Stanley, Hailey, tomatoes and other wonderful food

Jasper on the Alpine trail

We have planned a trip to Stanley to lay Moxie's ashes to rest at our secret spot since she died just before Thanksgiving. We had not planned on Covid, but we went ahead with the original plan, anyway. We couldn't find lodging that accepted Jasper in Stanley, so we stayed in Hailey, which is over an hour from the trailhead. It turned out to be lucky. Stanley is a small town, and it was overwhelmed with tourists from all over the country. This is quite a change from the sleepy little Idaho town we discovered 19 years ago.

 

Folks are foolish to quibble about Jasper in their place. He is cleaner, more civilized, and more respectful of others than most humans. It exhausts me to try to explain this to folks, so I was very grateful to find our lodging. It was an Airbnb where it was easy to isolate, with a local park for short walks for all of us. 

The Sawtooth Mountains upon Mountains

We planned this trip during the week, thinking that it would be less crowded then, and it probably was. But the kids are still out of school (who knows for how long!), so it's still high vacation time. We were lucky to find a parking spot at the Iron Creek trailhead at 8:30a. Cars were parked all along the road leading up to it, and we were astonished to see license plates from New Hampshire, Maine, Alabama.. . .more states, really than I can say.

The scenery is impossibly beautiful. It is as lovely as any Rocky Mountain terrain. The trails are much more worn than they used to be, but once we started hiking, we were able to put some distance between ourselves and other hikers. I don't mean to sound misanthropic. I don't dislike people, I just dislike too many of them. This hike to Goat Lake used to be a solitary one. It is a long hard hike up to the lake, and we rarely saw anyone else there. We could drop our clothes and jump into the lake for about a millisecond. . .the snow can be seen melting into it along the lakes edge!  

The forests are still lovely and dense in some places, but in others, they have been ravaged by the warming, stress and bark beetle (in that order) that is taking it's toll everywhere in south-central Idaho. 

While Jasper proves himself more and more able with every hike, he has made it clear that he has a low opinion of getting wet. 

We were glad to get home to our little sanctuary. The tomatoes had started pouring in. Well. That's a bit of an exaggeration. The Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes started pouring in, the full sized tomatoes are still at a dribble. Still. Time for the Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce, lots of zucchini, basil, and even a couple of eggplants are on the horizon. I forget how much I love garden fresh food each summer. And then it happens. Home grown tomatoes. The only two things that money can't buy is True Love and Home Grown Tomatoes!