut as the volunteer coordinator in welcoming everyone and introducing the
various groups. Then Steve takes over
with his safety talk and today’s jobs.
Foundation work continues - plumbing lines going in. |
Giant 1" spider we found under
one of the boards we painted.
|
Diane and I went back to the paint
station. We did a final stack of all the
soffits were painted yesterday and then started in on all the trim boards. Eventually another delivery arrived of 4x8
siding panels that had to be painted as well.
We got it all done!
Cleaned up and then the highlight of
the day: dinner with Steve and Genia down in Kalispell!! We offered to drive Tom and Diane with us and
we met Steve and Genia at the Kalispell Brewing Company for beers. (I had a diet coke!) Then we walked about four blocks down Main
Street to Scottibelli’s Ristorante, their favorite Italian restaurant. A really nice place! Genia had picked up the tab at the Brewery
and Diane and I had discussed taking them out to dinner – a raincheck from the
sailing day when they couldn’t go out.
So I said, ‘Then we’ve got dinner’…Of course, they objected. We stayed quiet, but when Steve and Genia’s
pizza didn’t arrive with the rest of our orders, the waitress said it was on
the house. I quickly piped up again, ‘Remember,
we’re covering your dinner!’ They
laughed, but let us! We all had
ordered appetizers – bruschetta, clams, or spinach-artichoke dip – and an entrée. Add to that three orders of wine and it was a
hefty bill! But worth it!! We sat around and visited, shared stories,
etc. until nearly 9pm! Such down-to-earth
people. Hopefully by the time we
finished, we had solved the problems of Habitat, the world, etc.!!
Clearing off tonight – we could see
stars as we drove home from Kalispell.
And then soon to bed, as we have to go to work in the morning! Again!
Agh!
SATURDAY, September
27
Drop-In Build, Final
Week: Unitarian Blitz!
A brisk morning, but not that bad in
the trailer. We haven’t had the heater
on for two weeks I think. And I didn’t
put it on this morning, although we were 48 degrees inside.
Volunteers today were from the
Glacier Unitarian Fellowship and they turned out in numbers! Not all at once, unfortunately, which meant
Steve had to continually keep orienting people, but he handled it with his
usual aplomb. (He did admit last night
that he stresses out trying to keep everything on a task, etc., but never wants
to show it. He hides it very well!) They brought do-nuts, blueberry muffins, and
then a lunch that included watermelon, sandwiches, cookies, chips, apples, etc.
etc! I never really got a good count,
but we had a couple crews sheet-rocking, a crew landscaping, crews out helping
with the insulation and rebar of the foundation, and Diane and I were finishing
up the paint station and putting things away.
We also tried to help out with the coffee making, etc. today.
Diane, Inuk, and Ginger finish covering all the painted siding. |
During break I finally threw away
the white coffee pot. It leaked water
all over and it never dripped INTO the pot correctly. We had set it aside a couple weeks ago, but
it got pulled out again today with the big group. Not worth it!
I went out and announced that anyone who wanted to donate a coffee pot
to Habitat, it would be appreciated!
After lunch Tom asked me to come
down to Lexie’s house and help him finish the ‘screw check’. We were armed with a putty knife, screws, and
a driver. Too far in, put in another
one; not deep enough, screw it in; missing? Screw one in. Check every panel, every wall and ceiling. Whew!
We ended up also caulking a window and installing the sheetrock. Finished the east side by 3:30pm, as most of
the crew was leaving. At least now the
house will be ready for the mud and tape sub-contractor crew arriving next
week. The foundation is almost ready.
Insulation and re-bar on the slab. Concrete Tuesday! |
Diane and I got to present gift
packages to Heather and Lisa on behalf of Habitat. They had been donated by Proctor and Gamble –
filled with cleaning supplies, paper supplies, etc.
Kids build in the paint area today. |
We crashed tonight. Ate our leftovers from the ristorante and
eventually arranged a breakfast date with Tom and Diane for the morning before
they take off.
It
lightly rained off and on this afternoon, but definitely cooler all day.
SUNDAY, September 28
Rest Day – Goodbye to
Tom and Diane
I am going to steal three more days on this blog since this will officially END our CAV service here in Columbia Falls. We are working two more days this week and then leaving, bound for White Sulphur Springs and a rendezvous with Steve and Pam Sundstrom, Habitat friends from Las Cruces.
Main Street, Whitefish MT |
So, today will be short! We lazily arose and left around 9:30a to
drive Tom and Diane up to Whitefish for breakfast together at the Buffalo Café. They were going to leave around noonish, and
we wanted a final meal together. So….we
heard the Presby church bells ringing while we walked right past and into the café
across the street. Good friends are
God-sent gifts as well!
Fish Sculptures from old crutches |
Good meal – all three of them had
blueberry pancake meals while I was adventuresome and tried the huckleberry
peach French Toast bake. Oh boy was it
good (and probably loaded with points!)
We explored the Purple Pomegranate gift shop afterwards. What a neat place with so many cool items and
ideas!!! I kept taking pictures! But they showed me the crutch into a fish
sculpture they wanted to make for the barn wall! Awesome.
