Once in a Lifetime~Once a Year

Sunday, March 18, 2012

A few Pics

Hello all,

We have 82 days remaining before this year's trip! The warm winter and half hour of spring have left us yearning for the tent so this summer we'll be leaving early and staying gone longer. Everyone is done with school and work June 7th so we'll be hitting the road June 8th. That gives us eight weeks this time!

Looks like this year we will spend most of the time in California, Oregon and Washington. Right now we are planning on booking it west to Long Beach where we hope to see some old friends and show Ashlin where mom and dad met. Ash will have a surf lesson or two then we'll head all the way up the coast to Seattle. There we'll head inland to the mountains and travel back south through the Cascades and Sierras. We sure hope to see Jared and Ryann and we know for sure Rachel, Brian and Sadie are meeting us for a week in Yosemite July 15-23! Matt, Shell, Eric and the kids might have to venture out of Montana this year too . . .

We hope to hit Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Channel Islands, Olympic, North Cascades, Crater Lake, Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks as well as several National Forests and wilderness areas.
Our aim is to skip hotels in favor of posting up in the tent the entire trip. I can smell it already.

More pics coming soon!

Peace. Derek

Luken Lake, Yosemite

Yosemite; Just collecting samples, discovering new things, no big deal.

Hike up to North Dome, Half Dome in the background

Ashlin acting like a horse, always.

"Mom, Dad, it's lounge rock" Half Dome in the background.

Family photo, Yosemite

Awesome!

More hiking :)

Hiking in Bozeman, MT, can't begin to describe how windy it was

Mountain goats at the top of Sacagewea Peak Bozeman

Depicts the scene perfectly. Derek taking the picture, Katie holding onto Ashlin whom is freaking out, Matt simultaneously keeping his kids close while telling Shel to calm down, and Eric, calm, collected and about to continue hiking without the overbearing parents.

Ashlin

Sunday, July 31, 2011

KEYS...and Rocky Mountain National Park

To start off I must back track a bit. As those of you that have been keeping up with this blog may remember over the 4th of July in Oregon we locked our keys in our car, luckily there was a phone nearby and AAA came to the rescue. Fast forward to Yellowstone at about 8pm when I decide to go to bed but first needed to change clothes and yep it happened again, keys in car. This time though there was no cell phone service and the camp host was no where to be found. At this point Derek thought it might be successful to disassemble an umbrella (for a metal piece to stick down into the door). Let's be honest people this was a fail. Ashlin and I then walked around the campground looking for a coat hanger and when we found one I thought I might could jimmy it down into the car and push the unlock button. Again, being honest, fail. Now it is nearing 9:30pm and Derek notices the camp host is back. Camp host calls ranger, ranger comes and shabam! If that was the end of the "key" story I would not much have one but it goes on. As we were driving home yesterday (a 3 day event as we have 1500 miles to cover) we realize that our friends Rachel and Brian have our house key and they are in PA. Knowing Rachel, I thought, she just left it at their house and we will get it when we get home, fail, they had brought it to PA, ya know just in case they needed it (just kidding guys we love you). Thats ok we say a couple of weeks back we had mailed our dear friend Andy a key so he could stay at our place. Upon texting Andy we discover that said key never made it to his house, go figure the one piece of mail that really matters gets lost. Ok, next option is my sister Kristen who has a key and lives in Atlanta, oh wait but she is in Boston right now. We call her and she says she will go to a UPS store to next day air the key. We start to get a little relieved and then get the call that UPS has taken out their last shipment and guess what folks today is Sunday. So as we make our journey back to our house late tomorrow night (Monday) we will be calling locksmiths to help us get into our house, oh what an exciting adventure. This folks is what memories are made out of!

OK, that was a side blog, now onto our last park of this trip Rocky Mountain National Park. Like most things on this trip we did not plan on coming here but were oh so excited when we made the last minute decision. We arrived via the west side around 7pm so we set up camp and then went to the ranger program about the Colorado River. Turns out the start of the Colorado is at Rcky Mtn Ntl Park. This fact made me sort of tingly and warm as if you can remember we started our trip off with a three day canoe trip down the Colorado in Utah and here we are on the last week of our trip at the beginning of it. Cute I know. During the ranger program we heard some coyotes howling which Ashlin thought was really neat. The next morning we packed up quick as we were trying to get to the other side of the park to a campground with only 24 sites that were first come first serve only. As most of you know between me and Derek I am the more anxious one. Well, when it comes to getting a campsite Derek is on high alert and is not at rest until one is secured. So, when we get to the campground and see a women leaving we hop on that site and now we can all relax. After quickly setting up camp we get ready for our 8.5 mile hike to Chasm Lake. At the end of the hike we were at an elevation of approximately 12,000 feet. This is breathtaking, literally, most of you know the higher elevation you are at the harder it is to breath, and to give you a gauge Atlanta is at an elevation of about 1000 ft., Boston at 20. After about 2 miles of hiking through forest the trail opened up to alpine meadows and huge views! Ashlin was carried mostly until we got to snow and climbing, her two favorite things to hike in. After spending some time taking in the beauty we started our way down. We got back to camp, had a fire and some freeze dried food and hit the sack for our official last night of camping on this trip :(.

