Tuesday, July 31, 2007

A Stop On Our Trip Home

On our way back to Missoula, we returned on a different highway and geocached on the way back. One of the geocaches was in a ghost town called Gilmore. There are still a few people who live around the town, but nothing like 100 years ago when it was a silver mining town. I did some work with Photoshop in the first picture to make the red house stand out a little more - I found it quite odd to see a red house still standing amongst all the worn and weathered wooden buildings.

I really don't know much about the town, like I said, we just stumbled upon it and didn't have any plans of seeing a ghost town on the trip. There are a few ghost towns in the area that I still would like to visit before we leave the area, but our list of things to do keeps growing longer while our time keeps getting shorter. Strange how that works. Here's some more pictures.That's all I have to share today. It's been kind of slow around here, but that's how I like it right now. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Monday, July 30, 2007

Craters of the Moon

Laura and I made our way south to Idaho on Friday afternoon. We decided we needed to visit one more location with our National Parks Pass before it expires on August 1. We really got our money's worth from it. We bought it last summer for $50 on our trip to Glacier National Park when Andy & Amber came to visit us, then used it again when my parents came to visit us three weeks later. By then, we had already matched the price just for two visits to the park! Then, we went to Yellowstone to hike in the back country (+ $25). Followed by our spring break trip to San Francisco where we visited the Maritime Museum (+ $10 each = $20). On that same trip we visited Muir Woods (+ $3 each = $6). On our trip to Nebraska a month ago we traveled through Yellowstone once again (+ $25) and finally our trip to Craters of the Moon (+ $8). All totalled we would have spent $134, so we seem to have done quite well.

As far as our trip, we had a great time. We camped out in the campground on Friday and Saturday night and left for home early Sunday morning. Saturday was a busy day of hiking and add on top of that the heat, and we found ourselves quite tired by the end of the day. We hiked somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 miles, but we did find time for a mid-afternoon nap to relax from the heat. Here's some pictures from the trip:
Ground squirrel on the rocks at our campsite.
We found our first cave of the day! It was a tight fit getting in.......but it was a tighter fit getting out! We found a different way out, and it required some crawling.
VICTORY!As we came out of the caves a Violet Green Swallow perched on a fence post for me to take a picture of. I actually had to change batteries in the camera and I only managed to get this one shot, but I was amazed it sat as long as it did.A little closer
On our walk to Tree Molds - the lava field goes on and on!Tree molds are formed when lava flows around a tree. Eventually the tree rots away and all that is left is a hole in the lava where the tree was. Here I am standing in a mold.Here's a mold where the tree fell while the lava was still cooling. Notice the indentions from the bark!Climbing to the top of the cinder cone.The view from on top of the cinder cone.The butte is about 25 miles east of the cinder cone - lava separates them.Exploring more caves in the afternoon. It was getting hot so the ice in the caves was a nice retreat. Here's Laura standing at the entrance of Beauty Cave. We walked to the very end of the cave. It was pitch black when we turned our lights off! I had my 'night vision' eyes going so I could see. HA!The sunset wasn't too bad either.
We made it back to Missoula around 3:00 p.m. and went to meet a friend as he traveled back to Seattle from Cody, WY. We made our way home after 720 miles and took a much needed shower! Tomorrow I will try to post some pictures from our return trip to Missoula. We stumbled upon a ghost town while we were geocaching our way home, and as usual, I had to take a bunch of pictures. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A Breath Of Stale Air

Take a deep breath... ....AH! That's nice isn't it. Some nice clean air - er, well, it looks clean when you don't see it like this! YUCK! That is the sun over Black Mountain on Saturday evening - there are more mountains to the right of the frame, but good luck finding them through the smoke! My camera actually had a difficult time focusing, and when I look closely I can see that nothing is really in focus at all. I took this picture around 8:00 p.m. - nearly an hour and a half before sunset.

My parents were in town Tuesday evening until Saturday morning, so they missed the major smoke in the valley, but still experienced the joy of haze in the Missoula valley. As standard on vacations, we were up early - well decently early - and we were up even later, midnight was standard and so was eating super around 10:00 p.m. That really threw Laura for a loop, considering that is usually her bed time! Additionally they were able to enjoy the heat we are experiencing - especially the 100+ days. To date we have had 8 days above 100 and 23 of the past 24 have been above 90. The one day it wasn't above 90 it was 88. Wonder why they fire season is out of control this year???

Thursday we packed up the van and headed down the road for Idaho. Coeur d'Alene and Sand Point to be exact. Laura and I had to do some geocaching along the way, and I found a cache that involved a swim and diving 10 feet under the water to retrieve the cache! That's my kind of fun. Well, when we left Missoula at 6:15 Thursday morning it was already 70 and warming up fast. By the time we reached the cache in Idaho around noon, it was raining and 57! WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND HERE!?! I decided to opt out of the underwater adventure and stay high and dry - perhaps we will make a trip to Idaho another time.

