Back to the Sawtooths

Dad and Nick were in town last weekend for a trip to the Sawtooth Mountains. While Mom and Dad were here over the summer, we discovered the Iron Creek Trail which leads up into the mountains and travels past Alpine Lake and Sawtooth Lake. We didn't have enough time to hike it in August so we did it last weekend instead.

The trail is 5 miles each way and about 12oo feet of vertical to Sawtooth Lake. I got to play with my GPS and track our speed, altitude and distance the whole way. Dad played cameraman with his new camera. The weather wasn't perfect, cool and rainy with clouds blowing in all the time, but the hike itself wasn't really that bad and the views were amazing.

Here are Nick and I on the trail.


Here is Alpine Lake.

Here is Sawtooth Lake, it is actually much bigger than Alpine Lake but it doesn't really come through in the photos.



Three happy people because we are about to start back down.



It snowed overnight while we were there. Winter comes quick in Idaho. Ski season is right around the corner.

Kraft Shoot-Out

Last week the 2009 World Games was a participant in the Kraft Shoot-Out at the Albertson's Boise Open. The golfers playing for us were Jason Zuback & Jason Gore. The PGA's marketing is dead on, "These guys are good." They can crush the ball when needed or drop it right on green from just about anywhere. As Jack has often said to me, "These guys don't play the same game I play."

I ended up being the official staff photographer simply because I was carrying the camera. At first I was shooting from the gallery but I ended up on the course with the press corps. Sports shots are really hard to get, I took hundreds of photos but never got the club striking the ball, though I did get some dirt on this one.












Here is Team Jason walking with Roberto one of our local athletes.












Here is a good shot of our cheering section, hopefully that shot got on the Golf Channel.








And lastly Terry, another local athlete with the final results.

The road less traveled

On the way back from Emmett we decided to follow a historic highway marker to the town of Pearl which is, in theory, a town from the gold mining era. We're not sure if we drove past the town or if the only thing left is the historic highway marker where we turned onto the road. We did enjoy driving the dirt road, saw a lot of cows and a mine entrance.



The best part was the view -- Pearl sits just over 1400 feet higher than Boise, at an elevation of 4,154 feet.

Stammtisch

While traveling around the Marin headlands, we stopped in Sausalito for breakfast and were seated at the locals table, affectionately referred to as the, "Stammtisch."

The locals were heavy into their own conversation when we arrived but opened up a bit after some prodding. They told us about the Taj Mahal houseboat and also sent us to the The Marin County Civic Center which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
It truly is a civic center, with government offices and a library inside, along with the county jail built into the hill next to it.

Let's backtrack a little...

Before I continue chatting about recent adventures, I have some catching up to do. First, let's finish San Francisco...

While borrowing Dave's car, we drove through the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. We were socked in by fog and could only see the Pacific ocean from one vista, but it made the gun turrets even more mysterious.



We took a road out of the park that led past some of the original military buildings which are now artist residences and studios. Despite the noble cause, the area was a bit depressing. That changed when we saw a deer and her fawns walking through the "compound" and I remembered we were just minutes away from the busyness of the highway and downtown San Francisco.

The GGNRA is one of the largest urban parks in the world and thankfully very much untouched by the growth that engulfs it.

We have become Idahoans . . .

After many months we have finally given up our Maryland residency and become Idahoans. We got our new tags last week.

Joanie's Car got the Ski Idaho plate. There isn't a snowboarding plate.

Mine is the Sawtooth National Recreational Area plate, hopefully I'll get to see a mountain goat someday.

I guess this means there is no turning back....