Posted by Bob

Every year, Sarah and I celebrate the summer solstice for a week. In addition to the Solstice being the first day of summer, it’s our wedding anniversary. Plus Sarah’s birthday is just before and mine just after. We wrap all the events together, don our wedding shirts on Sarah’s B’day and head to Tornak Hut high above our Valley where we exchanged partnership vows back in ‘02. Repeat the vows, give thanks for life and place and muse about the future. This year, that muse was about the third transformation – the new beings of the sunset years and how to live the last chapters.  Our ‘Walk About’ in our beloved home country is the kick-off.

And this year, Sarah and daughter Nina decided I needed to have more than just a Tornak affair to celebrate my 75th.  They invited 75 folks to a celebration at the Ketchum City Park.  

​Posted by Bob

​The beginning and end point of the horseshoe shaped route of our Home Country Walk About is the Snake River Plain, The arc of the Plain across southern Idaho marks the path of a hot plume rising from Mother Earth’s core that, during recent geologic time, traveled from west to east across the Plain. The plume is now below Yellowstone National Park. As the plume traveled beneath Idaho, it resulted in volcanism as recent as 2,000 years ago in places like Black Butte Crater near the start of our route and Craters of the Moon National Monument at the end. The result is a black cinder wilderness that’s forbidding and, in many places, impossible for stock to travel. Because the Plain is a signature piece of our country to the South, I wanted to link these places to our route in the mountains by hiking the lava wild too, beginning with a hike around Black Butte Crater.
  
Where the Plain butts against the Smoky Mountains, we start with the llamas. We checked out Day One at that place, the hills rising to the Smoky crest and a dramatic view of the Plain to the south.  To the North, the impact of this winter’s huge snowfall is evident everywhere. The peaks are snowbound and we anticipate a number of mountain passes will remain so into late July. 

The flooding in the Wood River Valley corridor is historic, the river still at flood stage as of this writing.  In the far country, erosion of wilderness trails and backcountry roads is common. Flood and avalanche damage has resulted in numerous tree fall.  So many trees have come down and trails washed out that we’re forced to abandon some of our route for trails in more traveled corridors like the Middle Fork of the Salmon. The Forest Service predicts these will be the only routes they can clear and repair this summer.