Hiking trails near Boise

After reading an article in the Idaho Statesman about "Boise's hiking Grand Slam" in April I decided that this was something that Mike and I could do.  Summer was still a bit away, but I get this itch to go hiking, but at the same time I am a casual outdoor person who is not quite ready to stay out all night.  So I thought this is a great solution.  All four trails are located close to Boise and are not terribly long so that we could easily hike in and out in a day. 

May 6th: Cervidae peak
Total: 5 miles

  The trail head was easy to find and easy to follow.  It went up, up, and up some more all the way to the top.  The view was amazing; we could see the Lucky Peak reservoir and Mores creek from the top.  There was a register at the top for signing your name which I thought was nice.  It gives you a sense of ending.  On our way down it started to rain and we could see lightning hitting the hill just next us.  We walked out of there real fast to avoid getting struck by lightning.

This was my second favorite hike of the four.  The hills are so steep that hiking poles are a must have item, especially for coming down the hill. It took us about 3 hours including a lunch break.      
     

Looking down to Lucky Peak

A pretty view of rolling hills

The view from the top

Walking down the trail with the storm following us 

May 13th: Kepros
Total: 11 miles

This was another Saturday afternoon hike.  The trail head was a bit challenging to find.  The article we read said the trail head was 9 miles after exiting the free way, but it turned out it was actually 11 miles.  Right from the beginning we had to climb over a few very steep hills.  It was very windy and cold when we started out.  After a few miles the trail connects to a hunting road and from then on it was an easy walk to the top.  The weather was great and there were plenty of wildflowers to enjoy.  There wan't much shade so I wouldn't hike this in the summer.  There were numerous bypasses that you could follow to avoid steep hills.  The total mileage would be different based on which, or how many, bypasses you follow. 

This was my third favorite hike of the four.  It took us about 6 hours including lunch and two breaks.  

Lovely view

Following a hunting trail

A lone tree at the top of a hill

We've made it to the top

May 27th: Lucky peak/ Shaw mountain
Total: 15 miles

The person who wrote the article said 10.2 miles so I really don't know where our 5 extra miles came from.  Maybe they know a short cut to the top? 
The trail head is located within the city limits and because of that this was the busiest trail of the four.  The weather was perfect, and we forgot our sunscreen so by the end of the day we looked like cooked lobsters.  When you look at the foothills behind downtown Boise this is the tallest peak there. After the hike whenever I look at the peak while I am driving it just amazes me that we were crazy enough to climb it.  

This was my least favorite hike of the four.  It may have been because of the hot weather and sunburn.  It was a very, very long hike on a very hot day.  It took us 8.5 hours including lunch and a lot of water breaks.         

Looking down at the city of Boise

Loved this part of the trail.

The view from the top

Heading down 

June 3rd: Heinen
Total: 12 miles (Did not make it to the top)

We knew before we left home that this would be the most challenging hike of the four.  The first mile or so was extremely hard, steep climbing on loose rocks and dirt.  I wouldn't even dream about hiking this without hiking poles.  But, can you believe it? when we got to the trail head we realized that we left mine at home.  Now we each had one hiking pole, not a pair.  It was manageable, but it would have been much better if I had my own.  The trail wasn't very easy to follow so we got off the trail a few times.  This was a beautiful hike and I am disappointed that we didn't make it to the top.  Mike was showing symptoms of heat exhaustion, and we were running short on water.  We poured some water on Mike's head to cool him off.  We took a long break under a tree and after drinking more water he was well enough to hike out. 

Even though we didn't finish the hike this was my favorite of the four.  There was an abundance of wild flowers and great views of the river.  I am guessing we completed 90% of the hike and it took us about 9 hours.  I'd like to try this one again next year. We need to go earlier in the spring and take more water than we did.                  

Looking back to the trail head 

What am I going to do if he can't make it back?

This is why I hike

He feels good enough to carry his own backpack.

My garden in July

It is getting pretty hot during the day.  To avoid working in the hot sun I have been getting up early to take care of my garden.  I am not a morning person but I love summer mornings.  I love the sound of birds, the cool morning air, and walking around my vegetables and flowers.  

My onions are doing great.  Their tops are about to fall over and I can see thin yellow skins are forming on the bulbs.  We already harvested few of them for cooking.  I love going out to my garden to pick things right before dinner.  It doesn't get any fresher than that.   

