It seems I see the most incredible sunsets and sunrises in Idaho.
Last night I climbed to the top of Mount Joe and took some pictures of the sunset.
I sent the first one to Barb and she replied with one she had taken the evening before from the driveway:
She wins.
Barb came to Idaho to attend grandson Joseph’s first birthday party (it was late but he didn’t know). We arrived Friday night and took a quick tour of my new house but it was close to dark and we could not see things that well.
These picture were taken Saturday and Sunday (today).
I sent the two pictures below to Mark Fowler, the contractor who did the framing, with the text:
Barb says, “That curve really is beautiful.”
He replied with:
Glad she likes it.
It is starting to look like a home from the road:
Barb and I visited Tolmie Peak Lookout six years ago. Yesterday, we hiked up there again. We left a little after 6:00 AM and arrived at the trailhead about 8:00 AM. The last 19 miles were gravel with “high clearance vehicles recommended.” The speed limit was 25 MPH but in places I thought 15 MPH was plenty fast.
The sign at the trailhead said 5.8 miles round trip. They lied. My GPS step tracker said it was 3.47 one way.
The first part of the trail was really nice. It got a little more difficult in places. But not so bad that we really complained about it. We knew the reward at the end would be well worth it.
Down toward the trailhead:
On July 4th Barb and I hiked to Lake Twenty Two in the North Cascades.
We arrived at the trailhead by 8:20 and found the parking lot full. A couple hundreds yards down the road the day use picnic area had one spot we could squeeze the car into.
The trail is claimed to be 5.4 miles roundtrip and has a difficulty of “moderate”. They lie.
My GPS tracking app says it is 3.3 miles one way. Had the trail been on even ground instead of random sized, irregular shaped, rocks half of the distance we would have granted it a moderate classification. The constant attention required to our footing and the work to keep our balance make it above what we considered “moderate” difficulty.
That said, it was a very nice mountain lake with waterfalls and snow:
The sky has been sort of teasing us with a few snowflakes for several days. Then, last night, it got serious. By about 6:30 PM there was an accumulation of ten inches in our backyard.
Here is the view of the front of the house after I finished shoveling about 4:30 this afternoon. Barb started the work about 10:30 AM and I had a couple inches to remove from the stairs, sidewalk, and part of the driveway which had accumulated since she did her share.
So far it looks similar to Snowmageddon 2017 and just a few days later in the month than then.
We are thankful it is nothing like Snowpocalypse 2019.which gave us over 16 inches of snow and nearly canceled our wedding. Interestingly that storm was almost exactly the same days in February as this year.
We’re thinking maybe we should spend the middle weeks of February in Hawaii on the odd number years from now on.
Update 2/14/2021: Barb “played snowplow” this morning and cleaned the driveway and sidewalk again:
We have now essentially run out of room to put the snow. I’m glad it’s supposed to warm up today and continue with above freezing temperatures through the next few days.
On Monday Barb and I were headed north from McCall to the Boomershoot site to do a little work on things. Between Grangeville and Kamiah we saw clouds which could have come from a biblical painting:
I didn’t think those type of scenes were real. It must be very rare. Another item for strange things in 2020 we told each other. Little did we know this was not the most unusual thing to happen to us on this day.
We arrived at Mount Rainier National Park on Thursday. Our first hike on the way into the park was thwarted by closed gate on a Forest Service road:
We found a different trail nearby and walked in about a mile or so and crossed a small stream. We found a log to sit on and ate our lunch. It was a hot day and snuggled down in the bottom of the ravine with the creek a few feet from us made it a lot more pleasant.
After lunch we continued on to our campground, set up camp, then ventured out to a nearby trail which promised great views of Mount Rainier and multiple lakes. The temperature climbed to 98F. And we were going to be climbing up a mountain trail. Hmmm… Well, the hiking is what we came for. And it wasn’t going to be any cooler at our campsite.
The view of the mountain from Reflection Lake was nice and was visible from the parking area:
In the last few months I’ve occasionally posted about Mount Rainier 50 miles to the south of where Barb and I live. Last year at this time we went camping and hiking on the mountain. Last Thursday went back to the same campground for more camping and hiking in Mount Rainier National Park. We got back yesterday.
One of our big joys was to see Mount Rainier up close with a “hat’”: Over 30% of the pictures Barb took are of this “hat”. Although my percentage is lower I took 27 pictures of the mountain with its “hat”.
Over the 4th of July weekend Barb and I visited Idaho. The plan was to visit Elk Butte Lookout, watch the fireworks show in Orofino, and maybe do some hiking. We drove over on the 3rd, fixed the weather station at Boomershoot shooting line, inspected the top of the shipping container at Boomershoot Mecca, and did a few other odds and ends before checking in at the Konkolville motel in Orofino. Continue reading “4th of July visit to Idaho”
On June 5th Barb and I took the day off work and went for a drive to Lopez Island. Lopez is the third largest of the San Juan Island archipelago. A map is here.
We had been there together before (and here) in 2015 and camped. This time it was just for the day. Going earlier in the year resulted in the temperature being a little cooler. With a little bit of wind it was occasionally on the cool side of comfortable but with a flannel shirt or sweatshirt it was still nice.
We saw many of the same things and hiked many of the same trails. It was our first real excursion together since the COVID-19 outbreak. The lack of traffic, both on the highways and the ferries, reflected the current situation. It seemed that we almost had the island to ourselves. It was a wonderful vacation from the lockdown.
The trails were wonderful. The views were wonderful. And the companionship was awesome.
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