And Here We Have Idaho
The High Mountain Pleasures of an Idaho Family Hike
The ascent to Shirts Lake took us through meadows and mountainsides grinning with flowers.
By Jill Kuraitis, 6-30-09
Hiking to Shirts Lake, accessible from West Mountain Road around Cascade Reservoir in Idaho’s beautiful Valley County, was a part of our kids’ childhoods. The fishing, camping, swimming and messing around in the mountains turned them both into lovers of nature and the earth. Son is a hiker and mountain biker, and Daughter, close to finishing a degree in environmental science, wants to spend her life trying to save the planet. Getting kids outdoors really does help them stay rooted in what’s real.
The lake, no doubt named after somebody named Shirts, rises from the town of Cascade’s 4,760 foot elevation to 7,700 in Idaho’s beautiful Valley County, where it is no longer early spring but not quite mid-spring.
That means wildflowers and songbirds, and a weekend family hike to Shirts took us through meadows and mountainsides grinning with both.
Although about a third of the trail was open and green underfoot, there was some serious bushwhacking, with abundant spring growth on the syringa, aspen saplings, pines and berry bushes. It was so warm we all had bare arms, and like badges of honor, we compared wounds - and bug bites - later in the day.
(Here is the part where we skip over the epic altitude sickness episode. Let’s just say I’m not the most outdoorsy of the four of us, and the tale is already family lore.)
Pushing through the clumps of purple Columbine, Forget-Me-Nots showed themselves to be the bluest blue flower of them all. Iberis at altitude seemed more beautiful than the cultivated variety, and starburst Cleome were just barely opening.
The many tiny creeks were running well, and one of the best things about this hike are the several small waterfalls along the way, set in yawning green woods cool enough for moss, lichen and mountain lilies. 
Little girls look for fairies in magical pockets like these.
The yellowest of all woodland songbirds, 
Yellow Warblers flew from the smaller trees across the path, singing their chips and zeets and what sounds like “See-See-See-Don’t You See?” Backyard birders everywhere will recognize the song of the Black-Capped Chickadee, 
which lives in both towns and forests. Mountain Bluebirds, the state bird, will show themselves a little later in the year. 
At about 7,000 feet, the mouth of a spring presides over a view of the lake. For some joyful dog reason, our mutt Honeybear thought she’d found nirvana. 
We saw not another living soul on our hike up or down. At the top, we sat by the lake, ate our sandwiches, played catch-and-release with frogs and watched a tiger muskie menace the tadpoles. The dog swam goofy circles in the lake, biting the water and snapping at bugs. It was a blissful feeling, on this rare outing with our grown children, knowing only we four shared the high mountain pleasures around us, in those brief, precious, family hours. 
Thank-you for letting us live that moment with you. I treasure times like that, and try to spend every summer weekend somewhere in the mountains. This last weekend it was Crooked River, but Shirts Lake could be on the short list for the weekend after next.
Comment By Bill Croke, 6-30-09Well, Jill, maybe when "daughter" is finished saving the planet she can get an English degree and save your prose. Though I actually liked the piece, as I hike myself. But "grinning" wildflowers and songbirds? "Iberis at altitude"? "Yawning" green woods? "Little girls look for fairies in magical pockets like these..." I think I'll leave that one alone, Jill. I don't want Courtney or Jon to scratch the post. But Jill, get me rewrite.
Comment By Steve Stuebner, 7-01-09Nice pix Jill!
Comment By Clancy, 7-01-09Shirts lake is very pretty place. I have only hike in from the top from the antennas on top of Snowbank.
Comment By Clancy, 7-01-09FYI....Tiger Muskie and Trout are two different species. I highly doubt Tiger Muskie have been stocked at that altitude. Double checking records confirms this. http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/apps/stocking.
Comment By Julie in Boise, 7-01-09Thanks for the reminder of why we live in Idaho.
Comment By Jill Kuraitis, 7-01-09Clancy - there were signs posted at the trailhead from Fish and Game saying there were stocked tiger muskie in Shirts Lake, and you could clearly see them. It's listed in several places as a variety of trout....?
Comment By Jill Kuraitis, 7-01-09Steve, thanks - but the birds and two of the flower shots are stock photos.
Comment By Tom von Alten, 7-01-09I like "yawning green woods," Bill. Do you have a burr in your saddle or something? If you don't like a "feel good" piece, just head on down the trail.
Comment By Clancy, 7-01-09Interesting F&G;did stock Tiger Muskie in Shirts in June of 2007. They must be trying to control/eradicate the trout in that lake.
Comment By Bill Croke, 7-01-09Tom, There are no "feel good" pieces. There are no "feel bad" pieces. There are only well written pieces.
