Sawtooth Wilderness Trek

We began the trek from the all-too familiar Pettit lake trailhead. The first day was not without it's snags however. We waited for roughly an hour after arriving, hoping the thunderstorm and pouring rain would subside and we would have some blue sky for the hike ahead. Luckily the clouds vanished revealing the bluest sky some of the students had ever seen. We finished divvying out trail mix and began our journey into the wilderness. We hiked up from Pettit lake over the divide north and down into the yellowbelly-macdonald lake basin. From here we explored the lakes, which were half a mile apart. While gazing at the marshy edges and crystal clear middle of MacDonald lake we heard a tree fall. Just previously on the trail another hiker had the decency to warn me about a black bear they saw a few miles up the trail. Immediately i thought that a black bear had pushed it over, after all they love climbing trees. I sauntered over in a stealth like fashion to where i had heard the crash. What do my eyes behold? A two foot wide tree laying in the bambles of the forest, sawdust still floating in the air, no critter to be seen. Phew. In all my years of hiking i have never simply seen a tree just fall over for now apparent reason. It appeared that the roots were rotten, but i'm no treeologist. Of course i had the nerve to ask the students, "If a tree falls in the woods does anyone hear it," of which i had all resounding YES!

We finished hiking to YellowBelly lake and found a wonderful campsite overlooking the lake to the East, towards the White Clouds. We went swimming and played mafia, all the while amazed at the thunderclouds and lightning in the distance over the lake. 3am, i awake to hear panting outside my tent...too high pitched to be a bear, maybe a wolf or coyote or mountain lion...i will never know for i threw my pillow over my ears as to slow my beating heart. 5am, i awake again to the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning. The forecasters had gotten it right, thunderstorm early morning. Kim and i stared at each other wide eyed after every deafening boom and we began to realize after counting our one one thousands that the storm was closing in. There was a moment where the lightning was within a mile of us. Needless to say we were getting dumped on and i was praying that the bolts would find the tops of the trees and not our aluminum tent stakes. After the storm passed over we awoke to beautiful skies and lighting in the distance.

We hiked up another all-too familiar section of the trail, from yellowbelly up the toxaway drainage past tumbling waterfalls and jagged cliffs to our north, to a lake with a few islands named Farley lake. I had the bright idea of encouraging the studetns to swim to the island knowingly full well that i would be suckered into swimming with them. I think my chest still hurts from the freezing water and trying to catch my breath while swimming an olympic marathon to the islands. Michael Phelps would have been proud. We hiked back to our camp for the evening and built a warm fire and had a wonderful Bible Study around Ephesians 4.
The next morning we hiked the ridgeline back out to the car, where we promptly drove into Stanley for the best Huckleberry Milkshakes in Idaho, hands down. God is gracious. A successful student adventure indeed!