Charles Waters, Tally Lake, and a Marvelous Montana Moochdock

We had two more first come/first served campgrounds and lady luck smiled on us. Maybe she was feeling a little sorry for the *ahem* interesting times we’ve had getting to some of our campgrounds this trip. I told you about the signage (or lack thereof) at Bull Trout Lake and then the misinformation provided by Garmin getting to Morgan Bar, well we’re on a roll. Lol. 

Charles Waters is a National Forest Service campground two miles down Bass Creek Road off of Hwy 93. Piece of cake, right? Well, the first mile of road was more patch than paving. It was so narrow, calling it two-lanes would be more than generous and I swear there was a cowgirl jamboree at the end of the road. We passed one horse trailer after another on that narrow stretch and every single giant pick-up truck was driven by a senior lady. They were all friendly and waived as they squeezed past, but I was beginning to think we were headed to a rodeo! Apparently, the trails next to the campground are very popular with equestrians and there are two large parking areas for horse trailers next to the campground. 

Bitterroot Mountains.
At the least the scenery getting there was great.

We arrived early enough on Sunday, 6/27, to have several sites to choose from, and the campground was completely full by evening. After we chose our site and got settled in, I told Riley that I was sorry there wouldn’t be any water at this campground for him to play in. Then he pulled me down a little social trail at the rear of our campsite which gave us private access to a lovely creek. What an unexpected surprise and he was thrilled! As the temps pushed well into the 90’s, it quickly became his happy place.

 

Our campsite with private creek access. Yay!

Our surprise creek. Lovely.

Riley's water park.

Gratuitous Riley shot. Lol. 

We left Monday, 6/28, heading north for Tally Lake Campground. We debated stopping at the Costco in either Missoula or Kalispell, but we opted to skip it. Today’s drive was a little longer and we had one last first come/first serve campground left to test our luck.

Cue Murphy again. I think he and Garmin are best buds. Google maps indicated one route, while the RV Garmin took us on another. Rog opted to follow the Garmin, hey it’s supposed to take into consideration we’re in a big rig. Well, it told us to turn onto a closed road. By now we had no cell service so couldn’t consult the internet oracle. Grrrrrrr.  We kept going and eventually came to a sign for Tally Lake Campground. We knew we were going down several miles of dirt road, but we weren't prepared for the billowing clouds of talcum powder fine dust that coated everything. All part of the adventure right?

 

You can't even read the license plate
and the hitch is actually black. Ugh!

We made it to the campground and I scouted for open FC/FS sites. About 60% of the sites are reservable and I’d wisely written down which ones were FC/FS while we had internet. Only two were open and both were going to be tight. I noticed a couple of the reserved sites wouldn’t be occupied until later in the week, so I asked the campground host if we could use one of those since we’d be departing before the reservation date. Our strategy paid off and we scored a large, shady site during a record-breaking heat wave.

 

It pays to ask. We got a great spot at Tally Lake.

Riley has enjoyed multiple trips to the lake. His hot spots are mostly cleared up and a wet dog is a cool dog, so everyone is happy. We’ve also been testing our Auto-Gen. We had it professionally installed a couple years ago and it has NEVER worked right. The theory is that you set the controls so the generator (and the air conditioners) automatically turn on and then off when the coach’s interior temps reach a specified temperature. Ours would turn on, but wouldn’t shut off. The installer put the temp sensor in an upper cabinet on an exterior wall where the temps were always 10-20 degrees higher. We took it back to the installer and told them the sensor needed to be moved, but they just said the control wasn’t set right and it worked fine for them. Calling BS on that. Finally, Rog bought the components he needed and moved it himself. Guess what, it works great now!

Chilling at the lake.

Bobbing for the jolly ball. 

On Tuesday, we hiked the Tally Lake Overlook Trail, a nice 2-mile loop through the pines. It was a lovely hike, just a little too warm for Riley. We took lots of water and rested frequently, but he wasn’t too happy the last half mile or so. We were forgiven after another trip to the lake. Lol.

 

A peek at the lake as we hiked up the hill.

Riley does his Pride Rock pose. Lol.

Tally Lake Overlook.

Shade! I want shade!

Beautiful butterflies and wildflowers along the trail.

After two nights we left Tally Lake, taking a different route out. We actually drove 9 miles on the dirt road this time, but it had more gravel and wasn’t quite as dusty. We’re finally headed to Rexford, MT to visit Faith and Jim.

Faith and Jim
Good folks, great times!

We made it to their property, which they’d named Rendezview Ranch, on Friday, 6/30. We were so happy to see Faith and she was excited to show us their little slice of heaven. The property is just beautiful with a lovely view of Koocanusa Lake! They live just five minutes from the marina and have access to a friend’s pontoon boat. Since Jim was driving over from Tacoma, WA and not due for a few hours, we headed out on the lake. It was Riley’s first experience with motorized watercraft and he did great. We beached the boat and swam and played in the shallows all afternoon.

 

The lovely Rendezview Ranch.

Koocanusa Lake.

Riley thought this was a vast improvement over the kayak. Lol.

Beating the heat together.

We went back to the house and discovered we’d popped the breaker on their 20amp service and with the air off it was 92° in the coach! Rog reset it and discovered another power pole with 50 amp service that Faith hadn’t even known about. She was thrilled, but not as much as we were! We repositioned the rig and plugged in. With the temps reaching 106°, it was so sweet to be able to run both air conditioners and keep the rig cool.

It would be impossible to relate what a great time we had there. It was so nice to catch up with Faith and Jim. We got to meet Faith’s goddaughter, Ellen and her beau Justin who stopped by on their way to a backpacking trip in Glacier. Lovely people. We hit the lake again on Saturday and met the neighbors, Melanie and Jason. Another fun couple. We visited their place and now Rog has garage envy. Justin has the quintessential man cave. I told Justin when Rog revamps ours, I’m sending him the bill. Lol.  We are really looking forward to visiting again and taking advantage of our new absolutely marvelous Montana moochdock.

 

Relaxing evening with Faith and Jim.

Thumbs up, sums up our thoughts exactly. 

After two days with Faith and Jim it was time to roll on to the destination portion of our trip. We’re meeting friends and family to celebrate the 4^th of July at Glacier National Park. We should be posting some awesome pictures soon!  Here's a sneak peek...

Going to the Sun Road, Glacier National Park.