E. Fork Salmon

Last weekend Rick and I "backpacked" near the E. Fork of the Salmon R. By "backpack", I mean we loaded numerous large duffel bags, a shovel, an ax, a 5 gallon container of water, a cooler of beer, a loveseat, and a chainsaw onto our four wheelers and drove our selves and our gear 4mi into the wilderness. In my opinion, there is no better way to camp. Did I mention we had a 2-inch foam bed to sleep on?

This in my third time camping with Rick in this spot. I love it because the wide open rocky high spaces feel so much like being in another world, like maybe the moon. Do flowers grow on the moon?

On Saturday, we took a drive (in the truck) up the E. Fork until the road ended at Bowery Ranger Station. The view was gorgeous.

The land around the river is a lush paradise that, in places, abruptly changes to dry, barren, treeless, desert.
We found Herd Lake.

On our way home, we rode up Kirkham Ridge trail for a stunning view of the S. Fork Payette R. at Kirkham Hot Springs.

July 4th Camp-out

This year we joined our good friends Dan and Ellisea for their annual 4th-of-July camp-out near Alturas Lake. For over 40 years, Dan and his buddies have been camping here. Now the group has grown to include children and even some grandchildren. There were over 30 people at the camp-out this year (and nearly as many dogs!)

It takes a lot of wood to support this magnitude of camp-out.

On Saturday, Rick and I took a ride to the lake on my Honda.

That night we had the biggest, and most classic, campfire ring I have ever joined. Complete with smores, dutch oven cobblers, a guitar, and sing-alongs, it was truly a traditional American celebration. (And a lot of fun.)

Sarah's Favorite Spot

Last weekend we camped at my favorite spot, north of Idaho City. We packed our stuff in on our 4-wheelers for the longest day of the year. This is the same spot we went last year on the same weekend with our friends Brandon and Jen. Last year we hiked down to a lake and found excellent trout fishing. This year, the lake was covered in snow.

Last year, on the trail and above the lake:

This year, taken from much higher up; I am pointing at the lake.

Rick's Birthday Quakie Camp

Last weekend we went camping with our friends Brent and Michael and celebrated Rick's birthday. On our way to the site we drove across the Camas Prairie. It was stunning.

Here is a close-up of the camas, which creates the sea of purple.

We camped in this stand of quakies. This is the spot where three bears entered our camp at about 4am last year. We didn't see any this time.My parents gave Rick a 5L beer keg chiller for his birthday. It was a hit!

Lime Creek Camping Trip

Rick and I went camping last weekend near Lime Creek. The desert land was unusually green and covered with wild flowers.

We camped on a knoll and had 270 degree views of the area, including the spectacular Lime Cr. canyon.

We watched a thunderstorm go by and were fortunate to endure only 30 minutes of rain while still getting to enjoy the thunder and lightning.

Puerto Rico

Two weeks ago, Rick and I went for a week's vacation in Puerto Rico with my cousins Paul and Jaime. Here are the highlights:

Day 1 - Old San Juan. My favorite part from our walking tour of Old San Juan was coming up out of the city and onto the edge of the grassy plain behind the Fort. This photo doesn't do it justice. There were tons of families all over park flying kites. So many kites! The wind was blowing at least 15mph, which felt great in the hot sun.




Day 2 - El Yunque. We rented a car and drove to the Caribbean National Tropical Forest (El Yunque.) We thought Monday would be a good day to go, fewer people. But we were wrong. It turned out Monday was a holiday. There were people everywhere! We hiked to a waterfall only to find it crawling with people. So we hiked a bit further up and found a waterfall all for ourselves.

On our way home, we stopped at what has been called the most beautiful beach on the main island of Puerto Rico - Luquillo. We grabbed some food from the beach side vendors and then took our beers to the water's edge to watch the sun set.

Day 3 - Vieques Villa. On day 3 we traveled to the small Puerto Rican island of Vieques, where we had rented a villa. We traveled for 1hr by taxi to Fajardo and then caught a 90min ferry over to Vieques. Check out the view from our pool!

Day 4 - R&R. Our villa on Vieques (Bravos by the Sea's Culebra villa) was fantastic. While Rick went fishing, Paul, Jaime and I felt compelled to sit by the pool and do nothing. That night we went on a tour of the bio luminescent bay. While swimming in the glowing bay was spectacular, the tour company (Abe's) was not. Letting us stand in a fire ant nest and cramming 18 people into a 10-12 passenger van is not fun!

Day 5 - Snorkeling. We spent our last day in Vieques checking out beaches and trying to find a good place to snorkel. We found some fish and a lot of starfish. That night we went to dinner at Chez Shack, located in the middle of the rain forest. The food was great. Here we are back at the villa at sunset just before dinner.

Day 6 - Old San Juan. We traveled back to Old San Juan and spent the afternoon wandering the streets and shopping. It was rainy, but that made the colors of the buildings and especially the blue brick streets of Calle Cristo stand out more.

Day 7 - More Old San Juan. Paul and Jaime went home that day. Rick and I continued to wander the streets and finish our shopping. Cigars for Dad and a Santo for Mom. That night we had a fantastic dinner at Marmalade. This OSJ photo is from Day 1 and is one of my favorites.

E. Fork Owyhee (the raft trip from hell)

Back in April, Rick and I went with some friends on the raft trip from hell. I call it this because that's what it was, and here's why:

1. The trip was 42 miles on the river and we had three days (Fri-Sun) to do it. But since the shuttle took all day, instead of 2 hours, we only made 4 mi the first day and had to paddle like hell on Saturday to make up for it. And we didn't get back to Boise until 5am on Monday.

2. Our friends were in canoes (2 people per canoe), while Rick and I were in inflatable kayaks. Canoes go fast in the water with little effort. Inflatable kayaks do not, requiring Rick and I to paddle even more like hell.

3. The rapids were bigger than I thought they would be, which made me scared. I don't like rapids.

4. There were two rapids we couldn't run and had to instead portage our boats and all of our gear (tents, etc.). The portage was long and steep and treacherous. It was the portage from hell!

OK, that all being said, the E. Fork Owyhee canyon is beautiful! The photos don't do the straight-up towering cliffs justice. We saw a lot of wildlife, and we saw no people. I heard this is the least populated area in the lower 48 states.

Here are some photos - good memories:

I woke up the first morning to find my socks frozen. This was OK because I didn't have to put them on.

This is a movie of Rick running one of the rapids that looked too scary to me. So he ran it twice, once in his boat and once in mine.

Here is a photo Mike took of the river canyon from above on the desert plain.

Here is one Klaus took of Rick and me on the water.

These are parts of the portages from hell.

And here is an attempt to show the spectacular canyon walls.

If you want to go on this trip, plan for at least 4 days and pack light!