New Year's 2009!

I (doug) am running the boards for the new years concert at Joe's this
year - so enjoy the view from the booth and have a splendiferous new
years! See you in '09!

Can You Get This At Your Local Super Walmart?

These are all of the things you can get at the service counter at our hometown grocery store in Michigan.

You cannot, however, get a gift card, as we discovered when the lady at the counter gave us a very puzzled look about the idea of a such a card. Fortunately she had a computer and a printer and made us some gift certificates.

By the way, those smiles? They're free.

The Obligatory Christmas 2008 Report - Now With New Author!

Liz here. I've abandoned my defunct blog for Doug's highly acclaimed site. Cousin Kyle notes that this makes us the Blogsmas.

The 10 day trek of family visitation through Michigan and Ohio has been completed with gusto. Aside from lots of snow, a lot of driving, and getting a 24 hour flu bug on Christmas night, it was a pretty successful trip. We didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are a few highlights:

The nephews! As you can see from the previous post, we got to spend lots of time with my brother, wife, and their three kids, ages 6, 5, and 3. Everyday is a party at their house! A few of my favorite conversations:

Alex (age 5): "I want some orange juice."
Me (holding glass of juice): "Okay, here's your orange juice, but first you have to tell me who's your favorite auntie?"
Alex: "Aunt JoJo!"
Me (holding glass a little higher): "Yes, but I have this glass of orange juice, so tell me again, who's your favorite auntie?"
Alex: "Aunt JoJo! Aunt JoJo!"
Fortunately, bribery still works with the other two.

Grandma Pam: "Athan, who did you sleep with last night?"
Athan (age 3): "Um, a lot of white people!"

"I just kinda love you. I just kinda love you" - lyrics from Athan's original song "I Just Kinda Love You."

Games. When we set foot in Michigan, we are required to have our Scrabble, pinochle, canasta, and euchre skills well-honed. We played dozens of games this week. A new addition for this year was Wii sports and Mariokart. My favorite? An 8 man tennis doubles tournament into the wee hours of the morning.

Cooking for the fam. We love cooking for people, but rarely have the opportunity to cook for our family from far away. Doug and I took over the kitchen for Hillman family Christmas for a nontraditional holiday meal of fish tacos, homeade black bean salsa, and jalepeno cornbread.

Gifts! We gave and received some really fun and thoughtful gifts. Doug's mom got me a book called "The Encyclopedia of Country Living", a 922 page book on homesteading with topics such as growing mushrooms, homemade bug spray, delivering a baby, calculating harvest yeild, building a mud oven, cooking wild animals, tanning hides, turkey reproduction, you name it. Not only is it a highly interesting gift, it also makes the Blocksmas marketable to join a commune should our financial system collapse entirely.

A great Christmas, but we are glad to be home where the sun shines and we go to sleep at reasonable hours. Happy New Year to you all!

Christmas in Ohio

Merry Christmas from the midwest! As you can see, we are snuggling
with nephews, eating way too much, and having pinochle battles until
the wee hours of the night. Happy holidays!

Blocksma Bowl Pick'Em!!

Yes, it has been eerily quiet 'round these parts of late, but i promise we are doing well, have had some visitors, are tired of christmas shopping, and will be embarking on a 10 day midwestern adventure this Saturday.

BUT

something more important begins this Saturday, when College Football Bowl season descends upon us like the ever steady hand of fate.

I realized a little late in the game this morning that i had not setup a friends and family pick'em pool yet, so i had best get on it, tout suite! So, click right here, or go to the Yahoo Bowl page and search for Group ID#: 46222, password: spartans.

I can't remember what i promised the victor last year, or if i even delivered, so for now let's just say a hug for the winner (contingent upon physical altercation that is already bound to happen) and well wishings for at least a week.  Maybe later we'll bump it up to a Christmas ham or something.  

Happy Pickings!

Team Blocksma Year in Review

Another year down! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Colorado!

Saturday Snowshoeing

Elizabeth is currently sniffly.  Sick, congested, scratchy, all of the above.  So when Adam called up Saturday morning with a hankering to head up the Poudre to play in the snow by Cameron Pass, she asked to stay home and perfect her cardmaking for the sake of the upcoming holidays.

Brian being down the road, and also currently a bachelor the next week, did want to come along and fill his boots with snow.  The three of us took off late morning, and found ourselves at the parking area for the state park around noon.  The sun was out, the sky was clear, and there was not even a trace of wind.  Most people would find this a good thing, a nice sign - i find it very odd.  Weird.  

Nevertheless we took off and made decent time up the trail to Lake Agnes.  I'd actually been up there earlier this year via snowshoes, but the crags did seem different this time around.  The tips of the Nokhus were sprayed with snow and it added a strange dimension to them. There wasn't anyone much else around all day, only a single other car containing a pair of skiers who very easily beat the three of us up the hill.  

The whole trek was a 6 mile, 4 hour event, with us getting back home in time for burgers & hummus.  All the shots that i got can be found over here, while all of the pictures Brian got with his much nicer camera are over here.  

**update: link to brian's flickr shots has now been added.**

A Look Back: Courtney Wedding

When we saw our (relatively) newly minted married friends of Greg & Christina last weekend, they gave us a disc of a few of the professional pictures from their wedding back in July that they now have their hands on. While i was lucky enough to be a part of their day, it did appear that the camera guy was following me around a little bit......



And to be honest, i'm honestly not sure what the picture of me dancing like Elaine is all about. I don't remember doing that, even with the open bar. Honest. (all the shots are in the set here, look at the last dozen or so)

We live IN Colorado, but are not truly OF Colorado

Saturday on the Front Range in November can be a tricky beast. Sometimes it is miserable, cold, and windy. Other days, it is sunny and in the mid 70's. This past weekend was the latter, and we would simply not allow ourselves to stay indoors.

Since Kate and Mark agreed with us, and we haven't been climbing with them in a while, a Saturday morning plan was forged to go to Table Rock Mountain, above Golder, to get some sport routes in. As it is a (relatively) close formation to the greater Denver area, and being we arrived just before noon on a Saturday, there was plenty of company on the walls once we finally got to the top of the approach.


The day was incredibly sunny, and immeasurably hot on the top. An hour into the day, though, some incredibly prescient clouds moved over the direct sunlight and turned the day into a near-perfect environment.

Mark began the day with a lead up (what we think) was a 5.10a called Chunkey Monkey. Mark made quick work of the boulder-tastic start with own shoe of his own and one of mine. (He managed to only pack one for the day. whoops.) Once Mark came down and bestowed my right foot back to me, i took off on a lead of the route next door, which i now believe with the help of Mountain Project is called Honey I Shrunk The Hemorrhoids. It was a fairly easy, but pretty runout 5.7 with a fun sequence between the 3rd and 4th bolt.