I planted some sunflowers this year.  In the past I haven't had very good luck with them.  Our resident squirrels will get a hold of them and bite off the top.  But this year it is not the squirrels that are causing the problem.  My sunflowers are getting attacked by earwigs. 

After doing some reading I found out a really simple and nontoxic way to fight the earwigs.  What you need is some oil and a shallow dish.  I used an empty tuna can and olive oil (some people suggested fish oil). All you need to do is dig a little hole that is big enough to bury the can and pour a little bit of oil in it.  To spare you seeing a bunch of earwigs drowned in oil I didn't take a  picture of the end result,  but trust me, it works.

Other than the problem with earwigs my sunflowers are doing great.  I am planning to feed my chickens with them in the fall. 
    

After last years experience of trying to find pickling cucumbers I decide to grow my own this year.  The cucumber vines got plenty of flowers because they take a short time to mature.  I can pick a handful of them every morning.  I do not have enough to process, so I am thinking of making some refrigerator pickles with them. 

Today's offering from my garden and  chickens.

Meet our new chickens

Our new chickens are 15 weeks old and they do not look and sound like chicks anymore.  It is fun to watch them and I am pretty sure they think it is fun to watch their humans.  From time to time they will perch on the log outside our window and look in to check out what we are up to. 

This is Panic she is an Ameraucana.  I heard they lay blue eggs so we made a special trip to our neighboring city to get her.  When we got there she was the only one left and she was not happy about it and she was letting everyone knew she was not happy.  She was practically panicking all the way home and would not settle down.  So she earned her name Panic.  she was fine after she joined the other chicks.

This is Charcoal because when she was a baby she was black like a lump of coal.  We call her Cole for short and she is a Barred Plymouth Rock.

We named her queen B (Beatrice).  She is a white leghorn.  We had leghorns before and they are more aggressive compared to other breeds.  We thought she would become the alpha female, but so far she is very quiet and shy and does not show any interest in becoming the queen of the flock.

This is a brown leghorn named Doughnut.  Sometimes it is hard to choose a name for the chickens especially when they are just normal average chickens.  But who knew she is anything but average. I think this group of girls is going to be ruled by Doughnut. My husband calls her Batman for reasons that are unexplained and probably unexplainable. 

This is Aurora and she is a Gold Sex Link.  She is really mellow and just minds her own business most of the time.  She was not very cooperative of getting her picture taken, so this it the best one I got.  If she wants to look like a fool with her mouth open, more power to her (actually she has her mouth open and her wings spread out because she is hot).

Goldilocks is another Gold Sex Link.  She had really pretty golden feathers when she was a baby and I think she still looks lovely.  By far she is the the friendliest of them all.


I think it is almost time for them to start laying eggs and I can't wait to see what color eggs they will produce.  

Family Camping trip

Stanley, ID is my favorite place to go in the summer.  The view of the Sawtooth wilderness is amazing and there are plenty of things to do.  It is overshadowed by McCall, the very popular summer destination, but I just love small town Stanley with its surrounding area.  There are plenty of things to do for everyone.  A boat ride at Redfish lake, fishing in the Salmon river, horseback riding, water sports, backpacking to numerous mountain lakes, hiking and camping just to name a few.

It was my birthday this week and both of our daughters had the day off from work and were able to join us.  We decided to take them to Sawtooth lake for an easy day hike.  Even though they love to go camping and fishing they have never gone on a long hike before. 
  

We got to Iron creek late in the afternoon and the first order of business is, of course, to put up a tent. Or spray insect repellent in Jennifer's case.

After putting up the tents we had to build a campfire so we can cook our dinner.  We left fire building to Jennifer, our resident fire bug.

We had salmon, BBQ beans, and steamed broccoli and summer squash for dinner.  And S'mores for dessert.

The next morning after breaking our camp we packed our day pack with water and lunch and we were ready to go into the wilderness.

First we had to fill out a wilderness permit.  We had to answer questions like how many are in our group, our destination, and how many days.

Here we are at the the trail head ready to start our hike.

Taking a break before we ascend some steep hills.

The snow reminded me of the harsh winter we had.  By this time of the year this small meadow is usually covered in wildflowers,  but this year there was water from melting snow everywhere.

When there is snow you got to build a snowman. Rhiannon's very very small snowman.

