The Price of Admission

I arrived at Dusty's house around 6pm on Friday where I found him outside by his current project; building a pond (a real one) in his yard. Right now it's just a really big terraced hole awaiting the large liner. We sat in the back yard to talk and admire the mountain view before I met one of his sons Jessie and his wife Kathleen who's already cooked up a couple excellent meals for us. We sat down and planned out a hike for the next day which would include hiking to three different mountain lakes; Killamacue, Red Mountain, and Summit Lakes in the Elk Horn Mountains. He promised me an all day hike with gorgeous scenery, so we got to bed early so we could start fresh.

We were out of the house by 6:30 the next morning and at around 7:30 we'd reached where our hike would start. While driving down the dirt forest road we scared up a mule deer and came across a small pool next to the road full of little 3-4 inch long salamanders. The hike was all Dusty promised and more (in terms of scenery and mileage). We were hiking high in the mountains and over 7500 feet in elevation most of the time with a peak of around 8500 feet. The scenery was magnificent with sweeping vistas of mountains, valleys, and mountain lakes tucked away out of site most of the time. Parts of the hike were some really tough up and down terrain and it was all I could do to keep up with that 51 year old man ahead of me.

As we were hiking up one particularly steep cliff we were talking about how some of the best scenery was also the hardest to get to. Dusty said that's what he calls, “the price of admission”. That phrase would be repeated many times through out the day as motivation to keep going; it was heard almost as often as “we'll be there in a couple hours”. I don't know just how many miles we hiked that day; I guess however many miles you can hike in fourteen hours in the mountains. Some would accuse Dusty of taking a wrong turn or two and costing us some extra miles; but it turns out we were just checking out new territory for Dusty to hunt in the fall. Too bad it all that “new territory” seemed to take us away from our destination of Red Mountain Lake. But who am I to doubt my guide.

Happily we did make it to all of our destinations and they were all spectacular. The lakes were small, tucked back into the mountains, and would be very easy to miss if you didn't know they were there. The lakes were an amazing emerald green and incredibly clear. Unfortunately the skies began to cloud over and it got breezy part way through the hike, taking some of the splendor away from the scenery. On the way to our final destination (Summit Lake) I was starting to get pretty worn out and wondering if this lake was really going to be worth the price of admission. It was getting late, windy, and spitting rain off and on. By the time we reached the lake I was ready to be back at the truck and heading home. Those thoughts were gone within a few minutes of reaching the lake though. We found it surrounded by white flowers and we were able to find a rock out cropping to keep us out of the wind where we could catch a couple small trout. We rested there for a while, ate some snacks, drank some water, and decided to start a quick fire. The sun was close to setting behind the mountains but we hung around the fire a while longer to warm up and it was tough to leave it behind. We were finally able to pull ourselves away though and we started the final hike back to the truck which was fairly short and pretty easy except for one real steep hike over a saddle at the end. By the time we got back to the truck it was pretty dark and we'd been hiking for 14 hours. We were both in pretty good shape considering how long we'd been hiking but it was good to be done and I was definitely feeling it. This was by far the longest, toughest hike I'd ever been but it was worth every minute of it.

We'd planned on sleeping in a little longer this morning before going on a shorter hike but unfortunately when we awoke we found the weather had taken a turn for worst. There was heavy cloud cover and it was raining pretty steadily. Dusty said it's normally very dry around here and this was very unusual weather. It kept up the entire day and rained pretty hard a few times. We went for breakfast at a restaurant in the neighboring town which had some very unusual wall decorations and took a drive to check out some of the scenery. We took a little time to go to the shop to put new front brakes on my car which started grinding just after I left Hells Canyon and then pretty much hung around the house the rest of the day. I can't say I minded not doing much because I was feeling a bit stiff from the day before; though I'm sure I would have loosened up once I started moving around. Still, it will be nice to have a full day of rest before doing anything too strenuous.

The weather is supposed to improve tomorrow and I guess we'll see then what it holds in store for me.

