An Awesome Hike

Last night's dinner with the Whitney's was great and we got caught up on a lot of their news. It was late when we got back to our house and I had two phone calls--one from Jeane saying it was pouring rain out at her house and she was wondering about the advisability of hiking in the Crazies on Tuesday. The other call was from my friend Nancy--somehow we had gotten our wires crossed and Nancy was down by the road waiting on the rest of us at 6:30 thinking the hike was Monday. I am so sorry for the confusion Nancy, I feel so bad. We wish you could have joined us today.

Jeane called early this morning and we decided not to hike in the Crazies. Tammy really wanted to take a hike so we headed up Elk Creek which is a little ways up the road from us. It was a great decision. Easy to moderate hike, beautiful weather, awesome scenery and wildflowers--we had a great hike.

Wild Columbine which I have never seen before and which Michael says is usually blue in color.

Elk Creek just roaring along, this is where we stopped hiking, to go any farther we would have had to take our shoes off and wade in that frigid cold water.

The fields were so green and the wildflowers abundant and vivid.

The West Boulder Mountains in the distance.

The Crazy Mountains

Tammy came up this afternoon and played on the longarm quilting machine. I think she could also get addicted.

Joe and Tammy are leaving early in the morning. They came up this evening and had a beer (Joe is the marketing director for Sierra Nevada Brewing Company--Pale Ale) so we drink beer when he is here instead of wine. We made plans to do some little odd jobs for them such as installing gutters and doing some chinking between the logs of their house.

Michael got his tractor parts today and got the old (John Deere 42 years old) tractor running. He was thrilled!

A perfect Montana summer day.