Justin: A couple of photos.

Sunset on Lonesome Mountain

Some fresh cherries from the farmer's market and Stacey's favorite bowl

Be well.

Go West, (Not So) Young Man! Part 2

So our odiferous shuttle driver dropped us amigos tres off here at the lake where we would start winding our way around the left side. See the mountain just over Keith's head? That's Lonesome Mountain - some 11,300 feet high. Our original plan was to cross that plateau on the right side of it.

A few hours later we crossed into this view of Lonesome Mountain.

This is Becker Lake, at 10,000 feet where we made our first nights camp.

That is Becker Lake below us now, as we're working our way up to Albino Lake and on to Jasper Lake. That snow in the photo above is now on your right.

Albino Lake - still mostly frozen. Not a good sign considering it's only at 10,100 feet and we were planning on going to 11,000+ across the plateau... See that saddle in the upper right? That point is 10,300 feet.

This is Jasper Lake, just over that saddle I pointed out, with Paul and Keith as a slight scale. It's still about about a 1/10 of a mile from where they are standing down to the water's edge. See all that snow? Not good. Considering how slowly we've had to go and how much time we had left to cover a LOT of distance, we decided to go ahead and ditch the origianl plan and trek on down in elevation to a known trail that would wind us around for 20 miles or so and back to the truck.

This is around to the left and down from the Jasper Lake over to Golden Lake.

My rock star brother, Paul, finally across that 250 yard, hip-deep snow field. We know it's hip deep as I fell through a few times.

Looking down the valley with Golden Lake behind us. Those boulders on the left are mostly larger than our Xterra. No, really.

See? Find Paul and I bouldering with 45lb packs on.

Down the boulders and back up the other side.

A beautiful snowy tarn.

Sunset on Lonesome Mountain from our next camp

Nice spot for lunch, eh?

Directly behind Paul is where we were originally planning on being... See all that snow still up there?

Bullwinkle!!

Down in the tree line again - an incredible cedar forest.

Granite Lake.

Refilling our water. See those rapids? We discovered that we were supposed to cross those. Nope, not doing it. That's is all waist/chest deep snowmelt at 34 degrees. No chance risking hypothermia or worse, especially since we'd probably have to bail about 5 more miles down the trail down to another swollen stream. So yes, we had to bail up top because of too much snow, and we had to bail down low due to too much melted snow. Oh well.

After a very painful back-track up the mountain (read 900 feet in 3/10 of a mile), we headed towards a nearby trail head and were given a much needed and appreciated lift the some 20 miles back to the Xterra by a verynice couple from Florida. If you look into the cab you will notice a small hammock... There is a pomeranian in it.

Since our Absaroka trek got cut short, we decided to spend some time in Yellowstone.

Fairy Falls

The sulfer and other minerals from the hot springs are what cause the red/orange color.

Imperial Geyser - not looking so royal that day.

The blue and orange mist are reflections in the steam from the minerals in the water below.

The Grande Tetons!

We were going to go camp in this park in Bridger National Forest, however camping was prohibited due to bear activity. About 300 yeards down the road we saw this 2 or three year old black bear crossing.

Friday we spent a large amount of time driving around the Wind River Mountain Range. A very impressive range with several 13,000+ foot peaks, however they are simply not easily accessible. The closest trailhead to the treeline is 12 miles long, as opposed to the Absarokas where we were almost above tree line at that lake where we started.

I'm missing some photos... I'll dig around and post them later.

Go West, (Not So) Young Man! Part 1.

Justin: So as you might know, I went West. Not like "opposite of East" West, really, nor "West Coast Cali" West, but WEST. Like "Wild West", West. Wyoming, Montana, no cell coverage from the state line, Grizzly Bear country, kinda West.
Ah yeah, baby...
If there is a single word to sum up my trip I'd have to narrow it down to "Absolutely freakin spectacular".
I flew into Salt Lake City on Saturday and met up with my brother and our friend from highschool, Keith. Keith lives out there at the moment and we've been planning this trip since what, Christmas last year? No.. before that.. Thanksgiving? So we bolted back to Keiths for a quick gear check, tossed everything into the Xterra and took off across Utah for North West Wyoming. 6 1/2 hours later we were through Yellowstone, out of cell coverage, and in the tiny one lane town of Cook City. I've been in some remote places growing up in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina, however no matter how many days I've spent crossing the Appalachians, I've never seen the Milky Way. Amazing. So we crashed at a local hotel and got a little rest.
Sunday morning came early and after a breakfast sandwich from The Bear Claw (combination small cafe/snowmobile repair shop/video rental) we took off for Kersey Lake, our end of the week exit point, to drop off the Xterra. Our starting point was some 20 odd miles down the road and not long after we pulled up to the lake did our shuttle arrived to whisk us off.
Now, when I say "whisk us off",  I really mean hurtle us hazardly down the narrow road, crammed tightly into a Geo Prizm that was about to pop its seams from the cargo of gear, food, men and body odor. Mostly body odor. And it was there before we got in, by the way. /low whistle.
But the guy was pleasant enough and we arrived at our trailhead relatively unscathed, so all was well.

