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Daily Didactic
The day began in the very pleasant Mormon Bend Campground, ten miles east of Stanley on the Salmon River. The campground was nearly empty when we got there and entirely empty by the time we rose. We saw some rafters put into the Salmon, what we were later told at a Stanley gear shop were raft guide trainees preparing for the season. Looked cold and fun. We motored the ten miles into Stanley and out of our brief shopping spree at an outfitter shop got a breakfast recommendation. The bakery in the very perfectly rustic town of Stanley is the sort of place you hope to find on the road, great breakfast and good coffee.
So, this was to be our first night in a tent, backpacking the Toxaway lake loop. Turns out there is a lot of snow here and this was sadly not going to happen. We stopped in at the ranger station and asked for alternative day hikes and even this stumped her. She came up with a hike down near Ketchum, but neither of us left the conversation sold on it. We decided to head for Ketchum, a town a few miles from Sun Valley, and crossed up and over Galena Pass. The road over was windy and fun and still pretty snowy. As we dropped down toward Ketchum it started drizzling and really didn't make day hiking seem like a fun choice. Theresa was excited to check out a consignment shop her student teacher Mary had told her about, so excited she called Brian from inside to tell him how excited she was. After her excitement subsided we walked around downtown Ketchum for a while and then decided to motor on to Caldwell, the home of Brian's alma mater. Not the backpacking trip we were hoping for, but an advance towards Yosemite where we imagine there will be less snow.
The drive to Caldwell was straight and flat, as Brian rememebered it. We stopped for the night in the Caldwell Campground and RV Park, an interesting (if not upscale) place to spend the night.