Marriage and Beauty
This weekend I was the second photographer at a wedding in Ketchum. The bride and groom staged a beautiful wedding day with close friends and family. Some highlights of the day were the cruiser-bike-riding procession, gorgeous hand painted wedding dress, and unique ceremony and reception sites. As I go through more images I’ll share them, but here’s a sneak peek to show you how special the day was.
Today I woke up still tired from a very long and very sunny day yesterday. I picked a hike out of Day Hiking Near Sun Valley, the most comprehensive guide available for trails in this valley. I pulled a total Mike-move, which means I read the description only long enough to realize that the trail down Germania Creek sounded beautiful. I did not, for instance, pick up on the fact that it was 45 miles from our house. Nor did I seem to notice that the last 7 miles was on a jeep track (we do not, I should mention at this point, have a Jeep).
The drive over Galena Pass is always pretty spectacular so we really didn’t mind driving that far. It was after the road turned into a jeep track that the issues began. There was a sign reading “Travel not recommended for : trailers, autos” but I quickly dismissed that we had an auto. It is a Subaru, so surely it can make it. Uh huh. Our Subaru is fantastic, don’t get me wrong. But the clearance on it is not what the jeep track calls for. Things were going pretty well, albeit slightly nerve wracking, until we saw a sheep herder’s trailer in a nearby meadow. Then we saw horses. Then, about a half mile later, the sheep. With sheep come sheep dogs. Before you get the lovely idea of shaggy, gentle sheep dogs leisurely guarding the herd, keep these things in mind. We live in an area with coyotes, bears, wolves, and mountain lion.
The sheep dogs that guard the herds are fierce and not-to-be-messed-with. There were about six of them, including one particularly aggressive and wild-eyed Pyrenees. Our dogs started barking and we were done for. The sheep dogs surrounded our car, biting at the tires and lunging at the doors and windows. We managed to out-drive them after about a mile. It was a scary mile. Then, lo and behold, before we reached our destination we screeched to a halt before a fast-flowing and totally Subaru-impassible creek. Turn around, negotiate the road, go through the dog gauntlet one more time. It was terrifying. I should note here that the sheep dogs were doing their job perfectly…that’s what they are trained and bred to do. But it’s terrifying.
After making it down the jeep road once again we stopped at a particularly lovely campsite on an unnamed creek. We ate lunch, enjoyed the view, and watched Lemhi flop about in the water. We gave up on the hiking idea as most of the trails in that area are multi-use (motorized and non) and those trails aren’t particularly fun to hike on. Because we were oh-so-close already we headed to Alturas Lake for a swim and to take in the view. This whole escapade, from start to finish, took up the entire day. About halfway through the morning I developed a very zen attitude about the day as nothing was going to plan. Turns out the day was full of beauty, regardless of plan.