We spent the early afternoon in Coeur d'Alene eating lunch and taking in the boats around the floating boardwalk. My family was there 13 years ago, but it was discovered that this wasn't one of the highlights of that trip because most of us didn't remember being on the boardwalk, well most of us except dad who probably could recall where his footstep was thirteen years ago and what was said at the time. I could remember a few things about the area, but nothing really 'brought me back.'

We made our way north to Sand Point later in the afternoon. For some reason that is one place I remember the most about that vacation thirteen years ago. If you are familiar with the Sand Point area then you probably have seen the rope swing as you cross the bridge into the park on the east side of town. Well that's what I remember the best from that vacation - the rope swing. I think it is because it was the first rope swing that I actually had seen that went over the water and actually work. Most of my rope swings were on flat ground and didn't swing much more than a few feet, so this was a big improvement!

We took some pictures at the park and continue back to Missoula. We made it back around 10:30. A full day on the road and sight seeing, but always interesting and a good time.

Laura has not taken a vacation with my family before, and this simple one day trip wasn't much for her to experience, but we can't just throw her into the pool and expect her to swim with us, so we are breaking her in slowly. I think she is catching on quickly though. Especially on Friday evening when we drove up onto the mountain and took some more pictures. After we took one picture, dad told us to 'shuffle around.' Well, far-be-it for us to simply just move like sheep. I began clapping my hands and stomping my foot while my brother Rylan hummed a ditty, which in turn cause mom and my sister Lana to dance around into a new place. Without much thought we found a new place to stand. Looking back at us was Laura, the confused look on the face indicated we had done something quite abnormal and caught her off guard - I guess she still has some learning to do.

Work is picking up for me again, and that means I am tired at the end of the day. The heat is what really takes my energy away. I wear jeans all day to keep the dirt and weeds off my legs, and by mid-afternoon I am sweating up a storm. Today, I lost two pounds and I ate my entire lunch, plus I drank about 50 ounces of water. I have to admit though, working in the heat and then going for a run, followed by ultimate frisbee is really starting to take the weight off and I am feeling better about that. Sunday evening, Laura and I went for a 9-10 mile run and by the end of the day I weighed it nearly 8 pounds lighter than I did in the morning! WHOA! A lot of that was water weight and I put it right back on, but I know darn well that I still need to lose about 10-15 pounds in the next 10 weeks to be running a little lighter for the half marathon.

Well, it's getting late and tomorrow I have a full day of work followed by another three mile run and ultimate frisbee. I need a good nights sleep to keep on top of things. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Monday, July 16, 2007

The View From Above

Laura and I have spent the past few days in the mountains. We didn't camp out or anything, we simply spent a lot of time hiking and taking in some views. Probably, one of our most favorite hikes around Missoula came on Thursday evening when we went for a geocache on the Montana and Idaho boarder. We didn't know what to expect, but had heard the area was very interesting and worth going to, so we left around 7:30 on Thursday evening. We hiked in a little over a mile and climbed to the top of a butte to find the cache, it was rather simple, but what really impressed us was what we found on top. There, sitting literally on top of the butte and on the edge of a cliff, was an old forest service cabin. The cabin obviously had not been used is many years, but it wasn't in bad shape. The glass windows were nearly all still in place, the roof didn't have any holes, and the floorboards were still secured and stable. I walked around inside for a few moments and imagined what it would have been like to live on top of the butte for the summer and be a fire spotter.

We picked a really good evening to go because we could see all the way back to Missoula - nearly 25 miles - and we had an excellent view of the surrounding mountains and valleys. If you take a good look at the next picture you can get a really good idea of how the cabin was situated on top of the butte. Basically, the left and right sides of the cabin are on the edge of the cliff, along with the backside (previous picture). I stood on the edge of the cliff to take the picture of Laura in front of the cabin, and that didn't allow for much room to get a better angle.

We spent about half an hour on top, checking out the view and enjoying the sunset before heading back to the car. The trail wasn't real good so we wanted to be able to see our way back. Plus, on the way in I spotted some black bear tracks in the mud, and I wasn't very interested in meeting up with any bears in the dark, and especially without the bear spray in hand.Friday we dealt with the 100 degree temperatures in the evening by going running and playing ultimate frisbee. The past few days have been rather warm - to put things into perspective, there have never been this many consecutive days where the temperature has reached above 100 here in Missoula, and today we are going to tickle the 100 mark. It has been above 90 for the past two weeks and doesn't look to be cooling much in the near future either. Look out for the fire season! Friday night we noticed the haze beginning to thicken in the valley - we had been making plans to summit another mountain we have on our list and we decided that we would do it regardless of the smoke or not.

