The next morning, we hobbled out of bed and decided to go on a hike. Hellroaring Plateau was our destination. But first, we had to drive up a CRAZY steep, bumpy single lane road. The seven mile road took us ONE HOUR. If you met someone coming the other direction, one of you backed up until the road got wide enough for you to pass. In the pics below, it's the foremost road.
And that's Hellroaring Plateau on the upper right.
We started hiking around. Very cool country there. We started noticing these troughs scattered around the area and figured they were dugouts for miners. We passed a mining entrance on the way up. Silver? Gold? Don't know, but these dugouts were cool.
Some were small, possibly the sleeping areas. A couple were larger, likely a cooking area and a gathering area. Here's Michael standing in the largest one.
The area was very pretty. We found pretty trails, rocks, canyons...likely named Hellroaring for the sound of the wind through the canyon.
The collage shows some of the wildflowers we enjoyed, a photo of the mine entrance, and a beautiful gorge, and me, posing...cheese!
How do you follow up an 8 mile ride up the Going to the Sun Road on your honeymoon? Hiking up to Grinnell Glacier on your 1st Anniversary? Climbing the 2nd Flatiron on your 2nd Anniversary? You do a 12 mile ride up the Beartooth Highway on the tandem on your 10 year anniversary! Crazy. I know. I'm kind of nervous about the 25th one...
At the 11th hour, we were still trying to figure out what to do. Should we camp, hike, drive a long way to see friends for a few hours? What should we do? We really like Red Lodge, so we decided to do something there. I suggested we take the tandem and do a little cruising around the area. You know, find a nice road and cruise?! Right. We foisted the kiddos off on family, then headed out to Red Lodge with the tandem in the back of the truck and the camper hooked up. We found a campground Friday night, finagled our way into a spot by a creek, and relaxed. Here's a collage of our campsite...If you click on the collage it will expand into approximately a 5x7 photo. Then you can click again to further zoom...
The next morning, Michael went out to get the bike ready. He found a flat tire. We had forgotten to let out the air before the climb in altitude. oops. Then we discovered we didn't have a spare and all the tire fixing goo was really old and dried up, and now what? A woman walked by on the road of the campground. Their little doggy ran off and she was retrieving it. She asked if we were going cycling and we told her our dilemma. She said they were going to ride up the Beartooth Highway too, and she'd check with her husband to see if they had a spare spare tire. (yes, you read that right!) Soon, her husband came back with two spares and an offer to ride with us. Really nice couple...totally forgot their names. They are in the collage below...she's the one holding her bike overhead. She doesn't do well with heights, so this was a great accomplishment. He drove their rig up, rode down on his bike, then we rode up and she took the rig down. Riding up those switchbacks was enough; she didn't want to ride down them!
I really thought the ride was going to be tortuous. After all, I had spent the summer sanding and refinishing, and that's what we did every weekend too. The only time we had ridden was the Sunday previous when we coasted down into town, got an ice cream treat, then rode one mile uphill to home, a grand total of maybe five miles. Good thing I lead cycling classes at the Y. At least I have some endurance. We figure we averaged 8mph on the climb. That's good for two 40+ people on basically their first ride of the season. Here's a collage of the ride...If you click on the collage it will expand into approximately a 5x7 photo. Then you can click again to further zoom...
And now, a map of the switchbacks...
We rode to the "Vista Point" where we took the photos of us by the tandem. This was about an 8.7 mile ride from the campground area we started from. We took a break, then decided to ride further up the road. (Don't ask me why... really, don't!) So, if you look at the map above, we figure we rode off the upper right corner of the map...to a total of 12 miles.
We enjoyed a fruit leather and Clif bar, then started the descent. The tandem has a drum brake on the rear wheel and I, the stoker, run it on the captains' command. So, I set it where he told me to and we cruised. One switchback before reaching the vista point again, Michael said, "Uh oh, that doesn't look good. The front tire is starting to bulge." great. I was already freaking about the next 9 miles downhill. (Trust me, I'd rather ride uphill.) We rode into the parking lot of the Vista Point, I hopped off and went over to one of the two trucks parked there. We knew at that point there would be no more riding. Just as I started talking to the woman in the truck, explaining our predicament, telling her our tire was bulging, Ka-POW! It blew! Sounded like a gunshot. She was the support truck for a motorcycle group...eek! Anyways, she brought us down to the campground where our truck was. That may have been scarier than riding down on the bike...she was a little crazy. Some pics of the tire follow...
So, all is well that ends well. We didn't crash. We didn't die. And we are getting a new front tire this year. And we'll carry extra tubes. And we'll make sure we don't do such a strenuous ride again on a 10 year old tire. I promise.
