Aspen, Colorado

Our time in Idaho was great. Now it was time to return to Colorado after leaving one year ago. The temps were heating up and the fires on the east side of the mountains were leaving ash on our truck. Bringham City, Utah was 97 degrees when we arrived and the next day in Green River, Utah 106. We found the shadiest spot and let the campground host know that would be ours. Walking the short distance to do our laundry felt like real work in that heat.

Aspen is a ski town in a valley surrounded by 13000 foot mountains that was originally built around silver mining and ranching. Highway 82 runs through the town and makes for slow going and parking that is one of its biggest issues. Friday was not a good day to drive thru town since the Enduro Games were being held over the weekend.

Whenever we are close to the Maroon Bells, we like to ride our bikes from town to the lake. It is a pretty steady climb over 12 miles. We were one mile from the top when the black flies were so bad that I considered turning around. After some swatting of the bugs, I decided to make the last push. A breeze came up as we turned the corner and all was well. We made it. After a brief rest and walk around the lake, we had to start back as the rain was starting. Fortunately, no thunder and lightening.

On the ride down, Mike saw these marmots sunning themselves on some rocks.

There were some easy interesting trails just up Independence Pass from our campground.

 

 

The Ice Caves were nice and cool.



Just down the road was a short 0.6 mile hike to Weller Lake.

We  started this blog to keep our family and friends posted as to where we were and so we could look back and remember what we did and felt. Now as we sat down to look over the past year, our heads spin at how fortunate we were to go all of those places. We have had to learn to live together in a small space and find we wouldn't do it any other way. At least for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bench Lake

We decided to hike up to Bench Lake on our last morning. It was 46 degrees at 8:30 as we left the trailhead but knew that it would be warming up pretty quickly. 

The Redfish Trail is 4 miles to the first lake and overlooks the lake from the west as we climbed above it.  There weren't many boats out yet and a pretty quiet morning.

 

Before entering the Wilderness area, we were required to fill out a permit even for day use. If checked by a ranger and not have you part of the permit, the fine is $5000. We took the time to fill it out and tucked the yellow sheet in our pack.

 

I took so many pictures as we walked that it took 2 hours to walk 3 3/4 miles to the lake.

The smoke from the fires southwest of us gave a hazy view at times with occasional ash blowing our way when the wind would pick up.

Such a peaceful place for lunch for two as we listened to the birds and watched the fish jump. I guess you probably know, when the fish are jumping, the bugs are out. We stayed a while and used our bug spray.

Fortunately, the clouds came over as we were on our way back on the  returning 3 3/4 miles would have been uncomfortable. We passed several people starting out as we were finishing at 1pm that had a small bottle of water and planned to walk to Bench Lake. I hope they were ok.

The trail was very dusty and dry and would poof like talcum powder with every step, sticking to the sunscreen on my legs..

 

Looks like we have a couple of long driving days ahead of us after changing our plans and staying in  Idaho longer. The temps in Utah are heating up. On our way to Colorado where we started one year ago.

Frenchman's Bend Hot Springs

 Skis are only good for so long before a person needs a new pair. People along Warm Springs Road leading into Ketchum from the west, seemed to have recycling down to an art.

 

 

Functional for sitting and waiting.

Fly fishermen around about every corner along the bike path as we finished our warm 30 mile bike ride with temps in the high 80s.

Just plain silly art

Base of Bald Mountain Ski  Resort, where we had skied a few years ago, looks much different in the summer.

Newberry, VT ski team training on the trails (the guy in yellow way down the path). They were pretty speedy on their cross country skates.

You can see the theme of this blog has been a lot about skiing. Half way through our bike ride, Mike stopped at a ski shop sale and found his birthday present, Kastle MX 105 with Rossi Axial 120 bindings. Just the sound of the names make him quiver.

He was looking at them with that special sparkle in his eyes and a gentle caress. He asked if I wanted to go with him to get them and I passed. He likes to visit with the sales guy and look things over. I am just ready to get in and get out and told him I had things to do. He should go alone. He seemed pretty happy about that.

