Where is Summer rushing off to?

Seems like it was just July 4 and now we are moving to the middle of August.

On July 12, we went hiking to Glacier Lake (jva & abe went up there with JW in 2002 while they were here). The lake was still partially frozen and we had a heck of a time getting over to the farther part of the lake. The snow was piled deep on the trail. So one more scary snowdrift to climb over for this old woman. Since I made it over, I was a little less stressed coming back but then, I walked too close to the rocks and next thing I knew, one leg fell through the snow all the way up to my hip. That was not fun trying to get up and continue forward off the drift (especially with a whole bunch of people watching). The good thing was that no one else was brave enough to climb over the drift, so we had that whole side of the lake to ourselves. JW caught 1 fish, put it on the stringer and then didn't catch anymore so that one got turned loose.

It was an absolutley gorgeous day and a nice hike. Kind of steep but only 7 miles round trip.

The next day, Blaine and his family showed up on their way to the new home in Idaho. It was so great to have them back on this side of the country.

B & J stayed for a week and then they went on to Idaho and left the girls with us for a week. While B & J were here, we took the girls fishing at Wild Bill (the same lake we went to for the reunion). They each caught a few fish - nothing large enough to keep so had to just throw them back.

And we took them up Beartooth Pass to play in the snow. It was kind of cold though and they needed mittens. There was quite a bit of snow up there for late July:

JW had lots of fun spending time with the girls. Every day around 10, he sliced apples for them or found them some kind of snack. He made 3 swings for them in the tree and they spent a lot of time swinging. He took them on walks up the hill and helped Jules plant some flower seeds in a cup to take home with her. And the girls and I made a cake - they had fun licking the beater.

The girls loved their room.

On July 24, we had to take them to their new house. We decided to take a long drive through Yellowstone to see the water that spits in the sky and the bubbling water and the buffalo. Jules counted 162 buffalo. I told Jules about pine beetles and how the red trees are dying because of the pine beetles. So then Madison kept asking "why are the trees red", "why are the trees red". Finally, I asked her "Why are the trees red". She answered, "Cause a mosquito bit them".

It was fun in the park but even with staying just outside the park, there wasn't enough time to do what we wanted to do. Really need to go back and spend a few days. We didn't get to the paint pots again (somehow, we always miss the turn off - or maybe we needed to go north toward Mammoth).

On the 25th, we got to their new house around noon and ate lunch then kind of vegged a bit. JW cannot stand just sitting around so he decided that we needed to head home the next morning especially since B had to work. It was hard leaving them but it's great to know they are just over that mountain and a ways down the road so we can drive over for 3 or 4 days weekend when we can afford it.

As we came home, we saw this dreaded site:

The fires of August have started - This one was up above Wild Bill Lake in the area where we had taken our Timberline Lake hike a few weeks earlier. Knowing how much dead wood is in there, it is amazing that they have actually got it mostly contained now.

Back to reality and JW is back to searching for a job. He has apps in all over the place including back in AZ at the Ray mine where life started for us. Hoping to hear something soon from someone. Who knows where life will lead us. Maybe JW is done working forever - it's been kind of nice having him around all the time.

All we know is if we are meant to be in AZ at this time in our lives, that's where we'll end up. Not exactly our first choice but.........

4th of July

So while the rest of the world including JW was out enjoying a wonderful 3 day weekend last week, I was on call and virtually stuck at home. So instead of doing anything like cleaning the house or laundry, I literally spent the entire day from 7:15 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. Friday working on a quilt for the girls' room. Wanted to handquilt it.

Here's a picture of it on the bed: (I haven't totally finished all the quilting I want to do on it - for right now have only quilted around some of the fairies. Will do more quilting on it this fall but for right now, it's just a little warm to be sitting under a quilt - even with a very light cotton batting.)

Froggie Prince cube was added to the room by Aunt alexshuman. Not too much fun to blow up with a vacuum cleaner. - especially when the only one you have that will blow air is one used for cleaning ashes out of the stove so you have to totally clean it out first. But we got it blown up.

Since this is the fairy room, our own little Tinkerbell has decided it's for her. We keep the door closed but anytime I go in there, I have to make sure she hasn't snuck in behind me. The other night she did get in and several hours later we heard her scratching on the door trying to get out.

