Author: becandkyle

The final leg of our journey was a four-day, 45-mile backpacking trip in the Sawtooth Wilderness Area.

We visited and swam in a lot of beautiful alpine lakes. Most days we would stop by one lake for lunch and camp by another at the end of the day. Alice Lake:

The first night we camped at Toxaway Lake:

We stopped at Ardeth Lake for a swim and lunch:

The second night, we camped at Rock Slide Lake. It had an island:

Oatmeal, just before the rain:

The third day started out wet. Very wet. It poured on us most of the day:

The creeks were swollen, and we had a lot of creek crossings:

By the end of the day, the sun came out, and it turned into a beautiful day:

Our final night, we camped at Edith Lake. (No pictures of the lake, but it was another beautiful alpine lake with great swimming.) Our campsite:

After our hike, we headed to Redfish Lake for a day of canoeing and swimming:

On the way home, we found a great campsite along the South Fork of the Payette River. Here I am finishing up my fourth book for the trip:

There was a great swimming hole at the campsite:

On our way out of Idaho, we stopped at Kirkham Hot Springs along the Payette River:

We drove through Emmett, Idaho!

Back in Oregon, I cooked dinner on our final night of camping. Tuna Surprise:

We’re back home now but heading out tomorrow for an overnight rafting trip on the Deschutes River.

Up next, a visit to Sun Valley for some biking and hiking. We rode at Galena Lodge two days.

We also hiked to the top of Bald Mountain (the Sun Valley ski area),

and rode The Bigs favorite ride in Ketchum the Greenhorn Gulch to Imperial Gulch loop.

I also celebrated my birthday while we were there. I started the day off with a mountain bike ride and then got a “small” burrito from KB Burrito for lunch.

Next I “showered”…

All clean!

Yes, we were camping 100s of miles from home, but it was a special occasion and special occasions call for a bar! I toasted some nuts on the campfire…

and set up a pretty nice spread inside the camper.

You’ll notice I’ve elevated my bar game with custom cocktail napkins!

The Bigs let me choose dinner. I went with pasta bolognese.

And for dessert, I had a kombucha float. So good!

The day after my birthday, it was time to hit the rode again!

We hit the road starting early August. First stop…City of Rocks in Southern Idaho.

It is quiet, very beautiful, and a rock climbing destination.

Right next door was Castle Rock State Park. Also gorgeous, quiet, and full of great climbing.

We stayed here for four days, climbing and hiking and then it was on to our next destination!

This week, we decided to hike the Rogue River trail. According to the map it is a 40.5 mile trip. Everyone was all smiles to start.

We walked about 11 miles. The first night we camped at Horseshoe Bend. Temperatures peaked at 95 F so we did a lot of swimming.

Day 2 was no cooler. We got up early and tried to get most of our hiking in before lunch. Still smiling.

We camped at Rogue River Ranch that evening and did a lot of swimming.

The third day only reached 93F, so it was much easier. Haha.

We saw a lot of poop like this.

Guess it was from this guy and his two buddies we saw.

It was very pretty…

but there was a lot of ‘nature’. Like poison oak. EVERYWHERE.

We are still smiling, but very soon we may be itching.

The last day was only 91 F but it still felt hot.

The end of the trail wasn’t too far from the coast, so we decided to hit the beach. It was in the 60s and the water was 53 F! What a change!!!

I was pretty tired and napped a lot of the drive home.

I spent a lot of time thinking about food while hiking…so when I got home, I started baking. Mixed berry galette anyone?

It has been a busy two weeks. One day it was smokey in Bend so we drove 45 minutes to a campground on the Crooked River. We escaped the smoke,

and caught some fish.

Up next was Dad’s birthday. The Mother made him olive oil chocolate mousse topped with crème fraiche and fresh cherries.

Uncle Chris sent us to a movie for Dad’s birthday. We saw F1. It was great!

Dad also got a sous vide. He’s already made a couple of meals – both pork.

Sous vide pork chop with kimchi salad. Yum!

The Mother had us make a few more recipes from her new cookbook. Avocado tahini dip,

burrata with pickled cherries and basil,

and Vietnamese tomato and watermelon salad.

I also made some bread.

Then it was off to Hood River for some sailing.

Dad did some windsurfing and wing foiling.

I did some winging

and some windsurfing.

One afternoon, we picked blueberries and went for a swim.

It was great.

With me gone at camp, The Bigs ate all kinds of things I don’t really care for.

First they had Corn Chowder with White Fish (I would have liked this one):

Leek, mushroom, and kale subji (mushrooms, blech):

Asparagus salad (asparagus, ick):

Toast farro pilaf with mushrooms (you know my thoughts on mushrooms):

Sri Lankan beet curry with green bean mallum (where do I start?):

They also went out for dinner (treat themselves pretty good when they ship me off!). They went for Moroccan at Papillion. They started with zaalouk (smoked eggplant, almond gremolata, olives, and warm pita).

Dad had the braised lamb shank (berber spices, prunes, apricots, brown butter farro, braised fennel, and almonds), and

Mom had the Tanjia Marrakesh (slow-cooked, ras el hanout, coulette beef with roasted potatoes, preserved lemon, and couscous).

