I’m back up in Idaho for a couple days to check in with things here in my home state. It has been a fairly crazy last couple of days. It started Thursday with a wonderful winter hike down in the Salmon River Canyon. This low elevation hike is nice for folks up here in McCall because it generally starts out below the snow level and climbs onto a relatively low elevation peak with minimal snow cover. I packed my snowshoes, picked up Ruby and Tom and we got a nice early start.
After driving about an hour to the Manning Crevice Bridge, we launched along the chilly Salmon River.
At this point, my hands were so cold that I struggled to shoot pictures. We were looking forward to the sun!
A short half mile stroll along the river and we were soon into the sun.
Ruby shed her puffy coat and patiently waited as Tom and I followed up.
As one climbs the mountain, the surrounding high elevation wilderness comes into view, in the distance, Patrick Butte.
Time for a break and a snack. The temperatures were quite comfortable in the sun but since we were working up a pretty good lather, any stoppage of climbing required a puffy coat.
Further up the ridge, snow cover. I’m sure glad we are carrying these snowshoes!! Check out this blog post from a couple years ago when we climbed Kelly Mountain here. Not quite as much snow this year.
At the top, Tom poses on the remnants of an old fire lookout. We never did need those dang snowshoes.
Views from the top.
On the way back down, we spotted some wild sheep! Sometimes I wish I had a long lens to shoot wildlife.
Here is an extreme digital zoom.
Down, down, down! My quads are starting to quiver.
Finally, one last image of the bridge and it’s the end of a wonderful day with Ruby and Tom.
Well, as I mentioned, it has been a crazy past two days. As it turns out, while we were hiking, a propane tanker overturned on Highway 95 closing the road. In Idaho, this highway is the only route from north to south. The drive that should have taken about another 40 minutes resulted in a 2 day 8.5 hour, 3 state trek back. As I post this, the highway is still closed and I need to travel back to North Idaho to catch my flight back to Texas. UGGGGHHHH!
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