I almost forgot to mention it but Dusty and I were accompanied on our hike by his dog Grace, who is a fantastic dog and more then kept up with us all day long. It felt good to get out and hike with a dog again. I miss Rudy sometimes and I hope he's getting along well with Sarah (Rudy is the second dog pictured).

Travel Day

After finishing things up in Hayden Thursday morning I said my goodbyes, hit the road and headed south. I was in no rush so I took my time and meandered about. It had been raining on and off all morning and while that seemed to be over with it was still pretty gloomy. I crossed over into Washington for a while and as I drove south the land scape started to change pretty rapidly. It went from mountains covered with coniferous trees to rolling hills and sparser deciduous trees. There was a lot of farming and the way the land, towns, and houses were laid out looked a lot like Iowa, except this was much hillier. In Washington this area is called the Palous; and it's rolling hills as far as the eye can see, very pretty. Unfortunately the combination of no contrast lighting from the over cast skies and my lack of ambition of taking photos at the time led to a photo which really doesn't to the area justice at all.

I got back on highway 95 and kept driving south. The scenery was a little bit on the boring side when I noticed a decent little canyon that seemed to come out of nowhere on my left. I was thinking how it seemed kind of strange and out of place when I came to the top of a hill just north of Lewiston and the bottom fell out of the earth! There was what seemed like a huge vertical drop that fell into a huge valley where the Snake and Clearwater rivers met up with the town of Lewiston below. The whole thing was very surreal and as I turned around to stop at the lookout the sudden drop off made you feel like you were floating in mid air because you couldn't see the land dropping away. It was a bit disorienting for a second. I pulled off highway 95 to drive down a small road that went down the steep grade, the road had an amazing number of switch backs and I can't imaging trying to design it.

I kept going south, heading for Hells Canyon (the deepest canyon in North America). It wasn't until nearly sunset that I actually got to Riggins, where I'd enter the park. I looked on a map and drove on a forest road in the dark to a saddle where I spent the night; I came across little elk and it's mother along the way. By the time I got where I wanted to go there was just a little bit light left. I parked the car and went to sleep for the night.

When my alarm went off at 4:30 the next morning I didn't have much ambition to get up so I hit the snooze button. When it went off again in 5 minutes I was ready to just shut it off and go back to sleep when I looked out the window and saw the glow from the approaching sunrise. I looked at it a little, almost went back to sleep, and thought I might as well take a picture of it to post on my blog. I just rolled down the window, snapped a couple frames, and started to settle back in when I noticed a nice view out the back window. Then I actually looked around a little and saw some pretty incredible views everywhere! I was parked in the middle of a large meadow covered in wild flowers of impossible hues of purples, blues, and violets. Just to my left was the edge of the meadow where it dropped sharply and over looked parts of Hells Canyon. All that was enough to motivate me so I got up and got outside to admire the sunrise and to hike around a little. I could hear coyotes calling not too far distant and farther down the mountain I was on I could hear turkeys calling. I scared up a couple pheasant and quail and came across 4 or 5 mule deer all standing together with fresh sets of velvet covered antlers who just stood and looked at me for a while. I even saw a couple humming birds stop at some of the flowers. It was well worth losing an extra hour or two of sleep over.

After a couple hours I headed back to the highway, went a little farther south, and took another forest road that would take me up to about 8500 feet for some great views of the canyon and the surrounding mountains. As I approached the top I started to run into fresh snow that must have fallen just a day or two earlier. I tried to get to the end of the road but was stopped by some large snow drifts about 1/2 mile from the end so I had to hike it the rest of the way. The weather was absolutely gorgeous; sunny, calm, sky full of large puffy clouds, and a temperature in what I'd guess was the low 50's on top of the peak. The view wasn't too shabby either. I was actually giddy and couldn't quit giggling every time I looked around. Not just because of the scenery, but because I'm really enjoying this trip so far and it's sooooo much more fun then working. I couldn't believe that in the 60 or so miles of forest roads that I drove in the park that I only saw 2 other vehicles, and one of those was a forestry truck.

