We’re near the end of our stay at Ririe Reservoir in Idaho. Last Wednesday, I set up my Yaesu FT-991a ham radio on a table outside our coach. My antenna has been phenomenal in this location – it tunes in really well. I made a number of contacts all over the country – I talked to a guy in Nebraska, one in Arkansas and a guy in Arlington, Texas. But the most interesting contact was with a station in Prescott, Arizona.

Wednesday was June 30th and the station I contacted had a special event callsign N7GMH and I talked to Doug there. The special event was a fundraiser for the Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial. The Granite Mountain Hotshots were part of the Prescott Fire Department. On June 30, 2013, the 20-member crew was fighting a wild fire on Yarnell Hill near Prescott. Nineteen of the twenty members were over-run by the fire and perished. The lone survivor had been placed on lookout duty. He warned the team of a shift in the fire via radio and was advised by his team leader to evacuate his position. We saw the memorial when were in Congress, Arizona near Yarnell Hill the year after the tragedy.

On Thursday morning, Donna was up at 4:30am to take a ride with Jeff and Deb Spencer to Grand Teton National Park for a hike. I stayed here and took their fox terrier, Sam for a couple of walks. They hiked a trail from Jenny Lake up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point and beyond. They saw an abundance of wildlife – they spotted a red fox, marmots, river otters and a moose. They hiked a little over eight miles and were gone most of the day – it was close to a 90-mile drive each way.

Here are some photos Donna took on their hike.

Donna had jambalaya in the slow cooker and the Spensers joined us for dinner on Friday. By evening, it’s enjoyable to sit outside in the shade at the picnic table. The temperatures had remained manageable with highs in the mid-80s, but we still ran the air conditioners in the afternoon.

We went back to the Idaho Falls farmers’ market Saturday morning. We ran into Jeff and Deb there although we weren’t actively trying to find them. After Donna purchased some fresh produce, we walked south across Broadway to the Japanese Friendship Garden. The garden commemorates the sister-city program – Idaho Falls’ sister city is Tokai-Mura, Japan. The garden is an island in the Snake River just south of the Broadway bridge. You might recall an earlier post where I described how the river is split down the middle with the water level on the east bank much higher than on the west bank and man-made structures create a spillway over rocks from one side of the river to the other.

The Japanese Friendship Garden island is right on this divide. Some water from the higher east side flows through water features on the island spilling into the lower west side. I’m not sure when the garden was established, but I know a pavilion was added in 2016. There are Japanese Friendship Gardens in Phoenix, Arizona, San Diego and San Jose, California.

Access to the garden is via a foot bridge from the southeast side of the Broadway bridge.

We maintained a low-key Fourth of July. Fireworks are prohibited here at Ririe Reservoir due to fire danger. There were fireworks displays nearby at Rigby Lake. We could hear them from afar, but didn’t see them. We had thundershowers around the area and the temperature cooled considerably as we dined at the picnic table on a feast of babyback ribs courtesy of Jeff and his Traeger. I didn’t pack our Traeger, so we haven’t had ribs since leaving Mesa in May. The thundershowers eventually caught us here in the park, but we were all inside by then.

Rain and gusty winds continued in the night. This morning, Jeff and Deb hit the road early heading to their next destination – the Sawtooth National Forest near Stanley, Idaho. I’ve already dismantled my antenna and started packing some of our gear. Donna went out to kayak on the Ririe Reservoir and we’ll be packing the kayak and her bike in the bed of the truck this afternoon.

It looks like we’ll have a warm week ahead of us with temperatures in the 90s daily. We plan to pull out tomorrow morning and head west on US20 toward Boise. We’ll see what comes up next.

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