It wasn’t all fun for The Bigs. They also picked and processed 100 pounds of cherries. Yes, 100 pounds. They didn’t even pick all the cherries in the tree – they couldn’t reach them. They froze cherries, made cherry jam,

air-fryed cherries,

dried cherries, and more!

On Friday, The Bigs picked me up from camp. They were pretty worried. They didn’t need to be. I had a blast. Unprompted I said, ‘It was awesome. You were right’. You were right, magic to all parents’ ears!

The Bigs had planned quite a welcome home day for me. We headed straight to Smith Rock to rock climb. First we had lunch. They made me Momofuku noodles with a fried egg and kippered herring (now, that is my kind of meal).

Then we did some fun climbs in Northpoint.

After that, we headed to the Yacht Club for dinner. I got pizza from Pizza, Peace, Love, Pepperoni. I had a pie with red sauce, pesto, burrata, fresh basil, and balsamic glaze. Pop, next time you make pizza, I want this!

The Bigs rented The Martian to watch after dinner (don’t worry, we already read the book). It was the best day ever!

The Bigs had planned a short bike packing trip for the weekend, but when they saw how tired I was and the weather forecast (90+ all weekend)…they pivoted. We decided to go check out some new lakes. First up? Lake Simtustus. It’s a dammed portion of the Deschutes River. It was beautiful.

We spent about four hours on the river paddling and swimming. We discovered the hard way that we did not put enough sunblock :(.

Sunday was just as hot, so we headed to Crescent Lake.

It was beautiful and clear.

Why do we have shirts on if it is 95? Oh right, the sunburn…

We think this is Diamond Peak.

It was another great day. Up next, a week of rock climbing camp!

This week, Jameson and I went to Naturalist + Survival Camp. We made carvings, did archery and shot blow guns, foraged and made tea from what we found, and flinted arrowheads. After camp, we went to the river to cool off.

We jumped in over and over.

On Friday, we celebrated the 4th by going rock climbing at Smith Rock.

The rope was red and white and my clothing blue…so sort of festive!

For dinner we had bison burgers with duck fat fries. The Mother found it amusing that our 4th of July feast was bison burgers with American cheese on English muffins with a side of French fries :).

I was in charge of dessert. I made fruit and yogurt cups,

topped with appropriately colored whipped cream.

On Saturday Jameson and I went mountain biking. We snacked frequently.

We also tried very hard to evade The Mother’s bothersome picture taking, but she always caught us.

14 miles later, we hadn’t had enough, so we headed to the skills park to jump things.

When we got home, it was time to start the cherry harvest. Our tree is positively bursting with fruit.

So far, we’ve picked 13 of these buckets. About 39 pounds of cherries. There are still many, many more to pick.

On Sunday, we hiked Iron Mountain. About 20 years ago, The Bigs hiked it with Nana.

It was a gorgeous hike with amazing wild flowers (which you can’t really see in this picture)

and terrific views.

After that, it was time to go to Camp Tamarack for the week. Here is the swimming area.

The fire pit and stage. Each cabin has to put on a skit.

The mess hall.

The ‘tree’ cabins.

I am in the Douglas Fir cabin.

This is what I will do each day.

This is what I look like when The Bigs promise my best friend will go to camp with me, but his mom doesn’t get him signed up in time and I am alone.

On Friday, we headed to the Ochocos for a bikepacking trip near Big Summit Prairie. Here I am just before heading out:

We had beautiful weather and a beautiful ride. I was an animal, as usual, and powered through 50 miles and 4k feet of climbing no problem.

We saw a bunch of cool old cars braving the washboards on the gravel roads.

We found a nice campsite next to a creek.

On our second day of riding, we saw a lot of wildflowers.

When we finished our ride, we found a great campsite for our camper.

On Sunday, we went for a hike on Lookout Mountain, where we saw the Motherlode cinnabar mine:

The hike was great, though the expected 7 miles turned out to be more like 10 (to be expected when you’re dealing with The Bigs), and there were loads of wildflowers.

They don’t show up well in the photo, but we could see ten Cascade volcanoes from the top.

Climbing wall for gnomes?

Nan and Pop where here so we went to Smith rock.

On Tuesday we went to the High Desert Museum and saw the ‘Raptors of the Desert Sky Show’ which was amazing.

The next day we went mini golfing. Pop won, but I got my revenge.

On their last day we went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch and then to the go-karts. The go-karts were closed, so we played another round of mini golf which I won!

Another mural for Bend visitors to find.

While they were here, Nan and Pop cooked, cleaned, and helped us get caught up on some much needed gardening.

I made shrimp scampi for dinner, yum! You’ll notice Nan and Pop took the warm weather with them. It was 50 degrees F at dinner!

On Saturday, I helped Dad with a tire rack project

This week, I have outdoor climbing camp, but it doesn’t start until Tuesday. The weather warmed up Sunday, so we packed up the camper and headed to Trout Creek for some fishing.

Nan and Pop are in the house! We have been busy. Pop and I built a raised bed. We planted gold nugget cherry tomatoes.

On Saturday, we celebrated Pop’s birthday at the Sisters Rodeo. Nan and Pop tried out a few saddles but decided not to participate in any of the rodeo events.

Afterwards we celebrated with the traditional birthday steak and pesto pasta and then finished up with homemade ice cream sandwiches.

The next day we went to the Old Mill for coffee

then up to Elk Lake for some paddle boarding.