The Kolars

     Last Thursday morning we headed for the hills to partake in the 50-50-1 climb for cancer research to Granite Peak (team name="Bearded Goats" ).  The trip began with the invention of a new birthday song, "Baaa-py Birthday," sang loud and clear by the Goats over a cell phone in the parking lot of the Dew Drop In--our last stop for greasy guts.  We arrived at Emerald Lake with a short 3 mi hike up to Mystic Lake for the 1st night, and our hired chef, Jeremy, grilled us up the best New York steaks EVER, allowing us to drop some poundage for the greuling day on Friday.  Thursday's lessons: vaseline is not a good lubricant for all mechanical items (especially water filters!); bears like toiletries. 

     Waking Friday with the soon-to-be familiar smell of oatmeal drifting through the air, the long weekend of water pumping from one filter began.  Brooke, Susie and I took turns pumping from the glasslike water, minus the occasional trout-ripple, with the sun shining over the snow capped peaks in the distance--what a beautiful morning!  Goodbye Mystic, hello 26 switchbacks from hell.  Not only did we count every one of them, but also gave them a theme or a song based on the number.  Us Goats really know how to have a good time :).  The top of the switchbacks marked the start of our weekend "shortcuts", which meant, "why take the trail when we can just go straight up (or down)?"  Finally we reached the Froze-to-death plateau, giving us hope that we would soon reach camp at the base of Tempest mtn.  Just a couple more gigantic loose boulders, a few more snowfields, another boggy mess of runoff, and we finally hit the destination--a perfect scouted-by-Jeff campsite.  After a quick intro to the mountain goats and a well-deserved dinner, we hit the sack early to prep for the Saturday 4 am wakeup.   Friday's lessons: geography does not teach a person what a plateau REALLY is; goats enjoy urinetherapy; and, bowel movements are a hot topic when camping. 

     Four o'clock came fast Sat morning and we awoke to a beautiful sunrise.  The plateau was calm except for the bustling of Bearded Goats preparing for summit day.  Angie N and I had contemplated giving up and playing cards for the day, but our stubborn spirits outweighed the fluid in our knees and blisters so we took off with the bunch.  As we climbed across the unforgiving rock beds, our 1st close and personal view of the Peak came into sight as well as a few high mountain lakes (that we were WAY above!).  Amazing!  After a couple hours of sidehilling across sliding boulders, I paused to think "What in the @#$* am I doing...My knee is killing me, I have blisters on my blisters, and I have to make it 11 mi out of here tomorrow??"  Unfortunately, logic thumb-wrestled determination and it won--I quit the summit and instead climbed to the top of Tempest mountain to watch my team continue.  I could not see them from the top, however, I could hear their voices plain as day which was very eerie being that far away.  So, I began yelling and making goat noises, but they were unable to hear me at all.  I still don't understand the dynamics of sound travel.  After making my way back to camp around 11am I crashed in the tent for a few hours and most likely saved our gear from being eaten by ravaging goats, then got up to pump water and make dinner for the crew.  Fortunately, later that evening everyone arrived torn and tattered but with news of 3 successful peak baggers--Jeff, Susie, and Jeremy.  Saturday's lessons: goats eat gear; once you get up, you have to get back down; and, teamwork is what its all about. 

     We slept in Sunday morning and took our time eating and packing up our gear, and I wished a chopper would save me from the 11 mi of downhill ahead.  Long story short, we made it back to Mystic lake and those of us who were so inclined lost some clothes and jumped in the refreshingly cold water.  At the bottom, Jeff had prepared the truck with a nice Scapegoat microbrew for cheers to our accomplishment.  We made a much needed stop at the Grizzly Bar on the drive home for steak, seafood, burgers, drinks, and dessert.  Sunday's lessons: there is nowhere better to eat lunch than in an alpine "meadow"; freeze-dried backpacking food wreaks havoc on the intestines; the 50-50-1 climb will become a yearly tradition (when we move to Oklahoma); and, I had a wonderful time--thanks to all my fellow Bearded Goats...

