Boundary Creek Trail

Here are pictures from my hike last Tuesday. It is actually the same trail that I took near the beginning of the summer, but this time I made it all the way to the top to the view to the next valley and Casino Lakes. It was an amazing hike. It was hard and took longer than I thought I it should, but I made it!

It was just me, the butterflies and God on the top and it took my breath away (well, the hike might have helped with that too)! I felt very renewed inside....and I felt blisters and sunburn on the outside.

Roads to drive

Monday night Pat & I went on a drive on Nip & Tuck Road. I'm pretty sure this isn't a road named for any gymnastics move, but it was a gorgeous evening. We walked by old homes of which just the chimneys were left. We saw cows and jack rabbits and we tested Pat's Trooper for it's vertical inclination...it was inclined.

Custer & Bonanza Ghost Towns

So, ghost towns aren't scary. There just towns that people used to live in and now all the people are gone. I didn't know this, I was expecting goblins and shaking chains. However, it was extremely cool to visit Custer and Bonanza.

First of all, I learned that Jerry Springer did not invent human foibles. Agnes "Lizzie" King's grave site tells the story of a young bride arriving in town with her husband, Richard, who unfortunately was killed in an argument. So then Lizzie dated Charles, the owner of the local hotel. But before Charles could get Lizzie to the alter, Robert Hawthorne swept into town and swept Lizzie off her feet. They were married...briefly, before they both "died" in their home. Charles buried them beside her first husband, Richard, (in a graveyard separate from the rest of the town's graves) and then he disappeared to another town. When Charles died later, alone in his cabin, he was clutching her photo. What are the lessons to be learned here? If you're going to run off with someone when you're engaged to someone else, run to another town, so they can't kill you. Also, if the one you are betrothed to, disses you, get over them and move on to someone new so you don't die alone in a cabin suspected of murder, (unless that's your goal in life). Life lessons by Emily.

The coolest part about seeing a town that used to be there, was imagining all the lives that happened there. Custer and Bonanza were both mining towns. Custer was six times bigger than Stanley's current population. People moved there to find their fortunes. The red districts were full (there were at least four) of women of the evening. Families started, grew and dissipated from there. Then the mine hit hard times, people moved on and now the town is gone. Will my town be gone in a hundred years? Why do I worry so much about stupid things when my town could disappear just like that? Another note to self: Meals on Wheels and Ghosts Towns make me stop worrying about small petty things.

















The large machinery looking object is the Gold Dredge that is located near Custer. It moved about a mile a year tearing up dirt in order to filter out gold specks. Apparently it was closed because it was hurting the river system. Gosh, but it looks so environmentally friendly?

Front Porch

So you may wonder, what do you do on a ranch in the evenings? After all the hiking, hot spring pool dips and fancy crew dinners, we often rest on the front porch. Dominoes is my favorite game, but in these pictures, I'm attempting to learn Stratego (a combination of memory and chess...neither of which have I ever excelled at). Edward beat me roundly, but it was fun to use my brain a bit!

No, those are not our auras shining through, but head lamps to assist in seeing the game pieces.

I feel like I'm back in college- it's fun!

Another Gorgeous Week in Idaho

Hey guys! I'm still having fun in Idaho. Hiked to Farley Lake this week- beautiful if buggy hike. Damn the blisters!

Friday was Pat's birthday. Yes, I'm dating a younger (by a half a month) man- I know, I know, I'm living on the edge! He got a cake in the shape of a clay pigeon and we had another porch gathering, complete with a little dancing. I also directed a re-enactment of the Inner date LYLAS sketch, performed by my fellow employees. It was great fun!

Sunday evening we went camping at the same sweet spot by the river again. The campsite is only about two miles away from the ranch and ranch living is great, but it's lovely to be away from everyone just a little bit.

Monday we pretended we were tourists. We went to the Fish Hatchery. The adult Chinook were huge! The picture of the duck was taken on the pond there. Then we went to the Stanley History Museum. Miners founded the town, tourism took it from there. There was a claim by another hotel that they had the first electricity in the valley (IRMR claims the same thing), so I'll have to do some research before I tell more guests about our ranch's importantly progressive firstdom.

There was also a poem in the museum about the bliss of being out here and feeling sorry for those who lived in cities. I can say that I love it here and it definitely is a completely different lifestyle which I'm enjoying for the most part, but I'm beginning to miss have a few more options of how to fill my free time. Pat and I are working our way through the DVDs of 30Rock- yes, all of you who couldn't understand that I wasn't watching that show weekly were correct- I've been completely missing out. And I've found myself searching for things to do. I like hiking, but I guess I'm not a regular hiker- have I said this before? I think so.

Oh, and by far, the most relaxing part of this week was this morning. I used the wonderful gift certificate that Lia, Laura, Jenn, Tara & Eileen gave me for my birthday and got a mango honey butter massage. WOW! I feel melty. Elisha (the masseuse) spread mango honey butter on me, massaged it off with hot towels and then gave me a regular massage. Did I say WOW? again wow!