Idaho Trip

I know this is way overdue, but I'm a slacker. Back at the end of July, I went with our boy scouts up to Idaho to venture into the wilderness. We had a 30 mile, week long backpacking trip. I kept a journal every night in my small tent so here it is:

Day 1 - It was a hard day, we were up at 4 this morning, drove till about 1, and hiked about 7 miles in 4 hours. I did at least another mile with backtracking and looking for people. We had some struggles and everyone is tired. its about 10 thirty. On the plus, dinner was tastee. Bugs are everywhere. I think it is sleep time. I set my tent up far from everyone else as not to be bothered. I love my wife.

Day 2 - It rained last night. Thunder & Lightening. I slept pretty well except for that. We had a good hike where we crested a mountain. some were struggling so me and few others went down to carry their packs up the mountain. We found our camping spot, but Talmage and I reconned for a better one. We found it. I even got to bathe in the lake and am excited for fresh clothes. Dinner was good some people caught some fish so I got a little bit. I am pretty tired. Hope I stay warm tonight.

Day 3 - We combined two days hike to be able to go home Friday. So we hiked 8 miles today. We had two peaks and some good lakes. Its really nice out here. The mosquitoes are worse though. I have eaten a lot because I have so much food. I have shared but have enough for a few more days, but should only need one. I most certainly could use a bath. I have been leading the charge most all day. I feel really strong. Tired and sore, but I am doing better than I thought. All the practice really helped. One more night.

HERE IS WHERE THE FUN BEGINS - Day 4

This was supposed to be a long day, but our last. Like the last few days, I lead the charge but this trail was much more difficult and overgrown. I had 6 of the quicker boys. 3 priest, 2 teachers, and a deacon. We lost it a few times but were able to locate it once again. After several hours, we noticed we were not where we should be. Especially when the trail completely vanished. We Bushwhacked through a marsh and found a stream we followed but it kept flowing the wrong way. We saw a ridge and went up it to see what we saw, passing another trail, and found the highway. we took the trail till it to vanished and had to backtrack back to the road. It was a long way off. We crossed the Salmon River and came up through some Idaho mountain lodge/resort. We talked to some people there and were instructed that where we needed to go was 4 miles up the highway and 2 miles down the road. We told them how long and far we had been walking but they were no help. We got to the highway and put out our thumbs. The third car that passed us was a minivan with a dude with large earrings and mutt chops and was laughing. He took pity on us and loaded all our packs into the back. The boys, all six, got in the middle seat, while I got the passenger seat. He drove us back to the resort and we thanked him profusely. We offered him freeze-dried food or money we did not have, but he laughed saying "I am pretty sure you have nothing that I want." At the resort, it was another 4 miles to the other side of the lake where we were to meet up. The boys were not real happy for another 4 miles but we found the cars (one belong to the father of one of the boys) and were able to get in and find some money for the ferry. I sent 2 boys across on the ferry with equipment and the rest were all going to camp at the cars. When the boys got across the lake, they ran into another leader coming back to stay at the car if we happened to stumble there. We all came home that night due to the disorganization. Fun times. We all made it home safe.

The End