Tibor's Family Visits McCall

Tibor, Dora, Hanna & Tiora came to visit us in McCall and we were thrilled to show them around our neck of the woods.  It had been since our wedding and when Tiora was 6 months old that they'd spend time here, so we had plenty of places on our must see list.

Lots of flowers in blossom including the pink Fireweed in this photo, Indian Paintbrush, Lupine, Yarrow and Skunk Cabbage.

 First day was hiking off Brundage Road.  First hike was Lake Serene (4.5 miles).

Second, very photogenic lake was Scribner Lake (which was only a one mile roundtrip).

 Gorgeous family photos at Scribner Lake.

We started day 2 off with a visit to Sharlie's Garden on Warren Wagon Rd.  

Had lunch at Upper Payette Lake and Dora had a swim.

 So happy to be in Valley County with Family.

Hanna looking for treasure on the lake shore.

 We continued with a hike up to Crystal Mountain from Jeanette campground above Burgdorf Hot Springs.

We hiked to the top and even did a bit of scrambling to get some great photos.

After our hike, we relaxed at Burgdorf Hot Springs.  The girls even tried out the claw footed tub with hot water flowing into it from the springs.

The following day we paddle boarded for 4 hours on the meanders up the river past the north side of Payette Lake.

We had four paddle boards and a double kayak that the girls rotated in and out of.

We made it all the way to the Lick Creek bridge, and Hanna stayed in the lead for most of the day.

Dave snapped this great photo of Tibor and I as he was trying out my inflatable board.

After all the activity, we relaxed at North Beach for a few hours before dinner.

On our fourth day we went on a bike ride on the rail to trail and past some local ranches to Lake Fork for ice cream.

We stopped at the river on our way back.

Also for a banana split for the girls for all their biking and paddle boarding efforts the day prior.

Then we enjoyed Payette Lake at the beach near our condo.  We also went for one more dinner at Pueblo Lindo on the edge of town as we all love the authentic Mexican food there.  We had long days of lovely sights and fit a lot into their time here.  It was wonderful to catch up.  Love you all, thanks for looking at the pictures!

Bike-Packing Trip

We had a brief spell at home and had inadvertently rented out our condo for the week of July 4th, so after a beautiful hike to Josefine Lake to see the bear grass and a few trips to the river, we went on a phenomenal bike packing trip for four days.

We decided to park our car and leave straight from our condo.  We biked to the trail head down I-55 past New Meadows.

The official trail started at Wye campground where we spent the first night.

The campground had just opened for the first time a few days prior.

We loved all the trestles across the rivers on the trail.  It's 105 miles long and goes through a variety of scenery from forest to high desert.

It's a private, non-profit group that maintains the trail through donations.  Used to be where the railroad was before it went out of service.  We are very hopeful that the rail from Horseshoe Bend to Cascade becomes a trail also, since that one went out of business a few years ago as well.

We definitely stopped for ton of photos along the way.

All our camping gear and food is packed up in these waterproof saddle bags.

It was a very peaceful ride being away from the road.  We hardly ran into a person on it, but saw a bunch of birds including two bald eagles, a rabbit and a fox.

There were two hot springs on the route, although we didn't stop at either because of timing.  And cute, very tiny towns along the way to stop for a snack or beer.

This section was very remote and far away from the main road, so it was our favorite.

Dave was enjoying watching all the water fowl.  The towns we visited along the way are New Meadows, Council, Cambridge and Weiser.

We rode one way all the way to our ambulance which was parked in a storage place in Weiser.  At the end of our trail we fired her up and drove her back to McCall.  She is now parked in Emily's front yard.

We made it in time for all the July 4th festivities at Emily's house, including the bonfire with Antarctic friends and fireworks.

After the 4th we spent a couple nights at our friend Delta's teepee and went paddle boarding.

Summer is always magnificent in McCall!  The biking made it a very memorable time off and we had so much fun that we're looking into other bike packing trails to ride this upcoming winter.  Right now we just had Tibor and his family come for a visit, so more photos are coming soon!  Love you!!!

California & Wisconsin

We flew into Phoenix and drove our car up to McCall, stopping in Reno to visit my family and take a few trips to the Sierra Nevada mountains. This was a nice hike in Galena Park.

We had a great trip to Sierra City, Sierraville and all the other small towns in the area.  Our favorite was Downieville because of its low elevation, cute downtown straddling a river and lots of trails and flowers.

A hike to upper Sardine Lake from lower Sardine Lake.

We went downtown in Reno to see the whitewater competitions on the Truckee River.

The river walk in Reno.  We also got to spend time with Mom and Grandma on Mothers' Day!

We took a trip to Markleeville, CA for lunch, a scenic drive and a soak in the hot springs.

Lots of great memories of this area from our PCT hike in 2009.

Home in McCall, we took a walk by the lake.

On one of our hikes, we found a lot of morel mushrooms that we sauteed in butter.  Such a treat!

Although it rained everyday, when the sun came out, it was gorgeous!

Our small Ponderosa on our property has grown up a lot over the years.

Planted some spring flowers at our condo.  Looking forward to planting some more now that we're out of the freezing nightly temps.

Quite hard to leave this place. This photo is from my last day in McCall before heading back to work.

After a lot of overtime at work, we met up with the Koehlingers for a family vacation on Lake Sinissippi in Wisconsin.

We went cheese tasting at a cheese factory as well as wine tasting.

The Wisconsin River in the Wisconsin Dells.

Great to get the whole family together!

We spent a day together in the Dells, where this photo was taken.

On the lake we enjoyed some time in the float, kayak and paddle board.  We took a couple trips to the islands.  So convenient staying in a lakefront Airbnb home.

We celebrated past and upcoming birthdays, as well as Roger & Bette's 51st Wedding Anniversary.

We explored some small Wisconsin towns in the area and a National Marshland nearby.

Had a lot of fun these past couple trips. Lots of wonderful outdoor adventures in California (thank you Szulok!) and fun games & crafts in Wisconsin (thank you Koehlingers!).  Great to see all of you and we love you!  We're in McCall right now, about to start our Weiser River bike packing trip tomorrow.  We'll be back in time to celebrate the Fourth with Emily & Sean, and some Antarctic friends who are coming into town. Staying in our friend Delta's Yurt for a couple nights before we celebrate Dave's Birthday on the Loon Trail and Burgdorf Hot Springs.