Alpine, forest, meadow, lake = Jackson Hole! It’s spectacular! We are so lucky to stay with the Carlsons for a couple of days and take in the views from their incredible home. The Tetons are across the meadow and elk come right up to the backyard to graze. Kai and I biked along the new trails to the Wildlife museum and Des joined Gerry’s bike group and did 31 miles. Today we hiked around Jenny Lake and dipped in the cold glacier waters. The weather is perfect, warm, sunny days  and cool nights. Kai thinks he could live here forever. 

We were quickly reminded that we are in the mountains as we biked up Leverich Canyon.  Steep! But according to Des, apparently the least steep of the rides with a view. I won’t go into specifics- just know we ate well that night at Fresco Cafe. 

Of the many interesting and accomplished people we’ve met, Marie Griffis has got to be at the top. She has many talents but is currently training for the Mongol Derby. Yes that’s right- a Horseback riding race that covers 1,000 km through Mongolia! It follows Gengis Khan’s 13th century postal route.  Des says she’s  the equestrian version of waterman, Laird Hamilton. She invited us out to her training arena and beautiful spread a few miles away in Manhattan. Her training horse is named Lego and she “prepares colts” on the property too. I whipped up a promo video for her as she may be one of the racers selected for a documentary portion of the race coverage. Marie can crack a whip like nobody’s business! It’s been another awesome 2 days. 

   
   Here’s Marie-

Another 3 days of logging, roofing, weeding, and camping kept us thoroughly occupied and engaged in our surroundings. The projects including putting in a new road, building a “barn”, and clearing hazardous Douglas fir trees were nearly completed. A big storm came through yesterday and halted the milling of the “big daddy tree” . But we enjoyed the last days with new friends. Kai improved his knife throwing ability with guidance from  Sal, stacked more wood, drilled some, and got a thrill jumping off the roof.  I was in charge of weeding out the thistle and “beggars lice”- harder than it sounds. Des labored and leveraged and lowered the big tree down the hill and onto the mill with the fellas. Great stories and super cool people has made this Montana trip special.