6/6/16: Travels With Mattie SUMMER 2016 EDITION! It's all happening!

It's SUMMER!!! The biggest news, of course: Mattie Mae is kicking butt! Still on her steroid treatments, our little best buddy charged through an unexpected spring together and has made it to another summer.

Summer has always been our favorite time together. We've spent countless weeks living in a truck along Lee Vining Creek, made a mobile home in the Eastern Sierra from Lone Pine to Hope Valley, trekked to different states and mountain ranges, swam in alpine lakes, slept in the sagebrush under meteor showers, fished big rivers and lazy lakes, worked from the Latte Da, watched soccer at the Ljung's summer home in Mono City, watched moonrises over Mono Lake and found new laughing places all throughout the Owens Valley.

Now, we're starting another summer together. Here's how it's going.

I was spoiled this spring and taught an intensive 5-week course instead of the usual 10-week quarter, so said goodbye to my office on April 28th to kick off our longest summer yet.

Since then, it's just been Adventure Central, USA. What's been happening?

First weekend in May: Dylan and Jessie get married in a beautiful redwood grove next to a creek in Big Sur, then fed us all at an outrageous BBQ/bonfire/feast/dance party overlooking the Pacific from Point 16. It was a perfect day with a happy, brilliant, hardworking, fascinating, unique, dedicated couple and we are so lucky to have Jessie as a part of our family (officially). I didn't take many pictures, but here are some of my favorites from the weekend.

Dylan and Jessie Horst! 

Mattie hitches a ride with Greg over some rough rocks at Sand Dollar.

 

Aidan, Sidney, Anni and Emme.

Games at Plaskett Creek.

 

Mattie relaxing in the sand at Sand Dollar Beach. We found some jade.

Our awesome group site for the weekend at Plaskett Creek!
The other group sites kind of suck.
But this one is secluded and incredible.
We BBQ'd, made s'mores, relaxed and visited for the whole wedding weekend.

 

 The view from the bathroom at Point 16.
It is the most scenic bathroom in the known universe.

 

Anni and Grandpa hanging out at the campground.

 

Campground breakfast.

Greg and Mattie getting to the reception at Point 16.

It was an amazing, beautiful celebration, ceremony and weekend in Big Sur, and the perfect start to our summer! When we see some actual pictures taken of the ceremony I'll put some up for you to see. ALSO: we saw a condor fly directly over the car as we headed north on the coast, and miraculously didn't run out of gas. Both good signs for the summer.

There were a few awesome things in between, most importantly: SAM AND SARA'S WEDDING! Such a fun party back in Santa Barbara, and a great weekend spent hanging out with many old and new friends. And, of course, it's always great getting back to the cabin (especially since it isn't too hot yet, and the harvestmen haven't completely taken over).

We spent some days and nights fishing Pyramid, hanging out around the ranch, climbing, falling, checking out the Truckee River in the back yard, picking mint from the swampy pasture, saying "hi" to Owlie and visiting with Butch Weirdhorse. (That's the horse who lives in the pasture at the ranch now. We don't know his real name. But he is super weird.)

And THEN: Springtime Tetons & Yellowstone Trip with YETI!

This was awesome. Mattie is doing great, and she gave me the thumbs up to do a road trip with Yeti out to Wyoming. Mattie loves hanging out with Greg, and he spoils her even more than I do, so I didn't worry...too much...well kind of a lot, I guess. But I got multiple updates from Greg every day, usually with pictures. THANKS GREG YOU'RE THE BEST!


We spent a quick night in Elko (ugh Elko you're kind of a bummer) before heading east then north to Grand Teton National Park. It's gorgeous. That's pretty much all there is to say about the park. We didn't catch fish but enjoyed fishing anyway. We saw a lot of elk, some beavers, bison that seemed cowishly domestic, deer, bald eagles, a bear from the road...that was pretty much it for wildlife. But really spectacular.

Grand Teton National Park - early morning no-wildlife adventures.

A wild Yeti on the trail to Taggart and Bradley (or something) Lakes.

 

Bars. 

 

It's really that pretty.

 

Fly fishing Taggart Lake after a pretty hike in the Tetons.

