A birthday, a (fast) car, and a road trip

A bit out of chronological order, but in 2019 Jolie got me the best birthday present (OK, my own snowcat and skihill would be better, but sticking to reality here): 500 horsepower of Stuttgart fun - a Porsche Cayenne Turbo ... for 3 days!! We took off from Jackson, WY and drove 250 miles through Teton and Yellowstone National Park to spend a few nights at a nice rental house in Red Lodge, MT. On the way we did (ooops did not) break any speed limits. But I can tell you this thing has some giddy-up in its giddy-up.

Here we are at the top of the Beartooth Pass on the way to Red Lodge on a cloudy and foggy day. The return trip was sunny and since we left at sunrise we had the beartooth highway to ourselves - scared myself a few times entering corners!!

Here we are at the start of our hike up to Mary Lake, beautiful lake in Beartooth-Absaroka Wilderness. Saw a Moose next to trail on the way down - fortunately a horse party came by and scared off the Moose otherwise we may have been stuck behind the moose for a while.

Mary Lake

Just an amazing large (8-10" across) colorful mushroom on the trail.

On the way home we had good light so I had Jolie practice for her next career as either a Jagermeister Girl or a Porsche Girl

On the beartooth highway with some fog

Yes, I packed a T-REX suit for this photo shoot in front of the tetons on the way back to Jackson.

Central Montana & Eric's Birthday

For my birthday Jolie and I went to the Livingston area - this is near Elephant Mtn the end of our first hike.

We rented this cabin on Mill Creek south of Livingston. Not much to look at, but it had a back porch overlooking Mill Creek - a very relaxing place to enjoy the birthday cheese cake and the bacon-wrapped filet mignon Jolie made for me.

Our second hike was up to Pine Creek Lake - this is the lower falls near the trailhead. Hike was over 5 miles and 3,400 feet of elevation gain, but it was worth it...

Ahhh... finally made it Pine Creek Lake after Jolie cracked the whip to get my tired butt up the trail

A nice view down the Pine Creek valley.

Our last day on the way home we stopped south of Bozeman for a short hot hike up Storm Castle - great views.

Swan Mountains backpack

In mid July, Jolie and I did a short backpack trip along the Alpine trail in the Swan Mountains (Montana). We saw a LOT of glacier lilies and had planned to get to Trinkus Lake about 20 miles from our starting point, Napa Ridge. However, when you see lots of glacier lilies their is often snow nearby...

... the snow doesnt look to bad here but a bunch of it was right on the trail

As was this snow bank

More snow and a cool double snow bridge near our first camp

and more snow. But the views were beautiful all along the trail..

Great views on way to our second camp

Crevice Lake - our second camp was beautiful but was very windy too.

Morning at Crevice Lake

The wind died down and we had some warm moments - lunch above Gildard Lake. Jolie thought I needed painted toenails for this trip ... hmmmm

One of the more spectacular views

View of Swan Mountain from our third and last camp.

Jolie enjoying coffee and the first sunny and warm morning of the trip.

Biking Going to the Sun Road

Jolie and I made it up to Glacier to hike and ride Going to the Sun Road before it opened to cars in early July - the first weekend of the summer that had good weather. Here is Jolie riding past one of the portals in the stone tunnel on the road (Heavens Peak in the background)

View down the valley from Going to Sun Road

Proof we made it to the top. Weather was about as good as you could hope for.

Aview from near Logan Pass

We hike to the Numa Ridge Lookout in NW portion of Glacier. This is sunrise on Bowman Lake.

The view from the Numa Ridge Lookout

Beargrass and Bowman Lake in background

Once again - Bowman Lake on our way down.

Biking the Coeur D'Alene Trail

Jolie and I biked the Couer D'Alene Trail in May (a 73 mile paved trail that runs across Idaho). We road about 65 miles of it, stayed a couple of nights in Harrison, ID and then biked back. The return trip was much tougher as our butts werent used to long road rides and the wind was blowing in our faces most of the way. This picture is the day we started at the trailhead.

The first day was unusually warm and dry for May - Jolie is enjoying lunch next to the creek

The view of Lake Couer D'Alene from the small house we rented

Middle of the COVID issue, here is Jolie ready to hold up the local pizza joint in Harrison :)

Trex Sighting

On our way back to Montana we stopped in Logan to visit Jolies brother and his family. Here is Eric (aka T-rex) skiing with Anson, Sayre, and Addie. See video above.

Backcountry ski yurt trip

Pictures from our5-day 4-night  trip to Bear River Yurt system in the Uinta Mountains in northern Utah.  YAH MULE! Jolie taking the first leg of carrying our 50+ pound pulk.

A pretty view of trail and Aspens. Most of the trail to the yurts is groomed for XC skiing or for snowmobiles (we went during the week so we didn't run into too many snowmobiles)

Much of the area burned (don't know how many years ago), but it makes for pretty views like this and opens up the slopes for skiing

Our tracks after a day of skiing

Another pic of jolie pulling the polk (I pulled it too …. really)

The most remote yurt in the system(Boundary Yurt)  has a great sunny deck. 1.5 miles from nearest groomed trail (and only place we had cell service during the trip - go figure)

In front of boundary yurt

panoramic view inside the yurt (ski boots warming in front of wood stove). Yurts come with wood stove (some good and some questionable kitchen pots, plates, cups etc), propane stove, beds/pads. We didn't have any mice in ours, but we did see them scurrying about outside the ridge yurt one morning. This yurt had a lot of cold air coming in from the floor - it was impossible to keep the yurt very warm even with a big wood stove - woke up one morning to 20 degrees inside the yurt.

Sunrise from the boundary yurt

If you look real hard you can see two snow angels here

Great view from the near the Ridge Yurt (we stayed there the 1st and 4th nights).

Enjoying a beer at the parking lot with skins drying in the sun. We skied about 25 miles during the trip and got about a dozen ski runs in. At the parking lot a woman drove up to go skiing with friends, started talking to us  and realized she didn't bring her skins along - Jolie had her old pair of skins along and they fit the woman's skis (one in million shot) - Jolie got her skins back a week later and a $25 gift card - the skins were barely worth that!