THE SAWTOOTHS MEET THE ROBERTSONS

Beautiful View of the Sawtooths just before Stanley.

GUEST POST by COLLIN ROBERTSON
Tonya has asked that I recap our latest adventure from this past weekend. We are very happy to return home alive. We must have spent the perfect amount of time there because we left wanting to stay one more night.

The trip started off a little slow and rocky when we left at 5pm instead of the planned 4pm. Here is the pre-trip picture of Tonya. (It's only been slightly enhanced to show her mood)

I on the other hand tried to play it cool with my new $2 sunglasses. Although we were running behind schedule and were probably going to have a difficult time finding an available campsite.

After some strategic detours by Collin who passed Little Redfish Lake and went about 10 miles south before I decided we had seen enough of the surrounding areas. All of the campsites had a wonderful welcome sign: FULL!!!!! They were without the exclamations, but we felt them in our hearts. Luckily for us it was raining and we were just killing time until we found our perfect spot. We drove by the actual larger Redfish Lake (where all of the campgrounds were also FULL) and followed a rainbow. It was then that we discovered one of life's great mysteries: At the end of the rainbow is just a covered shelter on a dock.

Our Pot of Gold.
Then the camp out started to get real fun. We went to several campsites close to the lake, but those didn't work out, so we went back west of Stanley and took the first turnoff for a campsite, IRON CREEK. We drove on a dirt rode mostly in silence in the rain. Some of our comments were:

Did we already pass it? or How far are we going to have to drive? Turns out it was only 3 miles from the highway, but it seemed longer in our desperation. We arrived just before dark and set up our tent and everything. Once again as luck would have it we arrived just in time because it did stop raining.

Soon after dark we lit our lantern and got ready for dinner. Our luck ran out along with our propane gas. So most of the night we saw this sight of our car.
And used flashlights to enjoy our first meal. They were delicious tin foil dinners Tonya speedily prepared. Tonya might have been a little disappointed due to the lack of light, but I was happy because I had a "Teddy's Cream Soda" in hand. The next day we bought a new propane can and had light the rest of the trip.

Tonya always poses to me the question: What was your favorite part of today?

I'd like to apply this question to our camping trip and the rest of this post will address my answer. I call it COLLIN's TOP TEN favorite parts of the Little Redfish Camping trip. They are not in any particular order.
#1


Hide and Seek with Tonya on her Costa Rican Hammock for the first time.

#2.Bathing at the Elkhorn (Hot Bucket) Hot Springs. Notice Tonya in the background of the family bath.

#3. Burnt bacon, YUMMY!!!








#4. Our first Boat and the fun rafting trip it provided.









#5. Cooking in the rain was pretty fun. I had to be careful not to burn the poncho in the fire. I felt in touch with my Scotish ancestors because it was like I always had to be aware of my kilt. #6. Our beautiful cooking preparation setup under a tree to avoid the rain. We don't have tarps or a dining fly quite yet. But we're planning on getting one soon.








#7. My fire breathing tricks. Yes those flames came directly from my mouth.








#8. Bike riding with Tonya.








#9. The amazing hot cocoa prepared by Tonya.








#10. Enjoying the views OF I mean, with Tonya! Our adventure was the best yet. I'm glad this first blog authoring experience is over, and the next time I'm sure I'll do better. I love you Tonya.