Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

   
 

Ashley researched options downtown so we go to check them out. It’s a splurge day – we enjoy coffees and a muffin, bagels at Bagels, Etc (delicious and basically a cream-cheese sandwich) then explore downtown and top off by splitting a breakfast scramble with bison sausage at Main Street Over Easy (it was huge – half each was plenty!) and then back to Wild Joe’s coffee for some cookies.

Lots of delicious food and an enjoyable morning spent exploring the area. It was a great way to spend the morning and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring downtown Bozeman.

On our way out of town we stop at a cool food co-op and resist buying anything but some freshly ground peanut butter.
I must not have slept well, as I’m getting tired. We stop at a coffee hut for a pick-me-up and continue on our way.

  

Halfway to West Yellowstone we happen to turn into one of the few National Forest Campgrounds that offer electrical hook-ups. They’re tucked along the (we believe) Yellowstone River. We get settled in. I rewire the brake lights on the trailer and replace the power hatch lid while Ashley cleans. We revel in our abundant electricity, boiling water in our eletric kettle and flipping on lights with reckless abandon.

After supper we settle in to enjoy a movie.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

It’s moving day! A bitter sweet one – we’ve been in the area for 3.5 weeks – our longest time in a state, much less a specific area. We’re happy to be moving on but also really like the area – there are still trails to hike!

We eat, pack up, and start rolling. In town we head to the post office. Ashley’s glasses have not yet arrived, apparently. 3 hours to kill before the next shipment is sorted and available.

To pass time we lunch, empty and fill tanks, top off propane (they also help to trouble-shoot the trailer lights – for free! – think it’s the trailer plug that needs replaced) and then head to the tea shop for some tea for Ashley. Their card machine doesn’t seem to be working, and a gentleman says he’ll pay for her bag of tea ($10) as his random act of kindness for the day. How nice! She’s still excited about that.

Her glasses are in (as they were earlier – had them under H for Holt). We swing by the library to research locations for Xmas tree lots. A couple are only 15 miles from Temecula – that’d be grand! Also find 3 or so others that would be good. We send some emails, I tweak website settings (making journal entries their own page and hiding them from the main page) and we head on out.

Late start, 4:30ish, but Bozeman is only about 2 hours away. We stop at a rest stop for salads for supper (quick to prepare and clean up). Ashley cracks her new frames, trying to put in new lenses – apparently you’re supposed to soften them in hot water first.

We pull into Walmart – it’s a nice one! Lots of other RV’s already there. Stock-up time. we load up on groceries and get a trailer plug for me to wire in (sticking to a budget is no fun!) A snack while we revel in cell connectivity and then bed time.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Another cold morning. I turn on the heater and after a bit I turn on the generator to keep the batteries topped off. Much nicer morning when we can’t see our breath inside! I make progress on the afghan – only a few yards of yarn left!

Two hikes we want to do and we plan to leave tomorrow – assuming Ashley’s glasses arrive. So we pick the Beartooth High Lakes Trail. It’s back up over the pass, so we bundle up. Though the sun is shining merrily it’s still cold up above 10,000 feet.

We motorcycle over the pass, appreciating the view. It’s so much clearer than our prior trips, without the smokey haze! What a fabulous view – we can appreciate the “most beautiful motorcycle ride” title.

Parking at Island Lake we quickly pack away our motorcycle gear and start hiking, trying to get warmed up. We are back in Wyoming, where they apparently try to scare the bejeezus out of you about grizzlies (we are up in the wilderness, after all). It seems that every 50′ on the road and every 15′ in the parking area there is some sort of sign telling how you will die a horrific, gory death at the jaws of grizzlies if you don’t triple lock any sort of scented item inside of an insulated, fire-proof, titanium container specificaly made to deter and resist the Grizz. And even then, BEWARE THE BEAR!

These signs made Ashley become quite the astute tracker as she peered at every imprint on the ground, looking for bear tracks. Likewise, her radar was on high alert, monitering every leaf’s flutter and bird’s tweet. For all her searching, though, we saw neither hair nor track of a single bear (no complaints from either of us, there.)

  

If you could grow tired of seeing and photographing gorgeous mountain lakes set amid majestic mountians with stunning blue skies overseeing the view, this was the day and trail for it. Other than a single hill that dropped down from one lake to the next our hike was basically flat and enjoyable. We passed one lake after the next, stopping to eat lunch on a rock at the end of a piece of land jutting out into the middle of a small lake.

