We spent most of the summer located in Heron, MT living with
Elisha’s parents. They have an unfinished shop, and we lived upstairs. Elisha’s
grandma was there for the first month, so that was nice to be around while she
was there. We didn’t do much in June, other than hanging out at home with
family and friends. The Kaysers also threw us a wedding reception in Sandpoint
that was a lot of fun.
For the 4th of July and the first 2 weeks in July,
Elisha and I went back to Colorado to see the wildflowers in their full
heavenly bloom. We spent the 1st week with Zach, Annie, and my
parents in Crested Butte doing beautiful hikes and bikes among the wildflowers
and mountains. The 2nd week, we followed my parents in a roadtrip
through Southern Colorado (though we were camping). We did the Via Ferrata in
Telluride, Hiked Mt. Sneffels (a 14er) out of Ouray, visited the flower fields
of American Basin (Lake City) and Yankee Boy Basin (Ouray). We tried to visit
some hot springs up on Red Mtn Pass, but we got caught in a crazy rainstorm
that washed out huge portions of the pass. We were stranded for a bit amongst
the rockslides and flash floods, but were able to get down as we hadn’t gone
too far and even made it to an anniversary dinner in Ouray that my parents
treated us to. The last day that Elisha was in town, and our anniversary, we
hiked up to Mills, Black, Italy, and Frozen lakes at the foot of Longs Peak.
On July 11th, I had hernia surgery at Longs Peak
Hospital in Longmont. Elisha flew back to Montana on that day. I spent the rest
of the week recovering, but recovering in style as my grandma and Aunt M were
visiting, so it was a recovery full of good food, happy hours, wine tastings,
icecreams, and chocolate from the RM chocolate shop. Even got in a few short
hikes and some fishing.
Back in the Heron area for most of the rest of July and
August. We did do some side trips including going to Kalispell for a wedding
(and mtn biking and hiking in Whitefish and Glacier). Elisha’s friend Heather
treated us to a spa retreat weekend for our anniversary at the Couer D’ Alene
Casino, which was very fancy. We stayed in the presidential suite and did a spa
day and pedicure.
We spent 2 weeks up in Canada in August. We pulled Elisha’s
trillium trailer with my suby and visited Jasper, Banff, Yoho, and Kootenay
national parks. It was super smoky, but we still did some cool hikes and
climbed some peaks. We hiked one of the biggest peaks in the area, and one of
the few non-technical 10,000ft peaks, Mt. Temple. It was a long slog, but had
such beautiful views! We hiked Wilcox pass and Wilcox pass, Parker Ridge (and a
climbed a peak above it), Sentinel Pass, Lake Agness, Big Beehive, Plain of 6
glaciers, Devil’s thumb, Emerald Basin, and Peyto Lake. We also visited a
couple of the falls that were short hikes and the box canyon. And we did a day
mtn biking in Jasper and visited Mieta hot springs. We of course visited Lake
Louise and Moraine Lake. Moraine Lake was stunning in the early morning
sunrise. We also got an amazing surprise when a mamma grizzly and her 2 cubs
walked right by us while we were in the car in the Moraine Lake parking lot.
We ended the summer with a trip to the Sawtooths to hang out
with Sherman & Emily and Lucas & Sari and kids. It was a pretty chill
time, camping along redfish lake. We took a little boat ride and did a short
hike. But mostly relaxed by eating at Papa Bruni’s, the bakery, and visiting to
hot springs (Sunbeam and Boat Box)
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