10,243 Feet Up

Hiking Buds at the Top of Mt. Washburn, 6/16/16. 

On Wednesday, I went to Bozeman with a group of people. The boys all wanted to see X-Men, so I decided to have lunch with Anna. Once she went back to work, I wandered around town. I bought Dad a Father's Day present and picked up a few other odd things that I've been wanting. It was nice to have some time to myself to just wander and shop. After the movie, we all got pizza, then went to the Bozeman Goodwill, which was quite the experience. I got more flannel shirts, because what else would I wear while living in Wyoming?

We were almost back to Canyon from Bozeman when we saw a group of cars pulled off to the side of the road. Usually, it's because people stop to marvel at a bison (there are a million of them here. Just keep driving). We looked out, and right off the road was a brown bear. I think he was a yearling because he was fairly small, but he was so cute! I tried to get a picture with my phone, but he was too far away.

Yesterday, a few of us hiked Mt. Washburn. It's only about a 15 minute drive from Canyon, but before now, it has still had a ton of snow at the top. We did have to climb up and over a couple snowbanks, but it wasn't as bad as it was a couple weeks ago. It was around 3.5 miles to the fire lookout at the top, and the trail is what was an old road before, so it isn't terribly technical hiking. The last half mile was brutal though, because the wind was blowing so hard I thought I was going to blow off the mountain. We were all walking bent over at the waist to resist the headwind. That's why we're all squinty in the picture above; we're all trying to keep our eyes open in the wind.

After Washburn, we just relaxed for the afternoon. Once most of the morning shift people got off work, we got a group together to go hiking. A couple guys were going to camp for the night, so we all hiked out to their campsite and had a fire. We all sat around on logs, and a couple people pulled out guitars. We stayed there until around 10:30, and then we night-hiked the 2 miles back to the cars. I didn't have my headlamp, so I had to use what little light came from in front and behind me, but I managed.

Today is my Monday, and as much as I don't want to work after such an awesome weekend, I'm excited because we got new hires!! Hopefully they'll stick with the job for longer than the original hires have, and maybe work will calm down a little. One can only hope.

-Morgan