Weekly Mileage #120 and Our Family Reunions

Monday we drove to Mr M's reunion at a national forest campsite in the mountains, about half an hour past Idaho City. The narrow, twisty mountain roads made the drive longer than it would be otherwise.

Ocean played in this pile of dirt for more than half an hour, happy as a clam

There was a rustic cabin with 6 or 7 campsites around it, and that was surrounded by forest. I loved how quiet it was, and the fact that we didn't have to worry about making too much noise and bothering the other campers. The cabin had running water in the kitchen and bathroom and a propane powered fridge and water heater, and there was an outhouse nearby as well.

the boys helped clean the dutch ovens

There were a couple power stanchions, but they only worked if the generator next to the cabin was on. There was also water and sewer, though the sewer system was having problems when we were there. But it was a super cheap campsite, so no one could really complain :)

helping is dirty work

I was still not feeling great while we were at this reunion, though I did feel better as the week went on. We went to town twice while we were camping so we could find wifi to use. Mr M needed to check stuff for work and I had some work to do to make sure I was ready for the affiliate launch I was part of the next week.

there was a forest fire in the area in the not-too-distant past, but the forest is recovering

The drive made me nauseous, though, so while we could have gone to town again, or to a swimming spot further down the mountains, we didn't. I do wish we had done some hiking- there were trails that started right at our campground, but I wasn't up for that, either. It was nice to just relax in the mountains and not worry about the work I could be doing, since I couldn't do it :)

Some of the guys took advantage of the surrounding national forest to do some shooting practice. Mr M took Sunshine along and she got to shoot a .22 pistol and a .45 pistol. The last time she went shooting was 5 years ago, so it was a good refresher. I stayed at camp with the boys to make sure they didn't follow. River really wanted to go, but we decided he needed to wait a little longer. Next time.

Friday we were up early so we could break camp and head back to Boise. We stopped to pick up a package we'd had delivered to grandma's house, then headed for Flaming Gorge. We checked to see if we could stop by Craters of the Moon since we'd missed it on our trip west, but there was still no time. We arrived at our campground outside Flaming Gorge after dark, so it was good we didn't make any other stops along the way. We'll visit Craters another time.

McConkie Ranch petroglyphs

We had planned on going to the reservoir on Saturday, but it was cool and overcast, so we headed south for some exploring instead. First, we visited McConkie Ranch in Vernal to look at the petroglyphs.

McConkie Ranch petroglyphs

After hiking around, looking at those petroglyphs, we went to Dinosaur National Monument. Sunshine wasn't enthused about doing a Junior Ranger book until her cousins said they wanted to do it. Then she was much more willing ;)

the girls working on their books

River working on his

We didn't have enough time to fully explore (we weren't able to do any hiking, though apparently there are some trails where you can see fossils in the wild), though we did go to the quarry (the covered area where dinosaur bones were first discovered) just before closing.

the variety and number of bones is quite impressive

Once the visitor center closed, we headed out in search of more petroglyphs before calling it a day. It's quite impressive that they've managed to last this long.

On the way back to camp we stopped for dinner at a tiny BBQ joint and made their day (and their week, possibly their month) ordering dinner for 18 people. Totally skewed their sales numbers, but in a good way. The ribs were good, but the coleslaw was uninspired. If you've ever had Mr M's coleslaw, you know that most coleslaws don't come close to it.

Sunday after church we did a group photo (minus my older brother and his family, who were only able to stop by for a few minutes and missed all the festivities and my nephew who just went on his mission).

We also played around with some indigo dying. After you submerge fabric in the dye and pull it out, it looks green. It turns a deep, dark blue as it oxidizes in the sun. I forgot to take a picture of the finished products, but I just love the deep blue that results. I've been trying to come up with some projects I can use indigo dye for, just so I have an excuse to play around with it some more.

Weekly Mileage
Saturday- 5.0 miles hiked while looking at petroglyphs
total- 5.0 miles

14 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
1.25 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

73.53 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
15.87 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
80.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
170.65 miles total