Strauch/Bruno Web Photo Album

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6/13-18&21-28//2024 Biked 15 miles around Kalispell, Montana stopping at the Charles Conrad (one of the city founders) Mansion and got a guided tour; this mansion was always in the Conrad family so all or most of the decorations and furnishings are original, very nice restoration and tour; picked up Alison after her first chemo treatment for her recurring breast cancer and then we headed to St Mary's to her ranger house for the night; quick stop at Bridgette's cabin in Coram; Biked 12 miles from St Mary's to Rising Sun boat dock on St Mary's Lake; Saturday hiked in 6 miles to Belly River Ranger Station, one of the most beautiful spots in Glacier National Park, where Alison is a backcountry ranger; Alison put me to work on the ranger station getting it into better shape; when we hiked out on Monday, it was 28 degrees and started snowing; met Jean and Laura Cooper for lunch at Johnson's Cafe in St Mary's eating Buffalo Sloppy Joes; decided to bag our annual bike ride up Going-to-Sun highway because of the snow and cold; went to a good ranger talk at the Rising Sun campground on invasive species lead by Julia, one of Alison housemates; 5 day raft trip down the Green River thru Desolation and Gray Canyons in Utah 84 miles with 5 rafts, whitewater kayak (Jodi's), inflatable kayak (Bill's IK) and my sit-upon kayak with Holly, Michael, Jodi, Janet, Tim, Mark, Pete, Bill, Terry, Vern and Ray. Google Photos

Tom's Green River Raft Trip Log

Friday June 21 - Drove to Bill's house in Tri-cities, Washington after work getting there at 10:30pm
Saturday June 22 - Met Holly and Michael so we could help drive all the rafting gear down to Utah with Vern's truck and trailer plus Tom's Outback. Camped at Brigham City KOA which had a fun ice cream social which the 4 of us enjoyed.
Sunday June 23 - drove to Sand Wash put-in on a long poor gravel road arriving at 12:30pm. The rest of our group arrived piece meal and we unloaded and rigged all the rafts for our put-in the next morning. Vern, our permit holder, and Jodi arrived at 8pm so we could finally get checked out by the ranger and then we could leave first thing in the morning. Bad mosquitoes and had to use a lot of mosquito repellant.
Monday June 24 - Got on the water by 9am RM 95.8 (River Mile) and the day was heating up to 100 degrees but it was comfortable on the river. Decided to have lunch on the boats since the bugs were so bad on the shore. Camped at RM 76.7 campsite which had a steep bank so it was hard to unload plus the bugs were bad again. Pete and Terry made delicious grilled cheese and ham sandwiches with Great Harvest bread for dinner.
Tuesday June 25 - Got a good start before 9am, the bugs were still bad which is always a motivating factor to get back on the river where they don't bother you. Stopped at a nice place for lunch. Ran a lot of rapids and Ray flipped the IK on Steer Ridge class 3 rapids. Tom decided not to run any class 3 rapids only class 1 and 2's on his sit-upon kayak so Tom would get on the back of Mark and Bill's 17 foot raft holding the kayak as we ran the rapids. Camped at RM 55.5 (finally very few bugs) and had another good dinner of steak and bean burritos made by Mark and Bill.
Wednesday June 26 - Got an even earlier start by 8:30am. Did a 3 mile hike up Rock Creek Canyon to see some excellent Petroglyphs. John Hutch Canyon rapids was the biggest rapids so far and it was impressive. Camped at RM 40.4 Joe Hutch Canyon campsite. Tom and Ray made Chili for dinner which people enjoyed. A little rainy off and on all night.
Thursday June 27 - Got off by 8:45am. Rain stopped right at 6am so we could have breakfast dry then it cleared right up. Tom had his first flip on his kayak at Rabbit Valley rapids which had a nice hole at the bottom of the rapids. Then Tom flipped again on Rattlesnake rapids right where we ended up camping at RM 21.8 another very nice campsite. Tim and Janet made Falafels which were tasty for dinner. Janet and Holly played the guitar and we sang a lot of camp songs. It was fun. When we went into our tents and to bed, we had quite the lightning and thunder show thru the night. Some of the thunder was so loud it had to be close strikes.
Friday June 28 - Tim and Janet had breakfast going early at 6:10am so we got going early for our last day on the river before 8am. Jodi and Tom took a short kayak up the Price River which is the only river we found flowing into the Green River. The current was moving quick so we got to the take-out at Swaseys RM 11.9 aound 10:30. Then we de-rigged all the rafts and equipment packed up the cars and trailers. We were an efficient team all thru the trip, so we had everything packed in a little over an hour. We said our good-byes and people headed off for: Santa Fe, New Mexico; Boulder, Colorado; Richland, Washington; Seattle, Washington; Salem, Oregon; Lewiston, Montana; Great Falls, Montana; Salida, Colorado. It was a fun trip with good group people.

5/6&13&20&27&6/2-3&10/2024 Latourell Falls and Bridal Veil Falls hike 3 miles 800 feet in the gorge; Stahlman Point hike 4.2 miles 1300 feet near Detroit Lake; Table Rock hike 8 miles 1500 feet; Pechuck Lookout hike 4.9 miles 1800 feet in Table Rock Wilderness; Liz's Ida B Wells High School graduation weekend with Aaron, Addy, Holly, Michael, Julie, Tim L, Ellin, Janet and Tim S; Taco dinner at Julie's Sunday with a Schneider card game; Monday Latourell Falls and Bridal Veil Falls hike 3 miles 800 feet in the gorge with Liz, Holly, Michael, Janet and Tim S; Then pizza dinner at Julie's before actual graduation at Providence Park in Portland; Father's Day Weekend camping trip (a week early) to Mt Rainier National Park with Aaron, Addy, Liz, Holly, Michael, Julie and Tim L; Nisqually Vista hike 2 miles 200 feet with Addy, Liz, Holly, Michael, Julie and Tim L in the snow; lunch at Paradise Inn; Silver Falls hike 4 miles 500 feet southeast corner of the park; kayaking around Mineral Lake 3 miles near the park; Bachelor Mountain hike 4.1 miles 1200 feet. Google Photos