Drive!

 

This guy turned 15 last weekend.  We celebrated with Grampa Frank, who's birthday is exactly one week prior to Thane's.  They are two peas in a pod, that's for sure!

Thane has grown a LOT this year - both physically and in maturity.  He was  6' 5 1/4" a week before his birthday.  Keeping him in clothes that fit is practically a part time job, and finding shoes that come in his size can be a challenge.  (Although oddly enough, we find plenty of second hand wooden Dutch shoes that fit just fine.)  😂

Thane is in high school now, and his favorite classes are welding and CADD.  He's even considering an engineering degree at some point in the future.  He continues to be an outdoorsman, and he actually mentioned that he enjoyed hiking with us a few times this past summer (although he'd never admit it publicly!) Mostly, though, his tastes run toward fishing and hunting, with the occasional camping trip thrown in.

His latest passion, however, is driving.  He now officially owns a driver's permit, and he saved his hard earned summer cash to buy Grampa's old truck in anticipation of getting his license next year.  

I'm sure that the coming year will fly by - if the last 15 years is any indication.  We are so proud of the young man that you are - Happy Birthday Thane!

Elk & Elk Fire

 

Jordan's Dad arrived in town last week for the men's annual elk hunting expedition.  Grampa Frank opted to forgo this year, and Thane & I decided that we would wait until the weekend to join them since we had a full week of school and work.  There was a small wildfire picking up over 11 miles from camp, but it didn't seem like a huge deal when the boys headed up the mountains.  We are so grateful that both Jordan and our friend Troy tagged out opening day, as the fire literally blew up overnight and large swathes of our beloved Big Horns were changed forever.

Within hours of day 3, the fire (now known as the Elk Fire) had raged out of control and jumped from 456 to 20,000 acres.  

Jordan and the men made it off the mountain before things got too bad, although their normal route home was closed as the fire jumped the highway.  As the days went by, we were even more alarmed as friends in the nearby town of Dayton were put on pre-evacuation orders.  After a cold front came through the night after Jordan got home, the sustained 50-60 mph winds sent the fire raging across the eastern face of the mountains.  

Many days this is our view from the house.  The smoke is so thick, and it gets hard to breathe at times.  But the wind shifted and the weather cleared for a few hours two nights ago. The sight from our front porch is sobering.

Please pray with us for much needed rain.  There are over 800 men and women battling this blaze, including friends of ours who are volunteer fire fighters.  It's exhausting work, and their spouses and children spend anxious days waiting for news and a brief check-in.  The fire is now just shy of 75,000 acres and is only 10% contained.  Thankfully, only two residences have been lost thus far, and the town of Dayton is no longer in immediate danger.  It is anticipated that the fire will continue burning until snow falls.  Preliminary photos show complete devastation to the northeast end of the mountains, which is just heartbreaking.

The Beartooth Highway and Yellowstone

 

Since our anniversary falls squarely in the middle of hunting season, Jordan and I usually celebrate late.  This year, however, we mixed things up and got away early in order to take advantage of the good weather - which meant that we FINALLY got to take an incredibly scenic drive over the Beartooth Highway.  If you are ever anywhere near this corner of the world, you should most definitely plan to visit.  Trust me when I say that you won't be sorry!

We stayed at a quaint little AirBNB home in Red Lodge and left early the following morning to catch the sun rising over the mountains.  We were fortunate enough to see elk near the top of the almost 11,000 ft pass (seen in the right foreground of the photo above).

The mist coming off the alpine lakes along the highway made the terrain seem almost mystical, and we are almost 100% certain we would have missed this mom and baby pair if we had been driving through much later:

The back side of the pass was just as spectacular.  You can see why this highway is named the most scenic drive in the U.S.!

We took the highway all the way to Cooke City, where we hopped into Yellowstone from the northeast entrance.  We spent a long morning in the Park, spotting the usual animals (buffalo, elk, antelope, etc.)  We also spied two coyotes and another goat - a first for both of us in the Park.

We also drove down one of the Park roads that recently opened after being closed for road construction since we moved to Wyoming.

We made our way out of the park at the north entrance through Paradise Valley into Livingston, a first for Jordan.  We took a back highway part of the way home and got to see some beautiful ranch land and this abandoned mining town nestled in a small valley outside of Red Lodge.

 

We are looking forward to getting back to the area next summer for some hiking and camping.

