Today, I was looking to escape the deep snows of McCall so I rallied my buddies John, Craig, and Art then along with Ruby and Dakota, we headed for the lower elevations of the Salmon River Canyon. We parked here at the famous Manning Crevice Bridge. Make sure you check out Johnny’s post for this trip. http://www.splattski.com
Starting off, we hiked along the Salmon River mostly in the shade. But as you can see, it wasn’t long before we were in the brilliant sunshine.
The elevation here is just under 2000 feet which is 3000 feet lower than Mccall. We left McCall and the temperature was about 10 degrees, it was right around freezing on the river.
The trail soon turns straight uphill and we started our climb.
I love these super high clouds when they roll in on a cold crisp morning.
Its great to be out with my climbing buddy John. I love you man!!!!! Notice how his backpack looks so much smaller with my new lens!
Hiking on this thin snow did not last long.
Although the air was cold, we were hiking in our base layers due to the intense sunshine.
Headed for higher elevations off in the distance. This is Craig, he is a new co-star here on davefaitlemonde.com. It’s likely he and his dog Dakota will have a recurring roll on this blog. Although, this was his first hiking outing with us and he may now want to renegotiate his contract!
The snow here is getting to be about knee deep and with the thin crust is quite hard going.
Although it hard to tell with this wide angle lens, the peak below the sun and to the right is Patrick Butte which John and I climbed last summer. https://davefaitlemonde.com/2019/08/30/patrick-butte-payette-national-forest-idaho/
We made it up to the trees and now the snow was thigh high. The last kilometer was pretty tough going but we pressed on. I wish somebody would have suggested we take snowshoes!
A summit shot of John in his happy place, the top of a mountain!!! It has been quite some time since he summited a mountain, November 13th I believe. No wonder he has been cranky!
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