I drove around the south side of Hells Canyon and into Oregon to travel on to Baker City to meet up with Dusty Christensen; who said he'd be happy to take me on some hikes and show me the area. I must say I didn't feel very welcome in Oregon because when I crossed over the border at highway 71/86 I didn't even see a sign welcoming me to Oregon! The nerve of some states!

The further West I drove the drier the land got. It was pretty much brown and just covered with sage brush; the only green were little ribbons where the creeks and rivers passed through. In the distance I could see some large mountains with snow on top. As I got closer I found that Baker City was sitting at the bottom of the mountains and when I got to Dusty's house I found that the mountains are pretty much his back yard! Just after I arrived I was treated to an excellent meal and it even happened to be Dusty's birthday so I got ice cream and german chocolate cake too! Tomorrow morning we're heading out for an all day hike....I think I'm going to enjoy myself here the next couple days.

Gettin' this show back on the road

Well, it's time to leave Hayden and move on to somewhere new. I'm really glad Don Blanchard's place was the first stop; I don't think I could have asked for better people to stay with or a more beautiful area to start my trip off with. Don, Gayle, Shannon and all their friends and family were very inviting and made me feel at home. From out boating on the lake to a memorial day party put on by Cathy and Tony they all treated me like family. Don and Gayle both seem to know how the live life well and enjoy it; they truly seem happy together.

I must admit I was a bit surprised (and nervous) when Don got ahold of me to ask if I wanted to watch his shop and house while he left the country on vacation for a week, but things worked out fine. I had a great coworker in Tim who helped show me around the shop and who was very easy to work and get along with. Don even cleaned off his desk for me to work at (which everyone who stopped in commented on). Work was a little on the slow side during the week, but like Tim and I kept telling ourselves; we were going for quality over quantity. The good part about it though was that it gave Tim an opportunity to clean his old truck and polish up is pretty, purple new screw drivers.



I was also fortunate enough to be able to meet up with Janna and her husband Brett who saw me post my location on a paddling website we both belong to and invited me along on a kayak trip one evening put on by the local paddling club. After that her family was kind enough to invite me over Monday night to eat with them where we had burgers on home made buns and brownies with home made ice cream for desert. It was a nice change from cooking for myself every night after work and I really enjoyed getting to hang out with her family for a while. I even got to see a new card trick!

One thing that I noticed about the residents of northern Idaho (other then the fact that 90% of them migrated from California) was how happy every body seemed to be to live here. Maybe that's something I'll find everywhere that I go since people usually only tell you about the good stuff when your visiting; but everyone really seemed to be thrilled with where they lived and had no desire to be anywhere else. And after being here for a couple weeks I can see why!

So once again, thanks everyone for getting my trip off to a great start. I look forward to passing back this way and seeing you all again.

My next stop will be Portland Oregon, but I've got 1 1/2 weeks to get there so I'll need to find something to do to fill the time. I imagine I'll be able to come up with something.

You can see all the photos I posted from my stay in the area in my Northern Idaho Flickr set.

Call a Priest!

So far the weather has been working out about perfect here in Idaho. The first weekend I got here it was a little damp and dreary, but that was fine because it gave me a reason to stay inside, organize all my stuff a little and catch up some things online. Then all week it was sunny and warm and I took advantage of it getting out to play often. Now that the weekend is over it's back to rainy and is supposed to stay that way the next couple days. Their is a pretty decent thunderstorm going on right now (actually the best part is already past). But it's OK that it's raining again because Don is due back from Mexico late tonight and I'll probably be heading out in a couple days; which means I have to organize and get everything lined up. Now I won't have and distractions (well, not too many anyway).

Like I said though the weather this weekend was great. It sunny, calm and supposed to reach over 90 on Sunday so was in no hurry to get outside early. I just killed time until the middle of the afternoon when I drove a couple hours north to Priest Lake. There is an Upper Priest Lake and a Lower Priest Lake, connected by a channel a couple miles long. Their are no boat launches on Upper Priest Lake and not even a road leading to the lake. The only way to reach it is on foot or by boat. Upper Priest Lake is also catch and release only with single barbless hooks and their is no water skiing allowed; which makes for a quiet, calm, peaceful lake.

