independence day.

hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

we sure did in our neck of the woods.

I knew what our plan was the minute I realized I got a paid holiday AND the hubby was off.

another location to mark off the list of places to visit on the bighorns. lake geneva.

I asked my good friend liz if her and her fiance wanted to join in on the fun. she was all for it, he however was not to keen…..from what I’m told.  by the end of the night liz had talked jacob into taking the trip with us.

we all met up the next morning and rolled up the face of the mountain. we hit a little snag coming up the bumpy mountain road. we lost a dog, out of the back of the pickup, while we were moving. hubby killed the truck and jumped out to rescue him. he was crying and got up a little slow and was limping. he had a bloody spot on his back leg. we put him back in the truck and slowly drove to a spot where we could get out and really examine him. he was running a little gingerly on his back leg, but when we poked and squeezed he wasn’t crying. his leg wasn’t gushing blood, no bones were sticking out and nothing was pointing in the wrong direction so we continued up the mountain. I think jaggar just was shocked….a little bruised…but overall he survived.

I think the drive to the trailhead took us longer to get to than the 3.5 mile hike to the lake.

and we’re all off. I warned jacob and liz that I would be taking lots of pictures. they didn’t seem to mind though.

only about a 0.5 mile in and we made it to the wilderness boundary.

photo op!

the trail was a nice moderate trail. very well marked. only a few trees had fallen across the trail.

apparently I didn’t look hard enough at the map to prepare the others for the stream crossing.

ooops. I was okay, because I hiked in my chacos. so I had no problem crossing. the others took shoes and socks off and crossed. it was a little chilly. they spent longer in the water than I did. they had to  strategically place their bare feet on soft rocks. I thought they were going to kill me. but they all made it across just fine.

 

no shoes were lost in the crossing on the river.

after the one stream crossing….I looked at the map…for 2 reasons…1. I was getting blamed that we were going the wrong way and we were lost….thanks BOYS! and 2. to see if we had anymore stream crossings. the answer was yes, but it looked like it was right at the lake.

there were a few boulder fields we walked through. it was a perfect day up there.

and there was another stream crossing, but it was right at the outlet, so we weren’t required to cross.

the lake was a little windy. a little cooler. hubby’s hopes of fishing were dashed pretty quick.

we relaxed, let the dogs play in the water and ate a little lunch at the lake before heading back.

we took more pictures too!

I don’t mind my goofiness….hubby probably does though. blame him…he’s takes pictures at the wrong time! it only enhances the goofiness.

I don’t know if its how the sun and shadows are, but it totally looks like you’re standing on your tip-toes liz. is this true?

it was nice to have someone else to join us not only for the company, but we actually get some good pictures of us!

however, it still didn’t stop us from our self portrait.

soaked, but happy puppies…and see I wasn’t lying. jaggar survived his brush with death fall and the hike just fine.

we survived the 7 mile round trip hike. feet and chacos were plenty dirty….so a very successful day!

we drove out the mountain a different way than we came in, just to see some different parts of the forest, get ice cream, and hopefully not lose a jaggar bean out of the back of the truck.

the pups pretty much laid down the whole ride home.

we got back to town with just enough time to rinse off….but not before this happened….

proof!

we headed out to where they shoot off the fireworks. enjoyed the show and came home and crashed.

when I woke up the next morning to go to work the puppies didn’t even get up. going from sun up to sun down will wear anyone out!