Hannah's Hike From Hell

   My wife loves me. She really does. However when it gets to be after 10:00 P.M. and we have been snowshoeing in the dark carrying over-night packs and we get to the end of the trail and the warming tent isn't there like it is supposed to be, I think she had second thoughts. Or maybe her thoughts were all about divorcing me by that point, I'm not quite sure.

   It all started out in December. I had been thinking of fun things that Hannah and I could do in the winter with our dog, Rocky. For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to meet Rocky, here he is.

   Back in September, Hannah and I rescued Rocky from the local animal shelter. He is a pitbull/rhodesian ridgeback mix who was just over two years old at the time of rescue. We don't know anything about his history but we got lucky and he is the most mellow dog I have ever met. He usually spends his days just like this

   I'll be sure to put more up about him later but I'll have to take some more pictures of him. I promise I don't mind taking pictures. :)

   So we were looking for fun things we could do in the winter and still bring Rocky and I decided that we should get some snowshoes and go hiking with him. After talking Hannah into it, we purchased some wonderful off-trail, back country snowshoes from Backcountry.com. (If you like being outdoors don't know about the site, you should.) Now keep in mind that neither Hannah nor myself have ever been snowshoeing. Now Rocky and I have been 5 or 6 times and I take a bag when we go for day hikes to be prepared, give myself a workout, give myself a challenge, etc. Supplies for a day hike for he and I usually look like this. . .

   A bit excessive but it is good practice for backpacking and if something happens to either of us, we will be prepared to not freeze while we get rescued.

   Prior to Hannah's hike from Hell, she went snowshoeing with me exactly one time. She looked super cute and said the downhill part was fun but she really didn't like the uphill part.

In her new snow clothes she requested when 

we decided to stay in Idaho for a few years.

   For my birthday I really wanted to hike into this cool warming tent that is free to stay in thanks to the Idaho Falls Ski Club. It's located a few miles up the trail from Kelly Canyon Ski Resort. Hannah was a good sport and said that she would come with me for my birthday so the reservation at the tent was made and we were all set to go. The first problem arose when Hannah's work rescheduled her so now instead of getting done at 3:00, she would be done sometime after 6:00 P.M. I told her it would be no problem, I'd pack everything up and we could hike in once she got off work. So we got up to the hill and it was about 8 o'clock when we started on the trail. Long story short, over 3 miles and a couple hours later, I saw experienced the very rare occurrence of Hannah crying as we got to the end of the trail and there was no warming hut to be found. Luckily, it was just about 30 yards up the hill and we found it and made ourselves at home.

It took me a little while to make a fire as it is winter in Idaho so while Hannah wrapped Rocky in a blanket and tried to warm him up, I worked on a fire and a while and a few choice words later, we had heat and were in business. (Side note, in the morning when I wasn't working by headlamp, I saw a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid that would have made instant fire. I was ticked.) That night I set alarms on my phone to wake me up every 1.5 hours so I could put wood in the stove so Hannah and Rocky didn't get cold when the fire burned down. Then next morning, we woke up and read for a few hours while it warmed up and the sun came out. Hannah said this was the best part of the trip.

We sprawled all out in the tent. Wasn't room to swing a kneazle.

Our new home in the woods.

The sunrise was absolutely gorgeous and the surroundings

were so beautiful.

   We looked at the hiking map as we finished up breakfast and I told Hannah she could choose which way we went out. We could take a slightly different, mostly flat route back to the car, or we could go straight up the mountainside to the highest point for miles around and loop our way back around the ski resort. Hannah chose the latter. Later she regretted it. The picture doesn't do it justice, but the trail disappeared and we were clambering through the snow, blazing trail and huffing and puffing the entire way.

Early in the morning on day 2.

   After we each suffered mild myocardial infarctions due to overexertion, we reached the summit. Rocky and I had done this hike once before and it was foggy so it was so great to be able to see what our hard work yielded. I thought the view made the whole trip worth it, Hannah was happier to see the car at the end of the day.

Clear blue skies and not a person to be seen. I love Idaho.

   After that the trail was primarily down hill and it went smoothly other than my 1/2 mile solo detour when Hannah realized she had dropped her gloves a ways back. We got back to the car and Hannah decided she wouldn't divorce me yet as long as I promised to never make her repeat the trip.

   I honestly love Idaho and the wonderful opportunities that it holds for outdoor exploration right out our front door. Hannah is such a trooper to put up with all my adventure plans that occasionally turn out to be quite asinine. I love her for the good sport that she is and that she is so willing to make me happy that she will do just about anything. She really is the biggest blessing in my life. That's all for Traveling with the Turpin's for now. Stay tuned for more fun adventures.