From the top of Hemorrhoids, mark hung a top rope on the route next door, Unknown 5.9. Mark then proceeded to call dibs, and took another rope up with him on the first unkown and hung our second rope on Unkonwn2, 5.10. I took the first turn on #2, and it proceeded to be an interesting arete system with sparse - but good - holds that completely gassed me by the end. Everyone got 3 or 4 climbs in and we managed to find our cars again no later than 5 o clock. Liz and i dialed up Greg and Christina and went for Irish Pub fair before spending the night at their place in Aurora.

The fact of the matter, and of this post, is that we are actually midwesterners who just happen to be masquerading as Colorado people. Sure, we drive a subaru, like to rock climb and are (well, I am) totally geeked about the ski season, but we can't deny our flatlander roots: state college themed football games. At Wash Park in Denver last Sunday was the 4th annual Big Ten Alumni Flag Football tournament, and we were there. Brian and another old college buddy Josh met us in the morning, and while the three of us prepped in green liz went and met her fellow Hoosiers. All schools were represented - except for Illinois and Minnesota.


Michigan State was victorious in it's first game against.. you guessed it, Indiana. So, since all of our friends were on the field we have no pictorial evidence of this monumental meeting. MSU went up next against Iowa, and couldn't convert our 4th and goal with 5 seconds to go in the second half... it was quite dramatic.

We all played three games, and were heartily reminded why we are all getting older and do not play flag football at all. Liz felt very creaky today, and my sides were not too happy either. But both days were fantastic ways to spend a sunny weekend. (all the football action is over here!)

Happy (tardy) Halloween!

I love my wife.

Just to ease the tension...

537?  There's more Baldwin brothers than that...

A manic, quickly typed response the right-wing propoganda emails i have been receiving since April...

(Original incideary content can be read here, here and here...  for starters)  

Alright, i have to ask you:  are you honestly this frightened of an Obama presidency?  While these emails have been coming into my inbox for weeks and weeks,  they are all the same thread:  they make claims for the sake of fear mongering but do not explain why they think these ways other than just because Obama is a Democrat.  or black.  or a supposed Muslim.  I really don't understand why Christians can't look at both parties and make a decision, instead of clinging to the McCain Palin ticket. 

Do you think that abortion would disapear if McCain wins?  Honestly?  The way to deal with abortion is to confront it compassionately, and give resources, education and the ability to choose to women in that situation.  The candidate that i have heard talk to this point, and making it a priority to help has been Obama.  If McCain wins and in 3 years get an appointed justice to overturn Roe v Wade, do you honestly think that abortions will stop?  Focusing on the law misses the point.  It's showing love to people in the throes of making this decision, and comitting to helping them live with that pro-life choice - that is the point.

And the other thing that simply KILLS me is that this is the only thing we are talking about:  Abortion and Homosexuality.  A McCain ticket will not stop gay marriage.  An Obama ticket will not either, but it really doesn't matter:  it's a state level issue, and has been for years.  Each state decides this for themselves, and as we have seen with 6 years of a Republican majority in all three branches of government that some states have decided to allow Homosexuals to get married.  It just doesn't matter what the president appears to think.  

There are so so so so many other things to talk about.  The fact that our economy is in free fall, the fact that our educational system needs help and retooling, the fact that health care costs more and more each year, the fact that the entire world hates us and our foreign policy has been nothing short of a nightmare.  Whether you think we should be in Iraq or not, it is nearly non-arguable that the way we went about waging this war and occupation has done nothing but to discredit our country on a national stage.  

I'm sorry for writing this heated post, but you have to know that i see about four of these a week, and they just seem so lopsided and un-thoughtful.  I have no problem with people voting their hearts, and agree that people should be prayerful about their vote, but i disagree with praying for someone to vote a particular way.  Pray for people that they may themselves search their conscience and vote how they are led, but to pray that someone specifically vote for McCain or for specifically for Obama strikes me as missing the point of democracy.  Again, tihs is not at anyone, this is the pent-up frustration of forwards i've been seeing for the last 9 months.  In fact, the catharsis of writing has mostly been the use for it, but i think i'll post it anyways. 

Sweet Lord, i cannot wait for November 5th.  I promise this will be the end of politically charged posts.  honest.

Just Another History Making Stump Speech

I chose a party to belong to this year. I didn't want to, though. When i became a Colorado resident, i was able to choose neither of the big two, and register as an independent. I felt confident that this choice was not only representative of my contempt for some of the things that both parties choose to stand upon, but this choice would also limit any partisan phone calls later on.

Then, the insanity of the primaries came home to roost this past Spring, and being a registered independent in Colorado meant nobody cared what i thought. I think i was even out of the country for the tuesday in February in which the centennial state chose their candidates, and it sat poorly with me that i wasn't able to participate. So, this past summer, when we were asked by mail if we would like to be able to mail in every ballot in the future (yes.), i chose to be a member of the Democratic party. While this doesn't mean that i am now a straight ticket voter, it does mean that i can no longer act like i am better than everyone else because they would have a single letter in paranthesis before their name if they were ever elected to office, and i wouldn't.

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Short story long, Barack Obama made a campaign stop in Fort Collins on Sunday. We've been fairly entrenched in all of the races for offices and campaigns for ammendments - so we knew going in that there was not going to be a single new thing that we were going to hear. We've watched all four debates, the senate and house debates, and are currently leading a small group that is discussing how we should be interacting with the political system. We both listen to too much political news on the radio, and read daily about the crazy things that Biden and Palin have been prone to say. We could probably go to either party's rally and give the majority of the stump speech without too much of a problem.


But we decided the opportunity to see Obama in person was one we shouldn't pass up - and also to experience the madness that he is whipping up at every place he stops. (All the shots are over here) He was supposed to begin speaking at 3:30, the gates to the Oval on the CSU campus were supposed to open at 1:30, so we walked over after the early service at Joe's and found a spot in line just after 11. We were already easily a quarter mile back from the front of the line, and only watched the droves and droves continue to show up for the next four hours. Adam joined us, and then Sean slightly after, and we eventually began to see line movement around 2. Since we had a decent enough spot in line, we got into the first large standing area, and had to go through the metal detectors. At this point, it was a near fervor getting in, and people were as excited as, yes, a rock concert. The comparison is fair.


We were about 50 yards back from where the main speaking area was, and had a decent view. Well, we did to begin with, until the law of 'Tall Guy Drift' went into effect, and the three CSU basketball players (one being 7' tall, easily) managed to get directly in our line of site. Awesome.

