I am finally starting to get out with some regularity. Hiking and skiing at Brundage, a few shorter runs around McCall and a once-a-week trip to Rapid River, near Riggins, ID. RR is 40 miles north of McCall, but starts much lower and is quite warm. I have been focusing my efforts on learning Cannonball Mountain, a 7200' peak perched over the West Fork of Rapid River. From the Fish Hatchery trailhead, it is a minimum of 6+ miles and over 6000' of vertical gain to the summit.
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| Near the top of Cannonball Mtn 7200'. The 7 Devils loom to the West. |
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| Bachelor group of bulls. They would sprint left to warn a herd of 100+ to flee into the timber. |
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| The slope here is 40 degrees. |
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| Above the Coconut Grove on Cannonball. |
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| I popped up over a ridge to see 50+ elk within 100 yards. After staring at them for a few minutes, I realized this girl was chowing down just 20 feet away to my right. |
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| A lone cow elk about to drop into the timber below the 7 Devils. |
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| Elk herd in the snow near the trees in the bottom left. |
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| The opening mile of the Cannonball Mtn. Trail. 1200+' per mile. |
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| That is what a 17 mile run should look like. |
Skinning and Hiking
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| Firm snow caused by weeks of sun and high pressure makes a ridge crossing from Brundage to Sergeant's Peak a great afternoon outing. |
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| After seeing this, I went home and made Brandi cut my hair. |
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| Brandi running some morning corduroy at Brundage. |
A New Floor!
We have been busy laying a new acacia wood floor for the past several weeks. We are now 99% done. The final planks go down as soon as I am done typing this.
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| Before you lay a new floor, you must remove the old one. This would prove to be the crux of the mission. It took nearly 2 weeks of filthy work before the slate was all gone. It involved 10 days of crowbars, sledges and chisels, 3 days of jackhammers, and 2 days of angle grinding before the subfloor was clean. Then, I laid a new layer of 7/16 OSB over the existing subfloor to even it out. |
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| Island in the way of progress? Car jack it. |
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| Brandi gluing and nailing, gluing and nailing. |