  

The crowning glory of the hike was Beauty Lake, which truly lived up to its name. The trail ran along the shore for some time. Unable to imagine the view possibly getting any better, we stopped one lake short of our intended destination and headed back to the bike.

    

Almost back, we found a seat overlooking Island Lake and split an apple with peanut butter while taking in the view. Finished eating, we headed back on and quickly geared up to head back over the pass, aimed for home.

A fox ran across the road in front of us (a new critter to add to the list!) We spotted Beartooth Peak, after which the range is named.

Back home we started prepping for tomorrow’s departure. Ashley made supper as I cleaned up outside. In an effort to use up all of the firewood I’d collected we had a grand fire going for a few hours (didn’t make it – next campers should be pleased – it’s split and stacked). We ate next to the blaze and then took advantage of a splendid bed of coals for one last round of s’mores.

We saw a spectacular, if short-lived, sunset over the mountains!

  

Darkness had fallen, along with the temperature, so we headed in and on to bed. What a great day!

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

It’s another cold morning. We wake and quickly bundle up for a ride in to town. To celebrate Ashley’s birthday we’re going to head in to Prindy’s Place for breakfast. It’s nice and warm inside and we both have coffees while waiting for our food. Ashley gets the special of the day, three pancakes and scrambled eggs. So big she can’t finish them. I get a standard – eggs, hashbrowns, bacon and rye toast. Everything is tasty, a nice start to the day.

Apparently we beat the rush, so we head out to empty out a table. On to Honey’s. Ashley specifically wanted a latte.  She’s happily warm and bundled up – we don’t feel like heading home to change to go for a hike, so we’re going to spend the day about town.

We get our coffees and I set about updating journal entries online. Basically, we pay for wifi and a seat and they throw in a beverage. Ashley really liked my posts, especially “Silver Linings” so I schedule that as well for tomorrow.

Finally finishing up we walk down to Lyon’s Park to check out the Art Festival. Makes us think of the Art Fest in Lexington, just smaller. Lots of really good work, with a good ratio of crafts to arts. Ash liked the alpaca socks and I appreciated the traditional wood long bows.

Over to the grocery store. After shopping we dropped the food stuffs off in the saddle bags and walked down to the Tea Shop. They have IngenuiTeas, which Ashley has been wanting for some time. Mom deposited some birthday money in our checking account and Ashley is using that to buy her gift. She’s so excited!

Gift collected, we head home to try it out. Her face lit up with delight as she made tea. She swears her drink has a richer taste due to the loose floating leaves, compared with them remaining compacted in the tea ball.

We head out for a stroll and find ourselves down at Wild Bill’s Lake. It seems to be a popular picnic/fishing area. Apparently, in 1902, William dammed up a glacial gouge to create a recreation area. Stocked with white fish, built a wood-fired hot pool for soaking, added an outdoor fire place and even a dance floor. Must have been quite a lively place! Over time it deteriorated. In the 60s the dam was rebuilt (by Navy Seabees!) and now it’s what we saw. Pretty lake.

At the far end, away from everyone else, we watched what we assume are muskrats. They swam up to downed logs and sat there, eating. Then dove off and came back to repeat. We spotted at least 5.

We mosey back up the road to home – stopping to snack on some raspberries. At home, we aren’t very hungry – lunch was a bit late and pretty big – so we decide on a popcorn snack. We start discussing the animals we’ve seen and realize it’s a pretty good list so we start writing them down – 20! That’s pretty good, we think!

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

It’s cold when we wake – neither of us want to get out of bed. Eventually we rise. Ashley writes the journal entry for Thursday as I finish up the skien of violet (one left!) and write some posts.

We debate what to do – errands (like groceries) in town or hike up to the waterfalls at the end of this gnarly gravel road. Both, we decide, and gear up for a hike. We can shop this afternoon.

On down to the trailhead we ride. Everywhere we pass is pretty full. Holiday weekend and no threat of rain help with that.

West Fork Trail meets up with the Lake Fork Trail we overnighted on. They converge at Sundance Pass. Today, however, we’re only hiking in 1.8 miles to see both of the waterfalls.

A very pretty trail, we claim it (in conjunction with Lake Fork) the prettiest of the trails we’ve been on. We pass through a variety of terrains, from the rocky remains of an old avalanche, ghost forest of a burnt stand of pines, surviving pine forest and even alpine meadows. I catch myself looking for the colors we saw in the rain on Thursday in the burnt trees.

   
 

Calamity Falls is beautiful. We walk in to the bottom, delighting in the view, then follow the trail up to the top where we enjoy our lunch. The falls are a series of steps, working their way down a hill and around a bend.