By the time I got on the water it was 5:00 and still plenty warm. It was starting to cool off though and it was very comfortable if you got in the shade of the steep banks. Being over the cool water made a big difference. There was some current in the channel that made it a little bit of a work out getting to Upper Priest Lake but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. Just before I got into Upper Priest Lake I saw what I thought was an old steel wheel and axle on the bottom. When I turned around for a closer look though I noticed it was a large old crank shaft with a couple pistons still attached. I wonder how old it was, what it was doing in the middle of no where, and what it came from. I'd guess it had something to do with the logging industry at one time.

When I got to Upper Priest Lake it was dead calm and their was an insect hatch going on so fish were surfacing all around me. They seemed to really be concentrated on the mouth of the channel, I assume because everything gets funneled into that area by the current. The whole thing seemed almost magical. I saw a ton of fish when paddling in the channel but I'm not sure what they were. At first I thought they were Largemouth Bass because I could see a thick and very distinct lateral line. But the more I saw I started to doubt that. Many were in schools of 10 or so and I'm sure I saw well over 100 of them total. I wouldn't expect to see that many bass all together in such a small area like that and wouldn't think they'd be spending that much time in the current. Also, the black lateral line really seemed to extend all the way to the tip of their noses and something else just didn't look right, I don't know what it was though. I looked at some pictures of different Trout and other fish that are supposed to inhabit the lakes but didn't see anything that looked like what I saw. If anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate them.

Anyway, other then a couple other boats on the lake I had it all to myself. The entire shoreline of the lake is either state or federal land and is administered as a scenic area, so their is no development at all (and like I said, not even a road to the lake). Just a couple rustic camp sites for hikers and boaters to use. I stayed on the lake until sunset before paddling back at dusk. I really don't know what to say to try and describe it so I hope that some pictures will do it justice.

You can view a few more shots from Priest Lake in this set on my Flickr account

The high hard one

With the work week done for it was time to get out for some real outdoor time. I set my alarm to go off at 5:00 am and when it did I decided that was too early so I shut it off and slept for another 1 1/2 hours. When I finally did get up I grabbed some food and headed north to Scotchman's Peak for some hiking. By the time I found the trail head (those dirt Forest Roads can be confusing!) and finally hit the trail it was about 9:00 am. There was only one other car in the parking area and just as I was getting ready to start my climb another car pulled in. I talked to them briefly and they told me the hike was about 3.5 miles (which I already knew) but they also told me the elevation climb in that 3.5 miles was about 3500 feet with few switch backs (this I didn't know). I'm glad I ran into them because I wasn't expecting that steep of a grade and it was good to get into a different mind set before I started climbing. My GPS read an altitude of 3350 feet at the parking area and 6950 feet at the summit.

The first 3/4 mile was by far the worst. It was very steep with only one small switch back. After that it was still steep but with some more switch backs thrown in. It's the most exhausting hike I've ever been on and I was surprised how often I had to stop in the first mile to catch my breath. The hike started in a dense forest and about 1/2 way up there were some small meadows to walk through. Once I got about 3/4 of the way up it was getting rockier, the trees were starting to thin out, and I started running into snow! As I kept climbing I found their was actually quite a bit of snow left and at least waist deep in places. I decided to stop and make a snow angel since you don't very often get the chance to do that in June (at least not where I'm from). Thankfully the weather had been warm enough that the snow was packed pretty solid so it was easy to walk on without sinking in. Temperatures at the bottom of the mountain reached over 90 today but at the top it felt more like the 70's. It felt great when I reached the snow to just dump a bunch on my head to cool off.