Some photos to catch you up... Missouri trip, 6/2010

So as 50% of our readers know, cause well, you were THERE, we went to Missouri and got to spend the week with Stacey's family. Always a good time. This visit we all drove down to Branson, MO and stayed in a really cool log cabin. The original plan was to all go to the Gulf Shores of Alabama and stay in a beach house, but that was nixed (thanks BP!). This was way fun, though, and I'll take a cabin at the lake over a beach any day. The first night we had some serious storms and a tree actually fell on Sue's car... Luckily it wasn't bad as an adjacent bank caught most of the weight, but there was quite a bit of damage to the roof and the doors. We went to downtown Branson (which for my family is like Pigeon Forge touristy stuff crossed with LA gimmicks) and rode the DUCKs! They actually have the old WW2 amphibious vehicles that they do tours around town and then down - and into - Table Rock Lake. Our driver/guide was a hoot as he looked and acted like a muppet. You know the jazz guy with the shades and beard? That's him, driving an amphibious vehicle through Missouri. Fun time. Still have the duck quacker and my coworkers hate it. :)
It was HOT though, on the trip. Like 103+ hot. And that's not the "index" or "feels like" BS. True measurement. Whoo.
We also went to Eureka Springs in Arkansas. You talk about a cool little town! Totally tourist driven (not gawdy, but small stores, cafe's, etc) but I really dug the matching architecture and how the town was built into this little valley... No really.. BUILT INTO THE VALLEY. I think I got a couple shots of that town... I'll look.
On our way back we stopped for ice cream and then hit the pool! See attached photos...
What else did we do... Stace and I got to have some time with her Uncle Dale and his wife, Terry, when we got to Kansas City before heading to Branson. They took us out to eat and we had a nice talk over some good barbeque (Houstons, FYI. Go. Try the skillet beans). Always good to see them and to catch up. It was also really good to get to spend some actual time with Lee and Melissa as I never get to.When we visit we're usually so rushed we basically say "Hi/Bye" and that's it. At least this time we were all in a central spot so we just relaxed and got to talk. Well, that and the 4 hour drive down in the same car helped.


Yes. Yes, that's a tree that fell on Sue's car the first night we were there.

This is the turtle who laid it's eggs in the front yard near the street instead of down near the couple of ponds behind the cabin we were staying in. I guess when you have to go...

Happy Grandpa? Hmmm.. I say "Yes". This is Lee and Melissa's son, Jackson, if you've somehow happened to miss Stace's photos of him so far. He turns two November 25th. Stace has been aching for some time with him and hopefully got enough to keep her happy until the holidays. You'll notice that in most of the next photos who has him...

Jackson and Lee in Eureka Springs

Happy Auntie? Again, I'll go with "Yes".

Happy Auntie? Hmm.. tough call... Not.

Some nice daisies in Eureka Springs

Turtle King? Cool!

Shark King?? AWESOME! Even 1 year olds know Shark trumps Turtle.

Future Class President photo

"My Auntie is the Best". Duh.

No, Dad, it won't stay there under the tree, but Sharon and Kress gave us their old firepit and we found some fun chairs at Home depot. Why YES! My lawn is very nicely manicured in this photo, thank you! Yard work was my July 4th gift to my neighbors.

Remember the earlier post where Mark was tilling the ground? That's a pumpkin vine he planted that day. We're gonna name it cause we figure we're all gonna get real cozy like very, very soon. Oh and the rest of his garden is under there somewhere. Pumpkins are already forming on our side of the fence and yep - you guessed it - we're keeping them. WE GOT PUMPKINS!

And here is ours! As you can see we have very happy squash (left side front) and the corn is going well. The squash is covering up the carrots, the onions really never showed up, and the lettuce can't really make up what its mind as to what it wants to do. In the 4x4 you can see the bean bushes by the lattice and an eggplant are coming alive over there. Hanging on the hook is a tomato plant that has yet to blossom, but it's been way hot and I'm not sure we've been watering it enough. Oh! On the other side of the corn are three pepper plants (red and green) that are starting to produce. Whoo hoo! We have already picked squash, surprisingly enough.

Be well.