A mother/daughter adventure in beautiful Burgdorf, Idaho
Next time you find yourself near McCall, Idaho, skip though town and head north on Warren Wagon Road. You’ll pass the Pueblo Lindo Mexican restaurant (worth a stop if you’re hungry), skirt Payette Lake and Upper Payette Lake, and 28 very slow miles later, you’ll find yourself in Burgdorf – the little town that time forgot.
I was enchanted with Burgdorf the moment I saw the sign – Burgdorf – spelled out in greying aspen trunks and branches, nailed carefully to the side of a weather-beaten barn. This looks like my kind of place, I thought.
The ambiance of Burgdorf, from the rusted red pickup abandoned in the field to the dilapidated dance hall with the drooping front porch, to the smattering of old cabins and outhouses, felt so authentic. Even the weary hot springs pool looked inviting.
There are 16 no-frills cabins in Burgdorf, and most are tiny. All have wood burning stoves and outhouses. None have running water or kitchens.
We stayed in a cabin called DeRail. It had a double bed, a wood burning stove, a wooden table and chairs and a counter. The front porch, up a few creaky steps, had two chairs and a wobbly table. We had a private outhouse out back, a few steps up the hill. It was perfect.
The hot springs pool was rough around the edges like the rest of the place, which gave it character. The best thing it had going for it was that it was open all night long to overnight guests. A midnight soak was definitely in order.
With its rustic appeal, Burgdorf was charming, and the surrounding area was fascinating, too. In our typical style, we packed as much as we could into our two-day stay.
We hiked from our cozy cabin to the Crystal Mountain trailhead, then climbed the quartz-topped mountain which is said to have the largest deposit of quartz crystals in the state. I’m not sure if that’s actually true, however, we had a great hike and left with some beautiful chunks of quartz.
We also hiked to Loon Lake, a 10-mile adventure along the Secesh River. We were hoping to make it to the crash site of the “Dragon Bomber,” a B-23 that went down in the hills above Loon Lake on January 29, 1943 with eight men aboard, but we ended up turning back at the lake. No worries. We’re glad to have an excuse to return. Side note: All the men survived. Read more.
We made it to nearby Warren, too, the “secret” town we’d heard about located a dozen or so miles up the dirt road past Burgdorf. Folks from McCall who want to get away from the crowds go to Warren, we were told. There were no crowds there, just an old graveyard up on the hill and a restaurant called the Baum Shelter, where we bought a few orders of garlic fries and took them back to the staff at Burgdorf.
To cool off after our dusty adventure, we grabbed our books and returned to the Secesh River, where we plopped down on rocks and splashed our feet in the icy water.
While we had a lot of fun in Burgdorf, my favorite memory is of our middle-of-the-night soak. We set the alarm for 1:30 AM and vowed that when it buzzed, we would force ourselves to get out of bed and walk down to the pool. The alarm sounded and with little debate, we were up, out the door, and into the silent night. Well, almost silent night. As we made our way down the hill, we passed a guest walking up the hill back to his cabin. It was creepy running into someone in the quiet darkness. It was also creepy sitting in the pool and stargazing. It was so eerily quiet, in fact, that we didn’t last too long out there in the darkness!
We squeezed a lot of good times into our short stay in Burgdorf, and we also made some great memories. Who knew that in the tiny town of Burgdorf, in the middle of Nowhere, Idaho, we could have so much fun.
We started our adventure with an easy 7-mile hike to 
The Garden Route, which follows the Eastern Cape, is a popular drive along South Africa’s scenic coastline. Some drive it as a loop, but we decided on a one-way adventure – from Stellenbosch to Port Elizabeth – which gave us lots of time to explore the rugged topography and native wildlife before flying back to Cape Town from Port Elizabeth.
On our way out of town, we stopped at a Saturday market to admire local handicrafts and sample the fare. We loved the traditional South African treat, melktert, which reminded us of rice pudding. Here’s a 
Our next stop was the “Map of Africa” scenic viewpoint. The view is into a valley where two rivers merge and surround a treed hillside that is actually the shape of Africa (if you use your imagination just a little). Looking the other direction from the viewpoint was a sandy beach that stretched east for 18 kilometers, Since we were ready for our daily hike, we headed to the beach to stretch our legs.
South Africa is known for it’s wine, and we were lucky to be in Knysna for a wine festival on nearby Thesen Island. For just 150 rands, the equivalent of about $10 US dollars, we sampled lots of local wines. We made a few purchases, too. Unfortunately, the wineries can’t ship to the United States, so we couldn’t buy more than we could carry.
On the first, we hiked to a suspension bridge which crosses Storms River as it spills into the Indian Ocean. The views from the swinging structure were fabulous; up a narrow canyon to the west and over the Indian Ocean to the east. Once across, we scampered over rocks and up ladders to a lookout point high above.
The description said the seven kilometer hike to the waterfall would take three hours. Seven kilometers in three hours? We thought for sure we could cover the distance much quicker. The hike, however was proof that distance isn’t always a good indication of how long a hike might take.
We were racing the clock to complete the out and back hike before the park closed because we didn’t want to pay a fine if we were late. The waterfall was not too impressive since it hadn’t rained for a while, but the waves crashing over the rocks along the shoreline more than made up for it. They were terrifying – pounding, deafening and so close.
We finished our safari at the nearby 
We throw down our packs, plop down on a bench, and admire the craggy Julian Alps framing the Planina Pre Jezeru hut, our home for the night. It’s a surprisingly warm September afternoon in Slovenia’s Triglav National Park, so we’re in no hurry to head inside to register with Olga, the hut keeper. She’s a very efficient lady with cropped blonde hair, a faded green t-shirt, jeans, and no time for chitchat. My first impression of Olga is that of a drill sergeant rather than a favorite aunt; proof positive that first impressions aren’t definitive.
the recreationalist 