Meanwhile, while I was home. JW hiked up to Sylvan Lake for the night. He did some fishing and caught some golden trout. Not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow. Hoping B, J & the girls are here Sunday. Tata can hardly wait to take the granddaughters fishing.

Hike of the week

So far this is the absolutely best hike. Saturday morning, we got up at 5:15 and after a breakfast of crispy bacon and Kodiak Cakes (just add water - wheat and other grain pancakes - a little more wholesome than the family tradition of Bisquick), we headed east to Red Lodge. From there, we headed south past Wild Bill Lake (where we fished 5 years ago for the reunion) and on another 5 miles to the Timberline Lake trailhead.

I wasn't sure how hard the hike would be but I had read the description in the hiking book. It is only 4 1/2 miles from the trail head to the lake so I knew I could do the mileage. However, this hike also had an elevation gain of 2000 feet so in 4 1/2 miles that's pretty steep.

We got to the trail head and started up the hill - up up up we went. JW was totally surprised when we got to the 3 mile mark as we had only been hiking for 1 hour 37 minutes. He could not imagine we could have walked that far in such a short time. We have been averaging 1 1/2 miles an hour so we are getting faster.

After the 3 mile point, the trail switchbacked up over a hill, then we reached a point where we had to forge the stream. Now the water in this little stream was roaring down the hill. And the way to cross was over 2 logs - kind of side by side but with a 3" gap between. Brave person that I am, I sat on the log on my rear and kind of did a cheek-walk across the water. Good exercise i'm sure cause i could feel the burn.

Anyway, once across, we walked on to Gertrude Lake and talked to some guys camping there for a few minutes. Told them we were going the extra half mile on to Timberline Lake. They had heard the lake was still partially frozen and thought we may have to blaze a trail through the drifted snow to get there.

This is where the trail led to:

We knew the lake had to be just beyond that hill. However what we didn't know is how deep the snow drift was or how soft - sinking in snow up above your knees is one thing but any deeper than that and I'm not sure how we'd get out. We started climbing up the hill to the left of the snow. Believe me, it is a lot higher than it looks. When we got as far as we could on the rocks and I had made the mistake of looking down to see how far I would fall, JW started across the snow. That's when I got really nervous but also determined I was going to see this lake. So, after doing my panic thing for a while and shuffling my feet in the snow to make sure I wasn't going to do the slip and slide thing, I followed him across the snow and down a little bit to this view:

I was totally amazed. Even told JW that the reason I like national parks is because they always have the neat lakes like this one. At least that is the only place I'd ever seen them.

We decided we needed to walk over the hill to our right so we could see the rest of the lake since we could only see a portion from this view. We got to the top of the little hill and found we were going to be ploughing through snow drifts to get where we wanted to be. I told JW to go on ahead as I needed to take a picture of these tiny little blue flowers.

They were only about 3/8" across and were scattered across the area. I love these little alpine flowers - usually they are purple, yellow or white so I was totally amazed to see an actual blue flower.

We hiked on to the other part of the lake and had to stop for a couple of pictures before JW was allowed to start fishing. The kind of milky spot in the lake is ice that hasn't melted yet. It was a little cool with the wind coming across the water but I found a huge mostly flat rock (It had to be 5 feet high, 8 feet long and 6 feet wide) so after eating a lunch of kipper snacks, string cheese and an apple, I laid on the huge rock to sun myself and rest up for the hike down. It was so peaceful and we had the entire area to ourselves.

At about 2, we decided we needed to start down. When I got to the snow to go down the hill, I was a little braver this time and got down quickly. At the stream, I crossed again by sitting on the log and scooting across. At about 3:30, we stopped 3 miles from the trail head to eat a granola bar and rest a few minutes, then at about 3:48, we started the final descent.

JW made the comment that there was no way we would reach the truck by 4:30 (which we were kind of hoping for) So, being in the lead, I picked up the pace and we pulled into the parking lot at 4:32 (a little off our goal but to do 3 miles in about 45 minutes and with my old arthritic knees, I was very proud of us - I always walk slower down hill as it is a bit painful).

When we got to the truck, we headed back home - stopping in Red Lodge long enough to buy a few fireworks for when the granddaughters get here (smoke bombs, snakes, tanks, hens laying eggs - all the little non-explosive ones that you can see in the daytime since dark is too late around here in July) and we got a shake from the Red Box Car.

