Thursday, August 23, 2007
Back in Michigan
Well, Joe and I have found ourselves back in Michigan by this time...and boy it has been a while since we have blogged anything. Sorry! We are working on retrieving many of our pictures... much to our dismay, our external hardrive has been scratched, and is no longer accessable. We are hoping it send it away to a retrieval service to get back our some 3,000 pics from the summer :( Bummer, we know. But we did save pics elsewhere, so i will have to get those on here. The evacutaion from Clydehurst was such a crazy time...forest fires can be so hazardous and quick. They rushed us out of our beloved valley on August12th....we only went back once to camp to clean up and get the rest of our personal belongings. Smoke hung in the air...the Hicks park fire was only about 10 miles away! Sleeping at the fair grounds, at Emily's house....taking shelter in the Civic Center of Big timber...it was all very surreal. Joe even got to live out an adventure, as he was asked to go back into camp the night we were evacuated to retrieve our horses from camp, so they would not be harmed in the fire, should it get that close to camp. Boy was he a happy camper! Rescue!!! So we belive all is well with camp...we haven't hear otherwise. A great trip back to Michigan helped relieve anxieties about leaving early. We stayed with good friends Michael and Liz in Kansas City, and then with Derek and Sam in Iowa city. So much fun at each house!!! We are so blessed to have good friends, for sure. Well, it is late, and I must get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow we are doing High Ropes with our staff here at Michindoh...yesssss!
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Goodbyes...
Well, today is the day my friend Jana Lynn leaves for Georgia. She has been my bestest friend in the kitchen ! But school starts soon for her, and she must go! It is making me realize how short our time is here in this beautiful place. We took pictures in the kitchen to commemorate our last day together. Wearing our homade aprons and picking out the craziest utensils from the kitchen, we posed for a pic. Funny stuff!
Well, this past weekend, we actually made it up the mountain at Blue Lake...talk about amazing. The off-road trip up the mountain was an adventure all in itself! We piled into the matress-clad back of 4 camp pickups and drove about 2 hours up the mountain. These roads were 'primative', and so not maintained. This equals many boulders, mudholes, divits...you name it! And so we would rev up the engine, and fly through! I guess it is tradition to stand up behind the cab, hold on to whatever you can, and scream your way through the mud holes and everything else...needless to say we were covered in dust and mud! But it was a blast. Except for the part when Old Blue broke down on us b/c too much water in something-or-other parts of the truck. So we got out, split our selves up between the other pickups, and took off! We ate lunch at Solomon city, and abandoned mine city waaay up in the mountains. Broken down buildings and shacks scatter the landscape..very interesting. 8 more miles and we were at Blue Lake...just beautiful. We didn't want to waste any time, so we hopped out onto the rocky ground, cinched up our packs, and headed up the steep mountainside. Mounument loomed before us...i actually couldn't believe the feat we were about to tackle. Within the first few moments, my lungs started to hurt...oh no..not a good sign! Well, we were at about 10, 000 ft above sea level...of course the burn is going to happen!! Slow and steady, we crept up that mountain face. There were some meadows along the way, which were actually full of flowers and grass. The high elevation parts of these mountains are actually in their late spring/early summer season. After about 1 hour, we finally reached the top of the mountain. 10, 995 ft. But Greg says with our heads we hit about 11,000 :) Being up on the top feels like no other thing in the world....all i could do was just sit in awe. And praise the Lord for making that creation! We could see for miles and miles...just more mountains! We even caught sight of the tallest point in Montana, about 15,000 ft. There was a book to sign, saying that you had been to the top. I guess Joe can now check off one thing on his "life's to -do list": climb a mountain. We will try to post pics soon...although they don't do justice!
