Leaving tomorrow to warm up!

Be prepared, this is a marathon post!  We've been at MacKay Reservoir,Idaho, for almost 2 weeks.  We followed new, wonderful friends, Maria and Gene (from California), here from our last campsite at Pink House Recreation Area.  They too are leaving tomorrow and we surely hope to see them again!  Today the weather took a turn to the cold side.  40 mile+ winds and the temp has dropped 13 degrees in the last hour and a half on the way down to the low 30's tonight.  Brrrrr!

But as you can see, we're warm and cozy as 2 bugs in a rug :)

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A few days ago it was much warmer, in the 90's, and we went exploring!

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2 days ago we struck out on a memorable hike in an attempt to make it around the reservoir and scale the hills across from our campsite.

Legend has it a white horse occasionally appears on these hills and brings good luck to those who see it.  Maria and Gene told us about the "Legend of the White Horse".  We never saw it but they said it appeared when we were out exploring.  Wendy did say she saw a huge fish surface and look around.  Sort of like the Loch Ness Monster, so we're thinking about starting our own legendary story.  We'll call it the Legend of the MacKay Reservoir Monster!  So we started out with no water, no cell phone and no bear spray (terribly dumb, I know).  10 miles later we arrived back to the campground, beaten to a pulp in the 93 degree heat.  We will be prepared the next time out!  We honestly had no idea we would be gone that long.  Hear are some pictures of that adventure.

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It's hard to appreciate the slope of the this hill, but it's quite the slope!

Here's where it starts to get interesting.  We had to work our way past the wet, marshy area to a drier mud flat.  We could walk on it but the ground was quite spongy.  I told Wendy to walk a ways behind in case we ran into quicksand.  I know I've been watching too many Westerns when I start thinking about quicksand!  Anyway, we separated a few feet nonetheless.  We came across a stream we thought we could cross.  It was pretty shallow and we could see the rock and pebble bed beneath the surface.  It was indeed firm footing.  But to get to it we stepped into a bank of mud and sunk to our knees.  I felt relieved when we stopped sinking at knee level!  It was just like pluff mud, if you've ever experienced that feeling.  Well, we escaped with our shoes and socks still attached to us.  We stopped in the middle of the stream, on firm footing, and spent the next 5 minutes cleaning off mud only to enter another mud bank on the far side!  Arggggg! 

Here's proof some weren't as lucky!  Don't ask me what the 2nd picture could be :)

This was one big bird!

On past the flats to the other side.

These are nice pictures.  I wish they could express the beauty we witnessed.

Time to prepare for the long trek back!

We decided to make it easy on ourselves the last 3 miles by taking the easy road back!

As I finished this post, a strange sound drew outside me out to investigate.  It's now snowing!!!  I hope this brings a cool feeling to those enduring the heat!  God bless and be well!