Fishing while yurting.

     I failed to mention our yurt was 20 or so miles outside of Idaho City. On the way up we stopped so Nate and my dad could do some fishing on/at Crooked River (I don't know if that's really where we stopped, but the name Crooked River sounds familiar like it was mentioned at some point), Nate caught one little guy was all so it wasn't very successful.
     On our way home we drove a different way in hopes of stopping along another river for the guys to fish at. I want to say this was along the Salmon River (dad?). We did stop and check out some hot springs, but it was at least 90 degrees out and none of us really thought sitting in 100+ degree water in the hot weather sounded that nice, so off we went again.

me and Spence watching the guys fish.

     A short while later Spencer got awful crabby and my dad knew of some ponds for fishing (and being close to a raging river with a baby kind of scared me) so we stopped there. The fishing was ok. I think Nate and my dad each caught 1 medium sized fish in the hour+ we were there. I saw a muskrat, and Spencer took a nap.

     Then something awesome happened, a fish and game truck pulled up right next to us and dumped 1,000 fish into the pond! To say the fishing got good was an understatement! Every other cast they were catching fish! My dad remarked it felt like cheating, so they challenged themselves by removing the barbs on their hooks. That made things interesting and challenging because as soon as they'd get the fish out of the water it would slide out of their hands and flop along the ground until it made it back in the pond.

     As we were leaving a truck pulled up and a guy asked me how the fishing was. I told him it was excellent and he was like well the fish and game did stock it yesterday. I was like no no, they just stocked it like an hour ago! He was excited about that! Successful fishing all around!
     The boys each kept 4 out of the billion fish they caught and we cooked them up on the grill when we got home and they were very tasty!!

don't be fooled, I didn't catch this.

   

Yurt-ing.

June 30-July 1
   
     Nate had a few days off in a row and we wanted to do something fun! My dad being the outdoorsman he is, booked a yurt for us to go stay in. Then he packed us all up, drove us up there, biked all our stuff in, and caught lots of fish for us. It was a pretty fun experience and I am a BIG fan of yurt camping for these reasons: real beds to sleep on, a stove for if you get cold at night, and lights!

     This particular yurt we had to bike about a mile or so to get to it, which I really enjoyed even though I'm an awful biker. It probably helped that I didn't have to pull a trailer full of gear or a baby!

     We only had 1 bike trailer (from when I was a kid, ha!) so my dad ended up making 2 trips. While he was gone Nate was starting a fire for dinner. 2 things to remember about this moment, the first being a wonderful Nate-ism:
he had just built a tee-pee style fire in the pit and was about to lite it.
Nate: HA! They didn't call me Mr-boy-scout-1998 for nothing!
And it immediately fell over into a big mess.
Way to go Mr-boy-scout-1998 ;)
Shortly after, Mr-boy-scout-1998 DID in fact get a mighty fine fire going.

     As we are sitting around the fire waiting for my dad to get back with our last load of stuff, I was just gazing at the hill across from us, about 75 yards and all the sudden this good sized, sandy colored, cat-like creature, with a long tail, slinks across the dirt on the hill I'm watching. I didn't think too much of it and asked Nate what it could have been. He said it sounded like a mountain lion and got really excited. I got scared outta my mind (have a mentioned I have completely ridiculous fears, one being getting attacked by a mountain lion which until this moment I had never actually even seen one?). Nate really wanted to go look for it which I was not about to let happen, I was sure it would eat him! Then he wanted to ride his bike to meet up with my dad, which I was also not going to let happen because I KNEW the cat would come for me and Spencer as soon as he left! Finally, he did go look for it and alas, couldn't find it. When my dad got back and I told him what I was he was like "COOL!" What is wrong with these guys?? Don't they know that is a scary wild animal?!
     Anyway, we never did see it again, and for that I am thankful, but it was kind of cool to see and I'm alright with never seeing another one.

     We roasted hot dogs, had smores, and then set up our beds. Spencer had a better night than when we went tent camping in Palmyra, and I didn't freeze so I'd say it was a success!

    We also did some fishing, but that's its own story for another post.