1998

I was going to work in Yellowstone during the summer of 1999, so I actually went to Bass Pro with my parents to get my Christmas present that year. It was a Lowe Alpine internal frame backpack (which I still LOVE by the way, even though I havent used it since Emily arrived). I had great plans of long overnight hikes in the woods with the oh so comfortable backpack. Well, I got my backpack Christmas morning and so Dad and I had planned to go hiking the first chance we got, his next day off. The morning of the planned hiking trip, it was, well not exactly beautiful out, but I NEEDED to try out my new backpack, and as many of you know, I'm a planner and it really disrupts my whole world for plans to be changed, especially last minute. That must be an inherited trait because Daddy is the same way, especially when it comes to hiking. We did note weather conditions that morning, we just bundled up better, and headed out the door, and I'm pretty sure my mom was thinking we were nuts, but she didnt try to stop us, she just let us go, telling us to be careful. We got in the truck and hmmmm....the road was a little slick. We continued to the highway and when we barely got up one of the hills, not even a mile from the house, we begrudgingly turned around and went back home. We took our backpacks and cookstove and went hiking out in the field behind the house, took out the cookstove, made some hot chocolate, drank it, loaded our packs back up and went back to the house. Thinking of this, we didn't learn our lesson, we've since had many hikes in downpours, the worst storms I ever remember (lets just say our trip on Mt. Magazine was memorable!) but they are also some of my favorite memories. Oh and that year, the next week we did go hiking, and there was still a little ice down in the Piney Creek bottom and I had my nice loaded up backpack and I slipped and fell on the ice. Don't you think someone should have helped me up instead of laughing and comparing me to a turtle that got flipped over???