Summer Adrift Episode 8: Stanley Idaho
Welcome to episode 8 of A Summer Adrift and for the first time this summer we’re headed to Idaho!
At the tail end of the previous episode, we celebrated Owen’s birthday with a fancy dinner out on the town. Leading up to his birthday, Owen explicitly said he didn’t want me to get him anything for his birthday. But with every passing day, he was borrowing Chase and Aimee’s spare rod more and I knew that his very own fly rod was the perfect gift.
Owen’s first fish with his new rod
As soon as we crossed into Idaho we found a Bass Pro shop and pulled over for Peter to pick something up. It was my perfect opportunity to carry out operation “Fly Boy”. Owen hung back in the truck with Luna, and Aimee took me inside to help me pick out the perfect rod for him. We settled on an Orvis Clearwater 8’ 6” 5 weight for those who are curious.
Owen was so happy when presented his new setup! He really thought that I would let a birthday slip by without getting something, even though he asked me not to! It was such a treat to see him so taken by surprise because when you live in such tight quarters with one another surprises are not exactly easy to pull off!
We made a point of finding a creek-side camp spot that night so Owen could take his new rod out on the water. After an hour or so of practicing with Chase and Aimee, he wrangled in his very first fish! I don’t know if you can tell, but he was REALLY happy about it!
The gang in the secret hot spring that we couldn’t navigate back to even if we wanted to. We we’re paying any attention to how we got there!
The following day we ventured further into Idaho to Stanley! This area has long alluded us, so we were ecstatic to finally be here!
In Stanley, we headed to a camp spot that our friend Jason was camping on. We had the pleasure of meeting Jason for the first time in Jackson nearly two years ago, and have been trying to see each other again ever since!
As soon as we all parked at camp Jason asked if we were interested in taking an evening dip in a local hot spring. Not one’s to ever turn down such an offer we all piled right back into Peter and Shruthi’s van and went off on our evening adventure! After over a mile of seemingly walking straight into the woods, we arrived at this incredible secluded hot spring. We spend the evening basking in the warm water and catching up with Jason!
View looking back at Stanley from the Sawtooths.
It didn’t take us long to get on the trails in the Sawtooths. These views are what has been calling us to this area for years now. At this rate, we’ve seen a mountain or two, but there is something really unique about the Sawtooth mountains in particular. On our first hike into the mountains, we wanted to get a lay of the land while we figured out what hikes we wanted to accomplish while we were in the area.
We hiked up to the breathtaking Sawtooth Lake where we stopped over for lunch before we ventured further down the trail. Our objective was to summit a small peak that towered just above the far end of the lake.
MAK keeping tabs on the weather that moved in as we made our last push to the summit
By the time we began our last push to the summit, the weather took a turn. After keeping a close eye on the fast-moving weather, we decided to turn around and head back down before we got ourselves into a potentially hazardous situation.
The weather in the mountains can change on a dime. You always have to be hyper-aware of potential changes or storm cells coming your way. Later in the season of Summer Adrift we have an example of what it is like to get stuck on a summit in a storm that moved in faster than we could outrun. It is scary and very dangerous to get caught in a situation like that so doing everything you can to avoid it is always advisable. While we are on the subject of safety in the mountains, we recommend carrying a Garmin InReach. We were able to pull in a weather report without cell service. And if things ever get serious the InReach gives you the ability to communicate with the outside world via text and send an SOS!
We were sad to turn around less than a mile from the summit, but as we turned around strong winds blew in making it hard to walk which reaffirmed our decision to head to lower ground!
But get a load of that view! This is why we came here. These craggy peaks and alpine lakes are beautiful no matter the weather conditions.
I suppose this is why these mountains are called the Sawtooths
Owen being a cutie
Owen capturing the view
The whole crew coming down from our hike to
The day after our hike to Sawtooth Lake was the 4th of July! In an effort to avoid the crowds we decided to have a quiet day at camp where we could relax and make a full festive spread of food.
We spend the day lounging in the creek, making food, and then eating said food. Even though it wasn’t the most elaborate way to spend the holiday, it still felt really special. When you find people you love they have a way of making the insignificant feel significant. We wouldn’t trade our relaxing day together for anything!
Thank you all so much for reading and watching! We will see you next week!
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Our work life is powered by Battle Born! They make the best lithium batteries on the market and are a crucial part of our power and solar system that makes working from the road possible! It took an incredible amount of power to create Summer Adrift, and we have Battle Born to thank for making it possible.
We’ve now been living our of our flat-bed Four Wheel Camper for 2 years now. FWC builds comfortable and durable campers that can fit on any truck. We can confidently say that a FWC is the most comfortable and livable rig we’ve had in all of our years on the road!
Maps are your best friend when you’re on the road. On X makes it easy to find open routes and trails near you no matter where we are or the time of year. On X allows us to access saved maps to locate ourselves in the wild. The GPS works perfectly offline, even when service is nonexistent.
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Main Line Overland is the shop that built our incredible rig, Roxanne. They are incredibly knowledgable of everything overlanding. We chose to work with them because they build thoughtful, reliable and durable vehicles that can get you to anywhere you ant to be!
Tires can be some of the best insurance when you are out in remote places. We love and trust our Toyo ATIII’s to get us in and get us out safely no matter the terrain. They’re amazing in mud, moon dust, loose rocks, slick rock, you name it!
