Packsaddle Lake... Without Packed Saddles

The weather in Southeastern Idaho has finally turned. And by turned, I think it turned straight from Summer to Winter! Last weekend it was in the 70's, but a front moved in mid-week bringing rain and snow! Now, I love snow, but just not yet as there's still summer adventures to be completed. One hike I've been anxious to repeat is Packsaddle Lake. I did this hike in mid-May with temperatures in the 80's, but much of the snow on the trail hadn't melted yet. Oh, and the lake at the end was still frozen. But ever since, I have been yearning to try out the "diving board" and rope swing, so this weekend it was.
Wait - snow? I guess it's a little colder in the mountains.
An awesome view of the Teton Range from the top.
Zooming in on the Tetons - there will be more pictures later (is it obvious that they're my favorite mountain range?)
And there's Packsaddle Lake - at least this time it isn't frozen.
Chris tries out the rope swing, but somehow appears to be defying the laws of physics by standing straight up...
...or is that upside down...
...and he better work on his dismount.
Meanwhile, I was trying to avoid total system shock and slowly acclimating my body to some surprisingly cold water (although the snow should have been a clue along with temperatures hovering around 50). "Why am I doing this?" I asked. "I don't know." Self replied. "Hey, if Navy SEALS can do this in the middle of the night and people survived the Titanic, I can do this!" I said. "But the SEALS use wetsuits and only one Titanic passenger survived after being pulled from the water." Self replied. "Remind me again, why in the world am I doing this?" "I don't know" I repeated.
After much violent shaking and cold feet (pun intended)... I jumped off the "diving board", scurried to shore, got a picture and quickly changed into some dry clothes that were cooling on the snow.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to jump off the rope swing because the water level was too low and you'd land in about 2 feet of water - assuming you let go at just the right moment. That just seemed a little too dangerous, so, I resorted to simply swinging.
This brings back memories of getting kicked out of gym class for waving to the crowd when we were swinging on the ropes.
On our way out, we had to stop for a few more pictures of the Tetons.
If you follow Grand (the tallest peak, 2nd from the left) down towards the base, you can see Table Mountain freshly covered in snow. (A hike I completed 3 weeks ago.)
Synchronized handstands...
...unsynchronized...
...and out of sync (I suppose that's the same thing, except different)...
...synchronized without heads...
...and synchronized with heads (except my handstand was a little late).
On the way back there were a number of farms harvesting and sorting potatoes while these combines are poised and ready to cut some more grain. Once again... only in Idaho will you see 4 on one farm!

Check back next week for pictures from Subway... (but probably not the Subway you're thinking about).