(written on the 30th)
It was a really rough night’s sleep last night. I didn’t do very well with my spine issues in overdrive and then the addition of heartburn on top of that.
I don’t know what caused it, certainly something that I must have done when trying to aggravate things for the MRIs, but my nerve issues in my left arm have been worse the last few days than they’ve ever been in my life.
Eventually, the morning came, and with it a gorgeous view of the Little Creek and Canyon where we had chosen to spend the night.
There were little rapids right next to where the van was parked, and the trees were turning beautiful colors. I noticed that there was a fire pit, so I decided to make a little campfire for the morning. Gratefully, it didn’t take much of any effort, and we were able to enjoy the fire for a little while, eat our breakfast, Aunt just sort of enjoy a leisurely morning time with beautiful views and lovely watery sounds.
The absolutely gorgeous scenery continued as we got back on the main road up Logan Canyon toward Bear lake. The colors were stunning, and the landscape was beautiful, and we stopped over and over and over and over and over again to take pictures.
Coming up over the ridge and down into the valley where Bear lake sits, it was a bit hazy, and perhaps that was part of the cause or for whatever other reason, the lake wasn’t as blue as I think it normally is, as it’s normally famous for.
Still, it was a nice view from the overlook as we were coming down.
One of my mom’s friends had mentioned that there was a beautiful lake in the hills to the west of the North end of Bear lake, so we headed up the west side of the lake, turned off at a little town up there, and headed up the canyon, winding our way for miles and miles and miles on a rather Rocky and uneven and obstacle filled dirt road.
I was grateful and continued to be grateful for the starlink satellite that allows me to work as I drive in places where there is no data connection available through my cell provider.
A very large chunk of the amount of work that I have done has been while driving, and I was taking phone calls while bouncing up a dirt road toward Bloomington lake in the middle of somewhat remote hills /mountains.
We arrived at Bloomington lake campground, gathered our hiking stuff together, and headed up the path toward Bloomington lake.
At first it was pretty steep, but nothing too serious, and then it leveled out and we came rather quickly to the crest of the Hill and found ourselves looking down on a big lake.
As we got near to it, we found that it was super duper shallow, with cow prints everywhere, and it even reminded me of one of cow ponds in Arkansas. It just seemed like one really big cow pond.
Of course, the scenery was a lot better in the background, with Rocky jagged Cliff faces and peaks and what not. But still… Nothing to ride home about.
But then as I was looking at my map, I realized that the lake we were at wasn’t even on the map. Which in and of itself was odd, but I could see from Google maps that Bloomington lake was actually further up and further in then where we were at that other lake.
So maybe that other lake really is a glorified cow pond. 🙃
So we made our way over to the other side of the big cow Pond, found the trail again, and kept on going over and up until we ran alongside of small lakeish Pond thingy that was connected to the actual Bloomington lake itself.
Once we got to Bloomington lake, it was indeed beautiful. The water was A deep bluish turquoise, with the far end of the lake from where we were standing meeting up against a cliff face. The water was much deeper, and the fish much much bigger. We could see the fish because the water was just about crystal clear.
It was beautiful. 😊
We took some pictures and poked around a little bit, and then I left Mom sitting on top of a big boulder while I wandered around to the other side of the lake to see if the water level dropped off precipitously where the cliff face was.
When I got to the cliff end of the lake, the water wasn’t appreciably any deeper than the other places that I had passed along the way, so I headed back. By the time I got back, we realized that we were running rather late for getting to my mom’s friend’s house in twin Falls, so we headed back without dawdling along the way, but we did pass a couple that said that people did go cliff jumping, so maybe that could be a fun place to go sometime in the future. My mom had noticed a rope swing on one side of the lake that I totally missed.
On a fall day in late September, however, temperatures were not quite enticing for me to want to take a quick dip in the lake before heading back.
So we headed back, found the little pay station that my mom had noticed but I didn’t on the way in because I guess we were at a fee area, dropped our money in the pay place, and headed down the canyon– destination twin Falls.
The drive to twin Falls was nothing to write home about. High desert with sagebrush hills and what not. I guess beautiful in its own way, but not quite my cup of tea. That actually worked out just fine because we were driving through it anyway without stopping because we were trying to get to twin Falls in time for my mom to spend at least an hour or two with one of her friends from her mission.
Gratefully, we got to my mom’s friend’s house in time for her to spend somewhere between an hour and a half and 2 hours chatting with her. I spent the time outside trying to stretch and find some way to try and get relief from all my nerve issues. I ended up lying down on the concrete in different positions and was able to at least reduce the symptoms, though I wasn’t able to get them to go away.
From my mom’s friend’s place, we drove to the mountain Home flying J, where we spent the night, Rover covered in an enormous number of bugs. It was funny to climb out of the van at the gas station and look at the front of the van. I think there were more bug spots than there was visible paint.
Anyway, that was the day. After a week and a half, or so, in Utah we made it to Idaho. Next stop Oregon.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 