Author: Molly

Day 5: Burro Fest

Each community has a quirky event that defines it. In Brookfield, Santa arrives via helicopter and lands in a crowded park with Mrs. Claus before taking off across town in a firetruck. Mancos has Burro Fest. Today was Mancos’ fourth annual Burro Fest (but only third actual fest, covid.) We were fortunate to be in […]

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Day 4: Phil’s World

At last year’s Burro Fest the emcees described Mancos as a community where art, adventure, and agriculture intersect. It’s the truest statement I’ve heard about this pocket of the world. The exposure to new types of adventure are bountiful. Since we’ve discovered Mancos we’ve also discovered cross country skiing, downhill skiing, snowshoeing, mountain biking, none […]

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Day 3: San Juan National Forest

First hike: ✔️ And what a great one it was. Perfect for the first hike of RTXXII. We’ve always made room in our spring schedule to get some hiking training in. We were too busy this spring with each weekend filled with previous commitments or covid. Yep, we all got it. We had done such […]

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Day 2: Mancos

It was a Mancos (and Dolores) kind of day.  Each night we write in a journal about the day. Tonight I mentioned that it was kind of a boring day and was met with stares of bewilderment. I didn’t mean it in a negative way, we just didn’t do anything too adventurous, or, I’m assuming, […]

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Day 1: Chicago to Mancos

Finally! The summer has officially started. I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t bitter that Zak got a two week plus head start on the summer adventure. It wasn’t easy being home, dealing with all the kid stuff and end of the year school stuff. It would have been a bit easier if we hadn’t […]

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Day 52: Butte to Glacier NP

The day had two objectives: Make the drive from Butte to Glacier and enjoy the Lake Macdonald Lodge. Check and check. The highlight of the drive was a stop for huckleberry ice cream cones. Delicious! 🍦 🫐 Several weeks ago I overheard Zak telling Ellie about our cabin at Lake Macdonald. The snippet of the […]

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Days 53-56: Glacier NP

I’m leaving a lot here at Glacier: blood, sweat, tears. But I’m taking so much more: the feelings of accomplishment, closure, and perseverance. Our three day, two night backpacking trip was anything but easy. We did it though. The first day was only a little over 5 miles, mostly flat, and along a series of […]

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Day 51: Idaho Falls to Butte

Today was our scheduled rest day and we took full advantage. I started with a trip to the local urgent care to have my ankle checked out. Turns out it is not broken. Yay! I’m in a sturdy brace, on steroids, and am using a otc cream that says in big, bolded print: USE ONLT […]

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Day 49 and 50: Grand Tetons

Author’s Note: This trip was a doozy and we cut it a night short for the reasons at the bottom of the post. I wrote this first part after hiking yesterday. We started this backpacking trip with a tense stop at the visitors center to pick up our permit. The heavy traffic got us into […]

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