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:
