Snippets from the Brodies: Lake Koocanusa, Montana – August 3rd to 5th, & 7th to 10th

We had 2 trips down to Lake Koocanusa, near the town of Eureka in north west Montana – the first after our car trouble in the rain, and the again after horse riding at Pincher Creek. Both times we stayed for a coupe of days, and we met so many of the friends from Pincher Creek, High River and Didsbury areas in Alberta (we even remember some of their names!).

When we first arrived at the campsite, which we were given forwarded directions to from Wes & Lianna, we had no idea who we were looking for, or what cars anyone drove, other than Wes & Lianna – however, they had left that morning to head up into the Canadian Rockies, we found out later! So we drove and walked around the campsite and found a lady who looked like she could be one of our group… And then we were all set – we camped in our car, while others had trailers or tents, and we met Robin & Kim, Robin’s brother Berwin, wife Sandra (from NZ!) and 4 kids Micaela, Annika, Luke & Joel, we met Gary from Montana, his daughter Cindy from Idaho, and her son Gary, and then a few others kept arriving overt he next day or 2 – many more of Robin & Kim’s extended family from Pincher Creek, as well as the Stewarts from Didsbury, and their sons and daughters in law.

Setting up the boys' tent

Just a few of the friends

It was so nice to have a campfire and relax with some friends, even though we’d never met before! On the Sunday morning we headed to the meeting in the tiny town of Rexford, just across the lake from our campground, then Lawrie and I stayed for lunch with Paul & Mertie, the lovely couple whose home we were in. After a couple of hours of chatting with them, and a delicious lunch, we headed to the gospel meeting in Kalispell (1.5hours back towards Glacier NP) with Paul and Mertie, as well as the rest of the campers!

Paul & Mertie

The next day we went out on the boats and while most of the others were pretty pro at water sports, Lawrie & I hadn’t really tried many before, and so were a little less skilled…. (quite an understatement!) – Lawrie being a natural picked up the basics pretty quick, while I was happy just to actually make it up out of the water when forced to have a go! (We haven’t yet found out how to say ‘No’ to a Canadian!) We had a great time trying to ‘skurf’ (essentially surfing the wake on a small board behind the boat, hanging on to a rope to start with. Mind you, the rope was pretty much a life line for me, I had no plans to let go of it!) – then some storms rolled in so we got off the water in time for dinner.

Lake Koocanusa from the campsite

Sarah skurfing

Lawrie skurfing

Lynley skurfing

The Wake Setter

After some pretty heavy rain hit in the afternoon, we headed back up to Robin & Kim’s place at Pincher Creek to go riding the next day, with plans to come back afterwards! On our way up there we ran into a few more friends heading down to the lake, from High River (small world!), and saw them back at the camp a few days later, along with many more friends! So many people we’d never met before, but it was so nice to feel like we knew them straight away!

We spent a couple more days there, and met the rest of Robin & Kim’s family – Carma, who lives in Saskatchewan, and Jaclyn, her husband

Chad

, and their 4 little boys. We also caught up with Alex from Christchurch (living in Pincher Creek for a while) and her boyfriend Nathan, which was great! We watched Carma and Boyd tearing it apart on the ski course that they set up, and Lawrie had a go at skiing on a single ski, but was unsuccessful (having never actually tried skiing on double skis before!) and had a go at wakeboarding for the second time ever - picked it up again really quick, but still felt pretty basic compared to some of the Canadians’ skill!

Boyd single skiing (didn't get any good pics of this though...)

Lianna while the Canadians were skiing at night

Someone brought along an ‘air chair’, which was pretty cool – kind of like skiing, except you’re sitting down strapped to a ‘chair’ that is meant to go along above the water (hence the air part of the name…) – so it’s a little different to balance for getting out of the water, as you can’t really push of your feet or balance sideways, so that was kinda funny to watch! We watched Nevin and Logan trying to do back flips on it, and many others struggling (but succeeding) just to get up and go. We gave skurfing another shot, and I managed to stay up a lot longer than before, but was still basically skiing on the board rather than surfing – so much fun though! After swallowing most of the lake, we decided to go for a much easier swim in a quieter spot with Carma, Jayden (from NZ), Trent & Dena, and Anna (from Ontario), and also gave the double skis a try – MUCH easier, Lawrie got up straight away, although I still struggled a lot – pretty close, but not quite… Next time!

Some of the other friends

Lawrie on the wakeboard

Jeremy wakeboarding

On Robin & Kim's boat with Carma & Jayden

Carma on the air chair

Nevin on the air chair

Pro Nevin

Chad on the air chair

Micaela on the air chair

Lawrie on the air chair

Logan getting some air on the air chair

Me attempting skurfing

Lawrie & I on the boat

We also had some pontoon bikes that Paul & Mertie had at their house nearby, so gave those a try out too, lots of fun! And with volleyball on the beach, a roaring campfire every night, complete with marshmallows and smores (mmmmmm!), we may not have gotten a whole lot of sleep, but we had such a great time!!