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| Welcome to the Warm Springs Guard Station in the Boise National Forest where we spent our 2012 Memorial Day Weekend! It was Awesome!! |
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| Of course Chester felt right at home as soon as we got into the kitchen. (FYI-No indoor plumbing and no electricity) |
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| Annie cooked our meals on the back porch with a small propane stove. She was too scared to cook in the kitchen because of Carbon Monoxide. |
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| Ephraim helped get water for us from the well pump. (It's only on during late spring, summer, and early fall. Otherwise, you're going to have to melt snow for water) |
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| Tommy hanging out in the front room. |
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| Dinner time! I think we had spaghetti this night. |
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| Ephraim hanging out on the fire escape ladder. The boys slept in the attic bedroom and you can see the bedroom window behind Ephraim. |
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| Cool nest just a short walk from the cabin along the Middle Fork of the Payette River. |
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| About a 1/2 mile hike or drive from the cabin is this back country airfield known as the Warm Springs Airport. If you fly in there is a campground just for pilots complete with a pit toilet, fire ring, and picnic table! |
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| Ann would not stop taking pictures of flowers on our hikes! We kept leaving her behind. She just had to get a picture of these Forget-Me-Nots. |
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| Ephraim and Dad posing for a picture along the Warm Springs Trail that eventually hooks up with the 13 mile trail to Bull Trout Lake. |
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| Family action shot. The boys were fascinated by all the bear and elk tracks. Chester seemed to really like all the bear scat. |
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| A daisy of some sort? |
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| This track scared the boys and they wanted to turn back immediately! |
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| View east from the Warm Springs trail. See the meadows transitioning to large trees? There's also a creek running by us. This is perfect Elk habitat! |
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| That's our Tommy! Man that kid makes us laugh! |
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| Boys hanging out on a giant tree with Chester. |
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| Ephraim demanded that Annie allow him to put flowers in her hair. I thought he did a good job! |
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| We brought along our airsoft pistols for some target practice! There's Tommy... Believe it or not, he's a pretty darn good shot! |
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| Rusty kept practicing something called "Slicing the Pie." |
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| Annie decided to send Ephraim's underwear up the flagpole! We forgot about it for a couple days... |
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| Family portrait on the cabin's front porch during a rain storm! See the rain drops? |
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| We hiked over to Bonneville Hot Springs and you can see the steam in the background. Ephraim and Tommy were acting like the protectors of the hot springs! |
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| View of Bonneville Hot Springs. There is a bath house (with an actual bathtub). The hot water comes out to the left up the hill and drops into the creek to the right. The water is VERY hot! |
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| Rare orchids that supposedly only grow near hotsprings! DON'T PICK THEM! |
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| So, this creek is funny. It is mostly snow melt that will nearly freeze your toes off except where the hot water from the springs cascades down the rocks. The trick is to find a small soaking spot where hot water and cold water mix for that perfect temperature! |
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| The steam felt good, but smelled a little like rotten eggs. Oh well! |
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| While Ann soaked in bliss, the boys decided to give themselves a natural sand scrub! I told Tommy that if he threw that sand ball at me that I would dunk him in the cold part of the creek. He wisely put it down... |
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| Ice melt river plus hot springs equals mud bath for little boys! |
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| Annie looks quite peaceful! It was a chore to get her to leave after an hour... |
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| Here is a funny picture of Annie. She would get so hot in the springs that she would move 5 feet and dunk herself in the icy creek. Then she would go lay back in her favorite spot in the hot water. She had a good system! |
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| A good picture of the Bonneville Hot Springs spot that the Moffett Family claimed! Everyone else was incredibly jealous of our spot! |
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| One last picture of the hot springs and a very dirt Ephraim! |
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| One of spots on the hill where the hot water suddenly escapes the earth. |
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| Rusty jumping a boiling water fall to look at the source of the hotsprings! |
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| The source of the hotsprings. |
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| Rusty made me take a picture of this although I kept telling him it wasn't what he thought it was... |
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| We took a drive to see if we could fish at Bull Trout lake. There was too much snow on the road to the lake so we couldn't get in. |
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| The beginning or end of Avalanche alley. Depends which way you're driving :) |
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| Oh well, Road Closed. |
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| I made a fire so I could cook New York Strips and roast marshmallows. Ephraim thought I made a fire so he could practice being a Pyromaniac... |
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| Goofy boys telling me to slowly show them my hands... Where do they learn this stuff? |
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| Although it looks like it, Tommy did not actually jump into the fire. It's all about camera angle and perception. He was jumping to a different log several feet away from the fire. Stop thinking we're bad parents :) |
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| New York Strip Steaks cooked over coals in a fire pit! Heaven! |
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| Annie reading Fablehaven to the boys! |
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| Annie and Ephraim 10 minutes later! |
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| View of the mountain out the cabin's front door Sunday Morning. You can tell where it stopped snowing and started raining. |
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| Fog and clouds rolled through our little valley all weekend long. |
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| Chester LOVES camping! |
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| Ephraim and Tommy broke out the games that have been left at the cabin. |
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| Ephraim fell asleep by lantern light on the futon next to the wood stove in the front room. |
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| Tommy and Ephraim reading a book together on the front porch while Annie and I cleaned the cabin before our departure. |
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| Two brothers hanging out on the front yard fence. |
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| Family picture in front of the cabin before we left to go home! |
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| Chester posing for his beauty shot! |
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| Boys posing with Chester. |
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| Ephraim picked a lot of flowers for his Mom. |