Late Saturday morning we headed for Squaw Peak. The peak is right at 8000 feet and one of our favorite ones to see from Missoula. It's the pointy one to the northwest. I took the picture back in January - I would take a more recent one, but the haze is so thick right now that we can't see Squaw Peak from Missoula! YUCK!

To add on top of the filthy air, we had a warm day of hiking as well. Even though we were gaining elevation the temperature wasn't dropping much, however we occasionally caught a cool breeze and that helped out. However, it was still hot and we were noticing it. I snapped a picture of Laura when she stopped to get a drink of water and it's apparent we were sweating and in need of some refreshing H2O.

Once we escaped the trees we had a good view of the peak, but we didn't have any shade for the remainder of the climb. Additionally, once reaching the boulder field the trail virtually disappears and it's a free for all to the top. However, we both agree that boulder hoping beats hiking on a trail any day! Not only do you get to make your own path to the top of the mountain, but you also get the do some exploring and searching of your own - and I like thinking I am the first person to take a certain route to get somewhere.

Even thought it wasn't a very good day to experience the view from the top, we still enjoyed out hike up. Had we been able to see the full panorama, we would have been able to see Missoula and north into the Flathead valley as well. The unobstructed view is definitely what I have been looking for since we started hiking, and I finally found one! Perhaps we will make another trip back once the smoke has cleared so we can take in the full view that the mountain has to offer, I can only imagine what it looks like on a clear day!I have spent most of my morning preparing my blog and I should be getting the house cleaned up for the arrival of my family tomorrow. They'll be spending the rest of the week with us and we are just finishing up our unpacking from the trip we took to Nebraska. I guess I should get off my comfy chair and get to work before another minute passes. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Wow! Someone get Al Gore on the phone and have him stop this global warming problem. It's mighty hot outside and it's only getting hotter around here. The past few days of work have been in the mid 90's and today the temperature is expected to reach 100. Friday and Saturday are even warmer at 105! It's hard to stay cool when it's getting that hot.

It's been a few weeks since I have sat down and blogged. Since we arrived back in Missoula we have been busy catching up with everything around the house, and we are still in the process of putting all the camping gear away. We camped above Gardiner, Montana - which is basically the North entrance to Yellowstone. You can see Mammoth Hot Springs in the background - it's the white spot in the background above my back.

After the tent was set up we went into Yellowstone and drove to Lamar Valley. We had hoped to spot a wolf or bear while we sat and ate supper, but we didn't see any. The bison were moving across the valley though, and that was neat to see them run. Most people tend to think the bison are slow, but they were really moving and when they run they kick up a lot of dust. We spent the evening in the Lamar Valley and then returned to our camp site in the dark. The sunset was quite nice and I snapped a few pictures of it as well. The larger version of the picture is a little more spectacular because you can see the stars and planets.

The next morning we spent in Yellowstone in Hayden Valley and then made our way to Cody, Wyoming for dinner. We spent the rest of the day driving to Kearney and made it at 3:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.

While we were back in Kearney I ran every morning at the high school with Nick and then sat around talking about the good ole days with he and Luke. I managed to lose 5 pounds rather quickly and now that I am back home I hope to keep them off, but it's tricky to travel for 2 days and not gain any weight when I sit in the car the entire time. We got a lot of things done in Kearney and even attended a wedding on Saturday. We had plans to leave on Sunday morning, and we basically stuck to the plan, but the wedding reception went until 1:00 a.m. and we didn't get out of Kearney until 11:00.

We went north through South Dakota and North Dakota on the way home, and that added 20 new counties to our map, plus we have been to North Dakota together as well. On our way back through Montana we drove Highway 12 the entire way across the state. Just outside of Miles City - which is in the Eastern part of the state, I was driving along as Laura slept when suddenly something caught my eye. I slammed on the brakes and startled Laura when I started yelling "ZEBRAS! ZEBRAS!" We had to stop and take a few pictures, Laura started observing the other horse around the zebras and realized that most of them were exotic horses, so it was neat to be able to see them up close.

We made it home around 8:00 p.m. on Monday evening and went to work at 7:30 Tuesday morning. Since then we have been busy getting back on track and my parents are going to be here next week to help keep our summer busy and interesting.

We are trying to make plans for a hike this weekend, but with temperatures over 100 I don't know that we will have much interest in any long hikes, however I suspect we will do it anyway and just try to do it early in the morning or late evening.

OH! One last thing to keep in mind. Friday the 13th is tomorrow! Until again

-=Nolan=-