Family Fun - Sawmill Canyon

This past Saturday brought our family a day of fishing, shooting, hiking, sweating, some tears and a lot of fun. We headed out to Sawmill Canyon first thing in the morning. We first stopped at squaw creek for lunch and some fishing. The kids shot the 22 and Brett and I shot his new 357 magnum which didn't kick nearly as hard as I expected it to. We then headed for the Mill Creek trail. This trail starts at a campground and heads 2 miles up (and I mean up - approx 1000 vertical feet up) to a high mountain lake, appropriately named Mill Creek Lake. The kids did great on the hike but about 3/4 of the way up Sadie got very emotional and dramatic (she is 11 yrs old so this is to be expected) and started crying about how we were never going to reach the lake. It was actually pretty funny to the rest of us, but don't let her know that! We got up to the lake around 2:30pm or so and the boys were so hot and sweaty from the hike they decided that they were going to go swimming in the lake. Now mind you, we didn't bring swim suits, so they stripped down to their undies (even though we were not the only ones there), and went swimming. It was COLD water and you can tell by the photos that they could feel how cold it was. I had to take pictures, sorry boys. We spent the rest of the day fishing in the lake. Sadie and Brett fly fished most of the time. It was Sadie's first real fly fishing experience and she did really well. The photo of the fish being pulled out of the water then Sadie leaning over a fish are her catching her first fish on that fly rod, with a fly that she tied herself. Can you say "Daddy's girl"? Anyway, we built a fire and cooked our fish (some grayling and some trout) in some tin foil and ate it fresh for dinner. It was so good. The hike back down was a lot easier than the way up and we reached the car about 10:30pm. On the way back down, we were hiking along a pretty steep side hill and Greg was getting a little worried because his legs were tired. He told me, in all seriousness, that if he were to fall off the side and die that it would all be daddy's fault because it was his idea to go on this hike. I had to laugh pretty hard about that before I assured him there was no way anyone was going to die. We got home super late and it was hard to get up for 9am church the next morning, but I think we have all recovered quite well. Next weekend Brett and I are going to hike Mt. Borah, Idaho's tallest mountain. We will certainly post photos of that. Enjoy!