They prayed, said the pledge and sang the anthem, and had Betsy Markey and Govenor Ritter speak. Right on time, Obama came on at 3:30 and talked for about a half hour. It was indeed the same old speech, with roughly the same exact points, but he was incredibly effective at drawing the (humongous) crowd in and getting them excited. People were still streaming in to the back of the common area when he was wrapping up, and we were pretty shocked to find out when we got home that there were almost 50,000 (!) people there with us.


I'm glad we went, but mostly as a cultural experience, and as something that really does make me feel a little safer to get excited about change in this country. About letting go of my pessimissim and cynicism, that this singular guy can incite such a force and an effort from anyone, with his banner being of hope - and not fear mongering - doing the leading makes me glad to have been a participant... at least for the afternoon.

Go Vote!

Friday Tidings

this morning, on Marketplace over the radio, the sign off was:

"Have a great day, don't look at your 401k, and have a great weekend."

The Dow had already lost 180 points by the time i got to my desk this morning - but, that is something i'll do my best to ignore and point you towards the wonderful post about our newest family member hanging out in our freezer that liz put up last night.

We're not camping this weekend, due to possible snows near any place we would want to go...  Sleepy Saturday morning it is!  Have a great weekend, everyone.

Pre-emptive Blogging

Thats right, i'm writing about something that just happened today.  I can actually remember most everything worth posting about from this weekend quite well.  So we'll get right to it, shall we?

Seeing as how getting out and enjoying the end of the (tolerable) camping weather did us so well the week prior, we couldn't help ourselves come Friday night.  We were originally planning on meeting with the Bishops and the Courtneys somewhere along the South St. Vrain River to share a campsite, but the weekend did not come as soon for the other two couples and liz and i were on a solo mission as we got down to Lyons and had dinner.  We ended up camping out at the bottom of the Ironclads climbing area, and convinced Brian and Sarah (though the early morning weeded out Sarah's presence) to find us in the morning to do some granite sport climbing.

Considering that there was a good amount of repairs done to Forest Road 115 that takes you up to the first parts of the climbable walls, it is still a daunting task to get your vehicle over the incredibly rocky road up to the bottom of the first part of the area.  We caught Brian in his Bonneville doing some rock crawling around 10 am, and we both parked and hiked over to the first wall for the day, Punk Rock.  It's a fairly squat, 30' - 40' wall with a dozen different moderate routes.  Brian has only been climbing once - and it was over 15 years ago, and in a gym.  This morning is nearly dedicated to attempting to getting him hooked on the sport.  

Seething Bitch, 5.8

The first pitch for the day is a litte stiffer than we were thinking it was going to be.  The lead goes fairly well, and everyone follows and gets the cobwebs out of the joints.  Liz takes the last lap, and walks over to the much ledgier TopRope route down the rock..

Short Sited, 5.7

Fun, full of different diaganol ledges and cracks.  

Rip Off Ranger, 5.9

The route directly to the right of Short Sited is a fun jug-fest, giving me some more confidence in the day with a solid lead.  Everyone completes the route in a slightly different way, and all enjoy.

Five Finger Discount, 5.9

The lesser starred 5.9 on the wall proves to be my favorite for the morning, with some really thoughtful, balanced crimpers to a great lieback for clipping the second bolt.  

Blah, Blah, Blah, 5.11a

This guy shared the anchors above with the last route, so I gave it a thrash on TopRope.  It's full of very painful, tiny moves requiring more leg power and leverage than i was expecting, but manage to get to the top after a few hangs.  Would really like to try again.

From here we move 50 yards North to the other large formation nearby, Mount Boner.  Liz wants to lead something before we leave, and we're all feeling relatively accomplished, so we set our sights on the highest rated climb on the wall...

Shaking the Pope's hand, 5.7

Over twice the length of any route we had done previously in the day, Liz was cheered on by everyone on the ground as she made a textbook lead of this frictiony, slabby route.  Cruising through the entire thing like butter, she lowered down with a huge smile, as we all did to end the day.

As we hiked back to the cars, the wind started to pick up slightly and the rain just began to tinkle, and we were glad to be moving on for the day.  On the way home, Brian had to return the shoes he had rented at REI, and enjoyed the day enough to buy his own gear setup before he left.  Ahhhh..   another addict.....  

the day's activities can be found pictorialy over here.

So now we are home for our Saturday night, and I just finished watching the Spartans (barely) take out the Hawkeyes for the Homecoming game.  (that was waaaaay too close.  For how good the Offensive line has looked the last four weeks, they couldn't seem to find a single way to move the Iowa D-Line at all.)  SO, it's time for cake, icecream, and a well earned bedtime.  

Weekend Warriors

It may have been the perfect recipe - the Colonel himself (oooh how i hate the Colonel) with his 11 herbs and spices may not have been able to conjure up a better concoction of how we spent our time this weekend.

The REI in town was having it's garage sale on Saturday, and i contemplated it for a number of minutes in bed that morning.  I was sure that there was already a line, and i was sure that it would be cold outside of my bed, and i was sure that i didn't want to discover what the people on our corner were actually selling (free coffee, apparently), so i decided to do the mature thing, stay in bed, and not spend money.

Eventually I arose and began the packing process for our trip out later in the day, and when the Bishops showed up with Bella in tow, we settled down and watched the Spartans win back the 'Ol Brass Spitoon from those philistine Hoosiers (and subsequently win me breakfast next week).  Sometime that afternoon we actually left the house and headed down to the Monastery campground via directions from friends who had been there before.   The spot is above (literally) the town of Drake, 10 miles East of Estes Park on Highway 34, directly along the Big Thompson River.  

This particular camping area has a well earned reputation for rowdiness and being nothing but  a party spot, but when we arrived just before supper on Saturday night there was only one other group was there, and they seemed a sensible lot.  They in fact asked if we would like any extra fish from their evening fishing trip, and were kind enough to share a few extra rainbow trouts and crawdads with us when they returned.  Brian was truly the crawdad expert. 

We got some new neighbors, though, sometime between sitting around the campfire and going to bed, that personified the earned reputation to a T.  Maybe the universe just likes to keep things in balance, and had we had a quiet night that didn't involve listening to these other folks music, their horrible barking dog, loud conversations and even louder sex, then we would been setting our following climbing day up for disaster.  Regardless, when we woke up to the calm of the day, with the sun low in the sky and painting Long's Peak (I don't know if i mentioned that if the spot we picked for our tents and fire was drop dead gorgeous or not, but, it was) we found the following note on our windshield from our new favorite neighbors:

Yup.  Brian and Sarah eagerly left us to our slow(er) morning pack job for a trailhead in Estes, and once we were ready for our day to begin around 9 am i tapped on the non-creepy Honda...  and tapped again...  then the dog they had with them in the car started barking loudly in their faces...  and i tapped again....  and again...   and they woke up!  We gave them a jump and went about our day, knowing that we had done our good deed for the day and could now get back to being normal.