Well, this past weekend, we actually made it up the mountain at Blue Lake...talk about amazing. The off-road trip up the mountain was an adventure all in itself! We piled into the matress-clad back of 4 camp pickups and drove about 2 hours up the mountain. These roads were 'primative', and so not maintained. This equals many boulders, mudholes, divits...you name it! And so we would rev up the engine, and fly through! I guess it is tradition to stand up behind the cab, hold on to whatever you can, and scream your way through the mud holes and everything else...needless to say we were covered in dust and mud! But it was a blast. Except for the part when Old Blue broke down on us b/c too much water in something-or-other parts of the truck. So we got out, split our selves up between the other pickups, and took off! We ate lunch at Solomon city, and abandoned mine city waaay up in the mountains. Broken down buildings and shacks scatter the landscape..very interesting. 8 more miles and we were at Blue Lake...just beautiful. We didn't want to waste any time, so we hopped out onto the rocky ground, cinched up our packs, and headed up the steep mountainside. Mounument loomed before us...i actually couldn't believe the feat we were about to tackle. Within the first few moments, my lungs started to hurt...oh no..not a good sign! Well, we were at about 10, 000 ft above sea level...of course the burn is going to happen!! Slow and steady, we crept up that mountain face. There were some meadows along the way, which were actually full of flowers and grass. The high elevation parts of these mountains are actually in their late spring/early summer season. After about 1 hour, we finally reached the top of the mountain. 10, 995 ft. But Greg says with our heads we hit about 11,000 :) Being up on the top feels like no other thing in the world....all i could do was just sit in awe. And praise the Lord for making that creation! We could see for miles and miles...just more mountains! We even caught sight of the tallest point in Montana, about 15,000 ft. There was a book to sign, saying that you had been to the top. I guess Joe can now check off one thing on his "life's to -do list": climb a mountain. We will try to post pics soon...although they don't do justice!
Friday, August 3, 2007
Steeple
This is and amazing view from the top of Steeple. For those of you who have never been to Clydehurst and don't know what Steeple is...It is a really hard hike to a rock that is at the top of the mountian right above camp. It is pretty amazing to be up there!!
The Family
So we hiked up to Trinity falls while everyone was here...and took this great picture. Ben was quite the acrobat, as he had to balance the camera on a rock, hit the timer, run across a few boulders, and then jump into the picture. We had a wonderful time...especially dad!! Lets just say he was brave enough to jump into that freezing water! Mom did very well, as we had to cross the river twice, over 2 logs and everything...she was a trooper!!
Sun Set
Here is one of the many beautiful sun sets that we get to enjoy on a regular basis here at Clydehurst. We can't actually see the sun set because the mountains are in the way but we do get to see the beautiful effects of it.
Benjie and Kate
Here is a pic of Ben and I hanging out on the porch at camp....pretty cool brother, if you ask me
It's Friday!!
Well, it is hard to believe, but we are ending our 3rd week of family camp, and only have 2 weeks left here in the wild wild west. Sigh....but exciting news is that this weekend we have an amazing adventure planned. We are taking a staff trip to the famed "Blue Lake"!! Basically we all pile into camp pickups and drive about 2 hours south until we get to the end of the dirt road...the end of the valley, i guess! And then we go up...and up...and up! Supposedly, we will be venturing up roads that seem impossible for a vehicle...but little by little our trucks inch up the mountain. Then, we get to the 'above the tree line' lake (Blue Lake) and we have the opportunity to climb Monument Mountain, or even do the "loop". This would include scaling Monument, as well as Haystack, another neighboring mountain. Whew! We are pumped to go...we will have to write and tell all about it. Yesterday I signed myself up for the all famed 'facebook'. yahoo! But i can't seem to change my name to katie hughes...it keeps coming up as katie brown. oh well...i will figure it out. We are trying to sort through all of our pictures and put up some new ones on this blog...we have so many!! Joe thinks we have probably taken 2000 pics so far this summer. Geesh. Libby...thanks so much for the pics and cd you sent me! I loved getting them...and your wedding dress is soooo pretty!! You are going to look beautiful and i am going to cry!! Well, maybe I will try and put up some pics. hasta la vista, mis amigos!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)