A visit to Charlie's Gardens on a day full of blossoms and bees.
Lillies at Charlie's gardens.
Montbretia ("Lucifer") at Charlie's gardens.
Lavender with a flurry of bee activity.
We went up to Tamarack Resort to see construction progress and a live band.
It was their Beer & Bluegrass festival. We didn't stay long but relished seeing people there.
We went to the last few live music concerts in town also.
Our the porch remained a haven for us.
I painted the edges of these metal flowers that we hung at our condo to be able to bring the framed flower photograph to our townhome to enjoy.
One of our first longer hikes was the East Fork of the Lake Fork River Trail. Flat, scenic, awesome!
I started bringing some potted flowers in for the nights during the early frosts.
Never a shortage of beautiful bouquets at our home.
I got new lenses in my old glasses and was thrilled to see so well!
The porch flowers, especially the impatiens, held in late in the fall.
Gorgeous as can be!
I hung some Private Property signs on our property to deter trespassers, who typically leave empty beer cans all over the place. Mostly they're ATV users in the summer and snowmobilers in the winter.
Dave and I did some elevation measurements to plan our work for the sewer line excavation.
We used this basic rise over run method that Dave had learned.
And one day we rented survey equipment and tested his measurements: Spot On!
We took our nightly walks by the lake to enjoy the sunsets.
And then it came time to celebrate our Anniversary! Woohoo! So we stayed a night at the Lowman yurts we'd celebrated our anniversary before. We played scrabble on the porch again.
We were rewarded with the most beautiful rainbows on the morning we left.
And enjoyed fantastic pizza at the bar where the rental check in desk is located.
The incredible Mountain View from these Lowman yurts.
One of the best parts of staying there is the Kirkham Hot Springs across the road. Numerous pools by the river and also near the parking lot.
After that first night's stay, we continued on the unpaved road to Atlanta, Idaho.
It's a magical small town with the Sawtooth mountains as a backdrop. Only one place to eat.
We walked around town while we waited for the one restaurant to open.
I had booked our stay at the Atlanta Forest Service Cabin in the beginning of the year. It's incredible to be able to rent a historic cabin, for only $35, with such incredible views and regular home amenities.
We flew our drone to get a better view of the mountains and the valley between us and them.
One of the draws is the numerous hot springs in the area. This one is the Atlanta Hot Springs which we had to ourselves.
We actually soaked twice that day. Once at the Atlanta Hot Springs and afterward at the Chattanooga Hot Springs also nearby, where we had that pool to ourselves also.
Dave tried the waters our first.
The incredible view!
We got a clear and sunny day the next morning, so we flew our drone to get a closer look at the mountains nearby.
And then we went on a hike in the Sawtooth Wilderness. I was so excited to be out hiking again!
Incredible views on our hike.
What a joy to be outside in such a sunny locale.
The drive back to Boise and then home afforded incredible vistas as well. This was the road from Atlanta over a mountain pass to the next one restaurant town, where we had lunch.
Meanwhile, the cold temperatures in McCall had caused the huckleberry shrubs to turn color.
This was a hike we took Ponderosa State Park.
I joined Emily and her dog Eddy for a hike up to Josephine Lake.
Incredible views and so great to be outside and hiking again!
Wildflowers in blossom at Rotary Park in McCall on Payette Lake
Dave and I were doing prep work on our property on West Mountain Road. We put free firewood rounds out for people to take because we had too much to store.
We also rented a U-Haul and took a lot of the scraps that we didn't get mulched to the dump.
The result was a magnificent forest.
It was clean and fire resistant as Dave had planned.
This one has some of the signage that I hung.
And this photo shows the lower area where Dave had spread the mulch that he made.
Nice and sunny now that he limbed up the trees!
This is what the trips to the dump looked like.
Our flycatcher plant went into blossom this fall! And it's inside a cup our friend Matt Ulsh made for us.
Dave took me to see the red huckleberry shrubs at his mountain bike riding area.
Truly magnificent!
Beautiful colors this year, although almost no huckleberries this year during harvest.
On another hike and drone flight mission we drove up Warren Wagon Road. This is the colorful Secesh Summit.
We decided to hike the Loon Lake Trail since it had been over 10 years that we'd done it.
There were beautiful autumn colors along the way!
The aspens were golden!
And huckleberry leaves bright red.
The views were just as grand as we had remembered.
It was exciting to be on such a long full day hike.
This is Loon Lake.
From there, we took an overgrown, unkempt path to the historic plane crash site.
Just as awesome as we had remembered, although people had carved their names in over the years.
So awesome to be back.
The sun came out on our return hike to the car where we ran into an old Tamarack friend.
We stayed the weekend at Burgdorf Hot Springs with our friends Sean, Emily, Colin and Delta.
Joyfully, we've been making this a yearly full-time tradition. We had a blast as usual. Even played bocce ball with Colin & Delta.
We hiked a bit along the Loon Lake Trail on the other side of the loop to see the fall colors.
Dave was almost camouflaged in his yellow jacket. We were also seeing if it would be a reasonable hike to take the Rethinger family on the following week when they came to visit us.
Unbelievable sighting of a pileated woodpecker in downtown McCall!!!
I was blown away to see one so incredibly close and unafraid!
Dave with Eddy (Sean and Emily's dog). Early autumn was sheer joy for us as we were hiking in the mountains for the first time, witnessing the glorious color changes, preparing for our excavation work on our property and a visit from Dave's college friend Mike Rethinger and his family, and celebrating the colder temperatures which in our neck of the woods translates to Hot Springs!
