Summer 2012 Vacation, Sawtooth Wilderness

Thank you for bearing with me, as these posts not only come few and far between, but also very late.

Our second stop on our summer road trip en route to Red Lodge, MT, was Stanley, ID and the Sawtooth Wilderness.  This area had very few year round residents and was very beautiful.  I always thought John Day was tiny, but we've got little to complain about in comparison to the 63 residents of Stanley.  We spent two nights in the area, and looking back on our trip should have spent at least another.  The Sawtooth Wilderness offers plenty of recreational opportunities.  We spent the evenings at a campground on Red Fish Lake, and spent our afternoons hiking.  

 Sawtooth Mountains, hiking up from Stanley Lake to Bridal Veil Falls.  Hannah's hitching a ride with Daddy.

Hannah was rock climbing, and struck a pose.  I think she was mocking me with her hands on her hips.

 A family photo in front of the falls, but I didn't position the camera correctly.  We got a nice family shot either way.

 Hannah stretching her legs, and hiking along with us on the trail.

 Beach combing at Red Fish Lake.

 Hannah and I saying "cheese." 

Robbie and Hannah hanging out and enjoying the view.

The next few shots are a bit messed-up, as the camera has a few issues occasionally.  None the less, I've chosen to include them and represent our travels anyway.  We did a day hike, to Bench Lake, about 8 miles round trip into the wilderness.  

 Break time, we were starving for lunch by the time we arrived to the lake.  Luckily we had the view to ourselves, just like wilderness is supposed to be.

 This photo reminds me of the quality of some photos I was in as a child.  

 Robbie having us pose for the camera.

Hannah hitching a ride on the way down.  She actually fell asleep in the pack, she was like a limp noodle bopping around in there.

I got the camera positioned right this time.  Much easier to stand behind a sign, then in front of the falls.

Hannah's First Night out in the Woods

We took Hannah on her first overnight trip to the woods. We stayed at a campground not far from town, just in case we had to make a midnight dash home. As we figured though, she did great and we all had a wonderful night.

Of course, like many of us, the fire was very mesmerizing to her, and kept her attention for some time.

Robbie set up the sleeping bags perfectly to allow me to feed Hannah through the night, and we all slept well. There is something about sleeping outside under the stars, and the sound of peace and quiet.

Here is a short video clip of Hannah taking care of nature's call outside the tent. (Only a baby could make this cute.) She has been able to go potty on the toilet for some time now, but has graduated to great outdoors women.

Hoonah

This last weekend Robbie, Chad, Scott (Chad’s Bro), Marc (Chad’s Bud), and myself all took the ferry over to Hoonah, Alaska. Hoonah is a small fishing town of about 800 residents, located on Chichagof Island. We all had the intention of catching Coho (silver) salmon. Chad, Scott and Marc also brought their shotguns for some duck hunting. According to Chad, the fishing wasn’t off the hook, but we were all able to bring in enough fish to send everyone home happy.

We were pretty fortunate the weather held out all day Friday and through most of Saturday. However by Saturday evening the sky broke free into a Southeast Alaska down torrent. Luckily we had a “Tarpologist” with us, as Marc referred to Robbie. Actually, all the men worked really well together and donated great ideas so that we could still enjoy the outdoors, and cook without getting soaked from the rain. Can anyone guess where I was during all of this? Yep, you got it, in the truck, nice and dry. I figured it best to stay out of the way of all that testosterone. Plus, like a moron, I forgot an extra pair of waterproof boots, and didn’t want to take the chance of getting my feet soaked. That could have been a downer for everyone. Needless to say that evening most of us went to bed early, and listened to the rain hitting the cabs and canopy roofs of the trucks.

On Sunday, we awoke to the rain, but not as hard as the night before. Robbie and I didn’t go fishing with the others. We drove some of the forest service roads, looked for critters, and explored the town and its infamous brown bear hang out, the city dump. I’ve heard plenty of stories from Robbie and our friend Keith about the Hoonah dump and how huge the brown bears are that frequent it. According to Robbie the dump is different now, they have a gate around the freshly dumped off trash, and had it on fire, actually more like a smolder. Robbie didn’t expect with the change that we would see any bears, but low and behold one came out of the wood work, and another was down by the big pile of somewhat already burned trash. I thought the bears were plenty big, but Robbie assures me that the bears of the past got so big on human waste, that their belly’s dragged on the ground.


More pictures are down below in the albums, if you care to take a look.

Peterson Lake

Happy Sunday Everyone,

This weekend we rented a Forest Service Cabin. We hiked out to it Saturday afternoon about noon and came out today about the same time. We didn't stay as long as we would have liked, but the one evening was a wonderful break from painting doors, trim and the house. Not to mention work for Robbie. Our friend Keith and his son Cole joined us as well. The hike in is, well depending on who you talk to, somewhere between 3.5 and 4.3 miles. The cabin is situated about 200 feet from the shore line. This time of year the trail is great, because it is covered with snow. In the summer it really can be a lot more work, stepping over tree branches and swampy conditions. The lake was frozen over, except one area where there was a beaver dam at the outflow to the creek. When we hiked in yesterday the weather was absolutely beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining. However this morning it was equally as beautiful, but snowing and the sky was back to what we are used to around here, cloudy. I've attached another photo album, Peterson Lake Cabin, down below of some photos, if you care to take a look.