Hobie sailing on Flathead Lake

This Hobie 16 was getting good speed on Flathead Lake. This boat looks great with its colored sails. I love it when the spray is washing across the boat like this. It feels good on a hot day like it has been in Montana recently. At one point there were 5 Hobie Cats on the bay, and one larger catamaran. It's been great sailing lately.

I retain all rights to my photos.  Please do not use any of my photos without permission.

Wild Horse Island Flathead Lake picture

Here's a picture I took from Wild Horse Island the other night with Flathead Lake in the background. I actually saw the wild horses. Well the aren't too wild as they will walk right up to you. I saw the new baby horse too that is so well known now in these parts. They recently put some new horses on the island not realizing that one of them was pregnant. I got a snap shot of it and might post that later.

Click on this picture and make it bigger. It will make you feel like you're up there with me.

Tree family

Sorry for not posting lately. Or something.. Why am I apologizing for that? It isn't like I don't have anything to post or say.. I have to admit that I haven't taken the best pictures or anything lately even though I have gone to Canada and it's always nice up there. I did run across this picture from a set that I took going up there last year. I posted a horizontal version of it and I remember at the time thinking I should have posted this one instead. So here it is. The vertical picture.

Gosh that last post below about the Garmin GPS wasn't very uplifting.. It does suck though that it konked out. But I need to let it go.. My mom gave me this carpet cleaner thing. You put hot water in it and carpet soap and it scrubs the carpet. It's like big vacuum cleaner. It did a pretty good job. New carpet is nice, and old carpet is dirty and not so nice.

I went and looked at an old travel trailer to buy last week. It was a good deal and would have been nice after it was fixed up but I want one that is old but looks like new. This one was old and looked old. I guess I'll squeeze a little more life out of my camper. When I find the right trailer I'll get it. Then I'll go out and camp somewhere with a view.

Garmin GPS quailty issue

My Garmin GPS is a dead soldier. I'm very disappointed with the Garmin GPS I purchased. It konked out just a few months after the "Limited one year Warranty" expired.

This isn't a product I use every day. This is a product I expect to work when I turn it on even a few months after the "limited warranty expires" This is a product I never abused. This is a product that I expect and rely on when I'm in the wilderness, and I'm a person who does go into the forest a lot. (I also use a boy scout compass that I've owned my whole life but that's not my point.) My point is that you can't rely on a Garmin GPS, and you can't count on the company to support and replace it if you own it for more than a year, at least not yet. I"m going to see what they will do and let you know.

So I have a few choices to make, and I've already made one. I bought a new Tomtom Nav system for my car. I could have bought a Garmin but there was just no way I could bring myself to buy another Garmin product right now. And I could and am going to send this product back to Garmin and see what they will do for me. If they refuse to help me I'll be sure to blab it all over my blog... For everyone in the world to read... I think that's fair.

They don't put the warranty info on the outside of the box, you only get to read that affter you buy the product and open the box. I don't think that's right, not that it makes a difference, so they deserve this bad review in my opinion. The Garmin xTrex Venture isn't something you can count on for more than a year and I'm not really confident that it won't konk out when you need it. That's been my experience, and that just isn't good enough for this sort of product. If you think it is, then that's your problem when your Garmin konks out on you. If you own a Garmin, then don't forget to bring your compass.

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don said:

I guess I'm just upset about it because it was quite a bit of money. I understand that most products like this are only covered for 1 year, and I'm sure I got a lemon. But still, I think they ought to cover something like this for at least 4 years and make the thing more reliable in the first place.

Boating on Flathead Lake

Here are some pictures of boating on Flathead Lake over the weekend. It's like summer just got started and it's already two thirds over.. So I took my big boat out for the first time this summer. Queenie says I'm a "water baby".. Well she might be right. What I don't understand is why all of those mornings fishing at Flathead Lake with my dad seemed to be hours and hours long? These days it feels like I never get enought time to enjoy the lake in the morning. But I did get to launch my 1976 Cruisers Bonanza (cool retro boat BTW if I do say so myself..) and take a tour of the bay as I drank my Tim Hortons coffee. It was a real treat. You can see Wild Horse Island on the left in the distance and Melita Island on the right with "mac alley" inbetween. That's were we used to fish for the big Lake Trout. Ok I realize you aren't supposed to take pictures into the sun but what the heck, that's what it looked like! (I always take picutres into the sun.. cause I just don't care, and I hate rules like that.)

Here is a picture of Melita Island on the right and Wild Horse Island on the left in the distance. There were scouts on the island just getting up and it reminded me of my time on the island all of those years ago. What a great experience for those kids to spend time camping on the island like I did. Scouting has changed a lot since I was there.

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Dog Lake in Kootenay National Park

Here are some pictures from our hike to Dog Lake in Kootenay National Park British Columbia. Above is Dog Lake (AKA Lac Dog..) It could be named Lac Mud on the bottom, but you'd never know as it's so beautiful on the surface. Queenie and I went for a dip and you sink way in to sediment at least on the west side. I don't get the whole dog thing. Not one thing about this lake reminded me of a dog except for the dog we saw while we were hiking in.. It slobbered on my hand BTW, and I didn't get an alergic reaction to that. The dog wasn't native to the lake however.

We had to cross over the Kootenay River with two different bridges. That was kind of fun actually. Then the trail starts to climb over a ridge and decends on the other side to Dog Lake where this moss was in the forest. It was really pretty there.

It's only a few kilometers but kind of a steep climb both in and out. I think it took us about an hour each direction. Of course we were taking our time taking pictures of everything we saw as usual.. I think it's totally worth it if you want a short hike while in the park. You'll most likey have the lake to yourself and it doesn't get much better than that.