Hope everyone had a great 3-dayer.  As always, Memorial Day brought with it the clouds and rain.  We braved the showers on the golf course, but eventually had to give in to mother nature around the 14th hole.  After we decided we didn't get wet enough on the course, we headed for the hills to hike up to Mystic Lake.  Luckily, we only ran into some light snowflakes and had mostly happy weather despite the occasional gusts of wind nearly blowing us off the mountain.  Anyhow, fellow "Bearded Goats", we did get a glimpse of Granite Peak, our June destination and it is very much snow-covered.  However, the lake was low and snow is melting fast, so we may get a lucky break.  Check out some pic's in the "Mystic Lake" photos.  Out for now...

Hello Everyone!  Apparently it is hard to keep up on blogging when you don't have a computer, which is why I haven't written since April.  However, we got ourselves a sweet littly ditty of a Dell and now I'm back to catch you up on the past month or so.  We took a great road-trip back home to Boise and saw the family and friends--even Ellie and Jaime drove all the way from Oregon to hang out (thanks, ladies!).  I would post some great pic's, but unfortunately everyone kept moving when I was trying to take shots, no pun intended, so they are all blurry!  For Mother's Day, J's entire family came to stay with us and we had a great time.  I could not pull his mom, Patty, away from Karoke Revolution on the x-box though.  Also, my good pals Amy and Patrick had a baby and things are going great with little Hailey, so I'll be taking a trip out to CA sometime this summer I hope.  I only have 8 days left at my job (who's counting?) before I will be starting an outpatient position at Mountain Land Rehab, so I have been a bit stressed and excited about venturing out into a new realm of physical therapy.  The rest of our time has been taken up with the joys of homeownership.  Example #1: 5 hours of weeding the flower garden and beds for a total of 4 garbage cans full; Example #2: 3 hours of weekly push-mowing the yard (now we finally got the John Deere rider!).  Shall I go on....?  I'm out.  Come visit us. 

It was a beautiful April Fools Day up at Red Lodge(Rock-Dodge) Mountain.  Fifty degrees with the sun shining, we managed to put in a full day of skiing.  Except for the boys (Jeremy, Adam and Jeff), who strapped themselves onto snowboards with the goal of learning to ride on a nice solid base of snow, rocks, and tree stumps (the soreness is well-deserved)!  By the end of the day, the boys were able to brag up their newly-developed skills, which were really nothing compared to the female skills of snow sculpturing and beer-bubble flash photography that Brooke, Susie and I had developed.  After stories of broken ankles, dog-fights, emergency room visits, pizza problems, and pregnancies, it was a sucessful April Fools Day for all.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been Jaspur on a snowboard, but instead, he is in Las Vegas with the boys winning us our millions so we can quit our jobs and become traveling gypsies...Don't forget to spring ahead, or is it behind (don't ask Amy)!!

It was an exciting weekend for all with the arrival of our good friend Amy Seader here in Billings, MT.  Amy flew in Thursday night and stayed through the weekend to celebrate the birthdays of the greatest Pisces on earth--oh yes, Amy and Jaspur.  The weekend consisted of eating too much, drinking too much, and soaking for too long in Chico Hot Springs with our buds Brooke and Jeremy.  Oh yes, and Amy, what shall we say, showed off her thong in the pool...and that is a fact...and that can not be changed.  Good little weekend folks.  More to come if you all would ever come and visit us...

1.  I hate when I am using a public toilet and I lean slightly sideways for personal reasons, and then the seat suddenly shifts opposite of my lean and I nearly fall off of the toilet onto the floor...Please expand on this list.

This is the official beginning of my career in blogging.  Thank you, Brooke, for introducing me to yet another wonderful feature of the internet!  Since I now will be wasting so much precious time blogging, I do hope that each of you will take a minute to post comments and harass me as you deem necessary...Ang