Sunriver

On Saturday we we met Dave and Vicki in Sunriver, Oregon. In addition to breakfasting at the Trout House and playing Seattle Mariners Uno, we logged 50 miles on our mountain bikes--including a 22 mile trek to the Inn of the Seventh Mountain. It was a great time as usual!




























Mount Bachelor over the Deschutes
































Grabbing a burger at the Deschutes Brewery














This was the first road trip for our new Honda Element. I finally have my own version of the General Lee...

Jaime's Bachelorette Party in San Francisco

I spent this weekend in San Francisco celebrating my college roommate Jaime's final month as an unmarried woman and her upcoming marriage in Seattle on August 18th. Three of our Northwestern friends, two of Jaime's cousins, and a bunch of Jaime's law school friends all had a great time enjoying delicious San Francisco cuisine, watching the Mariners beat the Athletics, dancing, and generally catching up or getting to know each other.










Here's Jaime (with the tiara) enjoying some Humboldt Fog cheese. Her cousin, Brieann (holding the tiara) hosted a BBQ at her flat on Friday night. Another cousin, Nicole (on the left), looks on.










My college friend Erin, who lives in Chicago, and I are excited to be sitting together on the BART Saturday morning.










Here's the beginning of another win for the Mariners, against the Oakland Athletics. All of us went to the game on Saturday and enjoyed hot dogs, garlic fries, and microbrews in the sunny bleachers.













Another college friend who lives in San Francisco, Susannah, charming me with her beautiful smile and great sense of humor at Andalu, the exceptionally yummy tapas restaurant we dined at on Saturday night. Believe it or not, we did not plan the dress coordination. Great minds...

Mountain Biking Banner Ridge

This weekend my college roommate Brandon and I did some mountain biking near Idaho City. Last night we camped at Ten Mile Campground (between Idaho City and Mores Creek Summit), then rode a 12 mile loop starting from the Banner Ridge Park-N-Ski Area.

The trails are well maintained and it was great to beat the heat--it was 107F hen we left Boise last night and it was 52F when we started biking this morning.














Ten Mile Campground














The trail head at the Banner Ridge Parn-N-Ski


















Pulling a couple miles of steep, dare I say, extreme double track











































































Banner Ridge Yurt














Steeds at the hitching post

Attempting to Summit McGown Peak

On the 4th we tried to climb McGown Peak. We camped at Stanley Lake the night before then rode our bikes to the wilderness boundary and hiked the Alpine Way Trail. My friend Kevin summited the peak the previous weekend and provided us with some pictures and instructions. We knew that we had to leave the trail after a few miles and bushwhack our way up a ridge to the base of the peak. We bushwhacked up a ridge, but it turned out to be the wrong one and from that vantage point we couldn't see any skyline profile that matched the pictures we got from Kevin.

After four hours we turned back (it was 90 degrees by then) and returned contented with our exercise. After talking to Kevin on our return, it seems that we probably didn't go far enough up the trail before leaving it. This was a good exploration trip which should make it easier to attempt again.














McGown Peak from the bike trail.














Stephanie with helmet over expedition hat on the (cold) biking leg of our journey.


















Along Alpine Way Trail














Stephanie adjusts her trekking poles for descending after we ascertain that this ridge won't lead us to the bowl we're looking for.

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.