Vacation part III: those you meet along the way

I always say how much I wish that all my friends could be in the same place and not spread out all over the world. However, it is nice to have places to stop and people to see when you're driving across the country! Our first stop was to Niki's house in Montana. Niki is one of my dearest friends and we see each other once a year if we're lucky, so I was thrilled to be able to stop and see her on the way out and the way back!

This was also my first time meeting their new daughter, she is very smiley.

Next stop was my aunt and uncle's house in Seattle. I haven't seen them in probably 10 years or more. It was nice to see them and where they live and to "get to know" them again. I spent some time with my aunt while my dad and my uncle went out hiking and that was especially nice. Here's a family portrait.


Rob and I spent a day playing tourist in Seattle and we also spent most of the day with Jon, one of my friends from college. We went to the Pike Place Market, REI, the aquarium and Fremont Park.
We saw the Fremont troll, which is featured in the Movie "10 Things I Hate About You" (Heath Ledger's "breakout" movie). I must have watched this movie 500 times in college with my friends.

Vacation part II: Monte Cristo and a history lesson

While we were in the Cascades we spent part of our time in the Monte Cristo area, which in addition to being the name of a mountain it is also an old mining town from the 1890's. I am fascinated my the history of places like this. There were a few buildings left, a few ruins, and a few houses that people still live in during the summer. There used to be a road and a railroad that provided access to the town. There is still a "road" but the bridge over the river is washed out so you can only get there by foot, air, horse or maybe ATV.
It is unbelievable what these miners must have gone through to get to the areas they were interested in. So high up and hard going. We had some difficult hikes getting there, I can't imagine making it with mining gear and whatever else they needed. They used aerial tramways to remove the ore, so at least they didn't have to carry it down.
When Monte Cristo was a bustling mining town it had a wide main street, a store, five hotels, a school, a newpaper and residences. Now there is almost nothing left. You would probably never notice anything was there if it weren't for the signs places at the sites of old houses and other buildings. Nature is quick to reclaim its own.


Here we are hiking on the "road" into Monte Cristo. You can see were they built the road on top of the railway and both have been washed away by the river, leaving the rails suspended in mid-air.

This is an old mining tunnel we found. I can't imagine cutting this out of the rock without modern tools. Not only that, but this was at the end of a 7 mile hike with about 3,000 feet of elevation gain. We had to scramble down a bank and along a very narrow ledge next to a waterfall to get here. We didn't go in very far but later learned the tunnel goes back 800 feet. One of the unfortunate results of all the mining is the release of arsenic into the water. It is naturally found in the rock but the mining process releases it into the environment. You have to be careful of what water you drink here. We could see bright orange sediment in the bottom of the tunnel, which is indicitive of the precense of arsenic.
The old Main Street.

Here are a few of the building still standing , which I don't believe are originals. There is an "information guy" who appears to live in the building on the left , at least some of the time.

This is all thats left of a 5 story ore concentrator that processed tons of ore every day. It was purposely burned down in 1917 for scrap metal.

The Keyes family still owns property here.

















Monte Cristo Peak

Vacation Part I: the Cascades

14 days, 5,000 miles, 13 states, 3 people, no deodorant.


The main focus of our trip was to camp/backpack/hike in the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. They were absolutely beautiful. Our first day we hiked up to Gothic basin were we camped for two nights. From there we hiked up Del Camp Peak and Gothic Peak. I was surprised by the amount of snow and ice still there, I guess they had a big snow year last winter. Our original hike up to the base camp with full packs was hard, I didn't think my legs would make it, but it was worth it! After that we hiked back out to the car to get more food and then continued on to a camping area near an old mining town called Monte Cristo (more about the town later). The next day we hiked to Glacier basin, which was probably the most gorgeous place on the trip. The weather was perfect, there were no scary animals, and I enjoyed the time with my dad and Rob. I took tons of pictures and don't really want to post them all, so to see the best ones go here and here

Welcome Home

We returned from our Cascades trip on Sunday night. I was a little worried about my fish (hey, they're the only pets I have) and how our apartment was going to smell, because it always smells when we are gone, and sometimes when we are there as well (smoke from other tenants, old nasty carpet, etc). So we open the door, and sure enough, "Ew, what is that smell?" I thought maybe my fish had died and were rotting in the tank so I made Rob check. They were all there, but it was at this point that we noticed that the power was off. And then I saw that the automatic fish feeder I was using only had three spots empty. Which, doing a quick calculation, I realized that it hadn't moved for 13 days, meaning the power had been off that long . And then it hit me. "Oh no! The refrigerator!" Rob opened the fridge and promptly gagged. It was the most awful thing I have ever smelled in my entire life. Our freezer had been crammed full of all kinds of meat, which was now a putrid mess. Bloody nasty meat ooze was all over the inside of the fridge and freezer. We tied bandannas around our faces, filled 2 contractor bags with rotten food, and proceeded to clean up the mess. It was bad. Real bad. After rolls of paper towels, oven degreaser, bleach , and baking soda, it still smells like a small cow died in our apartment and was then left for 2 weeks. Which is close to the truth.

The upside of the story is that all my fish are still alive after going 13 days without water filtration, air, light, or food. Tough little guys.

Count Down

Only 2 days until we leave for the Cascade Mountains. That's in Washington (state) if you didn't know. Rob, my dad, and I are driving my parents Hybrid across the country then backpacking through the mountains for a week. Also stopping to see one of my very best friends in Montana on the way. I am praying for lots of good weather (the northwest is notorious for rain!) and no bears. Below is where we are camping at least some of the time. See you when I return!