Labor Day

Just when the smoke looks like it is going to give up completely and make a retreat until next summer, it comes back thick as ever. The fires in Idaho are the blame for most of the smoke around here this weekend. Regardless, we did some geocaching and got some REAL exercise. Saturday evening we ran up Mt. Sentinel (the M hill) from the back side and found a geocache at the top of the mountain. That was a 6 mile round trip adventure.

Sunday we turned around and went for a hike up Bass Creek in the Bitterroot Mountains. We had a list of geocaches to find in the area so we have been hitting them hard the last few weekends. Last week, we were on the ridge above the drainage, and this week we were in the drainage. We ended up hiking just shy of 21 miles for the day! The elevation gain wasn't too bad, it's only 3,000 feet over the 7 miles into the lake. After that, we cruised around the lake and climbed into the saddle for a picture as well. From the picture you can see the lake is quite low. We hiked in from the valley to the right. The big mountain to the right is Saint Joseph's Peak - the mountain we hiked to last weekend.

Monday we spent the day recovering from our hike. I don't think it was the distance that made us so tired, but perhaps the speed at which we covered it. Most of the hiking was at 2.5-3 mph and on our way out we were pushing 4mph! I usually like to hike at a good clip of 3 mph, although I don't mind going slower, but when I am on my own I like to move right along. I guess when I am hiking along at 3 mph for about 8 hours my body gets a little tired!

Here's the panoramic pictures I took at the top of the saddle. It's 8 or 9 pictures and gives a 180 degree view from above.Tonight, I will be crashed in front of the television watching Country Music Television (CMT). Why, you ask? Well, tonight CMT is premiering the movie Dale - the documentary movie about Dale Earnhardt. I have been hearing good things about it all year, and the movie has been following the NASCAR circuit from track to track and allowing fans to view it. From the reviews, I guess it's quite a documentary - even non-race fans enjoyed it.

That's about as exciting as it gets for now. We are under six weeks away from the Spokane Marathon and in two weeks I will be playing in the sectional finals of Ultimate Frisbee - playing for a bid to the national finals. We don't have high expectations, but plan on having a good time while we are at it. Until again

-=Nolan=-