One of the destination points on this trip was to visit Creston, a small town in Canada, not too far across the border from Libby, MT. Why Creston? Creston (and its immediate surrounding area) is one of the best places in North America to grow fruit, particularly cherries, peaches, apricots, and nectarines. Meriam has been salivating since she first learned about the Creston area.

But before we take you to the orchards, how about a short diversion to Kootenai Falls, not far from the town of Libby, MT?

European traders and surveyors were lured to the region in the early 1800s by the land, abundant wildlife, and adventure. In 1808, during the fur trade period, David Thompson and four other men in a large canoe, put ashore in rains and high winds at the head of the falls Thompson described as “heavy, long falls between 2 steep hills.” Not able to run the falls they portaged their canoe and loads across land which took approximately 15 trips of 1 1/2 hours each!

If you have not heard of David Thompson, we encourage you to look him up. Thompson was a Welsh Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and cartographer, known to some native people as “Koo-Koo-Sint” or “the Stargazer”. Over Thompson’s career, he traveled 56,000 miles across North America, mapping almost 2 million square miles along the way. His map of North America was the basis of all subsequent North American maps.

As a side note, David Thompson’s exploration of North America preceded Lewis & Clark’s 1804 expedition by almost 10 years. To learn more about David Thompson, we both highly recommend the book “Epic Wanderer” by D’Arcy Jenish. Reliving some of the trails of David Thompson has reminded us to re-read the book again.

After Kootenai Falls, we trekked to Libby, MT where we spent a couple of days, and then on to Creston, BC, Canada where we plan to consume massive amounts of fruit!