Idaho travels - Boise Sprint & Fossils

Our travels began with a trip over the North Cascades hwy,

and our obligatory trip down the Yakima canyon to our usual camp stop at Big Pines. It was dry and hot when we got to the campground, the wind was blowing while we were setting up and trying to cook our food. It made it a little interesting, but by the time we were ready for bed it calmed down.

Our destination for the next night was to be Ontario, Oregon, but before we got there we had a few passes to go over. I loved this rest area: Deadman's pass. We stopped for lunch and enjoyed reading the historical info. about the Oregon trail.

Our main reason for traveling to Idaho was for the Boise Sprint at the Thomas Pence ranch near Payette, Idaho. After we checked into our motel, we took a quick drive over to the event site so we would know where it was and how long it would take us to get there the next morning. We've never done a Spartan race where there were no trees, It was interesting looking around and seeing everything in the open without a cover of trees. We saw an escaped cow, on the wrong side of the fence near the course.

The Spartan FB page posted these photos, they're better than mine so I'll use theirs.

Course map

Spear throw way up at the top of the hill

Spear throw

Spear throw looking over the Olympus wall (my photo)

Atlas carry (my photo)

Sand bag carry

Monkey bars

Rope climb

Plate drag

Slip wall, the driest one I've ever seen.

Multi rig

Hercules Hoist

There was a rolling mud and dunk wall just before the fire jump at the finish.

It was a great course, I loved the views of the irrigated fields below as we climbed to the tops of the hills. It was strange to see where we were going and the course in the distance as I said earlier, such a different experience for us. We finished in 2 hours and 36 minutes, I did 155 burpees, 150 penalty ones and five mandatory as part of the Atlas carry. It was about 4 1/2 miles long and 1000 feet of ascent according to my Garmin. 

Our official photos from the day:

It was also, the 3rd race in my Trifecta quest.

After our fun day in Idaho we headed to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument to sight see, it's a place I've wanted to see for awhile. I really enjoyed our time there.

We took a few walks at the different points of interest in the area.

Foree area:

Blue Basin:

Painted hills:

If you look closely (or zoom in) you'll see a white spot in the center of the bottom of the hill.

It's a Pronghorn Antelope!

We then drove to the Carno unit:

We were able to hike on a trail that went to the base of the Palisades,

and just below the arch in the photo below.

Do you see the petrified logs in this photo?

The bench in the photo below is just below the arch.

We saw some fossils in the rocks on the shorter loop trail as we made our way back to the car.

We camped a night in Wheeler county, Oregon in Oregon and a campsite along Blewett Pass pass before heading home.

It was a great 3 state journey and a "little" farther back in time 😉.