Blacks Creek Road

This is a fun, curvy and quiet road that we’ve been on with motorcycles until the pavement runs out and turns to dirt. This time, we brought the truck to haul in our 4-wheelers, because Dan had heard that there were trails to explore in the area. We drove for miles on that dirt road and didn’t find anything, so decided to just park and continue on that road on the 4-wheelers. This always happens to us as soon as we make a decision: A few miles later, there was a gate open for trails that led into the mountains. The sites were gorgeous and the trails were accompanied by free-range cows that stared and ate as we passed by.

Kayaking

When my friends tell me they’re going camping for the weekend, about half of the time they say they’re heading out to Bruneau Dunes State Park. We decided to check it out with our new kayaks, knowing that the park had a lake surrounded by sand dunes. Got up early on a Sunday morning to beat the unbearable afternoon sun and drove an hour over to the park. We had the whole lake to ourselves. It was so still peaceful and I wanted to take pictures of all of the fish that swam with me, but photos wouldn’t do it justice. Dan parked his kayak about halfway through and climbed a dune to take a photo.

Happy Summer

School’s out, and yes, we’re back at the cabin in East Idaho. Running the Teton Dam 5K to kick off summer vacation was exactly what I needed. I think we’ll have to do this every year! (sorry, Dan!) The weather was cool and brisk, and I love that our shirts labeled us as Dam Runners, which encouraged us to practice our use of puns for the day…

There’s a ton of family history related to the dam, which collapsed in 1976, killing 11 people and ruining all crops that year. It hasn’t been rebuilt since. The Teton Dam Race did not take us to the site of the dam itself (I think the 1/2 or Full marathon would have taken us to the dam), but we ended up with a great tour of Downtown Rexburg, which also has it’s own Greenbelt. I could try for the half next year, but don’t think Dan would want to run that distance with me.

We also made two more attempts to make it up to the relay towers behind the cabin. Dan and I made it there on snowmobiles (my first time riding) when we first started dating, and we’ve made two other failed attempts to get up there since. This time, we got stuck in snow and ended up digging ourselves out for an hour or two. There was just too much snow up there in June. We were so close. These are the pictures of us just almost being there.

Visiting the Cabin Again

If I were to use hockey games as a way to gauge how busy we’ve been, then this fall must have been a huge mess of overwhelming tied-up and swamped in overloaded no fun time. By the way, we are big Steelheads fans and go to games whenever we can. So if we’ve only seen one game so far this season, that’s pretty terrible.

Surprisingly, it didn’t feel too bad! December is supposed to be the month of death for music teachers, but I made sure to have fun this time around working with my students, and I felt they were pretty well prepared. I sure hope *knock on wood* it’s a sign that I’m getting the hang of things!

We’ve been back to the cabin whenever we can (Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas) to spend time with Dan’s parents. That place is our piece of idyllic heaven: miles of fields for the dogs to roam and run, nearby trails for the snowmobiles and new Ranger, wild animals passing by, hot springs at the bottom of the hill, and neighbors who are all family relatives. Seriously! Dan’s uncle lives down the hill and runs the hot spring business and lives next to his other uncle, who lives next to Dan’s cousin ….and so forth. The family traditionally uses the hot springs as their Christmas Eve gathering place (and every Sunday dinner); everyone brings a slow-cooker soup or dessert to eat, sing Christmas carols, then swims in the pools. Dan has several relatives, so I’m still having trouble remembering names. Another hot spring tradition is to climb the rafters and jump into the pool, which I only did once so that I can at least say I’ve done it. Well, I’ll probably do it again, but I’m just saying that I felt more air time at that moment than from what could be seen on the video.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from our adventures around the cabin, with the winter scenery.

Our goal was to make it up to the relay towers where we could get a good view of the Tetons. We’ve been trying to make it back up there since my first time ever out on the machines (we had just started dating), but something always happens. I think this was our third try since, and we had to stop this time just at the base of the last hill where the snow was too soft and the trail groomers had quit. I remember that first time thinking that the ride was really long, but this time, we could have made it as though it was a short trip. I must have been going realllllly slow that time, then! Good thing Dan is so patient with me!

 

Deadwood Reservoir

We left Rexburg after the wedding to take a road trip out to the midwest. Dan dropped me off at Indiana University, where I took a 2-week course at the Summer Kodaly Institute for music teachers – I strongly believe that every music teacher needs to take this!

I could gush and go on about the Kodaly course and road trip, but I’m going to post about the 4th of July trip we took [in Idaho] just a few days after getting home from all of the festivities, traveling and studying. July 4th fell on a Tuesday this year, so Dan had only one day off for this trip. We’ve always wanted to go to Deadwood Reservoir because people have talked about catching literally buckets full of salmon there – with our fishing record, we were sure and excited about catching one!

