28.5.-03.06.2007: Sun Valley - Sawtooth NRA Today was Memorial Day. We have only been in the US once at this time of year and that was last year when we were in Rocky Mountains National Park and missed all the activities. So we decided to go and see the service at the cemetery. There was supposed to be some military planes doing a "fly by" at 10-45 but they didn't materialise. The service started at 11am and some of the veterans marched along with the trouping of the colour. The presenter did the introductions and promptly missed out the first speaker (we could see this because we had been given an "order of service") and jumped to the main speaker. One of the other speakers had to stop mid speech because the "fly by" took place! At the end, the colour marched off again but the elderly veteran carrying the colour, started staggering to the left. The weight of the flag made him stagger even more and we all watched with trepidation as the rest of the colour party marched off, completely oblivious to the drama unfolding behind them! With a valiant effort he managed to save the day and get the wayward flag under control and catch up with the rest of them! On Tuesday we went to the library and spent 3 hours there checking emails and doing an update. We made a veggie curry for us and Barry and then we watched "An Inconvenient Truth" - the Al Gore, Oscar winning environmental documentary which Barry had loaned from the library. Then we watched another Global warming documentary, narrated by Alanis Morrisette. Very entertaining. On Wednesday it was time to move on and we had a few problems getting back up the steep hill from the campground and had to try a second time. But we made it. We headed north and stopped at a ranger station to get info about the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. We drove over Gallena Pass (8,400ft) and stopped at an overlook. We drove down to various lakes and did a 4.5 mile walk along one of the lakes and up to some waterfalls and rapids. We found free camping near Redfish Lake. We were up at 6 am for the sunrise over Redfish Lake and then did a 17 mile hike around the lake. We started off going up to Bench Lake and then decided to see if there was a trail around the lake rather than having to go back the same way. We did a little detour up to Lily Lake and waterfall and then found a trail that had long, steep switchbacks up the other side of the lake. It was getting late so we cut out a few of the zig-zags by going vertically uphill so we didn't get caught in the dark! We also had to pick up our pace and made back down to the lake by 4pm but we still had a couple of miles on tarmac to get back to Winnie which was hard going. The walk took us nearly 8 hours and we really needed a shower. We knew where they were but they were closed. So we asked at a nearby lodge and were told that we could get free showers at a local RV park that had a restaurant. We didn't know whether to believe it or not, but we drove out to the RV park and got there in the dark just as they were about to close the restaurant. But the showers really were free and we got a yummy soup and delicious strawberry and rhubarb pie with ice cream! Friday was a laundry and computer day. On Saturday we tried to do a hike to Fishhook Creek but when we heard thunder we turned around and drove to the lodge to get drinking water whilst we waited for the weather to change. Later we managed to do the 6 mile walk and saw a garter snake on the way back. The next day we had to abandon another walk half way through, due to a thunderstorm. We waited for the weather to change but it didn't seem to be getting any better so we returned to the RV park with the free showers and had a meal there.