wilson wrote:I have mentioned this in passing a time or two, but I leave in the morning for South Dakota, on a mission trip with my brother and his church yoots.
We arrive in Denver early tomorrow afternoon and then drive across southeastern Wyoming to Martin, SD, on the western edge of the Pine Ridge reservation (right near Wounded Knee, for those of you who know Native American history). Our trip will include Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug, the Badlands, and Custer State Park (the biggest state park in the U.S., with bison, prairie dogs, elk, etc.) on the back end. I'll be sure and bring back good pics, and I'm strongly considering purchasing a mounted jackalope at Wall Drug.
Enjoy, man. I LOVED it up there. Back in 8th grade, my school took a small group on a one month camping/hiking trip in July. The middle school headmaster was a cool guy who was a NOLS grad and Outward Bound instructor, and led the trip with another teacher and a couple of seniors. We flew into Denver and drove up to Jackson Hole, whitewater rafting on the Colorado, and doing a little climbing along the way. Then we hiked out of J.H. for a twelve day hike through the Grand Tetons. We fished for our supper and covered about 25 miles a day (taking a day break here and there at particularly pretty locales, and a three day stay at a particularly nice spot by a huge lake). We hiked out A LOT faster than we hiked in (we were in better shape, most of the food was gone from our packs, which dropped them from about 85 lbs. down to about 50 lbs., we were used to the altitude, and we were going downhill). What took us about five days of hiking in took two to hike out. We only saw about three other people the entire 12 days, one of whom was a ranger on horseback. It was amazing. Especially since the temperature went from about 10 degrees at night to over 100 during the day. Plus, we found a GIANT snowfield or two while there which we went sledding on on our packs. Playing around in snow in 100 degree heat is one of the weirdest experiences of my entire life. Anyway, enjoy. It was one of the favorite months of my entire life.
And then a week and a half after we got back, I left for my cruise to Alaska. That was truly one of the coolest summer vacations of my school life.
in the eyes of the mods. Where you can drop f-bombs without 
.
but 
don't mention the lasers. 
