Backpacking to Merriam Lake in the Lost River Range in Idaho

We woke up and checked the smoke maps and they were clear for the first time ever in a long time. So we're like, we have to leave now. But my backpack was mostly packed and so were yours. So we are going to head to Miriam Lake. It's kind of a long drive. It's about four hours and a lot of it from what I remember is pretty rough. So it's kind of a bumpy, crusty road, but we're heading out and we're going to hopefully have a good time. All right, let's get going. So we're kind of out here in the middle of nowhere and we see somebody's redneck security system for their truck. We got caution tape, the outline of a dead body. I think the message is pretty clear. Do not screw with this vehicle or bad things will happen to you and you'll be a, uh, an outline here. But we are kind of in the middle of nowhere. So who knows? Hello? Where are you going, dude? All right. So I think the miles to Miriam Lake is about 3.5 miles with about 1700 feet of vert. So the very last four miles, it takes about an hour to get here just because the road has so many rocks on it that it's just really slow going. But anyways, so, all right guys, let's get going. It's an open meadows on this hike. Done about 500 feet of vert and it's just the right amount of being open that there's just really great views of the mountains and some of the snowdrifts are still up there. And then when you're out in the sun, it gets a little hot, but every, you know, 30 or 40 yards, you're back in the shade again, which is really nice. I got a little friend on my arm. Just rained out of the sky. Crazy. Yeah, it smells really good too. Over 9,000. We are super Saiyans now. Probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Yep. I'm really hoping the meadow is a blooming right now. That would be amazing. All right. We made it to camp. A nice fire ring here. Yeah. I love this campsite. I love how somebody made a little table out of these rocks and this tree that has fallen over. Works out great. It's like a cool little cooking area right next to the fire pit. Let's go check out what Beata is up to. You can hear the fan blowing. We're so lazy. Yeah. Aren't you glad we bring that, that little thing only weighs a few ounces. I don't know. Mine's pretty big, but man, do I like it? It's worth the wait. Yeah. Like it's one of those huge rectangular ones. That's, I don't know if it's two or three inches thick. They discontinued this size. So now they have like really teeny ones that your shoulders fall off. Yeah. We tried to get another one of these big ones and they're hard to find. We've got a, we've got two and that's it. Yeah. Although the ground is really flat and smooth right here. I think we'd be okay. Are you doing the same thing I was doing earlier? Yep. Just sitting here waiting for the enormous air mat to inflate. What are you doing? A little scratch on my butt. Now you can't use that video. I can. I'm going to use that video of you scratching your butt. All right. So, uh, we both have our crappy glasses on. I took our contacts out. So it's definitely that time of night. You got a mosquito right on your head. The mosquitoes are coming out. So if you see us like doing weird things like movements, it's cause we're getting eaten alive. I'm a big fan of permethrin. I'm not getting bit at all cause my clothes have been treated, but Fiat is totally getting attacked. But anyway, it was, uh, yeah, we're both tired. Even though that was a short hike, uh, with not a whole lot of bird, I think it was 1300 feet. Yeah. It wasn't too bad. It was definitely steep at the end. So, uh, we're tired. We're probably going to go to bed a little bit early, but, uh, definitely the fish are jumping. So maybe they're eating some of those dang mosquitoes. So as you can see, sunset is here and we are just kind of checking it out right before we go to bed. Always cool to kind of see everything getting darker and darker and the colors change. It's just kind of mesmerizing. So yeah. What do you think of the colors so far? Like everything just changing colors and getting darker and darker. That's uh, interesting to watch as the sun sets and because there's a lot of smoke in the air from some of these fires. Say something nice to the camera. Good night. I am up and man, what a view right now. Just a little bit of that smoke just makes us, makes the colors amazing. But, uh, let me show you this mountain. It's like red. Check this out. It is like, I think it's coming through the phone, but visually seeing it. I mean, it looks like the, the mountain is literally on fire. Guys. So we didn't sleep in as long as we wanted to, but that's okay because getting that first light over the mountains, you have to get up pretty early to see that. And it's actually really warm. I think it only got down to about 50 degrees last night. So that's amazing. And of course, as you can see, we have a raging fire going, but yeah, I think we're going to just have a lots and lots of coffee, some breakfast and just kind of enjoy the colors changing. You guys have to see this. Let me turn here around. I mean, isn't that just so cool. You can see the sun peeking right through the mountain. What is our breakfast for today? Breakfast skillet. Oh, animals coffee right here. Thank you. Needs whipped cream. Yeah, it does. That's what it looks like. That's what it looks like in there. Doesn't look good now, but it will look good. Yeah. Except for, I didn't get the part where you jumped over the log. Well, I'm not doing it again. These are delicious, but very bland. Like it's just like a big bag of sausage and eggs and potato. So we have to bring some, uh, hot sauce, some salsa to put in there. It was really good with that too. Yeah. Once you do that, it's good. Well, I think we're going to start packing up and heading back soon. Sit around for a little bit longer, right? Start packing up and heading down. Well, we, uh, had a great night last night and really enjoyed the lake. And so now today we're heading back, uh, it's the very end of July and I think, uh, this is a good time to come up to Merriam Lake. Uh, you probably could have came a couple of weeks earlier, maybe even a month earlier. Yeah. But I think the flowers would have not been in bloom if it was a couple, you know, weeks ago. The field, the meadow, um, in that area, just where we were, we camped at tons of flowers, just purple, red, yellow. So I think this was like the perfect weekend to come up here. So, yeah. And, uh, there was multiple campsites still available. I was all worried on the way up that we wouldn't get a good spot. But after I searched around some more, there's probably five spots up here that are pretty good. There was a one other group camping on the far side of the lake, but we had this other whole side to ourselves, which was awesome. And the water, the color of the water is like this teal. It's amazing. You can see really deep down into the water and you could see the fish just right on the edge of the lake, just swinging around. So, well guys, uh, thank you for tagging along and we will catch you on the next one. Bye.