Ticking off the Bucket List

Since moving to the Palouse, Priest Lake has continued to come up in conversation as a great camping area with beautiful views. So it was no surprise to see this come up on my bucket list. With no plans for Memorial Day weekend and a desire to far away I did a quick search online for available lots at the parks surrounding Priest Lake in the Panhandle of Idaho. To my luck I came across a last minute cancellation opening and was able to book 3 nights at Priest Lake State Park. 

Off I went on Saturday to explore new territory.

Not overly confident in the directions I had, I decided to use my GPS as a backup. Monica, my GPS, however seems to think dirt roads are a reasonable detour. I tend to think otherwise. 

It was however a beautiful drive.

Since the weather forecast originally called for rain and cold weather I booked the last cabin available. Meeting me at the park for the weekend were Anna and J.

 Our cabin, Lynx, was in the perfect location sitting right up against the woods with a view of the lake off in the distance.

Priest Lake

 The weather turned out wonderful, sunny and in the 60s.
Never did see any rain during the day.

 During our time around the fire there was conversation over how long it takes to chop in half a log. 

30-60 minutes? What? No way. 

Even with my limited experience I knew I could beat that.

12 minutes (breaks included). 

Ok now, I know that's not record breaking or that impressive to people who are on trail crew or chop wood all the time but hey I was pretty impressed with myself. This was after all my first attempt.

Pride however does come along with several blisters.

I would also like to note that I inspired the girls at the cabin next to us to try also doing the same thing....they didn't get as far :) but we had a good laugh at their expense.

With the weather being so nice and no rain clouds in the distance, Anna and I decided to tackle the day hike of the Look-Out. (We had to leave J back at camp because of his previously sprained ankle and fashionable boot.) Our travels took us north of the Indian Creek campgrounds and up towards the Lionhead campgrounds. As we ascended on the dirt roads our view of the area became breathtaking.

Yet the roads proved to have a lot of weather damage, boulders and patches of snow became more than my low profile car could handle. We had to stop, back down the road and park 2 miles before the trail head.

 But we derby girls are tough and not about to give up that easy.
So up we went hiking the road.

We soon encountered snow 1 to 2 feet deep covering the road making it impossible to find the correct path when a Y came up. After wandering around the area and checking out animal tracks, we decided that we were not prepared to hike a few miles in snow that deep.

Anna and I ended up at Lionhead campgrounds to hike some of the lower elevation trails. However these too had been greatly effected by the winter months and trails were covered with down trees making it difficult to stay on the trail.

We ended up on the beach taking in the views and testing our balance on a water soaked log.

Our evenings included time around the campfire hanging out and cooking.
 
But this fire wouldn't be complete without the the burning of wedding items.
That created quite the fire.

It still amazes me how, I, who does not speak German ended up with all the wedding cards from all the German relatives along with other personal "us" mementos. Once again goes to show what a selfish asshole he had become. It felt good to burn it all.

Day hike around Indian Creek campgrounds.

We had a debate over what type of birds these were but since we were so far away it was difficult to make them out. However, on my hike I was able to get closer to them.

Guesses anyone?

I forgot how to use the self-timer on my camera otherwise I would have taken some sweet action shots. (Ok well maybe they would have been more dorky then sweet.) For now you're stuck with this type of self photograph.

 Not exactly ready to head back but I'm very happy with my decision to drive up to Priest Lake and spend a long weekend there. I highly recommend the area for someone who has not yet made the trip up north. I am continued to be amazed by how diverse the state of Idaho is depending on where you are at within it.

 Such a wonderful place to live.