I drove up to the campsite on Friday. It is located in the Little Lost River drainage.....about 20 miles or so north of Howe. I had been on the east side of the Lemhis at Birch Creek, but never the west side. These first pictures are from my car driving to the campsite (Mud Spring).
A blurry picture here: Big Dan and Jeff enjoying some breakfast.
This photo is courtesy of Dan Robbins at idahosummits.com. This is our pre-hike shot. John (splattski), Michael (boisedoc) , and Dave (superdave) left around 5:30. Our group left around 7.
Front row: Margo, Margie, DAve, Alex, Steve W. (deltaoperator17)
Back Row: Matt (mtybumpo), Jeff B, me, Big Dan (idahosummits)
I do have to add that Steve, the night before, whipped up some wild jalepeno mushroom salmon and rice that was killer. thanks again Steve.
I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast. That was a dumb idea. For some reason, it didnt sit to well in my stomach. I was in and out of nausea all morning. Probably the milk!
Rock garden
There were lots of clouds in the morning over the Lost River range.
Some of the crew breaking through the snow.
Time to put on the snowshoes. We hiked about 23oo ft before we had to put the snowshoes on. We found the trail (trough would be a better word) that was made by the earlier group. To be honest, the snow was horrible. Thin and crusty top layer, very loose underneathe. The early group had to work their butts off to break trail. I was VERY thankful for them!
This is a picture of the "trough" we trudged through with snow shoes. It was at this point where you could see breaks in the snow that had been created by the early group. I turned to Big Dan and said "Those snow slides make me nervous"......and he said, "me, too". Coming from Dan, who has done a ton of winter snowshoeing/climbing, it made me a little nervous about possible avalanche in the area. It turned out that all were safe.
When I reached somewhere near 10,100 ft. I decided to call it quits. I had hiked up 2300 ft in some steep terrain, and then gained 700-800 more feet in snowshoes on steep terrain. This was a great accomplishment for me! I think I could have made it to the summit. I was worried about having enough gas in the tank to make it safely off the mountain and then to drive 3 1/2 hours bcak home (after 2 really bad nights sleep).
Some really cool, unique trees.
Lost Rivers again.
Bell Mountain to the north in the Lemhis.
Heading back down to out camp.
Diamond Peak from the road.
I loved this barn.
this is my favorite picture that I took. I think that is Diamond in the background.
