So, I made it to Whitefish, unloaded my belongings into a storage unit and started heading east for a Minnesota visit before returning to Whitefish to begin work. The drive was grueling but I made it safe and sound. After sleeping in my truck at a rest stop somewhere in Montana the night before, it felt wonderful to arrive at my parents’ house and have a hot shower and a good night of sleep.

The next week was filled with lots of fun activities including, but not limited to: lots of fried food at the state fair; a Twins game with the family; a few skateboard sessions around the lakes in Uptown; fun times with my friend Hannah at a wedding; hanging out with my buddy Jesse at the Mall of America; some great dinners and good times with my family; a couple of rounds of golf with my old man; and of course, lots of quality time with my nephew, Ian.

I’m now back in Whitefish and loving it. It doesn’t hurt that Whitefish has some of the best mountain biking trails I’ve ever ridden in my life. But more on that in my next update.

 

 

As many of you know, I’ve accepted a new job as the Marketing and Public Relations Manager at Glacier Park, Inc. I’m very excited to start this new job with a new company but it was a little tough leaving Mammoth.

I spent the last few days packing up my stuff and hit the road yesterday, making it to Twin Falls, Idaho. Today I woke up and noticed that the tire on my Uhaul trailer was about halfway flat so I had to wait around for Uhaul roadside assistance to come put a new tire on. It was very smoky driving north through Idaho today due to the large number of fires to the west.

I have been sick for the last week and it’s getting a little worse so instead of driving all the way to Whitefish today I stopped off in Missoula at a hotel for some rest. Tomorrow I plan on driving the last 2.5 hours up to Whitefish and placing my belongings in a storage unit. Then I’ll head east to Minnesota for a family visit before returning to Whitefish to start work in the beginning of September.

 

Yesterday was another gorgeous day here in Mammoth so my buddy Steve and I decided to do a few laps on our bikes in Mammoth Mountain Bike Park. We utilized the bike shuttle to transport us uphill and then got to descend all the way down to town. Unfortunately we only got two laps in before Steve had a small crash that injured his hand a bit. Luckily he was able to ice it properly by holding some cold beer cans.

 

 

 

So I missed a few days there. Sorry. Here are two photos to try to make up for it.

On Sunday, June 10, I went on a hike with my friend Emmie. She was already heading out on a hike and gave me a call to see if I wanted to join. We drove down to Big Pine, about an hour south of Mammoth and then headed west of 395 into the mountains. The trail we took was called the Big Pine Creek Trail, South Fork. It was about 9 miles round trip with 2,700 feet of elevation gain up to almost 10,000 feet. The trail ends at Brainerd Lake, seen in the picture below. The lake is filled by glacial melt so it’s pretty cold but it is packed with fish. I could see golden trout swimming all over the place. If I come back here again, I’ll be sure to bring my fishing pole.

 

 

This was my office yesterday. I ventured out to the hot springs to meet up with my friends Michael Lish and Kristen Broumas of 333 Skis. They have a mobile ski production facility where they are perfecting their craft of building skis. I was helping them out with a little writing work and also observing their production process. Not a bad place to work.

 

Here’s an image of the garden I recently built into the deck adjacent to my bedroom. The lower part is made out of rain gutter and is full of lettuce plants separated by a few flowers. Hanging above it is a tomato plant. I’m hoping to be able to get a few salads out of here in another month or two. I’m definitely interested in seeing how it turns out. I also enjoy waking up and stepping out here each morning to examine the progress that the plants are making.

 

 

 

 

The recent rain in Mammoth has transformed a lot of otherwise unrideable trails and roads into a mountain biker’s paradise. Usually, many roads like the one below get too dusty and sandy to use for biking. Mammoth rarely gets rain in the summer so when it does it’s time to go explore. In the photo below, I’m out for a ride with my buddy Steve and my roommate’s dog Buddy Beans. You can see the fresh snowfall up on the mountain in the background, having been deposited the day before.

 

Despite the fact that I was sitting out by the pool working on my tan sunburn for the last week or two, this, being Mammoth, doesn’t guarantee that the winter is over. Some crazy winds and stormy clouds rolled into town yesterday, along with (overnight) temps in the 20s. The angry clouds in the photo started dropping some heavy rain about an hour after this photo which turned into freezing rain, hail and finally snow through the night. This morning there was a nice dusting of snow up on the surrounding mountains. While this seems a bit out of place based on the recent weather, it’s still not the latest into the year that I’ve seen snowfall here in Mammoth. I’ve actually seen snow fall from the sky during every month of the year over the last (almost) five years.

 

June 3, 2012

With the crazy winters we have here in Mammoth, collecting firewood is kind of a big deal. A lot of people choose to pay for firewood to be delivered to their house, but why do that when you can collect the wood yourself for a fraction of the cost? May 1 was the first day that we were legally allowed to go collect firewood here in Mammoth so on that day Katy, Andrew, Bruce and myself spent most of a day cutting up wood with a chainsaw and hauling it back to our garage in Mammoth. Yesterday we obtained a wood splitter and got to work on the stack. We started at 8:30am and were finished somewhere around 2:30pm. Luckily we had a few friends around to help out making the splitting go much quicker than expected. It almost feels like a community event when it comes to wooding here in Mammoth. Amish people raise barns; we collect and split firewood. We now have a monster-sized pile of split wood in our driveway that we will begin stacking in the garage and on the deck in order to make sure it is plenty dry for burning by next winter.

 

Left to right: Katy’s shoulder, Steve, Andrew, Bruce

It was a wonderfully sunny day on Saturday so after a solid mountain bike ride in the morning with Steve, we went over to Robb’s place for some pool time and dominoes. This was my first time ever playing dominoes so it was a bit rough at first but I figured it out pretty quickly. Since then we’ve played multiple games and I’m a bit hooked. I don’t think a game exists that is more perfect for playing while lounging in the sun next to a pool.