Kaleidescope picture of Tom/Diane from the shop! |
Sunrise Prayers through the Gap |
MONDAY, September 29
Rest - Laundry - Groceries
All in all, a pretty laid back
day! We didn’t even get back to the
trailer until nearly 5pm!!
Rest - Laundry - Groceries
So, another relaxing Monday during
Habitat builds!! We head down toward
Kalispell to do our laundry at the place Tom and Diane recommended, figuring we
needed to do a little Wal-Mart/Target etc. shopping anyway. A decent little place and we wandered next
door and ambled the aisles of the Army-Navy Store while the wash was
going.
Then over toward the ‘BoxStoreMall’
area off Hwy 93! We had to drive around
awhile to find the Mexican restaurant we remembered from our last visit – I made
my Target PB2 purchase enroute! But we
finally located Bajio’s Mexican Grill. A
cross between fast food and sit-down, kinda like Panda Express in a way. Good meal, though.
Wal-Mart shopping included the
purchase of new work boots for Ging, a coffee-maker for the affiliate, and a
French Coffee press for us to have in the trailer ….adding a little class to
our lifestyle perhaps!! Groceries and
then a stop at the Great Clips for a haircut, just enough to get by until my
appointment for a perm with Doris the first of November.
TUESDAY, September 30
Drop-in Build: Almost Done! Concrete Foundation
This morning was an intense three
hours of work to get the final steps of prep work done for the concrete slab to
be poured this afternoon. We had to dig
trench, lay re-bar in the trenches and on the top of the insulation, insulate
the final edges, trim all the upper insulation, and of course, tie all the
rebar together and raise it to the proper elevation. The inspector was coming around noon for an
afternoon pour.
Best laid plans….the rain started
falling about a half hour after we got started.
And kept coming. Our crew was
Steve and Steve, Rick and myself. Steve
M was prepared and well insulated against the weather. The rest of us? Not so well!
By the time we took a short break around 10:30ish, Rick and I were
soaked through, I had been kneeling in pools of water most of the morning and
my pants were a muddy mess. We grabbed a
coffee to warm up, Rick changed clothes, and we donned our Niagra Falls
rainwear to finish the job. Just then, the
inspector arrived. He stood in his
shirtsleeves in the rain for about a minute, asking if we were going to
elevate, finish tying the rebar, etc. and then said, “Tell Steve I was here –
good to go.” With the inspection ‘done’,
we had no pressure to finish, because the concrete guy had notified Steve an
hour earlier that he wasn’t coming this afternoon – it was too wet! We shall finish in the morning! Went home to a HOT shower, dry clothes, and
the electric heater!!
We shared a can of soup for lunch,
put the wet clothes into the dryer, and spent a leisurely afternoon in the
trailer.
With a lack of pictures, I will include the scribble
for today's devotion...it gets the idea across!
|
Skies are clearing somewhat this evening – spots of blue sky, a bit of
a sunset, and temperatures are cooling!
No pictures again today. I wanted to take one this morning - a selfie of one wet and muddy girl OR Rick in his Niagra parka, but there was no way I was getting the camera out of the car!
WEDNESDAY, October 1
FINAL FLATHEAD BUILD
DAY!!
Foggy skies! |
Finishing up the beam |
This is really it. We are going to leave! The morning is thick fog as we pull out of
the campground for our final day on the job.
We stop at the SuperOne to pick up a dozen do-nuts to offer for the day.
(We had Steve M in mind as he loves his sweets!) Glacier Bank had a big crew out to work, plus
locals Steve M., Rich, Jan, and Rich and Catherine from Whitefish. The nice surprise was the return of Chris, who
had been gone for the past two weeks! He
got sick after the dragon boat races. All the locals plus Rick and I were sent
inside to sheetrock! Everyone else
finished up the foundation work to prepare for the concrete, laid grass sod,
built retaining walls, etc. The day
gradually improved weatherwise and the sun tried to shine through the clouds at
times. But…. It did not rain
anymore!
My partner Jan! |
Our beautifully enclosed beam. |
I paired up with Jan, a retired
educator from Portland, Oregon, who has moved to Whitefish. We loved her license plates: mtnlvr….mountain
lover! She is sorry she won’t be able to
get the same plates when she has to switch to Montana plates! We finished up the drywall in the stairwell
closet, put in some pieces in the utility closet, and after lunch enclosed the
beam that divides the kitchen and living room.
Not a bad day’s work. Rick was
busy as well, doing some fairly intricate cuts around the stairwell. He worked alone, grabbing whoever available
at the time to help with holding or moving the boards at times.
Rick does his figuring before a cut. |
Newly painted door |
Wood for last unit is piled in front, but sod is laid, outside is finished. |
I took some pictures at the end of
the day to send to the CAV crew who started Lexie and Nycci’s house last
May. The outside is basically done. Finishing work is starting on the
inside. The target finish date is still
mid-December or early January. With the
concrete slab done tomorrow, Steve plans to start the framing on the last unit
on Friday! The wood was all delivered
today!
Back to the park to fill the propane
tank (good thing, it was down to 2 gal left), shower, do a quick load of
laundry, and then settle in for Rick to watch the Pirate playoff game on
TV. (Not going well currently….:( )
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