We headed off to Red Lodge the morning of the day after Christmas. We got there just in time to set Annisia up with a one hour individual ski lesson. She was SO excited! We got her outfitted and met up with Patrick. She didn't even look back! Patrick talked to her about some things then off she scooted on her skis, onto the magic carpet with her instructor, and next thing you know, Annisia, 3 1/2, is skiing! In that one hour, Patrick taught her to go and stop, basically. Usually they teach the children "french fries" for "go" (skis are parallel like french fries) and "pizza pie" for "stop" (skis turn in at the toes to make a wedge, hence, pizza). Well, that didn't work well for her for some unknown reason, so he taught her "red light" and "green light". Either way, she had a good time. After her lesson, we took her up Miami Beach ski lift and struggled our way down. More about that another time...
While Annisia had her lesson, Michael, Jonathan and I did a little skiing. We were headed up Miami Beach lift and saw Santa! He hadn't gone back to the North Pole yet! So, Jonathan skied off the lift (like a pro!) , skied right up to Santa and said, "Thank you for the toy pistol. It's just what I wanted!" It was SO cute!
Here's a pic of the little man and I on another lift. This boy of mine amazes me. He is so great on his skis. He just schusses everywhere, no fear. Well, let me rephrase that. He has a healthy respect for the mountain. He knows to traverse the slope so he's in control. But, Michael will take him on black diamond slopes and he doesn't blink. Pretty cool. Soon these kids of mine will be leaving me on the bunny slopes to ski black diamonds all day with Dad. {sniff, sniff...}
My husband and son, the skiing junkies! They went back up to Red Lodge again on April 4th. We had a snowstorm come through here on the 3rd. It was a doozy! The roads were nasty. As of that night, they weren't sure about going. But we got on Accuweather.com and looked all around us. Michael knew Red Lodge was getting some good snow and he was so excited! But the I-90 corridor was nasty. I reminded Michael about the alternate route thru Basin (which I have never been on, but he mentioned recently). And that's what they ended up taking. At 4:30am Saturday, April 4, Michael roused Jonathan, got him into the truck, went and picked up Uncle Bret, and they headed west over Hwy 16 up the pass and over to the other side. It was a blustery drive going up the pass...they were making fresh tracks most of the way, then hit a big snowdrift and poof! They were covered in snow. Michael slammed on the brakes and they thought they were done for...in the ditch. But, when the snow cleared, they saw they were in the middle of the road having blasted through a big drift. After that, things progressively got better and soon they were on dry roads for the rest of the drive. Once they turned north again to go up to Red Lodge, they hit the snow again, but only for about 50 miles. The road up to the mountain was packed, with snow and cars; and when they got to the parking lot there was about 4 feet of snow all around. They were salivating! Lift lines couldn't open until about 10am because of all the snow. This is what they saw riding the lifts...compare it to the last trip there and you'll see the change in snow.
Jonathan is ready!
This is the north side of the mountain...the Palisades. This side hasn't been open the past 3 years due to lack of snow. Well, this year it was open, I think, the last 3 weekends. It has all expert slopes except for one intermediate slope. Jonathan still talks about skiing in the Palisades!
Powder hound busily skiiing...
Did I happen to mention Red Lodge got a bit of snow?! This is the midway lodge...The snow is nearly up to the top of the doorway.
On Friday, March 27, Michael and Jonathan headed off to Red Lodge around 8:30am. It's a 3 1/2 hour drive, so they stopped in Billings to get lift tickets at Costco. (a great savings trick, btw. $70 for a pair ($35 ea) full day lift tickets compared to $47 full day/$37 half-day on the mountain) They got there in time for a half day Friday. The skiing was great! This first pic is of the snow on the lift line.
Jonathan already having a great time! Isn't he cute?!
Powder hound!
Then they took a few rides on the Magic Carpet.
That evening, Uncles Bret and Jon arrived. And the next day was a blast with them...as usual! Here's a taste of the fun they had. Bret and Jon were on snowboards. Check out this great wipe out by Bret. At :10, Bret says, "Did you get it?" Haha! I think it's great he wanted to make sure Michael got the video of the fall! At :27, Jon snowboards up to Jonathan, "Braack" (like a chicken) and says, "come on, get up!"
Jonathan was ready for the next step...an intermediate (blue) slope. Here are Uncle Jon, Jonathan, and Michael at the top of the Lazy M, a fun intermediate run.
Here's the video again of Jon messing around and Jonathan giggling about it.
And this one shows again how far up the spectrum Jonathan has come. At :25, Jon says, "What?!" And Jonathan says he's going to take a rest. "Oh, come on..." And Jonathan responds, "It's OK!" So cute!
Riding up the lift with Uncle Jon.
Cruising...
Uncle Jon, in his perfect ski form, (I mean, look at his parallel skis! beautiful!) demonstrating "post and turn" to Jonathan. Jonathan says Uncle Jon is saying, "Pokey turn!" because he pokes his pole into the snow when he turns.
