Just for Fun

There hasn't been one thing in particular to share so here are a bunch of pictures from the past week.

Another sunset view. (you know God's a Gator because he made the sun orange and the sky blue)

A deer waiting for us when we got to the field Wednesday at work. (objects may not be as near as they appear in the picture due to my extreme zoon)

Some falls leading into Lake Como.

This is Indian paintbrush. It's everywhere around the forest and I was in a mood to take flower pictures. I think this is one of my favorites. Usually it's more orange and when it grows next to the blue lupine...well you get the hint.

Lake Como. I walked around the whole thing. It was really pretty but made me wish I was on a boat skiing like other people.

The subsoiler we'll be using at work to break up compaction.

Well we had the subsoiler and waited on the excavator...ALL DAY! This was the view from one of our waiting points. I thought it was really pretty, especially the sky and clouds.

The excavator finally arrived! And only 6 hours late!
Reece giving the thumbs up as he hooks the subsoiler onto the excavator. Ten minutes later that was a thumbs down when we realized the pins to connect the subsoiler did not match up correctly. Hopefully we'll get it figured out soon and there can be some action shots to show you!

Big Sky Country

The famous "beargrass" of the west in front of Sweathouse Falls. Beargrass is really pretty and everyone fusses about it...even though it smells.

A stream through the severely burned woods on the trail to Glen Lake.

I walked through about a mile and a half of snow to get to Glen Lake, where it was mostly still frozen over. Yet I'm wearing shorts and a tank top! Am I getting used to cold weather? Not a chance...it was in the 80s!

Montana- Big Sky Country

(fun fact: Montana is the 4th largest state, but 6th least populated. There are as many people in the state of Montana as in Phoenix, AZ)

I'm house/dog sitting this week and this is the sunset view from the back deck.

Glacier National Park

The past weekend my friend Tom from UF and I went up to Glacier National Park (aka- the most gorgeous place on the earth). His friend Kass is a ranger and took us camping in some of the backcountry near the Canadian border. Lake Kintla was on one side of the campsite and we had a creek running behind us. Kass took us on a hike up a mountain...literally. Bushwacking is only fun when you can see in front of you. We didn't make it all the way up but still had some great views of other mountain ranges.





Monday we took it easier and went on a little hike to Avalanche Lake which is just amazing. The snow still hasn't melted so it was all around us and slowly melting into the lake. My family and I went when I was in high school but it was even prettier than I remembered it. Tom and I decided it would be a good idea to kayak. And it would have been had our kayak not almost sunk/tipped, so our kayaking experience on Lake MacDonald was short lived- but still fun.











Lake Kintla. The mountains on the left are in Canada.





The glacial water in the lake.






I made it! This is where we decided the mosquitos/dense vegetation wouldn't allow us to go any further.






On the road.




Avalance Lake.


One view of Lake MacDonald.






Tom and I at Avalance Lake.

Lake Camas

The Lake Camas hike was the one I mentioned in my email with all the snow. The first part had a great overlook of the valley before it turned into the woods and the snow. Being the Floridian I am, I kept thinking elves or Santa were going to pop out from all the snow.



Overlook of the valley


What I thought was a lot of snow on the trail....

...but then realized this was a lot of snow!

Just some pretty flowers I could hear my Mom saying "Lauren and Julie, why don't you sit in those and let Daddy take your picture."

Bear Creek Trail (but luckily no bears!)

Friday after work I went hiking on Bear Creek Trail which is just north of Hamilton. The trail paralleled the creek and was just gorgeous. The water is running high in all of Montana right now because of all the snow they've had the past winter and spring, which is good in keeping the forest fires from being too bad this summer.

Bunkhouse

My highly "Gatorized" car stands out in Montana just a little.

My room with my bed on the left (before I moved in).

The living room. Please note the 1970s brown w/ brown and orange carpet and lovely 1970s couches to match.

Ping pong table in the basement. (Grandma, they have your old exercise bike!)

Downstairs "tv" area. Notice the bunny ears. Definately no remote on this thing. They moved all the exercise equipment out for the fire crew unfortunately.

Kitchen. Someone always has coffee made!

This is my bunkhouse. It has 3 bedrooms upstairs and one in the basement. Right now I have 4 roommates (and 1 who comes in every few weeks). We have one tv in the basement. As you may see in the pictures it has bunny years and we have 3 channels. After about half an hour it starts making a really annoying high pitched noise that makes you want to turn it off. The good news is we get CBS, so there may be a chance for Gator games (if they even broadcast SEC games out here!). Well this is my first post so just seeing how things work.