She who hikes and climbs

    This August my family and I went on a 21 day road trip. We stayed in Idaho Yellowstone and Grand Teton. I wish we had spent less time in Yellowstone because it was so crowed. We still enjoyed it, but not like the first time that we went 11 years ago.From Grand Teton we then camped in Curt Gowdy State Park between Laramie and Cheyenne Wyoming. This way we could visit my Aunt and Uncle, and still do some climbing at Vedauwoo.      We met my Aunt and Uncle at the I-80 Lincoln Memorial Highway rest stop, which has a Lincoln Monument and the best rest stop to get out and explore. I highly recommend that you do explorer it if you get a chance.  We wanted to get an early start because a storm was supposed to move in in the mountains later that afternoon.    We loaded into the vehicles and headed to the Snowy Range which is past the tiny town of Centennial and past a ski area further up the mountain. The drive was quit a bit of distance but since...

    This past winter L asked me if I would like to complete the last few miles of the section of the  Pacific Crest Trail that B and I had not completed last summer. (That was due to the blisters and shin splints that I had.) We.. because B wanted to come also both said yes.     We woke up early on Tuesday morning and were on the road at 6:40 a.m. (and as usual I had butterflies....I always get butterflies whenever I do anything that is not my normal routine.) L's mom drove us to the Ranger station so we could get our permit for the North Cascades National Park campsite. After getting our permit and the Rangers going over all of the do's and don'ts we climbed back into the car and on the road again and arrived at the Bridge Creek parking lot.    To get to Bridge Creek take Highway 20 and 1 mile east of milepost 159 is the parking lot.     As we were unloading the car it started to rain. ( I seem to bring the rain each time we have backpack...