Have you ever headed somewhere new and followed your preset directions until you saw a sign pointing to a different way to get there and started following that instead on a whim? Well, we did that Monday night and it turned out to be a scary 25-mile bumpy, one-lane dirt road through mountains with deadly cliff-edges! The views were gorgeous, but my appreciation of the sights was trumped by my fear of getting lost, damaging the car/boat, falling off the side, and running into a car headed the other way. We made it to our campground 2 hours later than expected, right when the sun was setting. Our campsite was right by the lake, and we had a good amount a space/privacy from the campers on either side. My pre-made tinfoil dinners were a yummy success (better than last time because I added cooking oil), and Bella had her first adorable run-in with a frog.

We woke up and packed up camp the next morning to go boating. We had seen a dock on the way in the night before, but did not want to head back in that direction [toward ‘deadly road’] because there’s gotta be a better way out of here when we’re done! We drove the other way around the lake [still dirt road] looking for another dock for what seemed like an hour or two with no success. The gas tank was down to its final quarter. Asked a car passing by for the closest town and best way to get there. Turns out that if we stayed on this dirt road for another 30 miles, we would reach the paved road that would take us another 30 miles to Cascade. Instead of turning around to go back to the first dock [to do what we were there to do!] we decided to fill up on gas at Cascade, then go fishing right there at Lake Cascade. This was the dirt road that we were originally supposed to take getting in – it was flatter and faster, but more round about from Boise.

Filled up the gas tank and launched the boat in Lake Cascade. We’ve been here before, and some of the things I remember are that my phone gets good reception, the grass grows tall in the water [lots of fishing lines getting stuck], and the water is really smooth for wake boarding.

We were ready to go, but…the boat engine would not start! [insert proper emoji here]

Then we went back home.

After this trip, we are going to make sure that we keep our gas tank full, carry a book map in case we get lost without reception, and to bring more than enough water.

Also, a future trip to Deadwood Reservoir will require more days than one to make the dirt driving worth it.

 

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Catch-Up Time

June was a whirlwind of a month! In the next few days, I will work on writing some catch-up entries. I just finished my 5th year of teaching and my second year at my new school. So far, it has been the place I’d like to be for the rest of my career: It’s two miles from home yet far enough away for me to walk anonymously in my own neighborhood, the staff is like family, and my administrator has been so positive and supportive with big-picture ideas and students’ best interests in mind.

The day after school finished with PD meetings and frantic cleaning of the home (seriously, no time to rest!), my parents flew in from New Jersey, then my Aunt and Uncle from Korea the next day, for our wedding. I was a little nervous about getting ready for the event because there is apparently a lot of things one must do to prepare, yet I didn’t feel like I did that much. Actually, most of what I had been planning on was the last-minute decorating of the cabin, which was 5 hours away. So, based on my experience, I have some good news for the low-maintenance bride on a budget, because it all turned out beautifully, and everyone was happy!

Anyway, since this is the Idaho blog, I need to mention our wedding location! Dan’s parents have been building a beautiful cabin at the top of a valley in Newdale, Idaho, which is about 10 minutes outside of Rexburg. His grandpa owned Green Canyon Hot Springs (first opened in 1903) at the bottom of that valley and the farmland around it, which has since been inherited and run by his Uncles. Dan grew up working at the hot springs during the summers. Below are some pictures of the area, with some of that last-minute decorating fun! After the wedding, the family joined weekly Sunday dinner at the Springs (closed on Sundays except for family), then visited Yellowstone, which is just an hour away. Dan and I parted from the group and commenced our road trip, which I will post about later.

 

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Sage Hen Reservoir

Idaho has over 7200 miles of groomed snowmobile trails and many of them are interconnected, making it possible to travel super long distances. We parked at the Wellington lot at Smiths Ferry, and our intention was to make it to Dry Buck Summit via this map saved on our phone. The trail itself offered many more roads and turns than the map indicated, so we got lost. Dan had a GPS to help us get back to the lot, and my mind was singing a song on repeat just in case: Right left right right, left right left left…. needless to say, we improvised our route and our trip turned into the 44-mile Sage Hen Reservoir Trip!

Aside from enjoying the views, I like to ponder the fresh footprints that we come across: lots of bunnies, someone must have already done this trip on an ATV – oh wait, were there 2 of them? because its tracks just split up. Or maybe it was just going back home. Human footprints and dog prints. People must have camped (in the winter?) and gone for a walk. Anyway, it was a refreshing and gorgeous experience.

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Burgdorf Hot Springs

Mesmerized by the roaring whites of the Payette River, we made it to McCall late in the morning and parked in the lot at the end of Warren Wagon Road. Burgdorf Hot Springs is only accessible by snow machine this time of year, so we packed our swim suits and towels and make the 22-mile trek to the springs. The path was mostly straight and smooth, and I made it up to 70mph on my machine.

The receptionist’s personality matched the charm of this historic venue, and Dan with his potty humor appreciated her joke referring to the several ‘outhouses’ that were available on site. Rode the 22 miles back and made it to the car just when it started to rain. We chased the river back home in the pouring rain feeling so warm and happy.

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