Hello from MT!

Sorry about the lack of blog updates, but we have had a busy July! We made it 1900 miles from New Hampshire to Colorado in 3 days.  We survived the drive and so did our cat Sarge, but just barely. We didn’t get altitude sickness and dried out fast.

The scene of the crime - Perry Park Country Club

We visited the site of our wedding (awww) and hiked to the base of the Castle Rock on a gorgeous sunny Colorado day.  On the Fourth of July, we went to the wonderful wedding of our friend Stephanie Pitts to her new husband Mason; we shared a wonderful evening and danced the night away. The next day we put the cat and ourselves back in the car again for the trip to Montana, stopping in Billings first to visit Lisa’s good Grizzly friend Brenda and then north to Great Falls (our home town).  We sang our state song when we crossed the border celebrating…  “Montana, Montana, Glory of the West.”

We enjoyed a few days of fun catching up with family and friends in Great Falls. We fished Belt Creek (Lisa found her Brad Pitt on a River Runs Through It) and spent a wonderful day floating the Missouri River with our river guide Grandpa Larry. We kept our legs strong biking the River’s Edge Trail and hiking to Windy Mountain in the Highwood Mountains. It felt great to be “home” under the big blue sky.  The sky really is bigger out here!

River's Edge Trail

Fishing at the Sluice Boxes

On the Missouri with Grandpa's Floating Hat

Windy Mountain hiking in the Highwoods

Our home - complete with upstairs!

On our way to Spokane, we biked the Hiawatha Trail, a gorgeous 30 mile ride over rail trestles and through mile long tunnels. We celebrated the marriage of Wes and Megan Millard in Spokane (yet another memorable family celebration) and afterwards unwound at Deer Lake.

on the Hiawatha Trail

At this point we had traveled through 14 states in 16 days! We are off to a fast start.


Our Grand Teton trek was the next adventure: 30 miles on the Teton Crest Trail over 4 days. The Bibler brothers reunited for the backpacking trip: Kevin from Bozeman MT and Joel from South Carolina with Ryan and Dad Ron. Bibler boy backpacking trips have happened before; however, this was the first time a GIRL had signed up and was accepted. The boys would never admit it, but they enjoyed the hand sanitizer, face wash cloths, and Burt’s Bees chap stick immensely.

We started by taking the tram from the base of Jackson Hole resort to the top of the mountain, saving 4,000 feet of elevation gain and seven miles of trudging (best 25 bucks we ever spent).

Let’s just say the Teton Crest Trail was EPIC (as the pictures portray). We hiked under sunny blue skies through fields of wildflowers, over mountain passes, along the Death Canyon Shelf with mother nature surprising us around every corner. We all agreed (over beers and burgers at the end) it was the most scenic backpacking trip to date.  We even ate well, with chicken fajitas, southwest quinoa and smoked salmon pasta on the menu.  However, we did learn one big lesson: don’t eat salmon on day 1 of the trip when you’re in bear country.  There were no bear sightings, but EVERYTHING smelled like salmon for the next three days!

After the Tetons we were happy for running water, the hot tub, Mom Bibler’s scrumptious cookies and Mom Paulick’s fresh garden veggies at a beautiful home in Big Sky, Montana. We all had a great time relaxing (a little), playing disc golf, hiking to Ousel Falls and enjoying delicious home cooked meals.

The adventure continues – off to Seeley Lake for a few days, then a quick drive down to Denver before we fly to Alaska this Monday!  We will post a Picasa album of more pictures soon.