Sunday, August 9, 2009
Family Reunion - Redfish Lake, ID
Well, we're a little slow getting around to blogging, but we've had a busy week back at home. Our trip with family was a lot of fun. It's a bit of a drive from Denver (~14 hours), but Blake did real well considering. We headed out on Wednesday night to get to Salt Lake so that I could head up with a few of the guys (grandpa, Jason, Tony) to do a little backpacking in the Sawtooth mountains for a few days before the rest of the family came up. We got up there to the Sawtooth Lodge on Thursday night. It was a neat little place although we had bad directions getting there that resulted in about a 35 mile stretch taking us 1.5 hours. Bummer. It worked out though and we got there, just a little later than planned. When we arrived it turned out the place is fully run by a generator (b/c it is so remote) and the generator was busted. So, that meant no electricity, which also meant nothing that required electricity was working either (water pumps that run the water). Well, other than that it was a fun little place and it was an experience.
We headed out early the next morning (9 am...early is relative...out guide hoped to leave earlier :-) ) and we rode horses up to the Baren Lakes (~10 miles). We got in that afternoon and got camp setup. We were the only ones staying at the lake. It was a pretty beautiful view and the fishing was great. A lot of little fish, but a lot of them to catch and they would bite almost every cast. It was pretty fun. We had a nice time relaxing, eating Mountain House (freeze-dried food), fishing and had a couple nice campfires. When we headed out on Sunday, 3 of us (Jasen, Jason and Tony) hiked out toward Redfish lake where we caught a boat ferrie across the lake to the Lodge while grandpa headed out with the gear and the guide on horses back to the truck to bring it around to the lodge. It was a beautiful hike out over mountain peaks, past mountain lakes, along creeks and rivers through forests. Pretty amazing country. Definitely some great hiking.
We all met up at Redfish Lodge Sunday evening and got all settled in. At the lodge there are a bunch of cabins and then a few different camping areas. Most of the family stayed in cabins while a few of the family did camping. It was all very nice. The views, wildlife and lake closeby gave us a lot to check out, explore and enjoy. There were ~35 of us total with most of the family being on our side, but also a handful of people from grandpa's brother's side. It was fun to see everyone and a lot of people that we hadn't seen in a long time.
One thing i've learned as we've ventured out on some of these family trips/vacations/reunions is that these guys like to do things. It makes for a fun time. Monday was the one day we were kind of on our own to do whatever we wanted to. We just kind of took it easy that day going on a bike ride with Blake and checking the place out some since i had never been there before.
Tuesday we headed out with everybody to do some river kayaking. We all got in boats and floated down 8 miles of river. We stopped at some hot springs that came into the river and sat in those for a little while. The babies couldn't come with us in the boats (probably was a good idea anyway) and met up with us during our break at the hot springs. We finished up the kayaking ride and headed back to the lodge to hang out, fish and relax.
Wednesday was riding horses day. While most everyone went and had a great time, i stayed back with Blake this time (i had rode the horses up to backpacking). The consensus was that it was a fun time, the views were great and the horses behaved...most of the time...except for when Jason tried to pass Jacob and freaked him out :-) We had a big all-family bbq that night and got everyone together. It was fun to eat good food, relax and talk with everyone.
Thursday was white-water rafting day. We headed out with most everyone...i think 26 or so total. So there were 4 boats of us and 1 boat with another family. This was a lot of fun. Uncle Dave got everyone rialed up with the water canon, soaking us all...the rapids were good, but not TOO intense and the guides were good. After lunch things got a little crazy as we all were ready for revenege after being soaked. We had one point where our boat the boat with the soakers on it pulled up next to each other and Abby and I went in...Abby went for the water canon and i went for Uncle Dave. He and I ended up in the water and Abby accidently pushed the guide in while trying to get the canon...so she ended up in too. It was all in good fun and we had fun although the water was freezing...probably around 55 degrees. We all got back in the boats and everything settled down until our boat got comandered by Tony and Jason who flew onto the boat to get a water canon and accidently knocked two of the grandparents (from the other side of the family) into the water. Everybody got back in the boat fine and it was no problem, but things kind of settled down after that. It was a lot of fun. The rafting guides said we were definitely the wildest bunch of the summer (referring to the whole family)...they enjoyed the excitement. Everyone had a good time, no one got hurt and it made for some good memories.
We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and then getting packed up to head out. We had to leave thursday night to get back friday as there were things we had to take care of before the 1st. Overall it was a really great time and we all really enjoyed it. Blake behaved himself, got a lot of practice walking and had plenty of attention.
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