Road to Kari's Wedding

OK, this is the start to the crazy part of my summer. Crazy in a good way, but crazy nonetheless. I had been gunning to drive to my sister's in Boulder CO and bring beer for her wedding. I had spent many of the previous weekends brewing four batches to hand deliver for her wedding. Well, it was only fitting that on the 12th of July, Mark and Alison (friends from my homebrew club) were having a homebrew meeting at their place. They have a place in the country that has always sounded spectacular, but i have always found an excuse not to go. Well, I went up there and had a grand old time and brought the wedding saison for taste. It received high marks (A good omen I must say) and 6 months later I would taste the exact same recipe from a fellow homebrewer because he wanted to brew it. It was a great start to the more than a month that i would be off work and "on vacation".

Packed the car up Sunday, trying not to forget anything I might need for the ensuing adventures and took off at about 7 pm (!!!) on the way to Boulder county. Slept in E WA and was on the road again before 5am, arriving in Yellowstone by evening. Saw the geysers etc. and I talked to a dude about day hike suggestions. Hearing that Yellowstone at this time of year can have "crowd issues" I told him I wanted to get away from people and wanted to do something 'strenuous.' At 5 the following morning I started out on the hike. If what I was doing was strenuous, I hate to see the average day hiker in Yellowstone! It was a nice, "relaxing" hike - I thin kI climbed a total of 300 feet. The fun part was that I got lost. Evidently, the strenuous part was to send me on an abandoned trail 3 miles in that was "obvious." Well, not so much, so I hiked the normal trail for many miles and the backtracked to find the vacant path to the little quaint lake. All in all a nice hike, nice exercise - I think it ended up being 12 or 14 miles - on the road to Longmont. Pictured is the major trail I took, early enough to avoid any crowds. ... Oh and very few rests because of the mosquitos. Damn they were bad.

Since I got hiking early, I got out early and headed to the Grand Tetons and quickly decided that this was more my speed. I found a free camp and figured out a day hike for Tuesday. Not a bad free camp with the mountains in the background and right on the Snake River (pic on right).

4 AM I was out of camp driving to the hike with oats in hand. Hiked (actually more like trail ran) up to the base of the Grand Teton, salivating the whole way because I just wanted to climb it. The grand teton appears to rise up from nowhere and they we just screaming to be climbed.... maybe next trip down there with lucas. Alas the hike up to Amphitheatre was gorgeous in everyway. Pics of me at the lake and some flowers on the climb. I had some second breakfast there, hiked randomly for a bit at the end of the trail and then decided that making such good time I could make it to Longmont in the evening.... and so I did. As I was hiking down it was like a pilgrimage going up ! I said high to the first people I passed but I soon became horse. The amuzing part was that I met some pretty fit dudes with ENORMOUS packs. I asked them if they were climbing... "yes." What? ... "The Grand Teton, duh." So I wished them luck and proceeded on my way with a funny feeling of stupidity for an unknown reason. After passing the rest of the ant-line up realizing that the discourteous, inexperienced folks were likely guided, in part, by the dudes I wished luck to. Well, good luck climbing this mountain for the 259th time ... you'll need it! Well, at least I was heading down, and them up.... By 10 AM I was heading out of the Grand Tetons, following the WIND RIVER (!!!), destination Longmont.