McCall

Bill and I had never been to McCall, Idaho so we were really looking forward to the fly-out there.  It was about a two and a half hour flight from Vancouver to get there.  Fairly uneventful flight although I was a little taken aback when a plane flew under us and we hadn't seen him and flight following hadn't warned us that he was near us.  I sure hope he had seen us and knew avoid us.  If not, God was certainly looking after us at that point.

We left as early as possible in the morning to get there.  As with the Portland area, the McCall area was also near the 100% totality zone for the solar eclipse so we were advised it was going to be a little crazy there and to arrive early to get a parking spot at the airport.

We got to the Shore Lodge too early to check in so we ate lunch at the restaurant in the hotel before heading downtown to kill some time.  Shore Lodge has been in McCall since 1948 and is a beautiful hotel.  We ate in a newly remodeled part of the hotel with a new restaurant overlooking the lake.  The outside seating was already taken up so we ate inside but it didn't seem as if we were inside because the whole outside wall was open-felt more like we were sitting under a covered deck.  We had lunch with Ron and Janet May.  We took off from Pearson just ahead of them and waved at them as we left but they arrived before us because their Dakota is faster than our Skylane.  We could see them ahead of us most of the way with the sun glinting off their plane.

My favorite part about the hotel was how inviting the view was from the lobby.  It is hard to tell from this photo but you could see Payette Lake through this etched glass.

The view was so spectacular.  

We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant just down the road.  Bill and I decided to check out the pool area and went into the hot tub for a bit after dinner.  Again--beautiful view of the lake from the hot tub.  We didn't take advantage of the beach or make s'mores at the fire pit but there were a lot of fun things for kids to do there.  It is a very family oriented resort.

Bright and early Friday morning, the folks from Salmon Rafting based out of McCall picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the Riggins area to go whitewater rafting on the Salmon River.  I have to admit that I was more than a bit apprehensive about going on the rafting trip.  Not so much that I wasn't going to go at all but enough to have healthy respect for the river and plan accordingly.  I have PTSD from inter-tubing down the river in Lava Hot Springs-getting hurt and losing my glasses and shoes.  I was extra cautious about what we took with us.  I took nothing with me that I was willing to lose.  Took my old glasses from two prescriptions ago, had croakies on my sunglasses, took off all my jewelry and took my old camera instead of my new one in case it went overboard.

We had a total of six rafts, three one-person kayaks and one two-person kayak on our trip downriver.  We put into the river at Spring Bar--about 10 miles upriver from Riggins.  There was a forest fire just a few more miles away so our morning was very smoky and hazy.  It did bother me a bit.  Especially my eyes.

Bill and I happened to be in the raft with the owner of the company.  We enjoyed our trip very much as we floated and maneuvered through the various rapids.  The river and mountains on either side were beautiful.

We stopped on a sand bar near Riggins for lunch.  It was quite the production.  The six guides prepared our lunch.  The tables that they put the food on were the seats on the rafts.  They all had a job putting together the fixings for making sandwiches, salads, etc.  It was a fabulous meal.  No restrooms in the middle of the river on a sand bar so you had to find a spot somewhere that you were willing to relieve yourself.  Guys have so much more of an advantage in that department than we women do.  I went with the flow though.  I didn't want to have to wait until we got to the end of the trip so I found a spot to just sit in the river and go with it.

One of the kayaks became available that afternoon so Bill decided to try it out for the very first time.  We were just getting ready to go through a Class III rapids so I was really nervous about him deciding to do it.  And of course, he went out of the kayak on that first rapids as I was afraid he would.  But he got back in and didn't want to give up.  He spent the whole rest of the afternoon in (and out a few more times) the kayak.  He equated it with learning to ski.  He wasn't going to learn if he didn't try and get bounced out.  He did hit his bottom on some rocks and got pretty bruised up but otherwise had a great time.

We pulled out of the river at Lucile Bar about ten miles downriver from Riggins.  It was probably about five o'clock when we started heading back to McCall.  We didn't get back to the hotel until after six o'clock and had just enough time to take a very quick shower to get to our dinner reservation at six-thirty.  Luckily we didn't have far to go--just across the street from the lodge at the Lardo Grill.

Saturday was a plan your own day.  Ron and Nicole Runyan decided that they wanted to go hiking somewhere in the McCall area and asked how many others might want to join them.  Bill and a few other adventurous souls went with them to Snowslide Lake and hiked to Snowslide Summit.  It wasn't a very long trail-just 2.3 miles one way-but it was pretty much straight up with a 2000 foot elevation gain to the summit which was at 7900 foot elevation.  Kevin Padrick and Bill hung out together and enjoyed their day.

I decided to go hiking at Ponderosa State Park which was in McCall itself.  I took the city bus on its loop around the city and arrived at the park 40 minutes later.  I had thought that I would only spend an hour or two at the most there but I ended up hiking for about two and a half hours and met back up with the bus three hours after the driver left me off.  I took the Peninsula Trail which was a well paved bike path for the first part of my hike.  It was a pretty hike with views of the lake.  From there I took the Lily Marsh Trail which was not paved and fairly rocky.  There was a bit of up and down hill climbing as well.  I was really hoping that I would see some deer or other wildlife while I was hiking but no such luck.  I had seen a doe and two fawns in someone's front yard while I was on the bus but no such luck in the park.

I'm not used to walking that long or far.  In fact according to my Fitbit, that was the most I had walked since I got it with more than 25,000 steps for the whole day.  So I was a bit stiff and sore at the end of it all and didn't want to attempt walking to the downtown area without knowing how far it was.  So I waited for the bus to pick me up and take me there.

I elected to have lunch at Veg'd Out-a salad bar restaurant at the Hotel McCall and then caught up with some other folks that were wondering around town and talked with them for a bit while they enjoyed having some ice cream.  I was a little jealous.  I was trying to be good having a baked potato and salad bar but the ice cream looked so good and I wasn't going to have another opportunity to go there before we left--sigh.  By the time I had sat and rested for awhile, I was ready to walk back to the Shore Lodge.

On the way back to the hotel, I saw three deer.  I was up close and personal with a couple of them and was afraid that they might get spooked and run into the road in front of all the traffic but they seem to be pretty used to urban living.

This one was in the hospital parking lot and eating the bushes there.  I've never seen a deer scratch its ear before so that was kind of interesting.

 This one was also at the hospital but taking advantage of the shade.

And I wasn't far from this one either.  I just couldn't get my camera out fast enough to get a closeup.

We had dinner at the Anchor Restaurant that night.  We were seated out on the deck with a wonderful view of the lake.  I watched osprey dive into the lake to get their dinner and we watched the sunset.

We came home early Sunday morning so we could see Chris.  He decided to come home so he could see the eclipse.  It was a fabulous weekend full of new experiences and fun with our flying club friends.  I don't know if we will ever go back again but if the opportunity presented itself, I certainly wouldn't be opposed.  Beautiful vacation spot.