After the meadow the trail was still under a lot of snow but we decided to give it a go.  We are practically going cross country by this time, and doing our best to follow what we thought was the trail.  We had only gone a little way when I heard a scream and I turned around to see the bottom half of Rhiannon's body was gone under the snow. She had stepped on the soft snow and fell into a hole between two fallen trees.  After a little bit of crying, and when we were sure she didn't break any body part, we decided to call off the hiking.

Summer is still a way out in this part of the mountains.  We ran into two young men who actually hiked to Alpine lake which is lower than Sawtooth lake that we were planning to go to.  They said the whole lake is still covered in snow except one small patch of open water.

Even though we didn't make it to our lake, it was great fun to be out with my family. Here the girls are pointing out a tree that is growing out of a boulder.

Jennifer and her dad

The biggest challenge of taking a photo of wild animals is that they make horrible models.  But look at these two! They were being perfect models.  On the top we have a tree squirrel and on the bottom a mountain goat.

Becoming an American citizen

I have been living in America for 25 years and last summer I decided to apply for US citizenship.  One of the reason is because I don't want to pay $450 every 10 years to renew my permanent resident card, also known as a green card. Another reason is that I was summoned to serve on a jury twice, but I couldn't go because that is a privilege for American citizens.  I don't think I am going back to Korea, and I pay taxes, but have no right to vote.  Considering all this, I came to the conclusion that becoming an American citizen would be the best thing.

I filled out the N-400 form with a fee of $720 ($640 for the application and $80 for fingerprints) in Aug 2016.  I received a letter about two weeks later with an appointment to take my fingerprints on September 2nd.  I was impressed by how fast they were moving the paperwork.  Then I didn't hear anything from them for what I thought was a very long time. 

Do you know how many people become US citizens every year?  Here is the statistic from USCIS
 In 2015, a total of 730,259 persons were naturalized. The leading countries of birth of new citizens were Mexico (105,958), India (42,213), the Philippines (40,815), and the People’s Republic of China (31,241). The largest number of persons naturalizing lived in California (155,979), New York (90,368), and Florida (81,960). No wonder it takes such a long time to process.  Actually, it is not bad in Idaho, but I heard that California has a really long waiting period. 

I waited and waited some more and finally on January 2nd I received a letter informing me that my interview and civics test would be on March 14th.  The test was easy.  It was a random selection of 10 out of 100 questions, and I only needed to answer 6 of them correctly. The interview part was also quick and easy since I have not had trouble with the law and not a member of the Communist party or a Nazi.  The only thing left was the oath ceremony on April 27th.

So on April 27th, 2017 I became an American citizen with 47 other people from 24 different countries.  The ceremony itself was really short; it took only 30 minutes or so.  It started with introducing everyone by the country where they came from.  It was the last time that we would be known as Koreans, Mexicans, or Iraqis. After that, 47 of us raised our right arm and repeated after the official the Oath of Allegiance. 

          

As soon as he said "entirely renounce..." the seriousness of what was happening hit me so hard that I burst into tears and could not stop.  The tears took me by surprise. I mean I knew from the beginning what the "Oath of Allegiance" meant, and I signed the paper that I am willingly taking the oath.  So I couldn't understand why the tears.  Saying goodbye to my mother country was harder than I thought it would be.  My family is still there. I was born and raised there.  Even though I didn't think I was loyal and patriotic to my country, in the end I found out that I was.  It is just that I never had to think about it.  

After the "Oath of Allegiance" we watched a brief video of others who also became citizens of this great country.  Then we all got our certificate of citizenship, and ended with reciting the pledge of allegiance. 

I couldn't talk about my experience for a few days.  Every time when I thought about it, and talked about it, I felt tears coming and my heart ached.  I couldn't talk to my friends, who were so happy for me, about it because I didn't want them to see my sadness as my reluctance to become an American.   My emotions were running deep and strong and I didn't have the right words to describe them.  Mike used word "bittersweet",  but it was much more than that.  For a few days I felt like there was a hole in my heart where Korea used to be.  I have lived in America for half of my life and during that time I developed a love for this country. So what are my feelings? They are: sad, happy, hope, new beginning, lost, homesick, and most of all love.  In the Bible Ruth says, "whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people." (Ruth 1:16).  I will be where my family is.  They are Americans so I will be one.  What I thought was the logical decision became a very emotional decision in the end when the whole identity issue decided to join the party. 

I am excited for new opportunities.  I can vote and serve on a jury.  Tomorrow I am going to apply for a passport.