Paid to Ski

Nothing beats getting paid to play on the slopes for half the day! Only my second time downhill skiing. Top of AV.....it was maybe a little more advanced then I was ready for, but it was fun! I think I skied most of that run on my butt :) It was definitely a high end blue run :)

The Frozen Lake

I'm pretty good at skipping rocks across the ice of a frozen lake :) Jenni and I had lots of fun listening to the hollow sound as rocks we threw bounced across the frozen lake. It was fun to throw ice chuncks out there too and watch them shatter and skid forever in lots of pieces. I would say, we're still kids at heart and there's much more fun to be had at this lake when it is frozen! :)

Traveling East :)

I decided I was driving East after work today. I sent Jenni a text after I got off work and asked her if she wanted to come with me. It was another grand adventure for us! :) I think she may stop accepting invitations to come with me soon though....after today's adventure she told me it was just too stressful! She had no idea I was going to ask her to take photos for me while I drove....:)

 

Jenni told me that my nose kept getting in the way of the photos...Lol

We stopped and had a snowball fight on our way up Togwotee Pass. There was a lot more snow up on top, but our snowball fight took place here...where there was only a little snow and lots of mud because I have good ideas :)

 



 

After arriving in Dubois, we stopped and ate dinner. We ate at the Cowboy Café and I would definitely recommend the place! They have really good pie....so good in fact that even while I was eating it I couldn't keep myself from drooling on the table. :)  

 

After finishing off our pie and dumping a pitcher of ice in Jenni's lap at the restaurant we headed back to Jackson. We encountered whiteout conditions on Togwotee Pass on our way back, but we made it back to Jackson all in one piece. I'm so glad I have Jenni to join me for some of my grand adventures....they just wouldn't be the same without her! :)

His Laugh

I hear your laugh in memories of the past:

That laugh when I spread the garden seed a little thick.
That chuckle when you saw me pulling plants instead of weeds.

I hear that laugh every time I see your chair
And remember the last night you sat there.

I hear your laugh when the family gathers

And in quiet moments I hear your voice

And know you're not so far away.

The Only Folk We Really Wound, Are Those We Love The Best

There's one sad truth in life I've found
While journeying east and west-
The only folk we ever wound
Are those we love the best.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best.

-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Backpacking Trip- Bighorn Crags

It was a great trip into Bighorn Crags this year. We were met by a fox at the trailhead. I didn't get a photo of him though. We got hit with a huge storm our last night in. Here are a few photos to recap the trip:

Unloading the packs at the trailhead

 

The lake I got to see because I took a detour on the way in...aka wrong turn :)
 

 

Edge of the World off the end of Ship Island Lake

 

The decent into Airplane Lake

 

Our camp the first night. Lake Gentian

 



An outhouse in the wilderness! :) Only missing a wall and the roof....There's normally no line.

Not the biggest fish I caught up there, but the only one to get his picture taken. He was dinner. :)

 

Sheepeater Lake

 

Shoban Lake

 

 The cave Clint and I hiked up to. It was a small ice cave.

 

We were trying to get up to an arch on the other side of this rise. A big storm rolled in and we were forced down before we got all the way up to it.

 

 

The arch and the cave we found

What we woke up to after the big storm that scared us into our tents early. The white stuff is actually hail that had turned to sheets of ice. :)

 

Clint's frozen breakfast spoon

 

 

Airplane lake the morning after the storm.

 

Lunch spot at Sheepeater Lake

Tamanah Lake and the Bad News Trail!

Monday a group of us decided to hike to Tamanah Lake. It was a grand adventure! There were five of us starting out and only four of us made it back in one piece :)

Up at the lake we had a beautiful view of Taggart Lake and the Valley below. That would be Brad trying to photo bomb the picture. :)

Kate and I at Tamanah Lake. On the hike to the lake Brad had been telling us how great it was to be tall. He had easily hopped over a log that was laying across the trail. Kate and I were coming right behind him and both of us stepped up on the log to get over it. There was a beehive built right underneath that log. Brad must have startled the bees when we landed on the other side, because both Kate and I got stung by a bee. It was kind of funny because we both got stung just as Brad was finishing his spill of how great it is to have long legs. We all had to laugh, but that sting sure hurt. :)

The Waterfall just below Lake Tamanah

 

 

Amy at the lake

 

 Esther

 

Kate and Me

 

The Grand Misadventure!