The monastery is a sport climbing area that we've been wanting to climb for two summers now.  We got some recommendations from Kate and Mark as for what climbs to seek out, and we began down the valley wall and up the other side, and about an hour later we were in front of striking slabs rising severly from the ground...  We began in the Outer Gates, a bastion of moderate, well protected and pinchy routes at the edge of the climbing area. To be as Dylan-like as possible - here's what we played for the day:

Table Wine, 5.7-

Not too long, and one of the easier rated climbs on the wall, i geared up and began on our first climb of the day.  It's a pretty pinchy, balancy affair for a 5.7, and is runout for about 20' between the third and fourth bolts, but is a good entrance for the day.  

About halfway up the route though, the singular thought comes to me:  this is the very first time that Liz and i have been out climbing completely by ourselves.  Let alone climbing in an area we are not familiar with, but we only have each other to get up and down these things with (hopefully) all of the gear we brought with us.  I swallow hard and tell myself that it is ok that i don't have Mark or Adam or Dylan hanging out below me to give a hand if i have to bail on my lead, because i am feeling good and there is no reason i won't make it to the top.  

I manage to work through these frenetic thoughts and reach the anchors, and liz follows and cleans.  But the fact that we are running without the safety net of having more experienced friends has been faced and mentally sorted -- the rest of the day can now begin.

Pandora's Pebble Pinching Party Palace,  5.7

When we asked Kate what routes to look for, she exuded glee in pointing out this route - though it may have simply been for the audible alliteration - it was actually for the knobby, balancey route with just the right amount of traverse to make things interesting.  Great route.

Monastic Groove, 5.8

After a quick lunch break, this three star stem-fest calls my name on the next door rock.  The protection is great, the moves much more varied than the first two routes on the day, beginning with stemming and half-mantles, crossing a jugfest roof and ending with a jagged 25' hand crack. Another fantastic route.

The Hot Zone, 5.9-

We packed up and were headed for the Sepulcher, when the only other climbers we had seen that day affirmed my question of whether they were on the Hot Zone, and then informed me that i needed to climb it.  Turns out; they were right.  A well bolted, long arete with a number of perfectly placed alligator cracks for fingers and toes pumps me out for the day but rewards with one of the best views of Longs Peak all afternoon. (note:  that is not Longs below this paragraph.  Thank you.)  Liz seconds it like a champ and upon lowering we both feel very accomplished for the day.

Another hour of hiking out leads to a celebratory meal of fried chicken and sweet tea at canes. All told, we ate our burned calories back, but a weekend could really taste no sweeter.

(all the shots from the weekend are over here)

Yes, there is a God!

Goodbye Mr. Millen!  I have a feeling that once you finally leave the town of Detroit, your horrendous decision making and luck may leave with you and the entire economy of Michigan will turn around.  Ha!

Bits

Hi there.

This blog truly is a meter of outdoor Blocksma activity.  There has not been much traction on this corner in the last three weeks, because we have been enjoying friends, food, some visits, football and not as much climbing of juggy, overhung routes.  It seems a shame, but, i won't lie; it has been nice to enjoy the seasons in Fort Collins as the early Colorado Autumn has now begun.

Last week we were home for two nights to the Vandermeedens, who were on their way from San Jose to the quad cities of Iowa.  They are in the middle of a large exodus from their NorCal existence, and we are excited to get them as neighbors this coming spring.  

We also got down to Denver this past weekend to take in the Michigan State - Notre Dame game at the Blake Street Tavern, which is the new alumni bar.  We met up with 10 of our friends who are also spartans, and cheered on the green and white with over 200 other crazy midwesterners.  (no pictures taken with our camera - so you'll just have to take my word.)

The things that have driven me to blogging, though, are a few interesting news stories:

Turns out that the McCain-Palin ticket have gotten the third party debate organizers to change the way the VP debates will be going this year:  there will be less "free-flow" exchanges between the candidates, and will be more straightforward question and answer time.  The reason that the McCain campaign cited for pursuin this?  Becuase Palin has little experience in debates.  So.  She gets a handicap.  (this is infuriating to me.  It just doesn't make any sense.  Isn't she running for a presidential office?)

The other fun story is regarding those new 'I'm a PC' ads that you may have seen running all of the time between any television show currently on the air.  Turns out that the large website tied to the campaign has been examined and found to have been made completely on a mac.  Once outed, Microsoft took the files that made up the site and rescrubbed them through the PC equivalent system, but it was too late.  Ha!

ok.  tis all.  We're alive, i promise.  Feel free to ask how my fantasy teams did this weekend.  (hint:  awful.)  Seacrest out.

A Fantasy Weekend

I know that most of the content produced and published on this little corner of the interwebs usually revolves around a) climbing, b) hiking, c) beer or d) food, but i have to admit that we did none of a) and b) this past weekend, but instead enjoyed c) and d) with the addition of e)football viewing and f) fantasy sports.

Liz and i both got rolled in the fantasy baseball playoffs as of Sunday, liz by her eldest brother Jesse, and me by our friend Anne who would not be playing if not for me goading her into joining up.  (whoops)  So, now team blocksma is playing each other for the title of 5th place, and it's official:  i don't really have to care about baseball for another three weeks until the playoffs start.  Especially considering that the Rockies are a large pile of underachievement, and the Tigers are nowhere close to being considered for a wild card berth - football now wins my heart. 

Of course, the weekends begin with Spartan Football on Saturday mornings (I heart the Big Ten Network), and this past weekend was a much more palatable beatdown on Eastern Michigan - but this weekend promises a more interesting game against the Owls of FAU.  I have no doubt that it will be a good game, certainly closer than last weekends, but i would hope that the green and white will be able to handle them.  

And then, come Sunday, the NFL games are reminding me how much fun the fantasy football season is.  Last year was the first time i had ever played, and enjoyed it enough to play in three leagues this season and even convince liz to play as well!  I went 2-1 for week 1 (no thanks to Dwight owning Micheal Turner, who in turn owned the Lion's defense for two hundred yards and two TD's...  also because my Braylon Edwards couldn't catch a cold.)  and Liz lost her little Tom Brady (her first round draft pick) for the season 15 minutes into the Pats game.  I personally feel conflicted about how that happened, while i detest Brady and his UofM patronage, i did encourage liz to pick him up.  doh well.

