Hiatus

I've been on a little bit of a hiatus for the last few weeks. Partly because I've been busy, partly because I've gone, and partly because I've just haven't felt like saying much.

So a little bit of catch-up.

July 11-18 was the Rocky Mountain National Rendezvous. A 15 hour drive. But worth the miles. There was a little bit of rain on Sunday evening, and Monday we had two wind storms come through. The first wind storm knocked down a teepee and a traders tent, a couple people got knocked on the head by poles, but nothing major.

Tuesday was probably the highlight of the week. Dragonfly, another friend from Northern Wisconsin, and I climbed to the top of the Grey Rocks formation at the North end of camp. I
don't the precise elevation, but it was probably 300-400 feet above camp.

Me and Dragonfly on the way to the summit

















On the way to the top, we found this hot tub with a view. Except the water was only about 70 degrees.
















Dragonfly by the world's greatest hot tub.

















View from the top. Worth every step.


















This is the rock face we went down. The picture doesn't really do it justice.

















View from the South end of camp looking back to the Grey Rocks. We were at the absolute highest point on those rocks.















Another view from the South end of camp. Our route of travel started all the way to the far left side of the picture, up the long slope.














We left Friday morning and headed to the Museum of the Fur Trade. We were not even 10 minutes from camp, still running on the gravel road with the windows down, when suddenly, we hear the horrible hisssssssss of air rapidly escaping. Cut a tire. Bad. So we pulled into a lane to ranch and changed to the spare. After a short delay, we were back on the road.

The Museum of the Fur Trade was awesome. I was particularly interested in their feature exhibit on the voyagers. In particular, the 36' birchbark canoe. All in all, I took over 230 pictures.

After the museum, we took 2-lane highway to Sidney, Nebraska and Cabelas. Saturday we returned home.



Once I returned home, it was catch up at work. Lots of deliveries to run, contacts to make.

And a project that I agreed to prior to leaving for the RMNR. A good friend from the Quad Cities, who was my canoe partner two years ago on a 3 day Maquoketa River trip, is leaving tomorrow morning (Tuesday) on the MR340. A 340 mile canoe race down the Missiouri River from Kansas City to St. Charles. The boat he is racing in is a 30' Chinook style boat named "Its Woot." The 4 man crew were all members of the 200th Anniversary recreation of the Lewis and Clarke Corps of Discovery. Well, my friend wanted to use a canoe paddle that I built. So the last two weeks were dedicated to making this paddle perfect.

I think it turned out alright.
Full view.























Close up of the Welsh Dragon I hand painted on the blade, with my touchmark above.















And finally, I threw in a great little canoe trip down the Kishwaukee River this last Saturday with Contagion, Ktreva, Wes, Wil, Red, and Dragonfly.

No wonder I'm tired.

Now, more paddles to make, and archery match to plan, and Rendezvous season is about to go into full swing.

Oh, and early goose season is less than a month away.