   
    
 

After eating we head on up the trail, looking for Sentinal Falls, half a mile further on. We see some white water and a group of people stopped for lunch and continue on. Perhaps that was it?

We stop at every meadow, wide spot in the stream, and view that catches our eye. There are many. We begin to wonder if we missed the falls, if that patch of white water was it. Rock Creek has turned into a wide, meandering stream – blue in the mountain meadows. A far cry from the noisy, splashing rocky creek racing its way joyously down the hill.

   
 

Sure that we’ve walked too far we enter a meadow with a sign. We are in Quinnebaugh Meadows – we’ve walked 2.7 miles past our destination. With enjoyable conversation, breathtaking views, and a delightfully level trail the distance flew by and we didn’t realize how far we’d traveled.

   
 

Once again sure of where we are and about to head back into the pines we decide to turn around and head back. We spot a few people setting up camp. There are more people on the trail today than we have passed up to this point, combined.

We pause and take in the view at Sentinal Falls. Still beautiful, though less impressive than Calamity. A couple of stops are made for wild raspberries growing alongside the trail. We’re sure that we’ve hiked right past a veritable smorgasboard of wild foods without knowing it – our ignorance of what may well be lost knowledge is frustrating.

Back at the trailhead we hop back on the motorcycle and head for home. Once there we decide to save our shopping trip for tomorrow. We can fix supper and edit writings together tonight. Since we’re going in for breakfast in the morning for Ashley’s birthday we can shop then.

Ashley fixes supper as I journal. I have left-over soup from yesterday’s lunch. Ash didn’t care for it.

We edit posts and read before bed.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

I wake and write with my coffee. This new routine seems to be working well. I’m enjoying my mornings and getting some good writing done. It’s again cold and Ashley stays snuggled up in bed until late. With a forecast of rain all afternoon we plan to be back home, safely in the RV, by noon.

So off we head to be productive. Laundry and wifi. Ashley researches Forest Fenn, overnight oatmeal, and surfed FaceBook while I watch a webinar on making/creating side gigs. I get some good ideas and start outlining projects for later.

Back home, with clean clothes, we putter about the house. Apparently the chance of rain has drastically lessened. I make soup for lunch. After eating Ashley goes for a bicycle ride and I write in the hammock. She returns and yogas while I put together a fire for tonight.

Really enjoying our fires – fun to build and watch them. I’ve been trying different methods out. I try out a wood-fired backpacking stove that I made some years ago. It’s been so long that I don’t remember an important setting – it works but doesn’t seem super efficient and really soots up my metal cup.

      

Though it’s cooked inside we eat next to the fire. Then we follow up with s’mores. Mmmm.. we wonder what s’mores with Reeses Cups would be like. Or Nutella. Experiments for a future day.
Back inside we retreat to bed. Ashley reads and I crochet. Almost done with this skein of yarn – only one more to go!

We are up to 2 minutes in our daily plank exercise.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

It was raining when I woke and wrote while sipping on my coffee, but stops shortly after Ashely comes and joins me with her tea. Chilled, we decide to head in to town to warm up and get some phone calls made, so we head to Honey’s for coffee, wifi, and heat.

I finish my coffee and leave Ashley for a visit to the library. I use their computer to get some things done that our phones just won’t do. The timer runs out and I stop by the gas station to top off before returning to meet Ashley. She’s placed sandwich orders, as we’re both quite hungry. We split a sandwich and a wrap – wow are they good! Honey’s really does make some great food!

We run by the Family Dollar for a few items and then head home.

Ashley reads and I switch between crocheting (really making progress on our afghan) reading and writing.

Early to bed.

(This is a guest post by our very own Ashley!)

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

We wake up, eat a quick breakfast, pack our day bags, and head out to Timberline Trail just down the road via washboard gravel. Close, but not close enough to walk, we take the motorcycle and alas, when we finally make it to the trailhead about 3 miles away, I feel like an egg that has been thoroughly scrambled. Washboard gravel is less than fun on the motorcycle, but although I feel like a bobble-head doll bounncing around the back seat, Matthew seems to have no problem handling the rough road. What a pro!

At the trailhead, we head up! The trail follows the side of the mountain for a while before heading back alongside a creek. As the name suggests, we are following the timberline, however the timber has been victim to the Cascade Forest Fire back in 2008. The trees are charred and desolate, but new growth has sprouted on the forest floor, so greenery and shrubs of all sorts populate the ground.

