Not showering for 7 days makes one stinky!

Not only have we not showered for 7 days, but we also haven't had contact with the rest of the world for that long (sorry friends and family).  After leaving the Sebrens in Montana we headed west towards Ross Lake in Washington.  En route we snagged two free campsites, got free firewood, and I (Katie) had my annual one night freak out thinking something terrible was going to happen to us.  It started with an (imagined) sketchy camp host and spiraled down hill quickly, I won't go into details, but Stephen King would be impressed.  I blame my mother for my ability to take something small and make it into a Dateline NBC story.  In any event we made it to Ross Lake.  All the rangers we spoke with assured us that it would be a one mile hike into where our canoe awaited us.  So, Derek and I got all of our gear into 5 bags, carried one each on the front and back of us, and intermittently made Ashlin carry the fifth.  It was tough, but after what seemed to be a mile, it got tougher and tougher.  When we finally made it and were instructed we had just hiked 2.5 miles, and after one mile we could have veered to the right and taken a ferry across the lake instead of hiking the last mile and a half.  Oh well, we at least felt pretty accomplished by hiking that far with all that stuff (see picture below).  We got our canoe and paddled 10 miles to camp at a spot called Ten Mile Island.  The island was perfect, and small, and we were the only people on it.  We hiked around the entire island, Ashlin as our tour guide, ate a hearty dinner, and slept beautifully.  The next day we canoed to Cat Island (which we re-named Nicky Island) and shared the island with a father and son from Canada (Ross Lake is accessible from the North side via Canada).  We hiked about 2 miles up the trail towards Desolation Peak, where Jack Kerouc stayed for awhile and inspired him to write Desolation Angels.  The next morning we awoke with plans to canoe back towards Rainbow Point and camp again, but the rain and wind was out of control, and we would be paddling against a current that looked like the ocean.  We contemplated doing this for several hours, but in thinking "what would the grandmother's say" we opted to stay on Nicky Island for one more night and wait it out.  We passed the time this day by reading, eating, and bidding on rocks that Ashlin "blacksmithed"-this is what she called it.  She came up with some crazy process involving fire, ashes, and bashing rocks with other rocks.  Derek woke us up early the next day so we could start on our 13 mile journey back to the resort.  We got back, safe, and then opted for the ferry to a true one mile hike back to the car.  We all decided 7 days without showers makes for a stinky car and got a hotel in Burlington, WA.  So here we are, catching up on our TV, internet, and food.  We are heading out today towards the northwest corner of Washington where we will do a two day backpacking trip on the coast.  From there we will visit Mt. Rainer and explore pieces of Oregon.

Part of the daily routine, packing up sleeping pads and bags

Exploring our island, Ross Lake North Cascades National Park

Cooking dinner on the bear box

Hiking around the island

View from Ten Mile Island

Our tent, and the only one on the island at that!

View from the canoe

Putting on Ashlin's boots

Ten Mile Island

View from Nicky Island

Calm waters...for the moment

<3

Ash and I are having a throwing competition.  Clearly, by the look on my face I am trying my hardest!

This is how we roll, and yes we carried this for 2.5 miles!

Graham, Ash and Molly playing with their "guys"

Kids fishing (with no hooks)

Annual Ivester/Sebren camping

Wrong trail, right trail and mice!

Hello all!

After leaving Mesa Verde we headed north into the San Juan mountains for what turned out to be an incredibly interesting few days.  We drove about 3 hours to the Mt. Sneffles Wilderness area where we readied ourselves for another backpacking trip.

The May issue of “Backpacker” featured a cover story titled, “America’s Best Campsites: 12 Epic Hikes to Huge Views with Zero Crowds.”  Katie and I thought it would be cool to try and hit as many of these as we could this summer.  Our hike in the Great Sand Dunes was the first of these backpacking trips and the second was to be a 3 1/2 mile hike in to an alpine lake situated at 11,500 feet.

We were all stoked to hit the trail as we signed the log at the trailhead and quickly set out on our way.  We hiked for a about an hour remarking how easy the trail was for one that was supposed to climb 1600 feet in 3 miles.  We had a shallow river crossing that forced removal of our boots and damn near froze out feet.  We hiked for another good while when we finally realized that this trail was leading down and away from the peaks we were supposed to camp near.  Only about three hours of daylight remained so we hiked back to the car rather than risk getting lost.  Back at the trailhead we realized we took the wrong trail from the start.  Total rookie move.  We camped nearby and went back the next morning.

