Ibex[love]

Ibex[love]

Monday, January 26, 2015

The Grand Canyon - Part 3

The Dollhouse - This was an awesome hunk of granite that had 
been carved out during periods of high water flow for millions 
of years into a perfect natural jungle gym for boaters!

 We played at the Dollhouse before we scouted 
this rapid - I think it's called Bedrock?

The water is rising!
We knew the water was going to be getting really high, so 
we were anxiously awaiting! We noticed the water start to turn 
from green to brown so we pulled over and set up camp for the night!
We all climbed up on a rock at the edge of camp and just watched the
water come up! It went from 9-13,000 cfs up to over 37,000 cfs!!!!


Now the water is brown instead of the lovely green it had been
during the first half of the trip. No more showers in the river!

After it got dark, the river rising entertainment was over,
so we learned how to play Mafia!
(Henry's photo)

Deer Creek:
This hike was one of my top favorites of the whole hike!

A lil' reptile of some sort!

There is a little hole in the rocks, a 'mailbox', where
people leave treasures for their friends who are following
on a trip coming down river after. 

Deer Creek Falls

The trail follows the edge of the slot canyon.
See the person on the bottom left? 

And then you get here! This is The Patio.

Mermaid pools at the Patio.

 This was THE BEST hang out spot! It was hard to leave it.
We spent most of a day here. I think we only floated a mile this day.

Our super duper trip leader of the century took us to this secret
spot one evening. This bowl is tucked away in the perfect spot
to protect it. There is a thought that it was perhaps moved here
by the Park Service, but there is also a chance that it was just left 
here to live out eternity.

Matkatamiba (Matkat for short):
This was another AWESOME hike! It was a shortie.
You had to walk right up the creek through the canyon to get to
the open area . . . where you can make a butt dam!!!

The approach was kind of hard in the high water! 
It was a pretty tight squeeze!

Enjoying the scenery!

Looking back down the creek that we walked up.

The 'Matkat Patio'

The Butt Dam!!!
We all sat down in the stream of water and clogged it, and then 
on the count of three, jumped up and watch it 'flash flood' the little
community that Meredith built below us! Cheap entertainment. 
(Mary's disposable camera photo!)

National Canyon:
This was another short, but REALLY cool hike!


We came to a spot on this hike that wasn't passable without ropes if you weren't 
skilled in rock climbing, soa few of us ended up just hanging out and playing 
in the creek. We tossed Sheela in and watched her go around and 
around and around in this 'infinite eddy.' Again, cheap entertainment. 

LAVA FALLS!!!!
The mac daddy of whitewater on the Grand Canyon - 
ESPECIALLY at 37,500 CFS!

Scouting the rapid and watching the group ahead run it.
It was pretty cool to watch another group run the rapid like
a rubber ducky getting flushed down the toilet!




Our scared faces before we hopped in the boats!

Pictographs

Lava Falls is near the end of the trip, so after we passed it,
it was smooth sailing until the take out. We enjoyed the last
of our river time and tried as hard as we could to finish our beer supply!

One final 16-shotgun salute to the river gods at the take-out.
(Another one of Mary's fabulous disposable camera photos!)

The road out from Diamond Creek. It's actually a creek bed.

Getting the Subaru packed with gear from 5 people for 21 days!

Packed and ready for 20 hours on the road crammed in
this Subaru! Good thing we all got showers before we hit the road!

Until next time, Grand Canyon . . . . . .

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Holiday Season Fun!

Wow! I didn't realize how long it has been since I've posted something on the ol' blog! It's not because I haven't done anything worth posting, but quite the opposite! I've been wildly busy! Just after my last post, I started working two (AWESOME!) jobs with no days off for about a month and a half! The jobs are/were great, but now I'm 'funemployed' and I have lots of time for playing outside, which hopefully means updating this once in a while!

I spent the better part of December doing my snow dance, and finally, after Christmas, it came! In two big dumps! Alianza stayed for a week after my brother and Liz left, and when it wasn't too cold outside, we played soooooo much!

Alianza got some cool new ponies from Santa, but they needed a stable, so Grandpa 
Dave and Ali got right to work building a little stable for Alianza's fleet of ponies!

Once the snow finally decided to come, we took a quick trip to Blacktail Mountain to get some turns in before Turner opened! It was a cold day, but we sure had fun!

Alianza and I had to take a warm up break
and split a hot chocolate!

#1 Auntie and her favorite niece! 

 Getting some Moose's pizza on the way home!
You can't go skiing and NOT get pizza, right?!
I love that in MT you can belly up to the bar and 
play Hangman with a kid! HA! 

After our day at Blacktail, Turner finally opened! Too bad it was soooooo cold! I took a trip to Turner but I didn't bring Alianza because it was so cold, and then Turner had to close for a few days after that due to the cold temps! So we had to wait ALL WEEK to go skiing, but it was TOTALLY worth the wait, because some of our most favorite people got to come down from Eureka and ski with us!

Two lil' ladies who can SHRED!

 I think a new friendship was born!
Colorful ladies.

The second dump we got was the best one of the season so far, but unfortunately, it warmed up, even in the mountains, totally crustifying all that fresh pow. :( But it sure looks pretty in town!

LOTS of beautiful snow!



I spent the better part of the day shoveling my driveway with Tessa so she could get out and get to work, and then I went over to my parents' house to help out Dave. Once the chores were done, I went for a little cross country ski adventure with the wonderful Medina Duo!

Setting the track . . . right alongside Bigfoot's snowed in tracks.


For a guy who grew up in Texas, he's quite a skier! :D


I promise there will be a post about the Grand Canyon trip coming soon! I have so many pictures to sort through and choose only a handful for a post!!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Grizzly Peak

I didn't have any plans for today, but luckily my pal Matt randomly filled me in on HIS Sunday plans after our Saturday tennis match and invited me to tag along! He had to lead a hike up Grizzly Peak for the Yaak Valley Forest Council and I am SOOOOOO glad I joined in! The views of the Cabinets from up there were phenomenal and the huckleberry snax along the trail were alright too!

The bear grass was gorgeous!


Views from the top.
The smoke cleared considerably compared to the last few
days and we got quite a fantastic view!



Aaaaaand more bear grass.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Skiing in July!

It's not very often you can ski in shorts and a tank top! Thanks to the adventurin' gang, we hit the slopes well after ski season again!

Nice views from the Going to the Sun Highway.




Views from the hike. 
That's St. Mary Lake WAY down there.


Panorama of our view from the hike!

We saw lots of Mama goats with their kids!
We even saw a kid sledding down a slope to catch his mom!

Happy Hikers!
 
 Victory! We made it to the top!

 Hidden Lake

Charlie was the first one to the top, and I looked up as he was
taking his skins off and this lil' fellah was watching over Charlie!

It seems so funny to take my ski boots off and put on sandals!

What's a summer ski without an apre ski margarita and wings!?