Comment By Jill Kuraitis, 7-02-09Clancy, the sign said "Limit Two" - so I don't think eradication is the idea. However, watching them convinced me that tiger muskies are serious predators! Never saw a more aggressive lake fish.
Comment By Jay Kanta, 7-04-09Poor Bill, he just can't handle the internet version of flowing thoughts. Too bad, Jill's prose was somewhat poetic in places.
Comment By Bill Croke, 7-05-09Well, Jay, I'm sorry I was off this thread for a few days. The last thing Jill's prose is is poetic. Overblown imagery (in both prose and poetry) is the result of a writer trying to make things so vividly rendered that it comes out overdone. Like burned biscuits. If she described things precisely and sought metaphors that were clear, they would, in turn, be clear in the reader's mind. As for me being unable to "handle the internet version of flowing thoughts", I'll leave that to you, you're the expert. I picture you in your cubicle with wires plugged in your ears to do this. Have fun.
Comment By Justin Boggs, 7-06-09Well Bill, I guess in your pathetic little world you have proved yourself superior. However, the rest of the just think you are a putz. Please move along now, and take your unwanted criticism with you.
Comment By Bill Croke, 7-06-09Well, Justin Boggs, I think there might be an intern's job for you at New West. You should talk to Jon. I think you could easily pass their literacy test. If not, Jill can tutor you. The last two sentences of your post pretty much sums up New West's view of heterodox commentary on their threads. Good luck.
Comment By Jay Kanta, 7-06-09I'd say more that the NewWest commentary is tired of your useless personal attacks on both the commenters and on Jill, for no apparent reason other than you have nothing better to do. I think you should go tell every person that attempts to write "poetry" that they are wrong, that you are right, and when they attempt to argue, just claim that you're a poor persecuted person that is only trying to cure the world of all the perceived ills.
Or maybe you're just a misogynistic curmudgeon?
Nice way to spend an interlude from the Rat Race. Its easy to find lots of these pleasant places in the Inter Mountain West. I agree. Nice pics.
Comment By Bill Croke, 7-06-09The problem is that no one argues, they just smear like you. That's the liberal modus operandi. That's what it always comes to. Look what you're doing, Jay--demonizing me because I criticized Jill's poorly written piece, and a few people like you on the thread who think it's excellent. It's mediocre. That's not my fault. Liberals tend to write badly on purpose because their readers --mostly liberals-- don't know any better. It's all about good intentions and --for want of a better phrase--feelgoodism. The root of all this is education, of course, which the Left has destroyed in the last generation or so. I only have a high school education with about a year of college tossed in. I'm amazed that people with graduate degrees (like you and Mikey) don't express yourself very well in the posts. You seem to think your ingrained enlightened views will carry the day. But smugness doesn't win arguments. Everybody can tell me I'm not nice for criticizing a Jill piece, but nobody can tell me what's good about it. After all, it did have some strong points. I could do it myself, but I'm tired of thinking for everybody.
Comment By Jay Kanta, 7-07-09All the hypocrisy that is Bill Croke. "Waaaa, you're all name calling liberal elitists and you suck!"
Go somewhere else where your useless, repetitive blathering will be more appreciated, and where you won't have to think anymore.
Literary criticism has its place, and when done well, it can be both entertaining and instructive. There is a big audience for ill-tempered sarcasm as well, as Rush Limbaugh shows us every day.
And there's a place for trolls as well. Under the bridge.
Trading insults over public policy matters is entertaining and par for the course since before the beginning of the republic but a point is reached at which gratuitous criticism for its own sake reveals more about the criticizer's personality defects than the shortcomings of those who are the object of the criticism.
Comment By Bill Croke, 7-07-09Jay: But that's what you want. So, sorry. Tom: Ditto Jay, etc. And I don't see Limbaugh as wholly sarcastic, but then again, you probably don't listen to him. So, sorry. Mickey: Your post makes no sense. Are you saying that liberals are incapable of having "personality defects"?. This is the cliche' that liberals use to demonize and muzzle conservatives. I'm not going into detail today. I think you can figure it out....Anyway, as usual, the comments of you three strike me as coming from the south end of the horse, rather than the mouth...But I'm off this thread. Mickey is right in that, right or wrong, we all get a bit tedious to hear-read, etc. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the gleeful Sarah Palin implosion piece coming this week from either Jill or Joan. It's predictable. I'm betting on Jill. You heard it here first. Count on it.
Comment By Mickey Garcia, 7-07-09Come on, Dummy, Wake up! Both Liberals and Conservatives are afflicted with what could be called Sheep Personality Disorder, depending on the subject. On the other other hand you could be a grumpy old geezer, masquerading as a creative writing critic, obsessed with the ridiculous idea that liberals are the cause of all evil in the world.
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