Our 4th of July Weekend Part I: Thank goodness for GPS

Mike and I signed up for a "Peak Bagging" overnight trip with our hiking group. The goal was to hike to the peak of a mountain on back to back days. Since I had to work on the 4th, we had to miss the hike on Friday but were able to join the group to hike Rice Mountain on Saturday. We arrived at camp Friday night and got ready for the 10 mile roundtrip hike the next day.

Let's just say that Mike and I really didn't know what to expect with this hike. We had not been in this area yet (2.5 to 3 hrs. NNE of Boise).

This is a picture from the beginning of the hike. Many gorgeous wildflowers everywhere.


A large fire was in this area last summer. A good portion of our hike was through burned areas. There was alot of ash and soot.


Even in the burned areas there was signs of growth and some wildflowers.


Due to the fires, it made it very difficult to follow the trail. We lost it a few times and finally had to rely on another hiker's GPS to travel off trail to our ultimate destination, Rice Peak.


The peak in the distance is where we were headed. The little building on the top is an old fire lookout. I think it would be quite lonely to be stationed up there for weeks at a time.