August 20, 2015
Where are my humans?
They have been gone forever! I am
hungry. Lemme sleep. Where are my humans? Am I gonna be mad at them. I am hungry.
Did they forget me? I will be
sooooo mad. Oh wait! Is that them?
Here they are! Here I am? Be mad... I can't! My purr box is betraying me! Look at me!
I am hungry! purrrrrrrrr!
What is the past tense for the word 'forgo'? Today I chose to forgo my morning walk. Was it forgone? Forwent?
Forgoed? Anyhow, it is a rare day
that I don't walk in the morning. We
wanted to hit the road early. Our goal
was to go down to the Craters of the Moon lava fields. They are about 100 miles from here. We chose to do it in a loop, hwy 21 to 75 north
to Challis. Then turn south on 93 to 20,
then back to 75 north. Easy as pie,
right?
We pass through the small town of Stanley and turn on to
75. The Salmon River immediately comes
into view. Rugged mountains on the left
and the right and the river in between makes for some pretty nice eye
candy. At one point, we see steam coming
off the river. We pull over and sure
enough, there are hot springs right there off the road for anyone to use. It is cold outside but the water is HOT! You actually have to move closer to the
frigid river to enjoy the warmth. Note
to self: we will be coming this way when
we leave Stanley... have bathing suit
ready. Will we ever make it to the lava
fields?
Continuing north, hey!
Look at that little trail. We
stop, and walk along a little hiking trail along the river. (I knew I would get my walking in at some
point...). Will we ever make it to the lava fields?
Oh, look at those campgrounds, let's go check them out. Good thing we don't have Hannah with us or we
would be backing up for the next decade.
Will we ever make it to the lava fields?
Oh, that sign says Bayhorse ghost town. Next thing I know is the truck is turning
down a dirt road. Bayhorse was a mining
town in the 1800's, early 1900's. Mainly
silver, but some other stuff too. As
with many gold rush type towns, they live their life then die. Will we ever make it to the lava fields?
We finally get to 93 and turn south. We leave the Salmon River behind. Here we have smaller brown grassy mountains
with cattle ranches. Creeks meander
through the ranches. It is pretty. We thought there would be somewhere along the
way to stop for lunch, but not so far.
We ultimately make it to the town of Mackay. We have a wide selection from which to
choose... a burger joint. Spouse had a
burger, I ate a couple of his french fries.
That would have to do as, for me, there was nothing really edible in the
town. But it was a REAL burger joint
from days of yore. I guess I could have
gotten a malt... Will we ever make it to
the lava fields? It is nearly 2pm by now
and we still have a ways to go.
Continuing on 93, we finally hit 20 and turn. It was nearly 2:30 when we finally got to the
lava fields. They have a loop road going
through the park, and you can hike at the various points of interest, which we
did. They have done a fabulous job of
blending the walking paths into the black tagalite/basalt lava flows. I love how the trees have started growing
in the lava. They are twisted from the
winds, and stunted from the lava. There
are so many interesting shapes. We
hiked, we checked out lava tubes, we hiked some more. It is an interesting place, and we are glad
we came to see it.
But now I am hungry.
It is after 5. Will we make it
home in daylight? We head back to
20. Our GPS takes us on a nice shortcut
through farms and meadows. We get to the
land of Hailey and stop for dinner.
Spouse keeps talking about Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, since this is
their home. Like I care? I am surprised he cares!
Continuing north on 75, we pass through the adorable town of
Ketchum. We had stayed here a gazillion
years ago when skiing Sun Valley. It is
far more upscale and artsy now.
Fortunately, as the sun is slowly setting, we have a clear road for
booking it towards home. The mountains
are phenomenal. There are meadows and
streams. We do have to wait for some
deer to cross the road. The danger of
travelling at dusk is that a deer will jump right in front of you. We climb one summit only to see more meadows
and streams and mountains on the other side.
We got back to Hannah at 8:30, with just enough light to give Rudy a
little walk outside. He was lonely, no
doubt about it!
Tomorrow, we plan on hiking up to Sawtooth Lake. It is a rugged 5 mile hike. Spouse is busy gathering all of the
apocalypse tools to pack in our backpacks.
No dear, one rain pancho is enough and they are not calling for rain... Long day...
Oh, one more thing, it is STILL smoky! But I did see some blue sky if I looked
straight up...
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