Ours to explore

It felt good to sleep in this morning, after a long day on the road yesterday (and a late dinner at Salmon River Brewery). We plan to drive around Payette Lake today, and explore the mountains. It's the perfect weather: sunny and chilly this morning, but warming up quickly.

I love the way oatmeal and a mug of coffee taste even better at a locals hangout. And that we were able to park right in front of this small restaurant in McCall. Traffic? Not here.

The historical museum has two fire lookouts, saved from destruction and restored. These are the first I've seen of the old-style lookout, small square metal boxes that once sat in the mountains near this small Idaho town. I'm more familiar with the larger permanent lookouts, made of wood with windows all around, big enough to live and work in.

Bridge work kept us from circumnavigation, but we drove as far as we could up the east side, then up the west side. There's a lot of interesting geology here, something that always catches DWs interest. So we did a bit of hiking in the hills, a couple of earthcaches, and a lot of photography.

Don't you love the way a blue sky is even bluer when reflected in a mountain lake?

Before we headed back for dinner, we drove up to the ski area at Brundage Mountain. I was hoping for a view east, but was disappointed.

I should probably explain about the bear. I brought him along to carry a geocaching travel bug around the west (you can see the metal tag hanging around his neck). Whenever we visit a geocache on our road trip, the TB will get to visit it, too. For Mac, the TB stands for Travel Bear.