Sawtooth Sweetness 2010

Do you like the title? Can a sawtooth be sweet? When the Thygerson's are in town, yes they can. I think Idahoans know this range of mountains very well, but it is an undiscovered gem that is very close to us here in Utah. Now, you may wonder, why go to the mountains of Idaho when the mountains here are so beautiful? Two words - new adventure!! Tanner got some great photos of us fishing and catching our limit of rainbow trout. Everyone got their own trout for dinner.

We found out that Jakob has been reading on how to survive in the forest. He tried some of his techniques and to our astonishment, they worked. The video is of a squirrel that he snared. One of the coolest things I've seen in a while. We know now that with his fishing and trapping techniques, he can provide food for us. Good thing to know.

The biking was great, Mac is getting really good at off road stuff. We found a great swim beach and paddled for 2 hours on Redfish Lake. On the way out we stopped in Custer, a town abandoned in 1911. We then trekked over to Craters of the Moon and love the cool caves. Great exploring for the boys. One had plenty of ice in it even though the outside temps were in the 90s. Then on to Lava Hot Springs for some tubing down the river. Anders screamed his first run, then sat out two runs, then rode down the 4th run asking ever minute if the next rapid was the biggest. I think if I told him we had just passed the biggest rapid then he could relax knowing he passed the point of danger. One our last run, as we went over a large rapid a lady in front of us fell off and we hit her with our large 4 person tube. I couldn't find her for a bit then Tanner pointed her out. She was struggling to stay above water, had lost her tube and was screaming for help. I jumped off the tube expecting much deeper water, got her up. The boys got some exposure as her swimsuit had come off. She could not stay up on her own and was going under and saying "I'm too weak!". I got her to shore and handed her off to her husband. It amazed me that she couldn't just stand up in the river. I don't think people realized the strength of the water and that some ability is need to ride that river. McKinley kept saying she was homesick after 5 days even though she was with her mom, dad and brothers. I don't think she knows what homesickness is.