Yesterday we made 586 miles and finally stopped in Topeka, Kansas. Today our goal is roughly the same and it looks like we will stop about 100 miles north of Nashville and then the next day we are home. We will continue to blog and post pictures in the coming weeks as there is so much we have not yet talked about. Oh yeah we left our computer in Montana with Matt and Shel so that is why there have been no pictures the last two blogs. Peace

Katie

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Jackson Hole and PETA

So we made it about 45 minutes on the road yesterday. We also decided to go out to eat for only the second time. Then the third. Right now I'm sitting in the business center of the Rustic Inn in Jackson, Wy about to go wake Kate and Ash up so we can get nasty with this huge breakfast buffet they have here. When one gives up roughing it for a bit it is best to just willingly succomb to gluttony.

So we left Bozeman/Livingston with the Winks and Sebrens and headed into the Beartooth wilderness. This place quite special and also amazingly desolate. It borders Yellowstone on the park's east side so almost no one bothers to come here. Except bears. This is where two people were munched by Grizzlies last year (one 1 week before we came and one 1 week after we left) and in the same roaming grounds where the guy was killed in Yellowstone a couple weeks ago. All nine of us were extremely cautious making plenty of noise while hiking, changing clothes before bed and carrying five cans of bear spray. Anyway there were no incidents and we got to enjoy the beauty with the comfort of safty in numbers. Starting a hike at 9,600 affords one views that usually must be attained by lots of work, sweat and hiking treats. All of us were able to do a hike that led offtrail to four alpine lakes where we saw not a single other person. The kids played, walked and laughed in a way that they could not on our way to Sacajwea Peak a few days before-while still making it over 10,000 feet. At the top of this mountain range there is a plateau that almost makes one forget about the elevation. There are these huge relitively flat areas that look like rolling fields usually not found above 3 or 4 thousand feet. Because of the super late thaw the wildflowers were just beginning to bud and the short colorful life of this place just emerging before the snow and ice reclaims it 2 months from now. Our campsite was situated between a river and a creek so the kids had planty to do and the parents plenty to keep an eye on. Rivers are actually our primary concern when it comes to safty. Sooooo many more people are hurt or killed in water each year than by wildlife that it's crazy people even worry about the critters. I'm sure some of you saw the news about the 3 hikers that fell over Vernal falls in Yosemite (where we hiked the week before) and died while just trying to pose for a picture. They fell 312 feet over the falls from a spot we stood six days prior. So we are super careful about water. This disclaimer before adding that our third day in ther Beartooth's found us on a hike that led to this "natural waterpark" in a river where the kids played for hours. There were a couple of rock waterslides that swooped the kids into shallow pools and gave us all an opportunity to splash around (and bath) in the frigid water. Sadly, back at the trailhead we parted ways with everyone as they headed back home and we headed into Yellowstone.

We keep trying to like Yellowstone but it just isn't happening. I mean, we like it, but it is really pretty low on our list of favorite parks. Three visits in three years has left us feeling like we should like it more but we are usually ready to get to the Tetons. We did get to see lots of buffalo and elk while also seeing some of the geothermal features but we scooted through to the Tetons fairly quickly.

I can't say enough about the Tetons. LOVE this place. We stayed at two new campgrounds, both of which were phenominal. Again, late snowmelt still had higher elevation hikes closed down so we hiked 9 miles into paintbrush canyon and turned around before we reached the snow this time. I feel happy just talking about this park. The sunrise here casts this breathtaking orange light on the mountains that seriously brings a little tear to the eye. The wilflowers are in full "spring" bloom and water is gushing from everywhere as the mountains rid themselves of the snowpack. We also got to see a ranger program on the Teton wolves which Ash was thrilled about (she's part horse part wolf). After Kate and Ash made me stop taking pictures we packed off with the intention of making it to Rocky Mountain NP 8 hours away. Like I said, we made it 45 minutes.

We decided to go through Jackson to find a horse ride for Ashlin when I remembered that my friend Haley now lives in Jackson so we got in touch with her to inquire about rides. Turns out she was the right person to ask and she ended up meeting us for a pony ride and lunch. Then we found out there is a rodeo in town. Ash was about to explode while we decided if we were going to stay for the night. Obviously we did. The Demmings (sp? sorry Haley) had plans to go to a bluegrass show so they didn't make it to the rodeo but we cowboyed up and took off for the bull riding. Ashlin was jittering with excitment and could barley contain herself the whole time. There is a slight feeling of guilt about some of the events in a rodeo but we gave in and had a blast.

Well Ash and Kate just came in on their way to belly up to the bar so I'm out. Hope all is well and we'll be in touch soon.

Peace. D-

Friday, July 22, 2011

Bozeman/Livingston and More Pics

So we made it through the desert of NE CA and SE OR to Montana after making 1000 miles in 2 days. We got to the Sebren's and just chilled while the kids played. They were all so glad to see one another that the three picked up just like there was not a year gap in between visits. We all got up the next morning and went to a spot near Bozeman in the Bridger range for the next two nights. It was a fantastic spot we would have never found as it was completely undeveloped just down the rough road from the developed forrestry service campground. Had it all to ourselves and the kids had a great time collecting water, playing soccer and poking around in the fire. On day two we took the kids on the "adult hike" because we couldn't figure out the sitter situation. They made it like rockstars to the top of Sacajawea Peak at 10,000 feet (tallest in the Bridgers) and recieved many wows from friends and onlookers alike. Shell and Molly sledded on a rainjacket down about 700 feet along a quarter-mile snow drift instead of walking one section of the return. Anyway, we spent last night with Eric in Livingston where we smoked ribs and homemade poppers and planned where we are going today . . . the Beartooth/Absaroka wilderness area. There will be no service there for the next few days so if you are planning on calling Ash just leave a message and we'll call back when we can! Camp is at 9,200 and 34 degrees tonight!!!

Here are some more pictures from July 2nd thru the 5th. Trying to catch up on the pics!