Darby canyon wind cave.

On August 23rd we hiked the Darby Canyon and the Wind Cave at the end.  It starts a couple of miles south of Driggs.  It was super fun, and very scenic, with a cool (two meanings intended) cave at the end.  It was about 3 miles in.  It was pretty steep, but very beautiful terrain.  It had just rained the night before (it even looked a little questionable that morning, but we went anyway), so it was very fresh and green everywhere.

Here we are at the begining (except we took this pic at the end, because I had a giant finger print on my lenz at the begining, so we had to do a retake).

Left to right:  Jen + baby, Randa, Candee, Deidra, Karen, Shauna, and Luana

Karen and Luana just having a good time!

Click on this pic, it's worth it to see it bigger.

Rrrrranda, Ooh Laa Laa!  You can see the cave in the background.

Waterfall coming out of the cave.  Good pic Karen!

Here's the mouth, click on this picture too, see how small we are at the base there.  This thing was huge!  And cold too, the breeze coming out was freezing.  We were in there for a while, and our fingers got chilled.

Candee maneuvering a steep spot inside.

If you look very closely you an see Shauna army crawling through a tough spot in the cave.  We let her go ahead and see what was up there, and her report of more crawling was enough for us, we turned around.  Perhaps another time with knee pads, gloves, and more batteries, and no one waiting for us outside (only some of us wanted to go in), we'll be more adventureous.  Apparently there's a big cavern not too far in, but it was one army crawl further than we were willing to go.

Jen getting outa-there.  This was pretty tight spot.

This is the view out, it was cool!  See that tenacious tree towards the top clinging on for dear life.

This was a neat spot on the way down.  We're acting a little goofy.  Good thing Karen held up that rock, I'd hate to think what would have happened to us otherwise!  This hike took us about 8 hours, including driving, hiking, lunch, standing up from lunch (we got stove up), and exploring.  Come join us next time, it's so fun.

Rails to Trails bike ride

I know, I know, we're a hiking group, right?  But apparently we had a disire to "cross-train" because here we are on our bikes.  On August 13th we picked up the "rails to trails" path in town by the church and semetary, and rode out Drummond way.  I've never been on this path, but some had.  It was beautiful!  It took us on a gradual grade up to Drummond, through farm fields and pastures and over a couple of bridges with awesome views.  Some of us had to be back to town, or our bums were killing us, so we turned around at Drummond, and some went on for a while.  The funny thing was, the ones who went on eventually turned around and came back (duh!) and decided to go fast, and they caught up to us slow pokes (mainly because we had stopped for a road crossing, gotten into a conversation, and forgot to start up again).  Imagine our embaressment when they came laughing up behind us and we were just standing there flapping our jaws, lol.  Everyone had fun!

Here we all are, Jen, Vickie, Suzanne, Randa, Candee (notice I spelled your name right, Candee), Karen and Madison.

This was one of the bridge crossings, so pretty!

Lake Marie: take two!

Last year our hiking group hiked to St. Marie's Lake (except it's really Lake Marie, but what do we know?).  We didn't make it to our destination because a few of us had to get back to pick up kids at school.  So this year we had a Lake Marie hike: take two.  As you can see, the lake is 5.1 miles in.  Six of us went, + three babies, two of Brenda's and Jen has one.

Here's a cliff we wanted to stand close to.  Left to right: Randa, Brenda (+baby), Meilei (+baby), Deidra, Karen, and Jen (+baby).

And more pretty scenery.

Hiking in action!  Deidra leading out, with Brenda too.

We saw a little wildlife, only once, but she was pretty.  She was running towards us and we wondered if we should be running too (away from whatever she was running from).  But there was no excitement.

And here's the lake.  Actually, we don't think it's really Lake Marie, the trail ended abruptly and we wandered around and found two mudholes like this, and took a pic in front of one.  We were only 4 miles in when the trail ended.  We are determined next year to FIND LAKE MARIE!  We're going to take a GPS and coordinants, and find that elusive lake if it's the last thing we do!

But no worries, we had a great time, and the veiws were incredible!

Here we are almost back again, we couldn't help taking a picture at this cool hillside.  By the way, if you think all we do is pose for pictures, these are actually little stops so that Jen can resume a relitively not-on-the-verge-of-death breathing pattern.  And besides, it's fun to set the camera timer and see if I can make it into the frame in 10 seconds, lol.  Happy Hiking!

Our Hike On Flagg Canyon Trail

Flagg Canyon Trail is a 5 mile round trip hike up by Flagg Ranch.  It follows the Snake River from about 1.3 miles north of Flag ranch to a little south, then back again.  It's got beautiful scenery, is mostly shady and flat, but along the canyon, so pretty!  We were surprised to see some beautiful things on the way back that we'd missed on the way there, I guess it's all a matter of prospective.  We had four of us, Jen, Karen, Candy, and Laura.  I forgot to take pictures so Laura gave me hers (so you won't see her, she didn't take any of herself).

Here's Candy and Karen having lunch (an important part of our hike)

Here's Jen (+baby) having lunch too.  I ate all my lunch so I wouldn't have to pack it back out, lol.

Here's just a sample of the views we got.

Here's some scat we found.  I knew you'd want to see it, so I put it in.  It looked like some poor animal had eaten grass and twigs mixed with tar.  Didn't look good to me.  No, Candy is not about to step on it, we just wanted to get a comparison to her shoe to see how big it was.  Don't ask.

At the end of the hike the trail goes right next to a slow part of the river.  I had overheated and it was all I could do to resist just jumping in all together.  I settled for wading and drenching my hat and plopping it back on my head.  AHHHHH!!!

R Mountain

On Wednesday, June 16th, we went on a hike up R Mountain in rexburg (aka. Menan Butte).  We started at the North-West parking lot and went around the Butte clockwise.  I'm not sure, but I think it's about 5 miles.  As you can see, we had six of us, (left to right) Jen (+baby), Candy, Shelly, Karen, Bobbi, and Mamie.  It looked like it was going to pour, but we had faith and went forth.  It nearly blew us off the south side, but that was ok, because we were sweating by then, and if it hadn't blown and cooled us down, we would all have smelled pretty ripe, and no one would have wanted to get within 100 feet of us, let alone climb into a car and drive home.  There's a parking lot and access on the south-east side, and it's more difficult footing, but much shorter (the incline).  I recommend that side if you have sure feet, it's short and sweet.  The best part about this hike (besides the company) was the view!  It was amazing!  Rexburg and the surrounding areas in all their glory!  I know you can see the "R" somewhere from above while hiking, but we didn't find it.  There's also a path through the middle of the Butte, and Shelly took that.  She wooped us for sure, that way was much shorter (for those of you looking for a little shorter hike).

If you want to join us next time, drop us a comment, give us your name and Phone # or email, or email jen at DryFarmersWife@aol.com.