Middle Canyon - Lemhi Range ID 11-7-09

Nate Day and I did a little exploring about 1 hour west of Rexburg.

Mt. Borah - Tallest Peak in IDAHO - 12,662 FT

My boss (Mike), Preston (a friend from work), Jackson (our Architect) and myself decided that we were going to hike Mt. Borah, the tallest peak in Idaho. This is the first sight that we saw as we pulled onto the dirt road that led us to the base campsite the day before the hike.
We took it easy the night before the hike and were blessed with perfect weather.

After a cold night of anxiously tossing and turning we awoke at 5:00 am sharp and began hiking in the dark. It was a cold morning and the oatmeal that I scarfed down was not sitting very well in my belly.

About half way up the mountain my stomach had settled and I was good to go. As you can see it was a very steep hike.

There is one part of the hike called "chicken out ridge" that was quite interesting. Luckily we all made it safely through with no injuries or deaths.

As we approached the final ascent it appeared to be completely vertical which would be tough to do without ropes.

We took a quick break and soaked up the amazing view before continuing to the top.

5,200 feet in elevation gain later and we were at the top. It felt so good and was definitely worth it.

Tallest peak in Idaho. 1 down and 49 to go.

Backpacking in the Tetons

On July 31st and August 1st my friend Preston Lees and I went on a 30 mile backpacking trip on the west side of the teton mountains. The first day we started at the Teton Canyon trailhead, hiked up Devil's Staircase, down into the Alaska Basin, and ended on a secluded glacial lake far from civilization. The second day we hiked up Hurricane Pass, where we sat right in front of Grand Teton. It was quite the workout but I was actually surprised how well my old body held up.

Palisades Creek Trail

Palisades Creek Trail is about an hour from Rexburg and one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on. I was very lucky to have my good friend Dave Rowe join me on this adventure.

The entire hike follows the creek, which was really a river since the water was so high, up to first the Lower Palisades Lake and then after about 6.5 miles to the Upper.

Once we got to the upper lake we decided that we wanted to get out on the island but it was too cold to swim, so as Life Scouts for Life we used our skills that we learned on Man vs. Wild and built a raft that actually worked. Bear would be very proud.

We didn't take any pictures of the way back but incase you are wondering we got dumped on and Dave Rowe slipped and fell on the muddy trail.

COBA...

Coba was a huge ruin area and it was cool because we actually got to hike to the top of this one! when we first got there is was really hot and we decided to be cheep and not rent bikes to get around like everyone else was doing so we got a pretty good work-out walking around the area.

We made it to the top! it was much harder then it looked!

Another ruin area of Coba, but you could only walk 1/2 way up this one.

Table Mountian with the Day's

We Made It!

Those are the Grand Tetons behind us...the view was awesome!

Abe hurt is knee after we got to the top, but luckily he found a sweet walking stick for support on the 4 hour hike down!

Muscle Men...(they wish)

That little bump of a Mt. to the right of Abe is where we hiked to