Wasn't sore at all. Hardly tired and for the first time this summer, I didn't take even one Advil all weekend. Sure wish all of you could come and go hiking with us. Would love to share this area. I am on call for 4th of July weekend so next hike is an overnighter to Sylvan Lake - round trip 12 miles but at least we'll get to rest all night before hiking out. At least, that's the current plan. HAPPY 4TH TO ALL OF YOU.

These boots are made for hiking!!

Finally we have gotten back into hiking mode. And we're doing great - have 3 good hikes under our belts for the summer and plans for at least 4 more.

First - up stillwater river - approximately 10 miles round trip - documented that in an earlier blog.

Second hike - Father's day. We went up East Rosebud. Stopped at signage and it said 3 1/2 miles to Elk Lake. JW said he wanted to see if I could make it the first leg of the trail and I thought, no problem, we hiked 10 miles up Stillwater, 7 will be easy. We got to Elk Lake and it was very nice and peaceful

and JW said "I forgot about this little lake" (translation: we really haven't walked as far as I was thinking we should so we're pressing on). Fortunately, JW had taken a picture of the signage

at the trail head so I knew how far the next lake was. 2 1/2 miles - wasn't tired so sounded easy. The trail got very bad - due to the "winds of November" there was blowdown everywhere. We scrambled over logs, under logs, around logs, up the rocky trail then over snow packed trail until we got almost to the 2nd lake. There right between a 50' drop off on the right and a steep rocky cliff on the left was a pile of icy snow.

Being the chicken I am when it comes to heights anyway, I insisted that I was going to somehow squeeze between the snow and the rock since the snow was a little melted on that side. There was no way I was going over the pile of snow - especially after just seeing another hiker almost slip down the slope. So i sucked in my gut and wiggled in that way and finally came out the other side although I was extremely wet. The view of the lake was definitely worth the pain:

Fortunately the trail crew had followed us up the trail so on the way back, they had cleared out most of the blowdown. 12 mile hike and I felt absolutely great the next day. No sore legs at all.

Third hike: Saturday, June 21 we decided to take a leisurely hike to Mystic Lake and do some fishing. 3 miles to the lake - 6 mile hike. Not bad. I remembered that trail - a nice walk through the woods. Jill and her two nephews and I had hiked it in 2001. Since they were little boys, it couldn't have been a bad hike. What I didn't remember that it was uphill most of the way and that there was a part where you are on switchback trail across a stretch of large boulders.

But it was a great day and we hiked on. We got to the lake and settled down to do some fishing. The lake is way down, this rocky beach should have been covered with water. Plus there was a ring of 4' high snow drifts around the side of the lake we were on so we had to meander over the drifts to get to the waters edge.

Unfortunately, when we tried fishing, the wind was blowing just enough in our direction that we'd cast out and the wind would blow the lines back into the shore. Solution to that was to hike on to the far end of the lake so the wind would be behind us. The far end of the lake is another 2 miles (seriously) and goes over the top of that hill on the left side of the above picture. I am so glad we had a leisurely day. JW caught 3 rainbow and turned them loose. I rested for the return 5 mile, 3 hour hike back down the hill. Actually, I started hiking back down 30 minutes before he did so I could take my time and take more pictures. But again the view was fantastic and it was a great day - 10+ hours of wonderful entertainment for the price of a couple gallons of gas and a can of sardines.

Next hike: Saturday - June 28th - Timberline Lake. All in preparation for the 26 mile, 4 day hike in August from Cooke City (just outside of Yellowstone park) back down to the East Rosebud drainage. HIKE ON!!!

Added note: My 60th birthday, i plan to hike from Many Glacier Lodge to Logan Pass in Glacier National Park. Get yourselves in shape and meet me there.

Renovation of one room is complete

Woo hoo - JW has finished our family room in the basement and has moved on to the next project. We love it and are talking now of putting pine up on the ceiling of the bedroom. Since we're getting the house just about the way we want it, it's probably time to put it up for sale and move on -- hoping we don't have to do that.

Here's some pix of the transformation of what JW is now calling the "man cave" and I call my office.

The room when we looked at the house.

The reunion in 2003

2005 when we started actually renovating this room.

I liked the yellow but apparently JW did not.

And finally how it looks today. At last, one room totally done.