From Cody, Wyoming--

My vacation to Montana/Wyoming/South Dakota has been extended with wrist surgery. The day before we left, I was on my bike downtown and was hit by a car making a right turn across the bike lane. My 9-day-old cyclocross bike suffered a bent brake/derailleur handle and I was left with knee abrasions, a nasty bruise on my left hip and a broken left wrist. X-rays did not show a fracture, so I wore a splint and wrap for a week in hopes of healing a sprain. A follow-up appointment I scheduled in Cody resulted in an MRI and the need for pins and a cast. Instead of going home today, I'll have the surgery tomorrow and hang out here for the rest of the week since I can't race the Adventure Xstream in Moab as originally planned.

Despite the complications and inconvenience, we've had a fun vacation. We spent two days hiking in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana where we left the ashes of our dog, Samuel J. This was his first hike and swim. After eating and purchasing supplies in Montana, we headed for Badlands National Park in South Dakota for two days of exploring. We met two interesting people at our campsite: Jim from Ohio is living a life dream to explore the country while receiving unemployment. He's traveling alone in his Ford wagon and seeing all the usual tourist sites of the west. Julie is a teacher from Pennsylvania on sabattical and touring the country for 6 months.

We drove over the Bighorn Mountains to Cody where we stayed with Scott's parents and visited friends and family. The weather has been spectacular and I'm looking forward to a few more peaceful days here.

Birthday backpacking trip

Scott and I took Tucker on three-day hiking adventure in the Three Sisters Wilderness for my annual birthday backpacking trip. For once, the hike in was fairly short and easy. We started at the Park Meadow trailhead just south of Sisters, Oregon, in the central Oregon Cascade mountains. Overuse by horses has chewed the trail into a six-foot-wide pile of powdery dust that traverses a ridge below Broken Top. The scenery improves as you enter Park Meadow, a too-popular camping destination that offers views of South Sister and Broken Top. From there we climbed for a mile before leaving the main trail and heading to Golden Lake, a clear, cold tarn in a beautiful meadow flanked by Broken Top. From the north side of the lake, North, Middle and South Sister are all visible.



We were in time to set up camp and cook dinner before dark and we enjoyed hot cocoa with Bullet Bourbon in just enough of a breeze to keep the mosquitos at bay. The next morning was chilly with an icy breeze blowing through camp. Thinking the day would warm up, we set off for a day hike to Green Lakes with lunch and plans to relax in the sun with our magazines. The fall-like crisp air and cold wind continued all day, even though it was still August. We were able to find shelter from the wind by hunkering down on a gravelly slope above the largest of the Green Lakes.



In the evening, we went to filter water by the waterfall that pours into Golden Lake. A trail follows the creek uphill to two smaller ponds even closer to the cliffs of Broken Top's summit. Since it's only a mile, we decided (actually I decided and Scott grudgingly went along) to explore. The upper tarns were even more spectacular than Golden Lake and offered shelter from the south wind. We regretted not discovering this earlier! But dark was not far off, so back to camp we went where I finally found comfort by dragging my sleeping bag out of the tent and snuggling in it while enjoying my post-dinner toddy. That night, Tucker's water bowl froze over and we had ice crystals inside the tent instead of the usual condensation.



On the drive home in the pouring rain, we listened to the weather forecast on the radio. Snow was expected above 5,000 feet; our camp was around 6,500. Had we not had to work Monday and camped another night, we might have experienced the season's first snowfall!