Our last day in Ketchum and Sun Valley we headed 10 miles down Warm Springs Road into the national forest. The only way to find the hot springs is a turnout and a sign on the hill. We walked a short distance along the dirt road and saw the steam coming from the bubbles in the pools, thermally heated to a piping 110°—and better than any resort hot tub.

After an hour alone, people started to show up, a few at a time. We enjoyed visiting with a lady whose father was the Green Hornet in the 1960s. She has done stunt work for models that didn't want to dive into the water and boy was she fit.

 

When I would start to get too warm, I would dip over into the cold river so I could return to the warm. Idaho has too many hot springs to count. Some are commercial and many are in the national forest and BLM land to use for free and beautiful. We may have to come back and try more of them out.

 

 Our question after being here a couple of days was "why didn't we plan to stay longer?"

We fixed that by canceling some reservations and rerouted our plans to stay 10 days in the area instead of the original four.

Redfish Lake

We had planned to leave Idaho after 5 days before we arrived. During a bike ride, we both decided about the same time that was too short of a time and decided to cancel some of our plans. Driving to Stanley and Redfish Lake for the day seemed too little time to do the place justice.

Steam off the lake during an early morning walk

 

We took a chance and drove up into the mountains hoping to find a walkup

site. The status board as we drove in said all of the campgrounds were full in the Redfish Lake area.
We drove to the first campground on Little Redfish Lake anyway and found a vacancy sign. There were a couple of sites without reservation tags on them. I walked up to speak with the host while Mike waited for me. A man was already talking to her and said he wanted #4 which was beautiful along the river with plenty of shade. The camp host told him to get parked in a spot before someone took it and she would check him in once he was set up. I turned around and Mike had parked in #4 and had staked his claim before I got back. I don't think we made any friends but the host commented that was a good move on Mike's part. It was the prettiest spot on the river with shade. I was just glad to not have to find a place to boondock and the other people got a site across the road.

 

 



Our great campsite

 

After lunch we rode our bikes to Redfish (named after the sockeye salmon which migrated clear up here to spawn before the dams were built) Lake which has a great beach that was packed.

We were so glad to be in a quiet place on the smaller lake with 13 campsites. The host mentioned that
they needed more hosts for the season and how we could check it out. We were tempted but had things we needed to get done in Colorado and we had already changed our plans to include this instead of Utah.

Korby Lenker - 'My Little Life' OFFICIAL - YouTube

 

Loved this little song. Maybe my mantra.

 

I saw this guy on an early morning walk and one evening across the river from our camp.

 

 

Sandhill Cranes are among the oldest living bird species on earth.

We would watch the osprey fishing on Little Redfish Lake and saw him flying up the river past our camp carrying a fish one evening. 

On our first morning at Little Redfish Lake I woke in time to watch the sun come up and ran into two bucks having  morning snack. Later, we headed over to Stanley 8 miles up the road to The Bakery after a couple of people said we had to try it out. I had the tasty breakfast burrito with black beans, spinach and sweet potatoes(which gave it a great sweet flavor). The toast and jam that Mike had with his eggs were so tasty. Maybe it is the mountain air.

This little guy slipped by as we were watching the sun set.

Idaho has so many natural hot springs. We decided to check out Boat Box Hot Springs 3 miles north of Stanley since we were nearby. We brought our swimsuits along and drove 3 miles north on Highway 75. We watched for the steam coming up from the river and pulled over to a small turnout, climbed down the rocks on the side of the hill and prepared to jump in.

I preferred the small rock formed tubs beside the river. It was easier to regulate the temperature by swishing the hot or cold water when needed.

There is a plug in the bottom of the tub so you can empty it before getting in and refill it with the spring runoff. A bucket was on the side to use the cool river water to make the temperature more tolerable temp since the spring is 135 degrees out of the ground.

 

There was no place to change so we improvised. I tried to be a little more discrete than Mike by using a towel and changing under it. We managed to get the job done. As I was taking this picture a pickup with Law Enforcement drove by. He just looked forward to ignore us. I guess he didn't want to deal with this situation.

Watching the sun go down over the Sawtooth Mountains