Mount Idaho, Mackay Dam Fishing, and a Hike...

...and all in one day! The Thursday of the campout was set aside for the older kids and adults to hike Mount Idaho. It is one of Idaho's 12'ers and Charly, as well as his brothers, are ticking them off their list year by year, one by one. I hoped to go on the hike, but I wasn't sure if using the hiking poles all day would irritated my bummed elbows, and I reeeeally wanted to hike the Grand in two and a half weeks. To me, the Grand was worth put health conditions at risk, but Mount Idaho wasn't. I also knew that my elbows would be feeling a lot better in a couple of weeks and have a better chance of withstanding the Grand as long as I let them heal for as long as possible. So that's why I stayed back and went fishing with the younger kids at Mackay dam, which turned out to be more watching them wade in the stream the fish.

Without further ado, here's Mount Idaho and Mackay dam reservoir photos:

The guys left super early to do the hike since thunderstorms were a possibility, and they didn't want to get caught on the summit in the middle of one. Since they did that, they got home in time to go on this short waterfall hike with us. It was only a couple of miles and not bad, but there was some confusion on the details of it and we were led to believe that it was a 1 mile handicap accessible hike. So Charly wore flip flops and I wore these shoes that are super comfortable, but upon which the soles move around when you walk a ton, so I was constantly having to fix them. We took this long bumpy road all the way to the trailhead and were joking that only in Idaho do you drive on a road like this to get to a handicap accessible trail! Then, when we did get there, we found out the truth! Definitely not a hard trail, but it was worthy of some decent shoes!

Anyways, it took us to two waterfalls along the trail and while it rained on us as we hiked ran back to the car, we were rewarded with the loveliest sunset as we drove back. Also, I'm just impressed that my man hiked a mountain and then came back to camp only to immediately turn around, strap a toddler to his back, and then go for another hike (and then finish that hike only to run back down the trail in the pouring rain to help carry more little kids back!)