Sawteeth and Zips

Jann and I swept  through central Idaho for a quick getaway after my semester ended, and before I had to go to scout camp. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Friday we drove to Stanley, by the Sawtooth Mountains, and camped overnight at a funky little camp-ish spot by the trailhead. The actual campground was full, so the Forest Service had other places you could camp, but to potties or water or trash removal. Just a place to park the tent.

Saturday we hiked to Sawtooth Lake, about 2,000 ft above the parking lot. It was a gorgeous little day hike, and we wondered about backpacking in there at some future date. See how toothy the Sawtooths are?

This is Alpine Lake, on the way up.

Sawtooth Lake looking up towards its inlet, with Regan Peak as background.

We then drove through the mountains to McCall. We followed the beautiful South Fork Payette for much of this. We accidentally didn't make our turn, and ended up in Boise, which added some to our drive, but then we got to drive up the Payette (Main) on the way to McCall. Threre are lots of class V rapids, and some very brave people rafting and kayaking down. We saw some very funky and interesting rafts called Creature Craft. You should look it up.

Sunday, we attended one of the wards in McCall. They essentially told us that we should probably leave after sacrament meeting so they could have normal church. Very tactfully done, but the meaning was clear.

That afternoon and evening, we strolled around the state park at Payette Lake.

Next morning we headed to Tamarack Resort, for zip lining. Here we're getting all geared up.

After a trip up the mountain in a van, we hiked through the forest to get to the first run.

The first launch platform.

We carried the zip pulleys on a carabiner when we were not zipping.

The guides then hooked the pulley up, and hooked our harness to it. Here's their cute little "is it ok to send another goofball down" sign.

Jann takes it at a run.

One of the lines ended at a platform in a tree, about 80 ft up.

After we all zipped to that platform, they buckled us to static lines, and sent us off in  another direction.

Here's Jann coming in to the tree house.

And there she is leaving it.

Before the sixth and final line.

Bridge to get to the last line.

Getting hooked up.

Disappearing into the canopy.

Then it was just home again, after stopping at Nampa at a favorite pizza place (Messenger Pizza. Try it, you'll like it). Maybe we should take a trip like this on a regular basis.