Idaho

Upon arriving in Idaho we noticed vast contrast from Wyoming: sage brush and cows vs. potato farms.  We stopped in Driggs Id to get Pat a fishing license and me some bear spray and bells (I was a little nervous about camping with grizzly bears and the local paper in town had a front page article about grizzly encounters). We then headed for Warm River, a spring fed creek that promised good fishing despite run off. We drove around for a while looking for the perfect camp spot. The goal was to find somewhere to call home for the next few days. It was beautiful forest, low enough that the snow was all gone. Still very wet, but gorgeous. The wild flowers were in bloom and all the trees alive (no beetle kill). We found a nice spot out of the way, over looking warm river. We got out of the truck to set up camp and we were immediately swarmed by mosquitoes. I'm not talking a few bugs here and there... they were out for blood and there were a LOT of them. We danced around for a while trying to figure out what our next move should be. Maybe they where only around at dusk, maybe if we stay the night in the morning they will all be gone. After about 10 minuets of dancing and being eaten we decided it wasn't worth it and got the hell out of there. We stopped at a few other nice spots thinking maybe the mosquitoes wouldn't be there. No such luck. Eventually we parked in a pull off on the side of the road, moved from the cab of the truck to the back and called it a night... better luck tomorrow.

In the morning we set off for adventure. There was a trail that followed Warm River. We figure out that as long as we were covered in Deet and moving the mosquitoes pretty much left us alone. So we hiked, and Pat fished. It was a beautiful river with good fishing. I kept hiking while he fished and read a little. It was a great morning. That afternoon we found yet another great camp spot in the area, and staying true to our rule immediately took a hike from camp, as we needed to keep moving to keep the bugs off. When we got to the end of our hike Toby rolled over on his back and I was petting his belly when I noticed red bumps all over him. That was the last straw. I made the executive decision to head into town and get a hotel room for the night. After a long shower and a greasy burger I was ready to face the world again.

The following day we headed west into the Salmon  National Forest hoping that we would be able to escape mosquito hell. We wondered our way into Leadore Id then headed for the hills. We drove up a 4-wheel drive road that was narrow, steep and rocky. We are slowly learning what are truck really can do.  After a while we hit some snow and decided to pull off the road and hike for a while to see if we should continue on this road to the lake or turn around. We soon determined that there was too much snow to drive up to the lake, but Pat wanted to get to the lake. So, we hiked through the snow. Let me tell you all right now that I will take hiking in the snow over swarms of mosquitoes any day! We hiked for about an hour and a half before giving up and turning around. It was a fun adventure, both the  4-wheeling and the snowy hike. Shorty after returning to the truck we found a nice camp and set up for a few days. We have been lazing around camp, biking around the dirt roads, and hiking through snow. We finally got some much needed R & R! This morning we started to pack up to head into Montana. I pulled the bed out to get all the dust out and found that we had acquired a mouse in our house!!! We spent the next few hours taking everything out of the back of the truck and cleaning up the mess our little mouse friend had made. We are now clean, reorganized and ready for whatever comes next. Montana... Here we come!