So, yeah, nothing really of value here.  I'm sure that it will happen again, though, so apologies in advance.  :)  (and if you would like to get my personal commentary of a breakout of my team's makeups.. well...  that will most likely happen too.  heh.)

Labor Day is for Climbing

At least, climbing is what ended up happening this weekend. Faced with the prospect of a three day weekend, no commitments, and wonderful weather, team Blocksma froze up. We had a number of folks ask to do something, and then we turned into doggysitters, which was also combined with a need to watch the spartans play at Cal Saturday night (guuuuh) topped with no less than three (four if you count liz) fantasy football drafts - meant we couldn't decide on anything at all.

Well, that's not true. We did most of all of the things itemized in the above list, and even managed to relax on a blanket in the sunshine, drink some tasty beers, and see some friends. Because the tone of this post is currently so nice and warm, I won't touch on the trainwreck that was the MSU secondary and defensive line, and also the fact that you needed ABC Gameplan to watch the stupid thing outside of California and Michigan - all you need to know is that I am excited to see them play a MAC team this weekend.

On Sunday we took in the early service at ToT, and then headed up the Poudre to meet Wade and climb some routes at the Palace. We've been up to the palace before, but only climbed one of the area's faces, and assumed that said face was all there really was to the area. Boy, were we wrong. Wade was happy to correct us though, and once we made it across the river (video below of the voyage back - Bella didn't really appreciate the hip-deep fast moving water) we followed Wade back into the caverns and columns.





First up was supposed to be a warmup route, a short ~40' pitch of 5.8.... at least, so we thought. The crux was the second move, just below the first bolt. Wade confessed to never have actually figured out how to do it. For some reason, i continued to put on my harness and give it a go - to come eventually to Wade's conclusion myself. I eventually monkeyed around the side of the column up to the second bolt, and then concluded the lead per normal. Wade went up on Toprope, but still had trouble and took my monkey route as well. Watching the two of us struggle madly, Liz declined to bother, and i went up a second time on TR to figure the sequence out. Turns out it was a pinchy, then balancy, then underclingy grunt fest through the crux, one that on the way out Wade identified on his guidebook as a 5.9+, not our assumed 5.8 warmup. Oh well!

We hiked inward into the columns and brush, and followed Wade over to the Vatoville area of the Palace. Just past the Batcave, we set up shop below the climb Escelara, a long (actual) 5.8. It was a really fun, slightly pumpy 5 bolts to a stemmy, relatively exposed quasi-chimney with three bolts and chains at the top. Everyone took a turn on the route and agreed it was fun for the whole family. At this point it was late in the afternoon already, and we were almost ready to throw in the towel... until we went around the corner and simply had to get one more in.

While i can't seem to find what the route is called on Mountain Project, it appeared to be another short, interesting 5.9+ with four bolts. Agreeing to be the lead monkey again, i saddled up and immediately showed signs of Elvis Leg on the first real move that traversed cracks. My courage daunted, i continued anyways and made use of the consistent crack, hauling myself up and clipping soley off of awesome fist jams. Everyone again took a lap on this guy, and then agreed that we had all earned dinner. (this was also the only route where we remembered to get the camera out, so enjoy the day's pictures which are mostly of liz totally zooming up this route)



Heading back over the river to our vehicles found that Wade's truck, and the truck behind our car had been broken into, with wallets and purses stolen. Wade took off immediately to cancel his credit cards, and we thanked our lucky stars that we hadn't been targeted. (note to any local readers: LOCK UP YOUR CAR AND HIDE YOUR WALLET) The day ended on a better note, though, with brats and burgers on the grill and veggies deep fried on the stove, while Wade and Gretchen came over to enjoy the CSU v. CU rocky mountain showdown. (CSU also lost handily this weekend, which just solidified a horrible football weekend for the Blocksma household... other than the fact that UofM lost. which feels odd to type after the first week of the season... that is, again...)

So, now that pictures are uploaded, we are off to do it again today - this time with the Calders. Peace out!

This week's houseguest...

Last week it was the Overstreets, last weekend it was the bobster, this weekend:


The puppy known as Bella. We are doggie owners for a week while Brian and Sarah are off to go hike around Mt Rainer. She's a sweetheart who is more excited about playing catch than i think i've been excited about anything myself in my entire life. So, if anyone feels the need to walk a doggie, or pick up some poo, feel free to come on by.

Wednesday Night Sunset

We have new neighbors across the street now, who i think eye me suspiciously when i take out the 2nd floor screen in the window to scramble onto the roof for an evening photo-op. I'll tell them to call the HOA, seeing as how i currently sit on the HOA board....

(more sunsets here)

My fellow colorodoans...

Is it just me, or is it really, really odd to see Denver and the Rocky Mountains featured so prominently in all of the front running news stories this week? To hear people giving soundbytes from streetcorners that i can honestly say i have working knowledge of, to hear local Colorado economy and issues being brought up in conversation - it's all very weird. It came to a head last night when we watched the Daily Show that is currently filming down at DU, and they spent the first five minutes lampooning the outdoorsy, wind swept mountain image that Colorado projects.

"What do you mean we're not doing a beer ad? The entire state is a beer ad."

Also, the other, most incredibly amazing story of the week has to be the sad, bitter Hillary supporters who really can't seem to make sense of their reality - and that she won't be president. To honestly consider voting for John McCain, even though Obama and Clinton are near carbon copies of each on policy, is wholesale lunacy if you're a Clinton supporter. I suppose it will all shake out to sense in the end, but if the vote was held tomorrow, amidst the throngs of feminists emotion that are going on an hour south of us this week, I think we would be shocked (dissapointed? amazed?) at how the voting demographics for democrats would shake out.

And now, your monthly summer post

you know what i think it is? I think there is just too much to do in the summer months. That's why you just don't see us popping up as much, you can just take to heart that we are out hiking and climbing and otherwise getting as far away from computers as often as possible.

A few weekends ago we were back up at the Beehive Buttress with the Calders, where Liz was leading and redpointing everything in sight... (pictoral proof here and here, and Kate backs that statement up over here..) We caught dinner with some middleville and Michigan State friends a few weeks back, managed to help a few friends move, ate a lot of ice cream, and have been receiving a good number of houseguests, as well. Tiffany was up from Denver, Lindsey and Brandon Overstreet, some old Ponderosa coworkers were out from their Summer in Jackson, and we just put Rev. Bob Russell on plane pointed back to Santa Cruz just last night.


