Jun 23

Onward to the Sea! (And Back to Boulder)

categories: Cocktail Hour

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In the end, my nephew Noah and I were on the road for 4 weeks and 6,500 miles. In the last post I got us from North Carolina to the Badlands of South Dakota. Here we pick up in North Dakota…..

Meeting off-duty Teddy and Edith in Medora, NC.

Noah on the Maah Daah Hey Trail above the Little Missouri (where we camped for two nights.)

Three mornings of sunrise hikes (with cold coffee).

But it wasn’t all fun and games. Every now and then a steer had to be broken.

Noah dwarfs TR (actual size.)

Noah ended up winning the trip-long ping pong competition handily, something like 57-46 games. But I was unbeatable in bars, where I had a home court advantage. This is in Big Sky, Montana.

With Aidan Campbell in Gardiner, MT. Aidan is working as a river guide for the summer after her first year at Yale.

Writing Shack west in Big Sky. Thanks to our gracious hosts, Tom and Sue.

Saw this black bear in Yellowstone as well as a Grizzly with cubs and bison aplenty.

But I got sick of the crowds and found this amazing nap spot….

It was not a short drive from there to California but we made it. Here is Noah at Stinson Bach.

In Marin, our gracious hosts were Jeff Sandler and Karen Bayle. This is Noah’s first time mountain biking….

…and his first fall and mountain biking injury…

A cold dip in the Merced River before braving the Yosemite crowds.

It was a long drive back to Boulder but by the end of day 1 the beer fridge was stocked.

Only issue was a persistent toothache, which required a visit to a Boulder dentist. He was, of course, a Deadhead, with Dead posters all over the walls and Unbroken Chain playing as he drilled into my tooth.