I thought I'd reached the top of the mountain but when I looked to my right I saw I could continue farther along a ridge about another 1/2 mile or so and get to the real peak. As I climbed up over the last little bit to reach the summit I was surprised to be face to face with a mountain goat about 20 feet from me. He didn't seem concerned about me at all and just stared at me. Apparently some of them are quite tame and have figured out that people can be a fine food source. He didn't have any luck getting any food from me (I didn't even feel guilty eating my lunch in front of him) but that didn't keep him from hanging around and going after my back pack a couple times.

Needless to say the view at the top was incredible! It was an unobstructed 360 degree view with mountains as far as you could see. Looking out over the mountains into Montana was the best view to be had; I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. Sometime I'd like to get back there to see the sunset....and the sunrise for that matter. Maybe I'll just have to hike up one evening and spend the night!

The hike back down was much faster then on the way up but I don't think it was any easier on my body. The steep downhill grade was pretty rough on the knees so I made a point of not having them locked when my feet hit the ground to give some more cushioning. This helped but gave my thighs a lot harder work out. It didn't help that the lower I got the hotter it got too. I was happy to get back in my car and kick on the air conditioning.

Although it was a pretty tiring hike and it was getting really hot towards the end it was well worth it and much more fun then sitting around the house all day.

That was enough of a work out for me for the day so I drove back to the house, ate some ice cream, made some dinner, and caught up on some things. Now I'll just wait to see what tomorrow brings.

The long and short of it

The weather has been great this week; sunny, calm, and warm. Today hit 90 and it's supposed to hold through the weekend. After I got off work tonight I kicked back a little before heading out for a hike. I did some looking on the map and found what looked to be a nice trail on the south east side of Lake Coeur d'Alene that promised a great view of the lake. I planned on hitting the top of the trail around sunset.

As I started hiking the trail through the woods before I started climbing it was starting to cool off very nicely and it was nice and dark in the forest. I noticed many wild flowers blooming but at first didn't want to stop since I'd just started my hike. As I continued on though I saw many more flowers and the whole area was just so peaceful that I couldn't help but stop for awhile. After all, isn't the point of getting out to enjoy what's around you? Why should I pass up taking it in a little just because it's at the beginning of the hike?

Well, an hour after I started my hike I'd only made it about 1/8 mile down the trail and the sun had already set. I continued on up the hill/mountain a ways still planning to reach the top for a nice late evening view of a lake. A little farther up I couldn't resist stopping for a few more pictures and after that it was too dark for me to continue much farther.

I doubt I even made it one mile in the 2 hours I was out there. Sometimes you just can't beat a long, short hike

Sauteed crow

It would seem that I owe the northern Idahoians (or whatever they're called) an apology. Tonight was a lovely Thursday evening and I drove out to Lake Fernan. This is the same lake that I drove past last Friday night (the beginning of Memorial Day weekend) which brought up my little rant on how it takes a long weekend to pry people out of their houses and into the great outdoors and how people don't get out to appreciate nature on regular 2 day weekends. I said that the same weather, either the weekend before or after, wouldn't bring out even half as many people.

Well, I have to eat a little crow because I was really surprised how many people were fishing along the banks of the lake or were out on the water boating or fishing; and this was a Thursday! The later it got in the evening the more people showed up. So consider this my official apology...I'm sorry. They must have all read my blog and it motivated them!

My reason for going to Lake Fernan tonight was because I was invited to come along on a group outing sponsored by a local kayaking club (which about 25 or so people showed up for). This was the first time I'd ever gotten together with a group of kayakers for a paddle. Of course I showed up late and by the time I got there everyone was already in the water and ready to take off. I must say that it felt really weird at first. There was a leader and everyone just piled up behind her as she started paddling around the lake. So here was this huge mob of people in kayaks out to “commune” with nature; it kinda seemed to defeat the purpose and I was wishing I was out by myself instead. But as we paddled on a little farther everybody started to string out a little and conversations were struck up. Questions were asked and answered about each others boats and people got to know one another a little better; it actually turned out to be a pretty good time and I'm really glad I went.

Thanks for the invite, Janna