Mountain Biking Fisher Creek Trail

This past weekend we rode Fisher Creek Trail. It's in the Stanley Basin between Redfish Lake and Sun Valley. An 18 mile loop with a 1500 foot climb, it was our most challenging ride to date. As you can see from the pictures there was a fire three years ago that burnt most of the timber, but the wildflowers are now covering the ground.

After our ride we drove to Hailey for a late dinner at the Sun Valley Brewing Company, then camped at Stanley Lake. On Sunday morning we breakfasted at the Kneadery in Ketchum, which is one of my favorite breakfast places.









































































































































McGown Peak overlooking Stanley Lake

Viva Las Vegas

One of my former Boise roommates, Sahana, is getting married next month, and last weekend, I went to her bachelorette party in Las Vegas. Three other Boise friends and I made the trip, and we met her sister and five of her college friends. It was a blast to hang out with them and celebrate Sahana's upcoming marriage.

Stephanie Runs the Sawtooth Relay

Stephanie ran legs 1 and 7 in the Sawtooth Relay yesterday. The Sawtooth Relay is a 63 mile run from Stanley to Sun Valley where six runners each run two six-mile legs. She ran with a team of our friends from HP.

We drove to Stanley on Friday night and camped at Redfish Lake. Steph left the starting line at 6:30 AM (when the temperature was 32F) on Saturday and their last runner crossed the finish line a few minutes after 4:00 PM.

We saw this rainbow as we were setting up camp.















Here's Stanley just before the team started the run.

Stephanie's Soccer Tournament

Stephanie played keeper for the Royal Bombers in a tournament this weekend. They did well despite the heat and were slated to go to the championship game until some sort of bracketing hijinks excluded them.

Teton Village

We spent Sunday around Jackson, and rode the gondola up to the Bridger Lodge in Teton Village.












































Here's a nice view of the Snake River as it winds through the valley around Jackson.















A paraglider landed in the village while we were there. I think that would be really fun to try.

Yellowstone National Park

On Sunday we drove into Yellowstone and visited Old Faithful and the Paint Pots.















Old Faithful




















Paul Bunyan hiking up to the Old Faithful Observatory















Old Faithful kept the Park Service's predicted time to the minute.















Here's the obligatory Yellowstone photo of a buffalo attempting to cross the road.















The Paint Pots were really cool too. They're so foreign. It's like being on the moon.

Grand Teton National Park

On Friday we took an eight mile hike up Cascade Canyon then enjoyed dinner at the Jackson Lake Lodge.















Here we are overlooking Jenny Lake.




















Cascade Canyon Trail















Snack time overlooking Jenny Lake




















We saw this little guy along the trail. Our hiking book identified him as a Yellow Bellied Marmot, but Stephanie thinks it looks more like the Mountain Beaver that ran into their house a few years ago.















Here's Jackson Lake and the Grand Teton from the deck at the Jackson Lake Lodge


































On Sunday we hiked to this overlook of Phelps Lake and made it just before a cloudburst arrived. We ended up running back to our car in the rain.

Memorial Day in Jackson

We spent Memorial Day in Jackson, Wyoming. We took advantage of the sunny weather by visiting Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

My college friends, the Fixters have a house outside of Jackson on the edge of Grand Teton National Park and they graciously let us stay in their guest house.

Here are some pictures of the Fixters' Place.





























Here's the main house.















Here's the guest house we stayed in.


































Here's the view out our bedroom window. It was nice to wake up to this every day...

Mountain Biking Tamarack

This past weekend Dave and Vicki flew in and we drove up to Tamarack where we rented a condo with Mom and Dad for the weekend. We rode the trail system there and enjoyed a hearty game of Star Trek Uno and the hot tub afterwards. It was great to be together!

You can see more pictures on Dave & Vicki's Blog.






























Along Pelican Trail
















































Mom's record-breaking 200 point Uno hand

Pictures of Zürich, Switzerland

Here's a shot down the Limmat River. The Grossmünster is church with two towers on the right. It was a cathedral which later became a protestant church. Ulrich Zwingli preached in this church during the Reformation.


































Here's a view of Zürich's old town from one of the Grossmünster's towers.















Here you can see Lake Zürich and the headwaters of the Limmat River.















Here we are in the old town on the shores of the Limmat River.















You can see Venetian style gondolas in the river as well as a kayaker.




















We found this great sweatshirt in an H&M clothing store. It supposed to be a hip, relaxed American style sweatshirt. It says, "Boise, Montana -- Rambler's Rest, Highway 90." Their fact checker missed a few things, but I'm glad to see Boise getting some international publicity.