"The Best Laid Plans..."

"The best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry." - Robert Burns

That quote seems to be the common start to most adventures and this weekend was no exception. Despite some wet snow early in the week, it is finally starting to look like spring in Idaho. And by spring, I mean that everything that was brown is still brown, the wind still can't be contained, the temperature is still 32F in the morning, but by mid-day, the temperature is approaching 70! Sounds like good kayaking weather right? So we thought...

Saturday started out with a rousing (as in, I had to get up to do it) game of racquetball in a local league that I just joined. As you might expect, I'd prefer soccer or some other outdoor sport, but smacking a little rubber ball as hard as you can fits the bill too.

Then I met two co-workers, loaded the kayaks and gear into his truck and headed for the river. After driving the last 10 miles on a back-country dirt road, we came to a mini-mountain pass with more then 2 feet of snow cover. Proving too much for even a 4-wheel drive truck, we disappointedly turned around, just 2 miles short of our goal. But, on the way back, we decided to hop out and at least hike down to the river, which is where the pictures start:
The blackfoot river, downstream of where we planned to get out.
Another bald eagle! He found a friend a bit later, but they were too far away for my camera.
A three-hand-handstand. Allen (Mr. Risk Adverse) wasn't about to leave me due to the 50 foot cliff about three feet behind me.
Ryan didn't get the memo that this was a "smiling" picture.
Walking up the ridge wouldn't have been nearly as exciting. This little 15 foot wide, 50 foot deep canyon was created when the entire wall of rock on the right separated from the land on the left.
Allen doing the rattlesnake dance.
Mr. Risk Adverse on the right keeping the crows away.
After putting away the kayaks until next weekend, we hopped on some 4-wheelers and headed to the hills, full of ATV and dirt bike trails that you could ride to your hearts content... watching out for cliffs of course...
...and until you break a tie-rod, leaving a few skin and small blood samples behind.
Ummm...























After getting the 4-wheelers back (having 3 engineers helped) and shooting off a few hundred rounds with a .22, the sun began to set on another adventurous weekend!
The sun is a little closer to the mountains in this picture.