Keyhole Peak and Phoebe Peak, Payette National Forest, Idaho

Another early morning start, and we are down deep on the South Fork of the Salmon River. A quick note about this image since this is Dave Rides the World after all. This particular 30 miles of paved single lane road down the South Fork is one of the most amazing cycling experiences in the world! Here you can see why!

Check out John’s trip report here: http://www.splattski.com/2020/keyhole/index.html

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Lots of Spring flowers were out along the way up the trail!

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As we moved up the canyon, views of our favorite McCall peaks started coming into view. We were soon stopping frequently to play name that peak!

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Here we are looking to the west towards McCall with The Spear and Mount Horrendous in view. Check out my trip reports from last year when we climbed them both: https://davefaitlemonde.com/2019/07/07/mount-horrendous-and-the-spear-valley-county-idaho-day-1-and-2/ https://davefaitlemonde.com/2019/07/08/mount-horrendous-and-the-spear-valley-county-idaho-day-3/

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This is an extreme digital blow up of The Spear (sorry for the blur). That is not a tree on top but a rock spear! We were relieved to see that it was still standing after our recent earthquake.

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Dakota doing a squirrel survey.

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Ruby doing her squirrel survey although at this particular moment, I believe she is doing a bird survey too.

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Ruby and Dakota having a squirrel survey meeting, discussing their results but at the same time still conducting their surveys.

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The summit of Keyhole Peak had a nice rock which always makes John happy! Here you can see Craig scurrying up.

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I have digitally enlarged John’s ass to make this rock look smaller!

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After initially testing the strength of his pants crotch (which luckily passed!) John backed down and tried a different route. Here he is en-route and Craig is on top, meanwhile, Dakota seems very uninterested!

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After bagging our second peak of the day and noticing the weather might be turning for the worse, we dropped the hammer and headed back down. About halfway back down we passed this very cool patch of young Quaking Aspen. It stands out a bit in what is otherwise a Ponderosa Pine forest.

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