Bob was out for just the weekend, due entirely to a guilt trip we laid on him for having a number of available days off from his new employment and by his own admission an embarassing new paycheck. We made sure to hit all of the requirements for officially touring Fort Collins: The Olive Street Bakery for pastries, New Belgium for some free beer, Coops for burgers, Lucille's for breakfast and even managed to hike Greyrock Mountain in between all of these different foodstuffs. (Pics from the Saturday hike over here..)

So, back to work as of this morning. My work has kept me more than busy of late, which i suppose is another reason that the blog has been a little vacant. I was in Vernal, Utah for two days last week in preparation of a pair of stations that we will be installing out there in the coming weeks, and we're also gearing up to put a tower down in Crested Butte in September. (it's rough) Liz is back to work now as well, and as of last week the kids are back in school too.

I suppose to get the full update completed - we switched our phone carriers this month from Verizon to AT&T for the coveted iPhone.... (if you have AT&T, let us know. We can talk to you for free now. Sorry old verizon friends) We bought our plane tickets for christmas, flying into Detroit on the 20th and out on the 30th if i remember correctly.


The olympics are now over, and we have managed to catch a lot of it thanks to the magic of Tivo - we squished 8 hours of Saturday coverage into a single hour of viewing at the end of the day last night. Table tennis is crazy. It was much more enjoyable than i can honestly remember it being in the past, and even though i heard Ann Arbor being name dropped more times than Phelps got medals, it was still a great games. And now, as that ends, the Democratic National Convention begins down in Denver today. It's really quite odd to listen to national news coverage doing interviews in the Brown Hotel and talk about how tall the city of Denver is. Part of me wants to head down there sometime this week and see the scrum with my own eyes, but the other (rational) side of me is ok just sitting an hour north and avoiding it all together. Though we would absolutely love to be able to get to see Obama's acceptance speech on Thursday night, but I've heard that tickets to that are as hard to come by as a ticket to the moon.

Ok, time to go to work. on the real.

Holy Posting Batman!

mmm... Oberon.

what? oh. Blog.

Speaking of Batman, >ahem<, just go and see it. trust me. Don't take your kids, go yourself and enjoy it. Fan-tastic, exciting, horrifying, pure entertainment. Give them your $9.50. In other, probably more 'real' or 'important' stuff, we managed a quick visit to the mitten two weekends ago to see Greg and Christina finally tie that knot off around Greg's neck. (wedding weekend pictures right over here) Splitting a room with the Bishops (Brian's take on the weekend can be found here) Liz and I enjoyed the big fat Armenian wedding, flush with some new dances, an incredibly ornate service and chapel and open bar with great aplomb. I won't lie, what with the extensive detail that had to be paid to everything, the amount of guests and all of the hullabaloo, i was expecting a train wreck of a weekend that was not going to be enjoyable at all.

BUT, i was very pleasantly surprised. The wedding was successful, (in that, they are indeed legally married, my only measure for a successful wedding) and i found pleased as punch to be able to stand up and represent Greg at that (giant) altar.


I took off from the wedding on Sunday afternoon, and liz stuck around the mitten for the remainder of the week, spending time with her side of the inlaws over at Hoffmaster State Park on Michigan's West Coast. A decent amount of pestering in the comments may help in getting her to enter her own thome on her time back home over at her site, or maybe i should just begin the initiative of pestering for her to simply start writing here. What say you, internets?

Getting home Thursday night, and then leaving on Friday afternoon, we accompanied our neighbors Matt & Anne on a trip up to the black hills in SD, a five hour drive Northward. Matt is an ex-coworker of mine from my LT days up at FE Warren, and he actually just got back last week from a 6 month stint in the Iraq. Matt actually used to live in Rapid City, which is one of the reasons we had decided to make the trip.

We managed to find the second to last camping spot on Sheridan Lake, just south of town and North of the monument. Friday night dinner (because what is more important than food details) was "hobo burgers", which was blue cheese ground beef with onions, peppers wrapped in tin foil and thrown into the fire for 12 minutes. Donning gloves, retrieve the sizzling goodness and pour into a hotdog bun. mmm.

The morning saw eggs and bacon, and then we were off to see Mt Rushmore. I had personally been there once before, during my first roadtrip across the country with my brother Matt. We rolled into the monument five years ago and balked at the cost to park and see the stupid thing. We did manage to discover the singular loophole of Rushmore, though: once you get to the window, the only way to get out of the monument is to drive through the whole thing, which they will let you do for free. You can also kind of see it from the drive. You can also send your little brother running up the pedestrian walkway, camera in hand, to snap a few pictures and then run back to your idling Buick and take off. Eat it, Washington!

So, this plan was not what we went with this weekend, though. go figure. We did discover the one limiting factor of the place, though: there isn't much to do. I have to give the park service credit, they really did try and stretch the experience out as much as possible, with a decent sized museum, two movies to watch about the thing, and even a half mile trail to walk. That said, Rushmore is a 3 hour event all told, so we soon found ourselves in the Keystone city park having a picnic lunch.

From there we went into Rapid City to see the sites, Matt's old house, and Matt's old comic shop. (the most important stop of the weekend.) We also met another Civil Engineer that Matt had been deployed with who is stationed up at Ellsworth. We had dinner with him and a few other LTs, and made it back to the campsite for some requisite smores and bedtime.

Sunday saw some blueberry pamcakes, the packing up of camp, and setting southward to visit the Wind Cave National Park. We got the last four tour tickets for the next tour of the caves (sensing a theme for the weekend?) and spent the next hour and a half 200 foot below the earth's surface. The cave apparently holds more than %85 of all of the worlds Boxwork formations, which is a type of cave rock formation that shows up in very specific conditions instead of stalagtites. (not mites. tites. not that they had either.) We went a little more than a mile through narrow passageways and huge rooms, all dramatically lit for the best effect. I've never been spelunking before, and it was a really neat experience. I totally endorse checking out the Wind Cave if you're in the area.

Ok, so, i think that brings us back up to speed. right? no complaints? good. All the shots from South Dakoter are over here....

Friday Comic of the week: Quick Shot

Believe it or not, this week's winner involves the puffing up of my little engineer ego:

Thanks xkcd! You're the greatest!

So, there is plenty to post about regarding the last ten days of life, including the weekend spent in Detroit watching Christina and Greg (finally) get hitched, some crazy armenian dancing, being a bachelor while liz stayed in the mitten and went camping, and tales of Rotary Park Bouldering. BUT, they will have to wait, as i wasn't able to get any of the pictures from these tales, and also because we are leaving this afternoon to camp in the Black Hills for the weekend with our friends Matt & Anne. I am sure there will be at least one picture with someone attempting to pick George Washington's nose. Cheers!

