Rapid Lake, near McCall Idaho

Rapid Lake, a great fall backpack

A total of 18 of us hiked to Rapid Lake in Late September, a few years ago.  Rapid Lake is about a 3 miles easy hike, reached from Boulder Reservior.  It has been a favorite of my BSU class, and our Boy Scout troop. It was very scenic there, very cold at night, very heavily visited by sheep.  If no one gets sick, then our filters worked, because there were sheep berries everywhere.  The sheepherder was Ruben, from Peru.  He had two border collies to move the sheep, and two Great Pyrenness to guard them from wolves.  He had 4 horses, and three mules to move his camp and get supplies for the animals and himself.

Chris S. lugged a float tube to the lake, and did very well catching some nice fish.  He was using a sinking fly which was a red version of a renegade, which he ties himself.  Kellie took a dip in the cold water, and said it was warm compared to her Polar Bear activities.  She didn't utter a sound when she got in the ice cold water.  I would have been screaming!

It was pretty cold, in the low 20s we figured, and several people were cold.  Hello Sara, a foam pad helps a lot!  That night made a down sleeping bag look like a pretty good investment.  Next time I'll bring a few extra sleeping bags up there, and sell them at about 2 AM for $500 each.  I bet I'd sell out.  Many were cold, few were frozen.