Today was the day of our Grand Misadventure! We decided that we were going to hike up to Tamanah Lake and a waterfall before work.

Grand idea?

I've had better :)

The trip was to be 11 miles roundtrip. We began hiking about 10:15 this morning.

Mistake Number 1: Time. We should have left a little earlier to attempt an adventure that big.

 

Early on we made good time. We actually thought we would make the lake and the falls in no time at all.

 

 

Then we got off track. Mistake number two: Not only was it an 11 mile hike and we only had about 4 hours, but it also involved covering several miles on an unmaintained trail.

Over time fatigue set in as we were cutting through brush and jumping over trees and rocks. We both became a little clumsy in our steps.

 

 

 

Eventually we saw the Falls from a far, but because of time restraints we weren't able to get all the way up to them. We lost the trail too many times and bush whacked our own too much. All our bush whacking cost us valuable time.

 

On the way back from the Falls we thought we would be fine and would make good time because we had linked back up with the trail. We were for a little while. We lost the trail for the second time on the way down however and had to bush whack through some really thick brush. My legs are so cut up and bruised from all the bush whacking we did.

 

We were still a few miles from the car. Fatigue was setting in. I was beginning to feel light headed and dizzy. I went to reach for my water bottle. I had hoped that a drink would boost my moral. When I realized it was gone I almost cried. In my head I thought about going back to search for it. That thought process wasn't even logical. We'd covered so much ground off the trail since I'd had it last. There was also no rhyme or reason to the way we had cut our course...other than we knew the direction of the lake and that eventually if we kept going in that direction we should hit the trail. We didn't go back. We kept moving.

 

When we finally linked back up with the trail we started to run and ran the remaining two to three miles to the car. We stopped and filtered water from the creek about a mile from the car. We were both very dehydrated and fatigued at this point.

 

I look back on our grand misadventure and think I haven't had that much fun and not so much fun on the same hike in a long time! I will be going back :) It was definitely a challenge, but there were lots of fun elements to that hike as well. A lot of the trouble we encountered was due to our time restraints. I really want to get up to the lake as well as to the falls. Next time I will! :)

Live Concert Experience

I attended my first live concert on July 4th. The band was Old Crow Medicine Show. I went with some friends. There was a group of seven of us and we stood near the front in the mosh pit. My friend Danny offered to let me get up on his shoulders so I could see the band.

I had just climbed up there when I felt hands squeezing my butt. I was thinking what the heck! I couldn't imagine anyone in the group that would do that. I slapped the hands away and looked over and there was some woman giving me the thumbs up sign and smiling.

Some drunk woman (at least that is what I'm telling myself), grabbed my butt that night. It was awkward and I'd have to say that my butt has never felt more violated! Everyone I was with kept laughing about it. :)

Hanging Canyon-In July

The clouds rolled in on us during our hike. We didn't let the storm deter us from reaching our destination though. You might be asking: Did they get wet? The answer: Not really. We found some pretty good cover under some large rocks a couple of times.

 

Danny on the way to the Lakes

 

 

Ramshead Lake

 

 

Crags Lake



Rolling Solo

Today I rolled solo up to Surprise and Amphitheater Lakes. It took about two hours for me to get up to Amphitheater Lake. That time included traversing snow. They say it takes seven hours for this hike. I'm not sure where that figure comes from. It might take me seven hours if I walked it backwards and was blindfolded. :) It took me four and a half and that included spending an hour at the lakes. To reach Amphitheater Lake I gained about 3000 feet in elevation in about 5 miles. There was actually quite a bit of snow up there still. :)

Delta Lake

Today Boyd and I hiked to Delta Lake. The view up there is always, breath takingly beautiful. I love to look out over the magnificance of it all and see the valley floor below. I find myself in such awe up there. Hiking to Delta Lake is probably one of my favorite day hikes.

On our way up to the lake we crossed paths with a grizzly. He wasn't feeling very photogenic though. We weren't able to get a picture of him as he crossed the trail right in front of us because he was moving pretty fast. He had places to be I guess :)