-db-

A day of 14ers: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln and Bross

Our friend Cherisse, who is interning at Timberline Old Town this summer on loan from her college in Pennsylvania has a need to bag a 14er. She tells a small group of us this fact a few weeks ago, and the planning for a Saturday of peak walking develops - and eventually lands us (8 of us) at the base of Mt Democrat, at the Kite Lake Campground on Friday night.

Kite Lake's camping sites make up the highest actual campground in the entire country at 12,000', and we make it to our site late on Friday night. There is a requisite visit for dinner in Fairplay to Dinky's Dairy for burgers and shakes, and we get to the campground as dusk passes to actual darkness. We're all staying in a pair of borrowed 6 man tents, which offer more space than i think i've ever seen in a tent before in my life.


I always enjoy getting to a spot in the night and waking up to see what it is exactly that you are camping next to. Turns out our spot was literally 6' off of Kite Lake itself, with Mt Democrat looming menacingly over us. Breakfast is oatmeal, and we eventually rouse the entire crew and get onto the trail by 7:45. The order of the day involves hitting all four 14ers in the half-circle: Democrat, then Cameron, Lincoln and Bross.


It certainly sounds and looks more impressive than the hike turns out to be - i don't believe a better hike could even be designed! The hike to Democrat is first, and takes you up 2,148 feet to in just under 2 miles via a relatively straightforward climb to the saddle, and then some meaner switchbacks up the hill's massive scree fields. We get 7 of us up to the top, as we had already lost Landis before we even began to his road rash. (he was suffering from an unfortunate bike-pavement incident, from which he was having trouble walking uphill for the sake of stretching out his wounded thigh. ouch.) Our enjoyment of the summit was slightly stifled by the Youth Group of people also on top with us, who did not appear to have any understanding of mountain top ettiquite. (It's really quite simple, hence the fact that you won't really find it written down in any publication: SHUT UP AND ENJOY THE VIEW.)

The clock and some interesting clouds motivate us to head back down the scree, and we are forced to make a decision back at the saddle between Democrat and Cameron. It was already after 11 a.m., the wind seemed to be picking up slightly, and while the clouds that had been moving in were still fluffy and white, clouds at that elevation in any form make me nervous. We end up losing three more of the troupe due to some tiredness and apprehension to the prospect of having to pick up our pace on the next 1100' uphill to Cameron in front of us, which leaves myself, Liz, and our friends Brandon and Steve to face the remaining three peaks.

The ridge line up to Cameron is pretty steep but we make good progress and get to the top around noon. Enjoying the view, and also the vast flat acreage between Cameron (14,238') and Lincoln (14,286'), we quickly move over to the top of Lincoln and then take a snack break. And some awkward pictures.


From here, it's 2 miles along the ridge to the top of Bross, and we continue our pace over and summit Bross around 2 p.m. We pass signs on the way up and the way down telling us the land is completely private, and access to Bross is closed, and do our best to ignore them. (it's not hard - we can see a dozen other people ahead of us who ignored them as well.)

The way down is pretty vertical, and filled with scree. It's more like surfing than walking, and as much as a fall hurts (and a downhill roll even more so) i can't help but enjoy myself, even though common sense tells me it should be more nerve wracking, and not fun. We do eventually get back to the lake slightly after 3, and have logged about 3500 vertical feet over 7 miles on the day - but as i said earlier, it doesn't feel like it at all. The combination of sleeping one night at elevation, and the way that the trail metered the tough vertical climbs heavy in the beginning and less so by the end made it the best day of 14ers that we have ever had. The tally for Liz is now set at 5, and it's 8 big guys for me. We're planning on getting at least one more (maybe two?) in August, before the short 14er season completely wraps up on us.

All of the shots from the day can be found over here!

Move to Colorado, we're all better looking here

It's true, and i can prove it - with Science!!


The original article is over here. The question is, i suppose, if i still lived in Michigan, would i blog about this? hmmm...

Days 12 & 13 - Roadtrippin'

Days 12 & 13

It’s time to head towards home. We rise, eat cinnamon rolls, and manage to get headed southward by 10 am MDT. Lunch is cheese and crackers, and dinner is found at the Garage in Bozeman: pulled pork for Liz, a rack of ribs for me. It’s fantastic and the place comes highly recommended. We snake out of Bozeman just after some homemade ice cream, and just before I begin entertaining thoughts of living in this charming Montana town as a possible next home zip code.

We make camp on the southside of Columbus, MT, at the Itch-Kep-Pe city park, which has bathrooms, running water, and best of all: is free. I really like this state. I burn all of the laying deadwood I can find, and we sleep well, road weary.

The next day is a blur of Northern Wyoming roadway, and it feels really, really good to finally roll back into our own driveway, finally do some dishes, and sleep in our own bed. The trip is over, and it was fantastic, and I’m sure that for weeks from here on out I will be catching myself pondering the seen vistas and friendships that we saw and made. In the meantime, we have four heads of lettuce to make some distance on from the CSA this week, and it’s time for another salad. Mmm. Spinach.

Finally, you can see all of the pictures from the trip in the Flickr collection right here.

Day 11 - Climbing on the 4th of July

Day 11 -

Today is the day for climbing. Well, eventually. There is still coffee to be drunk, and we don’t move too quickly. Actually, that is a fib, for this morning around 7 am we hear the deepest, most imposing crack of thunder that either of us have ever heard in our entire lives. This is not hyperbole, as the title of this blog suggests, but simply the merits of the vastness of the Montana sky. We quickly move our gigantic borrowed condo tent into the garage, put the car windows up, and move a pair of bikes indoors as well.

The morning is then enjoyed with our warm breakfast beverages on the porch, watching the sky fall down all around us. Later in the morning we run to the local grocery to fetch the makings for some blue-cheese-with-scallops burgers, and a couple of Montana microbrews. A quick lunch back at the cabin, and we are finally off to explore the Stone Hill climbing area. Mike and Mike’s dad join us, and we get on down the road by 1 in the afternoon.


We start on a fun looking roof-filled line that our collective guidebooks tell us is a 5.7, called Block Dance. I scramble around to the top of the formation and set a toprope to rappel down, and Mike starts up. The route is incredibly diverse in its need to use liebacks, slabby open palm moves, half-mantles and hand jams all in about ’70. Mike makes it up, and liz follows in her pretty pink helmet. I make the third trip, and then move the rope over two routes left to a shorter hand crack line that the book calls a 5.9. The crux is the very first move of the route, and I make it past the first bolt simply by virtue of it being early in the afternoon and the pinch strength required of my outstretched right hand is enough to find a decent high left foot.