Family Friends

 

One perk of moving around the country every few years is that we make some pretty amazing friends along the way.  The Attwood family, who we met in Colville, are among the best.  Three weeks ago, Tom & Becky came to visit with their precious granddaughter Hannah.  A week later, their son and daughter-in-law came through on their way back to Washington.  We had a wonderful time and feel so fortunate to call them friends!!

Solitude & Cliff Lake Loops

 

Last weekend was my turn to join Jordan on a long hike through our beloved Big Horns.  While we opted not to do the entire Solitude Loop, we still managed to hike 44 miles in 2 days, with just under 5700 ft of vertical gain.  We started from the Hunter Campground shortly after 6:15am last Thursday.  We saw 5 moose roughly 3 miles in, which was a delightful surprise and a decidedly good start.  Shortly after we started our ascent up and over Florence Pass (seen in the middle of the photo above).

Near the top of Florence Pass, we stopped for a moment to read the plaque placed there in memory of 10 World War II soldiers who crashed on the posthumously named Bomber Mountain.  It is still a mystery why the bomber was flying over these mountains en route from Oregon to Nebraska, over 150 miles off course.  No one knew the fate of the missing plane until 2 years later, when some cowboys saw several glints of metal atop the mountain and went to investigate.  The remains were gathered on VJ Day, although the recovery crew weren't aware of this auspicious event until they returned.  There are still parts of the plane on top of the mountain all these years later.  We paid our respects and then moved on.

After a brief lunch, we made our way through some beautiful alpine country, kicking up 3 more bull moose and a few mule deer along the way.

 

We finally arrived at camp around 7pm, having logged a little over 21 miles.  We found a tranquil spot on a meadow overlooking Lake Solitude, and we had dinner watching the sunset over the water.  Beautiful!

After a leisurely morning, we packed up and headed out around 8:15am.  After climbing out of the valley, we looked back to see our campsite on the far side of the water.  Breathtaking!

We trekked through several "parks" (meadows) and alongside numerous ponds & lakes until shortly before noon, when we jumped off the trail to do a 7 mile side hike around the Cliff Lake Loop.  Best.decision.ever!  We watched fish constantly jumping for insects on Cliff Lake during lunch, and then pushed upward to catch an epic view of Black Tooth (which we see from our front porch) and Cloud Peak (the tallest mountain in the Big Horns).

By 6pm, we had somewhat wearily hauled ourselves up Geneva Pass.  After 2 days of gaining elevation only to promptly lose it as we walked down to a valley below (wash, rinse, repeat...), it felt amazing to be on our final upward push. We had initially planned to spend another night on the trail and finish out the last 5+ miles in the morning, but the thought of a hot shower and comfy bed were irresistible.  

The trail is quite rocky in spots and it was slow going, but we made it to the trailhead at 8:35pm.  The last part of the trail is nestled against a west facing cliff in deep timber and we wore headlamps for the last 1.5 miles, but it was totally worth it when we pulled into our driveway at 10:30pm.

This view of Geneva Lake is one of the last views we saw before darkness set in. We are a bit sore and sun burnt, but every bead of sweat and quivering muscle was utterly worth it.  It was an incredible adventure!

Freshman and Junior

We officially have two high schoolers this year, which is crazy to think about.  For the first time ever, I took the obligatory first day of school photo (in my pjs, no less!), and then watched my babies drive themselves to school while I got to enjoy a hot cup of java for a change.  I can most definitely get used to this!

P.S.  No - they didn't coordinate outfits.  Yes - their friends thought it was hilarious!

Soldier Park

Jordan and I have been exploring more of the southern edge of the Big Horns this summer.  This side of the mountains are more rocky and contain a much smaller population of elk and deer.  But they are still beautiful, and in some ways much more dramatic.

Last weekend we did a quick 6.5 mile exploratory hike to Soldier Park, where we are planning to jump onto part of the Solitude Loop this coming weekend.  

Soldier Park was given this name in the 1890's after an official army marker was found at a gravesite on the edge of the meadow.  Everyone assumed the grave belonged to a soldier.  The truth is somewhat less romantic.  In actuality, the grave belonged to a Frenchman who was helping the army survey the area.  He died after he accidentally shot himself while cleaning his gun.  But by then, the name had stuck.  And since he died so far from home, it is somewhat befitting that hundreds of people stop by his grave each year.

It was a beautiful day - and breathing in fresh air after all of the wildfire smoke was particularly refreshing.