Tuesday, March 31, 2015

2nd Half of March, 2015

Matty on Cannonball Mountain.
Descending Cannonball into Rapid River with the Salmon River Mountains in the background.
Brandi and Katie.
Hell's Canyon, near Pittsburg Landing.

Hell's Canyon near Suicide Point.  The Snake River boils below, carving the Lower 48's deepest gorge.

Suicide Point.
The Tripod.  Molly, Katie and Brandi.


Lots of critters in this one. 



Monday, March 9, 2015

Spring Training

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.

Near the top of Cannonball Mtn 7200'.  The 7 Devils loom to the West.

Bachelor group of bulls.  They would sprint left to warn a herd of 100+ to flee into the timber.

The slope here is 40 degrees.

Above the Coconut Grove on Cannonball.

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.

A lone cow elk about to drop into the timber below the 7 Devils.

Elk herd in the snow near the trees in the bottom left.
The opening mile of the Cannonball Mtn. Trail.  1200+' per mile.


That is what a 17 mile run should look like.

Skinning and Hiking

Firm snow caused by weeks of sun and high pressure makes a ridge crossing from Brundage to Sergeant's Peak a great afternoon outing.

After seeing this, I went home and made Brandi cut my hair.

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.  

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.


Island in the way of progress?  Car jack it.
Brandi gluing and nailing, gluing and nailing.