From there, I take the rope from the top over to another ’50 face a few dozen foot south on the formation for another odd 5.9 hand crack route. It has more than just a crack, though, which is good because the thing is strangely intermittent. Liz heads up the route without me being able to see (that is, I was getting lost attempting to scramble down while she was ascending) and when I get down, it is my turn to head up. Apparently I complete the thing (I think it may have been called Fear and Smear) with a whole different sequence, and am rewarded by its finalization by moving the rope again to a fun looking 100’ crack line that is supposed to rate about 5.7.


I can’t remember what it was called, and the Mountain Project databanks are less than stellar for the area, so you’ll just have to trust the pictorial evidence that it was a wonderful, consistent climb with bomber holds at just the right spots.


By the time this climb is over, it is time to return to the cabin to get ready for the Fourth of July BBQ that a neighbor is throwing up the hill. Liz and I make our salad and prep the burgers, and also manage to pre-pack the car for the following morning’s exodus. We arrive on the party scene to find about a dozen neighbors and friends enjoying our host Don’s amazing view of the valley and the Canadian Rockies. We drink too much, eat too much, and then get to watch two grown men light fireworks precariously close to the viewing deck – one of the gentlemen being the town’s old fire chiefs. He lit most celebratory incendiaries with a camel in his mouth, if not directly with said camel. Gotta love mountain livin.


Shots from the day can be found here, while the entire trip is documented over here. Again, click on 'all sizes' for the larger versions of the pictures.

Day 10 - Lake Koocanusa

Day 10 – We’re told over breakfast that the Framptons have reserved a small pontoon boat for everyone to enjoy by floating on the nearby Lake Koocanusa. This, obviously, sounds like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon – but not until we sit on the porch sipping coffee and catching up on some of our reading, and then taking a drive around the Northern banks of the Koocanusa to sniff out some of the climbing routes in the area.


The Lake is what used to simply be the Kootnie river, til a dam about 45 miles of the Canadian border was constructed back in the 70s. Afterwards, the water level obviously rose, and the lake was named for its original river benefactor, and also the two countries that claim its Northern and Southern banks. Though fueled by running snow melt from the rockies, the lake is quite warm (in the high sixties, I believe) and we spend the better part of the afternoon trolling around, spotting a few bald eagles, taking dips in different coves, enjoying some huckleberry beer and playing in the mud.


Dinner that night is ordered out pizza from Eureka and some time organizing all of the pictures that we have taken so far on our journey. (there are quite a few) The day is the epitome of what a vacation should be, with a wonderful mix of sleeping in the sun, drinking tasty beverages in the middle of the day and sleeping deeply without a worry for the next day.

Shots from the trip are over here, while shots from the entire trip are collected over there. Again, if you click on the 'all sizes' button you can get the bigger version of the picture.

Day 9 - Bumming in Whitefish

Day 9 – As this Wednesday morning should, it serves as a markedly different and slower morning from the night before. Eating til we were full, drinking a wonderful shiraz and then proceeding to not do any of the dishes whatsoever really took it out of us, and we slept in til 9 and then had a fantastic breakfast of bacon and Grand Marnier French Toast.

By late morning we had packed up and thanked our hosts, and proceeded to spend the afternoon meandering around the quirky little town of Whitefish. It has its number of chotchky tourist shops, but also has a good number of café’s, coffee shops and a brewery, specifically the Great Northern Brewery. We sit at the bar and take a taster, making conversation with the bartender, Matt. As another employees leaves bike bound from the brewery, Matt asks if the young lass wants to split a pizza for lunch, but she seems relatively unhungry. We pipe up and gladly admit that we would help him with such a feat, and before you know it we are eating out of a pizza box on the bar enjoying almost all of the varietals that Great Northern has to offer.

Its things like that that make me think that I could get behind living in a town like Whitefish. Laid back, easy going, good food and drink and not too many people. Not a bad combination.

With another stop for pie and some huckleberry-related gifts, we headed North to the town of Rexford to find the Frampton family house. Mike works with me at Golder, and has an awesome log house cabin near Rexford, and was kind enough to invite us up to the area for the last few days of our trip. We arrive to find a brilliant and shining log cabin, a much larger tent for us to sleep in already set up and lined with air mattresses. Dinner is BBQ with a tasty Pinot, and we play a game of Mexican train with the Framptons, Mike’s visiting Sister and Brother-In-Law, and even Mike’s parents who are also up for the week. Even though the house is very full, we are immediately put at ease and treated like family, and sleep very well under the Montana stars.

Day 8 - Going to the Sun Road

Day 8 –

The rain comes down for the first time in the trip in the early morning, and liz and I awake to stare at the tent roof. The thunderheads are utterly majestic in their volume, and I don’t know how we could have slept if we wanted to. Eventually it ceases and we emerge to find a soggy world around us. I hang a wire along a few trees and we hang most everything that was in the rain while we make breakfast. We have Greg and Jen over from next door to help us obliterate the remaining breakfast items that we have yet to consume, and a good time is had by all.


Sacrificing our bath towels to wipe the dirt, rain, and pollen off of all of our hanging gear, it gets stowed and we set off for our last day in the park. We decide to trek all the way back around to the main entrance again and make our way up the Going to the Sun Road as far as they will allow us. The drive up along Lake McDonald and the swollen torrent of McDonald “creek” is a calm affair, until you begin to climb the first few hundred feet of the crags ahead. You soon find yourself along the side of an amazing canyon wall, looking across to thousands of feet of rock and air, punctuated by large, slow moving mists and large, fast moving streams falling down the cliff faces. It is easy to see why this roadway is the pinnacle of the park, and we’re sad to discover that the entire drive will be opened up in its entirety the next day – once we are gone. Later on we read that this was the latest road opening for the summer since 1943, and then it was due to a lack of labor force from troops being gone to fight in WW2.


The road stops at the Weeping wall, and we get out to munch sandwiches and watch a small pack of big horns move across the grass ahead of us. One little guy gets incredibly close to the pack of us silly humans, until a small child in a bright orange shirt dashes across the cliff line and convinces the ram to move away. This once again proves my theory: kids ruin everything.


We drive back down into the park and out the front gate bound for Whitefish, incredibly grateful for the time we’ve been able to spend in such breathtaking surroundings. We bounce into whitefish and find the lodge we’re staying at the for the night (the Hidden Moose Lodge) and take showers for the first time in 5 days. Dinner is enjoyed at Ciao Mambo’s downtown, and we sleep incredibly well in clean sheets stuffed, happy, and perfectly content to celebrate our 2 year anniversary in the Montana wilderness.

Shots from the day can be found over here, and the whole trip's pics are found here. Again, click on the 'all sizes' button to see larger sizes.