After keeping up a hectic schedule of hiking and kayaking while we were in the mountains of Wyoming, we have decided that we deserve a little rest time here in Idaho--to literally recharge our batteries. We camped here in the Juniper Campground in 2017, and we kayaked on the reservoir. So while we are resting here, we took the kayak out for a spin on the water.
The lake has canyon walls on both sides, and we think the dark palisade edges are very pretty.
When we zoom into those canyon walls, it looks like God has gathered up rock pillars like pencils and stood them on end to decorate the lake for us.
The canyon walls also provided some shade for us on this hotter-than-usual summer day in Idaho. The weatherman reported that they broke the record for the high temperature yesterday, and we are seeing forecasted temperatures close to 100 degrees! This is no way for Idaho to welcome guests like us! We say that we are always chasing 70 degree weather, and we obviously aren't doing a good job of it right now. If you look closely, you can see that those canyon walls are also providing shade and protection for the birds.
What we also remember from our kayak trip here four years ago, were all the eagles we found. We were here in late September, and we thought that maybe we were too early for the eagles today. So we were glad when we spotted this juvenile in a tree on the banks. His head looks dirty, as his adolescent brown feathers are turning into a crown of white that is iconic for the mature bald eagles.
Finding that one young eagle meant that we didn't get skunked on this eagle hunt. Last time we only had enough daylight to go two miles down the reservoir. Since we started in the morning, we went four miles before we decided we better head back to our boat launch.
That's when we saw our first adult eagle, posing majestically in a tree right on the water's edge.
We watched until he tired of us and spread those big wings and flew away.
After sitting in the boat for a couple hours, it was time to get out and walk around a little. The steep canyon walls make beaching the kayak more difficult, so we were glad to find this floating dock.
Then we headed back towards home, still searching for eagles. They all came with different backgrounds. This eagle was on the rocks high on the canyon wall,
while this one was on a rock close to the water,
and this one was by a bush. It made rowing back more fun to have eagles to photograph on the way.
We were almost back to the boat launch, when we noticed this group of birds swimming in front of us.
It's not a clear picture, but we think these are "eared grebes." We've never taken a picture of these birds with their golden feathers fanning out behind their red eyes. They are as much fun to find as eagles!
After resting while we kayaked, Mark had some work to do to recharge our house batteries. He has been researching battery options ever since we had to leave our favorite campground in the Snowy Mountains because our batteries weren't holding a charge well. His research says that these batteries should last from 2 to 6 years. Considering that these are the originals and our coach is almost 8 years old, it sounds like it is time to replace them.
He checked on-line for the best kind to buy, and then the best place to buy. He was pleasantly surprised to find an RV supply place in Idaho Falls that had them in stock and at a good price, so he made the purchase yesterday. Today's project is installing the new ones. Since these four batteries are wired in series and parallel, they have to be reconnected the same way as the old ones. So the first job was taping lime green labels on all the cables so they will go back in the correct order.
The most time-consuming part of the job was cleaning all the racks and cables to get ready for the new batteries. Then Mark lifted each one of those 60-pound batteries onto the rack and rewired them.
Now we hope that this new set of batteries will last as long as the old ones did. We also hope that they will allow us to boondock for longer periods of time when we find a beautiful campground that we don't want to leave.
During this stop at our first campground in Idaho, we did some recharging of ourselves and our batteries. As we look out over the reservoir on a nice sunset, we're glad to be wandering at a little slower pace. It's also good that Mark got a big project done, so our new batteries can be recharging.
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