  

It is a unique kind of beauty; the barren trees allow for grand views of the surrounding mountains as we climb, and huge, white/gray smooth granite boulders are scattered about – some as huge as a cabin – making us stop and ponder how in the world they got there. 

We finally reach part of the timberline untouched by the firey scourge and feel as though we are on a whole different trail. The shade of the bright green conifers create a lovely cool breeze and that spicy, warm aroma of pine immediately hits my nose – my most favorite smell in the world – and warms my soul! Matthew notices it as well, but I don’t think he appreciates it as much as I do.

We continue along, passing another hiker and chatting for moment – he has his fishing pole with him, for our end destination is Timberline Lake. It should not be far off now.

Making our way across beautiful forests with soft, brown, piney floors we come upon Lake Gertrude, a small lake only 0.5 miles away from Lake Timberline. We stop and admire for a few minutes and then contine our climb for the final destination. The trail begins to crest the hill and flatten.

I get a quick view of the tops of rugged mountains to come and start to feel giddy, knowing the reveal of this lake is going to be spectacular. The air is fresh and the breeze is stronger and colder – sure signs we are almost there! We crest the hill and there stands Timberline Lake in all its clear, sparkling, majestic mountain beauty. Nothing makes me happier or feel more at peace than these beautiful alpine lakes surrounded on all sides by towering giant stone – the feeling is indescribable to one who has never experienced it.

   
   

Matthew and I excitedly explore around the shore, trying to find the perfect place for a picnic lunch. We find a spot with great views, relax, eat and continue our chatting. The hiker we passed on the trail is fishing and another couple we saw on the way up have made it and are relaxing as well.

Finished snacking, we sit and soak up the beauty for a while. There is snow clinging to the sides of a few mountains which make us start discussing the origin of this watery wonder. Soon, the fisherman/hiker meanders our way as he fishes and we strike up a conversation. Steve, we discover is his name, has been coming to the Beartooth Wilderness area since the 90s – he comes every year and backpacks/fishes with friends/family. He is an anesthesiologist from St. Louis, MO and once he learns of our story and current adventure has many questions and even takes our picture for his records and story-telling purposes! We thoroughly enjoyed talking to Steve and he gave us some great advice for other trails to traverse in the area.

Chilled by the cool mountain air, we head back down the trail. Some thunder clouds are accumulating and we almost make it back down before it rains, but not quite. About a mile from the trailhead, the dark clouds are just overhead and it begins to rain. It is amazing how nature’s colors change and become more vibrant in such weather. The charred trees turn from a bleached white/gray to a magnificent shiny silver and dusted gold. The boulders are no longer just gray either, but swirls of light and dark and some with hints of green and rusty red. The greenery becomes a vibrant green that stands out and can only be describd as lush. Every plant and rock and tree glow with color and Matthew begins to notice raspberry bushes lining the trail with bright little succulent raspberries ready to be plucked – how did we miss these on the way up!

We don our rain gear and as I am getting mine on Matthew begins grazing on the raspberries. I look up from putting my rain pants on, half of the sky has turned bright blue and the sun is happily shining through as it still rains, and what do I see before my eyes but a huge, vibrant double rainbow!! It is so close, I feel like I could almost reach out and ouch it. Matthew, still enthralled in raspberry hunting, has yet to notice. “Look Matthew!!” I say “A double rainbow!” Thoroughly surprised and overjoyed we stand and admire it for a while until it begins to fade. What a gift to see!

  

We are back down at the trailhead, ready to hop on the motorcycle and mosey home when I realize the bear spray I carry on my hip belt is missing. I realize I must have lost it when I put my rain gear on and, distracted by the rainbows, didn’t notice its absence until now. So back up the trail we go – at least it’s only about a mile. We pass Steve coming down but he didn’t see the spray on the trail anywhere. A few minutes later we pass the other hiker couple coming down – Huzzah! They found the bear spray and gladly turn it over. Only about 1/2 mile back down the trail and back to the motorycle – Matthews grazes on more raspberries as we go.

We head back home, wash up, and eat home-made foil pack meals cooked over the campfire with a side salad. What a delightful day! Timberline Trail has been my favorite day hike thus far – magnificent scenery, friendly hikers, free raspberries, and a rainbow to trump all rainbows I have ever seen! There are some days when you feel, without a shadow of a doubt, that God is truly watching over you and revealing himself in all his glory – today was definitely one of those days. It is impossible to be submerged in such intricate beauty and not see the hand of some sort of creator behind it.