Middle of the Lazy M. Isn't it beautiful?
That white ridge below is Miami Beach.
3/29 Jon left the night before, but Uncle Bret stayed on. More snow was blowing and falling! Jonathan was getting used to powder. At :45, he says, "Uncle Bret, I like the powder!" He kept going over to the side of the run where it wasn't groomed.
This is a sweet pic of Jonathan resting his skis on Daddy's snowboard while riding the lift. Michael is so proud of Jonathan coming up the curve so fast. He feels comfortable snowboarding while J skis. Just need to watch out getting on and off lifts. Once we had a big pile-up. Finally, lunch at Midway Lodge! They always knew when Jonathan was hungry. He started getting whiney and not listening on the slopes (a dangerous thing, you know!). Jonathan really likes the waffle fries there! Looks like he had a corn dog too.
We went to Red Lodge; we drove on New Year's Day and met our friends, Pam and Bryan who had so generously gone to Costco the day before to get us lift tickets. They were only $35 per adult ticket compared to $47 at the resort. Sweet! So! A huge thank you to Pam and Bryan!! Well, Friday morning, we had rain in Red Lodge and it was windy. So we were concerned about what the mountain was like. We drove up there and found the lifts were not running because of the wind. Jonathan's ski lesson was postponed, but they let the kids play in the day care area if one of us was there too. I think it was about 10:30 maybe 11am before things got rolling. Michael and Bret went off on their snowboards and Jonathan started his ski lesson. He did great! He has been so excited ever since Michael came home with the rental skis before Christmas. (We leased skis for Jonathan for the entire season for $99! sweet deal!) So, off Jonathan went with the rest of the kiddos, with nary a look back at Mom. You can see from the first of the pics that the wind was blowing and the snow was swirling. Jonathan loves his new helmet and goggles. He was pretty cozy.
First time down the bunny slope...
...making a turn.
Riding up the magic carpet.
Here he comes with the rest of the kids.
After the lesson, the kids gathered in a circle and did something (I can't remember what.) Jonathan isn't a big group participant, so he just looked around. But when Benji, a ski instructor, asked them for their little aprons, Jonathan got spunky! He grabbed some snow and threw it at Benji. He was getting such a kick out of that! What a rascal! Benji was a good sport. He stood up and said, "You want to have a snowball fight?! Do ya?!", walked over and grabbed a big snow shovel. Ha! He asked who wanted in on the snowball fight. Three or four of the kids raised their hands. He lined them up, scooped up a shovelful of snow, and tossed it into the air above the kids' heads so it would rain down on them. They giggled and jumped around like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
After a little lunch, we went back up. I had asked the ski instructors if they thought he was ready. They said, "Oh, yeah, he's ready. Just ski off the Miami Beach lift." So we went up and he did great. We did two runs, I think. He was having so much fun. Michael skied backwards in front of him. Jonathan had learned "french fries" for pointing his skis to go faster, and "pizza" for snowplowing to slow down. He kept yelling, "Pizza, Daddy, do a pizza, you're going too fast!" Then we went up the triple chair...big mistake. He was tired by then, and the longer ride and longer looking hill bugged him. He quit. period. The only way we got him down was to give Michael one of my poles and Jonathan skied between Michael's legs holding onto the pole all the way down. Then he and I got hot chocolate! YUM!
Friday afternoon, it started snowing. And it snowed, and snowed. When we got up Saturday morning, we had about 6-8 inches of powder on everything. Michael and Bret had stars in their eyes and were itching to get in first tracks on their snowboards. So they went up and the kids and I stayed in our room. I packed up the car while the kids played and watched "Animal Kingdom" on the TV. Then we went up around noon. Annisia went into daycare again and Jonathan and I hit the slopes with Michael and Bret. It was only about 12 degrees, but we were pretty bundled up. We did the Miami Beach lift again, only once though. Then Michael headed to the triple chair again. Uh, do you think this is a good idea? Here's Jonathan on the way up...it was cold, a little breezy which meant probably a slight minus wind chill. So...what do you think happened?
Jonathan actually had a meltdown at the top. He was cold and remembered how long it took to get down yesterday. I am not sure why Michael didn't just take my pole and do the same thing, but he didn't. It was awful trying to get him down. He bawled and screamed all the way down. Uncle Bret took over at one point. Usually Jonathan really listens well to Bret, but that was even a challenge. Even promising him a "Mommy and Jonathan hot chocolate date" wasn't good enough. So, we moseyed our way down the hill listening to our cold little guy beller and excusing him to other skiers.
Here I am trying to smile my encouragement to my little guy. I enjoyed skiing with him...it meant I could stay on the bunny slopes! heehee
