Someone had told Jeff about Twin Lakes, so we decided to go there. It is a short hike (1-1/2 miles), but we turned it into five miles by hiking to the lake, then back up to another trailhead, and then back to the lake.

Then on the way home, we stopped at a mini mart and bought a half gallon of Umpqua ice cream – Triple Chocolate.

Now today, it really feels like vacation is over. Jeff went back to work. I’m working on a video project for gnowfglins.com. The kids will be home at the weekend. Then school will start up again for us next week.

Tomorrow I’m going to tell you about my wool socks experiment…

When Jeff and I got back home early Friday morning, we looked through our pictures. In fact, we keep looking through them. The trip was fantastic and we enjoyed every minute of it! We’ve never had a chance to do so much hiking before, and we took advantage of it.

My parents were wonderful, hanging out with the kids while we took off on two long day hikes of our own. The pictures above show the destinations of three hikes. The first was a family hike, including my parents. We were camping at Two Medicine Lake and chose to hike to Upper Two Medicine Lake (a 10 mile round trip hike) one of the days we were there. The girls and Jeff made it to the lake first, and that big bull moose joined them in the lake right away. The video below shows more of him.

The second picture is also from the Two Medicine area, but just Jeff and I hiked there – Cobalt Lake. That was about a 12-mile round trip hike with a 1500 foot elevation gain, and boy did I feel it at the end of that day and for several days after!

Finally, just Jeff and I hiked the most gorgeous mountain pass – Siyeh Pass. It was challenging for me, but a walk in the park for Jeff. The hike was around 11 miles with an elevation gain of more than 2000 feet, and an elevation loss of more than 3000 feet. We were quite high up (as you can see in the picture) by the time we reached the top of the Siyeh Pass. That was the most inspirational hike either of us has taken. (And my calves still feel it.)

I’ve got many more pictures over at Facebook, and they’re publicly viewable, if you want to see more: Arriving in Montana at my parents’ house, Camping at Two Medicine Lake and hiking to Upper Two Medicine Lake, Hike to Cobalt Lake, Camping at Rising Sun and hiking the Siyeh Pass Trail, Camping at Lake McDonald/Apgar, and Visiting Whitefish Lake/Whitefish City Beach, and catching up with cousins.

Here’s that video of the bull moose at Upper Two Medicine Lake.

Also on the Upper Two Medicine Lake hike, we stopped at Twin Falls, where Haniya wowed all of us and many spectators (just arrived in on the ferry) with her breath-taking swim in the very, very cold water fall!

The wildlife I didn’t capture on film – and we’re all disappointed – are the five black bears we saw. First was a mom and her three cubs on a hillside. I didn’t get the camera out in time. The fifth black bear was pretty small, and was eating berries right above our trail. I was too scared to get out the camera that time. I wish I’d had it ready!

Mikah was laughing at his dad. Those two really enjoy each other. We had been burning brush piles on Saturday  and we even ate our lunch out there, the day was so lovely.

This young lady is a dear friend. Her family invited us over for Easter dinner. After dinner, she showed us her new herd of goats. She and her brother are beginning the venture of raising meat goats. The little buck she is holding is “Cowboy”, only a couple days old. We pray great success on the new venture!

Now, unrelated… are you on twitter? Will you befriend me? I am twitter.com/WardehHarmon. I am lonely on twitter and would love to follow more friends!

And boy, were the kids dirty after digging for these little buggers!

Saturday, we had friends over. The guys and kids worked on a burning brush pile. Even though Jeff had in mind three piles for burning, they only got to one of them. The monster pile (pictured) proved very difficult to start ablaze. It was totally covered with blackberry vines that had grown over it in the two years the pile sat waiting to be burned. All along, the goats have enjoyed eating the vines, but the pile was so tall that they couldn’t reach to keep up with all the growth. It was a wonderful day.

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You may also notice that we, none of us, were speaking too kindly. I think it was the surprise of actually starting a fire and the anxiety we all felt about keeping it going (which ultimately failed).

Each week when the girls are having their piano lesson, Mikah and I must find something to do. We usually run a couple of errands but still have some time left. At the church where the girls take their lessons, we usually spend this downtime just waiting in the parking lot.  There is a tree for Mikah to climb and a little ravine filled with cattails. Last week, I convinced him not to open them up, but he still wore many seeds home.

Yesterday was both dry and cold (but not too cold, just cold for Oregon) and nice weather like that calls the kids out to play. I often watch them through the window, amazed at what they find to do. Now that I have a camera with video ability, I can capture a few minutes.

This is really a video for grandmothers, grandfathers and aunts to enjoy. Probably most everyone else will find it boring.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz6HRCzPpFI

Unless… you turn it into a game:

• try to count how many different things the kids find to do in these minutes OR
• try to figure out exactly what they’re doing OR
• hazard some guesses as to why the girls have their sweaters on backward OR
• guess what Mikah is swinging on that stick OR
• count how many mole holes we have and try to guess the size of the mole colony OR
• another counting/guessing game of your choosing!

If you come up with any answers, let me know in the comments section. Straight away, I will have the kids verify any truths or dispel any myths.

For Christmas, the kids each asked for and received a Leatherman Surge Multi-Tool (*aff*). The other day, we ordered FireSteel and strikers for fire-starting. Also, we have been gathering books and DVDs focusing on survival topics, such as edible plants, hunting and gathering, knots, flint-knapping, and other survival skills. Many of these have come from Granny’s Store in Montana.

Since the FireSteel rods arrived yesterday, starting fires was high on the list of priorities for the kids today. God gave us a clear, sunny afternoon. Still, today’s experience has only reinforced our prior conclusion that making fires in the winter in Oregon is very challenging, given that almost everything is wet. I’m sure if Jeff were home today, we would have had more success. The afternoon was just plain fun, though, so we none of us have regrets! And in spite of the difficulty, we did achieve making fire. But not with our gathered tinder: scrapings of cedar bark. Instead, we resorted to using cotton balls and dryer lint to catch the sparks from the FireSteel and turn the sparks into flame.

So we finally got flames, but how to keep a fire going? I’m afraid we didn’t succeed at that. We piled on the dry-as-possible small twigs we’d gathered. Those wouldn’t take the flame. We tried dry-as-possible leaves. That worked okay. Then Mikah was the first to attempt feeding our fragile fires with old, woody grasses. We’d ruled them out, thinking they were too wet. But surprisingly, they fared better than the twigs or leaves, and created higher flames, which we then fed with twigs and sticks. But we never could get any twigs or sticks to catch fire; they were too wet. Since this was our first day attempting making fires without matches or a flammable liquid, we hold out hope that we will master the technique. As soon as Dad is able to join us, I know we will be successful.

*aff* — affiliate link.

The goats and the cow are getting closer to each other now. The goats still don’t prefer Trouble (the cow) to be around, especially when he wants to play. No playing for them!

Today is a beautiful day. The temperature is mild; It is not pouring down rain as it has been for a week. A joyful, peaceful sight.