Post #39 In which the author has a visit from some Squeegees

And by Squeegees I mean Vasqueezes... I mean, Vasquezes... I mean-you know what I mean. (For those of you who don't wanna read I put pictures at the bottom) Speaking of squeegees, remember when we used to cry (usually because they made us (for instance, Ben's friend Carson (now in jail) sliced my finger with a knife and then to get me to stop crying he gave me matches to play with-but only after the squeegee finger thing) silly brothers) Tyler and Ben would make the little wiping motion with their fingers and say "Squeegee Squeegee Squeegee!!!"? As if they were wiping away our tears.. it was so mean and it used to make us so mad. Anyway, my favorite little sister (my only little sister) and my favorite little sister's husband came to visit us a couple weeks ago-and boy, was it a blast. Jeff and I were going to head to Rexburg that weekend, but had a change of plans and so Whit and Maynor decided to come and visit us up here instead. "Great!" We were thinking, we can take them four-wheeling, rafting, canoeing AND backpack for a night! We were all thrilled to take them around and show them what we knew, but it was odd that every time we mentioned anything besides backpacking Maynor insisted all he wanted the whole weekend was to be in the woods with a fire. Little did we know that (besides being a Pyro) someone had just purchased all new camping equipment and wanted-no, HAD to try it ALL out.... which is how our adventure started. I won't mention why they arrived at 3am (Whit got them lost, she was like "Anna and Jeff''s directions HAVE to be wrong, we can't head towards THIS way to get THAT way"(which, she was right, she didn't go THIS way so she didn't get THAT way) and that's why they were lost) but they got in late. However, we were all so excited to see each other we stayed up and talked til way too late. The next morning Maynor was like a kid at Christmas, he was up at the bum crack of dawn ready to use his new water filter on all the giardia filled rivers Montana had to offer. Except for myself, everyone else was NOT ready to see that new phenomenon. So while Maynor busied himself trying to wake up the sleeping beasts, I called around to see about where we could backpack for two days straight. I had an idea of where we wanted to go, but I hadn't checked on whether the areas were open. See, when you live in an area that still has glaciers within a 140 miles, you have to check to see if the snow is gone. Even in June. Interestingly enough, after it just snowed for two days straight a week before, I got the same answer from all 15 forestry places. "You wanna do what? No, you can't backpack anywhere right now. There's still 10 feet of snow. Yes, it is still everywhere, yes I'm sure. I just built a snowman yesterday." Not to be discouraged, we all agreed that they didn't know what they were talking about and we were going to "see" how far we could get. Cause that would be fun (going on a trip with Ben fun). So, we packed up our backpacks and headed to Bro. Hill's house. He's sort of a guru of the mountains out here, twenty years as a scoutmaster will earn you that title. Interestingly enough, he too said, as he saw our happy little faces, "You wanna do what?..... " But he kindly showed us a nice, hefty hike we could do and then as we wandered out the door said, "There will be snow. No doubt, but good luck. You're young." Long story short, the first mile was a happy my-backpack-isn't-heavy-yet mile full of laughter and shoeless stream crossings. The next mile was more of a that-sign-lied-when-they-said-it-was-a-mile-I-hate-backpacking mile. But, we stopped at Glacier Lake and ate, enjoyed a log crossing and then continued on the trail almost back in happy mode. And then something terrible happened, the trail turned into rugged, steep switchbacks that seemed to never... EVER end. At some point when we stopped Jeff and I were so tired that we took a break and were like "Let's take a nap." Whitney and Maynor thought we were joking-but if there is one thing the Tews NEVER joke about it's their sleep (I've fallen asleep mid sentence). So while they stayed awake and guarded us from bears, we napped happily on the trail. Finally, after getting up to about 6500 feet of elevation and tromping non-stop through six feet of snow we decided that was enough backpacking and were going to find another site to camp at. So we whined our way back down the trail, where in his mad rush to get to the car Maynor says he "saw" a "bear" and interestingly enough he "scared" it before anyone else actually "saw" it. Eventually we got to a lovely campsite where we ate almost all the food we brought with us and partied with marshmallows. Well, since Maynor said he saw a "bear" we decided we should get out the bear bag and put our food away, well Maynor decided that. He didn't wanna do the easy thing and put the food in the car because he didn't want a bear to peel the car open and eat the food. But thankfully after searching for a good bear tree (we only had like three feet of string) the boys were unsuccessful and Maynor said we could put the food in the car, but only if everyone peed around his car cause human urine disgusts bears (who doesn't it disgust?). Anyway, the next morning after a hearty breakfast and friendly discussion on boy scouts we hiked up to Holland Lake Falls. And drank the water. Without the purifier. AND LIVED TO TELL THE TALE... and went on to attempt another night camping (this time in Ovando). After we drove around and found the PERFECT camping spot, we all wimped out from our gruesome hike the day before and settled for a night of roasted marshmallows and an air mattress. Overall, it was some good stuff. Attempting to decipher directions. "I misunderstood the rules..." Maynor, shortly before the chipmunk took of his hand and he got rabies. There were a couple of dead deer in the water on the way to our hike. Jeff was poking this one, he was SURE it had antlers and wouldn't listen to us tell him otherwise. *sigh* We tried and tried to convince him it was a waste of time to poke the deer but he wouldn't believe us.

You think that after sleeping on rocks all night waking up would be the GOOD part of the day.

After the mountain kicked our butts we decided to kick it's butt and roll a rock onto it's side. That'll show that mountain... Needless to say the rock didn't budge. Not an inch. This picture makes me laugh, Maynor is still wearing his backpack, and he and Whit are really trying to move that rock while Jeff watches with his hands in his pockets. If Jeff had a thought bubble above his head, what would he be saying?

No we didn't pose for this picture, why? Does it look like we did?Holland Falls-the water is REAL mountain spring water and we drank a gallon each. Mmmm.Our perfect camping spot we didn't camp in. No idea who built it but it was beautiful.

And thus concludes our lovely weekend in which we all had a brilliant time.