Hot, Cold, Up and Down

It has been three months since the excitement of Christmas, Mr. Grinch and Handel's Messiah. But Easter is a joyous reminder of a Savior, who came to Earth as an example and teacher, suffered a horrendous death and fulfilled the prophecies of the Old and New Testament by rising again. Why? Because He loves me. Because He loves you. Because He wanted to provide the gift of eternal life to all who will believe on Him, trust Him with everything and follow His paths of righteousness.

The story is beautiful, but the reality of a risen Savior is an even greater privelege as we speed through life spending more time with Him, learning more about the depths of his mercy and willingness to provide grace to all who will believe!

While I cannot compete with the story of Easter, I did promise a good story from Jason on our recent snowmobiling adventure. After having some mechanical problems early on, Jason and our boss, Mike, got split up from our group and headed the opposite direction in an attempt to meet back up with us. Jason was leading the way down the trails and turned off the main trail to an ungroomed trail, perfect for climbing mountains - something he probably wasn't ready for his first time on a snowmobile. Realizing they weren't going the way they had intended, they decided to turnaround. Mike got turned around and headed off, leaving Jason, well... where was Jason? After waiting a few minutes with no signs of him, Mike turns back around and comes up on Jason just standing in the road with no snowmobile in sight. Of course that seemed a little strange but after Mike pulls up, Jason just points over the bank were you could follow the tracks down to a....

...tree. While Jason thought for sure he had just purchased a wrecked snowmobile that would be stuck in a valley until Spring, Mike was more determined to at least make an attempt at retrieval. So after a few pictures, they headed down the embankment for a closer look.

The hill was so steep they just slid down and discovered the snowmobile, seemingly intact and still running! While that provided some hope, they were at least 60 vertical feet of waist deep powder from getting the sled back.

Oh, and that little ditch you see the snowmobile sitting in - that's a running ravine under the snow, just soft enough to ensure they would be turning this sled around in a couple feet of water! (This would be confirmed later when they dumped considerable amounts of water out of their boots at the end of the day.)

After getting the snowmobile turned around and with their remaining luck, Team Arctic Cat (three families of serious sledders) stopped by with time to spare and a will to help. Of course, they had their own serious of questions like, "Did you come into the turn a little too hot?" and "Did you at least ride it down?" Ahem... no, and no Jason would reply. "I was just turning around and kind of fell off!" So, after an hour of pushing a snowmobile uphill in waist deep snow, along with the assistance of some ropes and two snowmobiles pulling up top... Mike and Jason finally crested the embankment with their fill of exercise for one day.

The next weekend started with an early morning hike up Taylor Mountain to watch the sun rise near the Teton's. Here's a view of the Teton's and a few windmills before the sun made its appearance.

There it is!

If you look close, you can see the sun and the Teton's in one view. I'm always amazed at how fast the sun moves when it is cresting the horizon.

Being a former ski resort, hoping up on a broken chair lift was mandatory...

...as well as hanging from it...

...and of course doing a handstand!

I've always had a fascination with snow plows (think of all the early mornings I would jump out of bed when I'd hear the snow plows coming down the street so I could watch them intently.) Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I did this just a few months ago. The only difference is that my hope for a snow day has long since vanished.

On our way down the mountain there were some great views of the Idaho terrain that we couldn't see in the

dark on our way up.

Moving on to last weekend, we got in another new adventure. We headed towards Salmon, which included a few stretches of canyon roads...

...pretty views of the varied Idaho terrain...

...some of which remind me of Southern Utah.

When the sign says "Watch for Rocks", you can see why, especially after a good rain.

More scenic driving through the canyons and along the river.

Soon enough, we would arrive at the trailhead for Goldbug hot springs. Can you see the "U" in the top of the mountains? The hot springs are just below that.

So after a quick two mile hike...

...an abandoned cabin...

...and great views......we arrived at the hot springs!There was plenty of room for playing round, standing under waterfalls...

...and many different pool temperatures to chose from.

Did I already mention the great views looking down the valley as the sun set? After a long soak in the hot springs and under the waterfalls, we took a moonlit jog back to the car and headed home, because there was still one day of skiing left!

Saturday brought another great opportunity for skiing. While many people seemingly gave up on the season, we enjoyed more fresh powder and of course...

...great views of the Teton's!

With fresh powder on an adjoining peak, we even hiked to the top of this ridge...

...and made some of the first tracks down. You can see where Chris went off a jump (middle of the picture), complete with the windmill affect as he landed it nicely, Shayna made the "S" turns on the right of the tree line while I went down through the trees followed by a straight shot to the bottom. While it doesn't look that exhilarating, if you look at the top, you'll see two people providing some perspective.

Then we had to take advantage of this jump while the powder at the bottom was still soft.

Chris going off a jump farther down...

...followed by ball of powder as he lands his body in the snow.

There's a lot to digest in this picture, so take your time. You've got a man in a yellow suit, a sign that says they'll take away your ski pass if you die and the Teton's. Oh, and three skiers who had a great last day of down skiing at Grand Targhee.

A picture perfect ending to another good weekend. Well, almost. Apparently the weekend wouldn't be complete without getting pulled over twice within 24 hours. Nope, not speeding, not doing anything dangerous. The first time, my car apparently matched the description of someone who had been driving around shooting a BB gun. But, before the officer had even made it to the window, he was already apologizing because "it obviously wasn't us". I took that as a complement and continued on my way. The next day they wanted to make sure there was nothing illegal in the car and nobody was on probation. The hilarity of the situation occurred when Shayna offered her ski pass as the only form of ID. That didn't work so after a stern warning (in between discussions about the ski conditions) to get my license plates cleaned, we continued home. And there you have it - another couple of weekends complete as we spring into April!