Certain this time we were on the right trail we had a fantastic hike up to Blue Lake.  Ashlin did awesome on a pretty tough hike, especially considering we hiked 7 miles in the wrong direction the day before.  Our campsite was unbelievable as Backpacker promised.  We chilled out by the lake and hiked around the surrounding peaks.  When we got back to the car after the hike down things got really interesting.

When we open the trunk to repack our stuff we discovered we had some guests.  Mice.  The little rodents started nesting while we were gone and managed to leave tons of "mousekaturds" all over our gear.  I managed to grab two of them and we thought that was the end of the ordeal.  We all went for a wonderful trail-ride near Ouray which Ashlin loved.  She got to ride with no lead rope for the whole time.  After riding we drove two hours to Colorado National monument to camp.

As we were cooking dinner Kate noticed a mouse under the car.  We tried grabbing it but it would just run back into the car.  We decided to bait the thing with peanut butter on bread.  I sat in the car while Kate and Ash watched for the mouse.  Once he came for the peanut butter, I drove away and parked the car on the other side of the camp ground.  Our neighboring campers thought we were nuts.  Maybe we are.

Stowaway-free we drove to Freemont lake in Wyoming after a stop at Dinosaur National monument.  The drive was horribly boring but the lake campsite was a big payoff.  We got up early and drove right through the Tetons and Yellowstone without stopping.  We got to Livingston and have been hanging out with Eric and Roan.  Hope everyone is doing great!  Enjoy the pics!

Dinosaur National Monument, Ash completing her Jr. ranger book

Touching a real dinosaur bone; dated back 140 million years

Taking her Jr. ranger oath

Thanks Andy for the hammock!

Freemont Lake; an hour and a half outside of Jackson, WY

Eric's house and his wooden hot tub.  Oh, and look at that view!

Ashlin & Roan playing train

Ashlin and Eric playing train

Ashlin found some snow on our hike!

Hiking to blue lake

Playing UNO

More of blue lake

Yummy, freeze dried food

Gorgeous

Reading our books :)

Tent

Look at that reflection

Mt. Sneffles

Blue lake from above

One of the higher blue lakes

Look how blue that lake is!

Ashlin "fishing" which really means having a weight and floater on; thanks Mamaw and Grandaddy

That's a keeper

Ash was so proud she crossed the river on her own

Hiking back

Notice the Ove Glove on Derek's right hand.  This is what he used to pick up the mice and throw them.  What a scene!

Pictures from Mesa Verde NP

No time to write, but the pictures should tell a story.  Headed backpacking tonight in one of Backpacker's magazine's "Top 12 campsites in the country"...eiiiiiii

Love you all!

I promise, she asked if she could do "chores", so we said she could do the dishes.

Cliff House; over 800 years ago Native American's made these homes in the Cliff and lived there.  Sort of amazing!

Derek standing in front of a kiva.  Geeking out on Native American history that he just finished writing and re-writing his thesis on.  

Balcony House

Ashlin loved the ladders.  Step House

Spruce House, in front of one of the "bedrooms"

I told you so...and some pictures

Yep, that is right, we broke down.  For the past three days we have been in the middle of nowhere, and then suddenly, we are in a small town in Colorado when the car just stopped.  Luckily, and really this could only happen to us, the place we "coasted" into was an organic co-op grocery store.  So, Ash and I strolled around, bought some food, and Derek called AAA.  Within 10 minutes a tow truck was there, and now we are at the mechanic.  Turns out, the last person that put the battery in (Derek) installed it incorrectly, this caused something to be up against the positive charge, and burned a hole (literally a hole) in our battery.  We are about to be off.  All totaled up to be an hour out of our day.  I must say we all feel really lucky!  Off to Mesa Verde, till next time be well!  BTW, we are having an amazing time!  It was such a good choice come to Colorado first.  Check out the pics from out backpacking trip in Great Sand Dunes NP.  Hope everyone is well!

Katie

We drove down 4 miles of this to get to our campsite in Colorado!

At that campsite we were the only campers, well aside from the infestation of catepillers

Great Sand Dunes National Park

We backpacked in to the dunes, the absolute most private, quiet campsite we have ever been to!

Our tent!  Look at the privacy, and notice the lack of amenities, so yes we hiked in all of our water, and hiked out all of our trash

Our tent again, and all of our footprints

<3

We love Derek and his pictures

Our hike back, almost there