And then we kept heading north, into the wild and wonderful caldera of Yellowstone. I hadn't been there since I was young...5 or 6 or something...and my memories are of dumb things like "hunting buffalo" through a culvert in the road, or seeing a stroller accidentally get lost, and I definitely didn't have many memories of the park itself. 

It didn't disappoint. 

We walked, hiked, adventured, roamed, and stumbled through most of the park to see a billion gazillion geysers, hot pools, hot springs, paint pots, vistas, rivers, and wildlife. Oh, boy, the wildlife. 

Here is a partial list of animals we saw in Yellowstone: 

8 black bears (6 adults, 2 cubs)

1,000,000 elk (approximate)

1,000,000,000 bison (approximate)

3 mountain goats

7 bighorn sheep (approximate)

20 pronghorns

3 ptarmigans (they sound like helicopters starting up and it's terrifying)

4 sand cranes (cooool)

      and finally,

             (DRUM ROLL)

                  A LIFETIME WILDLIFE DREAM:

                  ONE GIANT BLACK WOLF (ADULT) and

                  5 WOLF PUPS (black and brown)

In real life. Wolves. Wild, elusive, beautiful wolves. They're up there this year, you guys. If you want to see a wild wolf, Yellowstone this summer is a pretty darn good place to start. I really lost my mind when we saw them.

Anyway, here are some other pictures I like from our trip. Some of them are Yeti's.

Yellowstone traffic jam.

 

Boiling, spitting, deep turquoise thermal pools and microbes for days.

 

Mystic Falls hike in official hiking shoes.

Yeti somewhere northeast of Lamar Valley. There are mountain goats on those cliffs. Promise.

 

This was awesome. Our little cabin at Mammoth Hot Springs.

Yeti, probably contemplating all of those thermophiles.

The Firehole River.

  

 Grand Prismatic. 

I love color gradients.

 

At the Mystic Falls Overlook.

Despite what some obnoxious kids and friendly Canadians might tell you,

sandals are totally appropriate for this trail.

Somewhere around Norris Basin. 

When you look into these hot springs, you really feel like

you are looking straight into the earth's boiling belly.

 

Hey buddy.

 

 Lonestar Geyser.
This one erupts about every 2.5 hours, and we got there from our hike just as is was starting.
We ate a lunch of PB&J sandwiches, apples and chocolate covered dried berries.

 

A wild purple-phase yeti with her buddies the bison.

The distance you are supposed to keep between you and bison is only 25 yards.

That is a ridiculously small distance.

Cool thermal features at Mammoth Hot Springs.

These are where you see a lot of the cool black and white historical photos taken.

It's awesome.

Hanging out in the Old Faithful Lodge. This place is bananas.

And has lots of delicious hot chocolate. 

And beer. 

So we had both.

 Two thumbs up in northern Yellowstone.

A great adventure with an awesome, easy, excited travel buddy.

Thanks for wandering with me, Yeti! 

Can't wait for our next trip!

So those have been the main adventures so far. Everything in between has also been fun. Like:

  Taking gremlins to swim lessons.

This one mostly sinks.

Greg is just excited for the post-swimming ice cream adventures.

Catch and release cutthroats at a warm, gorgeous Pyramid Lake.

These two. Always happy to hang out with Uncle Dan.

Just a beauty.

Another gorgeous big cruiser.

Of course, Mattie joins us on many adventures.

She seems to like standing in the water now,

which is great.

It's only taken 10 years.

Sometimes even Scott gets lucky.

So that's how this summer starts. 

We're watching Copa America games, running, walking, watching the creatures at the ranch and waiting for the blackberries to grow on the bushes right below Greg's house. Then it'll be blackberry pies all summer.

I'm taking a quick trip back to Santa Barbara this weekend for Bren graduation and Grandma's birthday party. Then things just get really busy, and it's all awesome. 

Coming up in our Travels With Mattie: Idaho, Fish-Off, weddings, friendscamping, backpacking, fishing, swimming, adventuring, and spoiling and loving this sweet girl so much she can hardly deal with it.

My little heartbeat.

A warm evening on the shores of Pyramid Lake.

Love from Canepa Ranch,
Allison and Mattie the 'Roid-Rage Dog


PS - Wolves. Real, wild wolves. I mean...just...thank you, conservation, for making that possible in my lifetime.