Happy Birthday Dad!

In celebration of what would have been my Dad's 69th birthday, I'm going to eat cake at some point today. If the weather holds, I'll make one... and if not I'll just get a small one at the store and pretend it's not full of who-knows-what. So far the weather is cool, so I'll make a treat tonight but I don't know about frosting and all that sugar.

My goal was to have the cabin and have it all ready by today. I was weeks ahead of that plan, and it was nice to spend the night there and wake up on his birthday. All of the projects I've done and will do, are things I learned from him.I should have learned more, but I was a kid and didn't find it so awesome at the time. Most kids back then actually learned from parents, today it's almost nonexistent. I'm so thankful for everything I did learn, including my sarcastic nature and smart mouth!

This photo was from our last motorcycle trip in the White Mountains of N.H. I left a couple of weeks later for basic training. We had a lot of trips, all were very memorable. I don't remember why we stopped here, I think we needed a part for his bike.

 In an old throwback photo, I'm not even in it! I'm not sure if I wasn't on this trip, I would have been at most 1.5 years old I think. My older brother is right next to my Dad, looking sad for some reason. The other 2 kids were step kids, and that marriage ended shortly after this photo when my Dad came home in between jobs and told step mother to not beat us for playing in the junkyard. She said if he didn't like it he could take his kids and leave... so we did, the next day.

This is my Dad, his brother and his brothers wife. This photo is very classic, the lady always seemed spacey, Uncle Andy always chewed his nails when he was nervous and my Dad ALWAYS used that hand gesture. It's also a great photo to remind me of how I grew up. The chicken coop, the outhouse, the gun range behind them.... and of course my Dad's coffee. I don't know how many thousands of cups of coffee I made him but I never balked when he asked. We had 5 gallon buckets for water and I would scoop a small pan of water and heat it up for his instant coffee. I've forgotten how much sugar he liked.. the little things go first.

We spent this weekend at the cabin and now have the ATV's stored there. 71 miles on an ATV (50 the first day) just about ruined me for a few days. My allergies decided to kick in h are Yesterday so I went for a run to try and clear my system. The run was fast but really hard, all the rain washed the trail/road away so it took about 25% more effort than usual and overall it destroyed me. I'm not kind on my body most days.

 This is 'cutback hill' and on Saturday I'm going to climb it. While that's not special, you can see the ridge on t he left side of the photo that goes to the top of a 14,000' peak. That's what I'm hoping to do, take the ridge line all the way up.

 This is looking down towards the cabin from the ridge, it's not going to be easy and it's  heavy bush waking work.

 Another shop of the density in the forest, and in this area it's not too bad.

Eventually the ridge will hit the trail, part of a 100 mile system. I'll be on the trail for exactly this amount and then back into the woods. The trail gives an idea of why 70 miles on ATV's is rough on the body, and this section isn't really rocky or rough. The nice thing about the ridge line is, hopefully, it won't be too bad as it's high and thinned out naturally.

The following are some water pictures I took. In between each mountain are lakes filled from the snow melt and of course they run down into the cabin area. None of these are the creeks that run next to the cabin, I forgot to take a picture of that one.

 This creek runs North West of the cabin about 200 feet. Looking South West for this picture.

 Looking 'downhill' towards the cabin area.

 This creek is about 3 miles away from the cabin, an area known as Horn Creek. There is a religious retreat and seminary located there. We looked at a house in the area but it was infested with woodpeckers (and usually bugs in that case).

One of the many small water crossings. We thought about having lunch here but didn't want to have all of our blood sucked out, the downside of moisture is bugs.