Wander~Lust

Wanderlust~ A strong desire to travel.

 

I have met so many people that always talk about going places and making plans to travel and see new places it is inspiring. There is the desire in almost everyone to see new things, make footprints in new places and explore.

Sadly most of the ones I have met always find a reason not to go. There are always reasons you shouldn't go but doesn't the call of adventure and experience of new things, places and people drive you to do so? I have traveled somewhat in my life. The furthest I have been is Australia. When I was growing we would take road trips every year. See new places, try new things. My wife and I have planned out many trips but usually life happens and we have to put our plans on hold for the big adventures. We have two kids that are getting old enough to travel. In the last few years we have taken mini vacations and explored everything we can around us. We load up our kayaks or paddle boards (we always have our fishing stuff) and drive to anywhere we haven't been or our favorite spots. We enjoy doing this but we long to see places we have never seen. Make footprints in the sandy beaches that get washed away. Watch the sunrise or sunset across the ocean. There are always reasons to stay close to home, and we have to live within our budget. We have created a list of all the places we want to see. My wife will take her materials with when we go and make as many bracelets as she can along the way. We want to share the world with our kids and show them that the world has so many places and different things to see and experience. There are several people around us that don't have to worry as much about the "budget" and could go see anywhere they want. They always talk about going but always find the reason why they shouldn't. Shouldn't we find the reasons why we should? Life is so short there are many places we may not get to see. We make a list of all the reasons why we should go and try not to think of why we shouldn't. With kids it is harder, we want to give the a life better than we had growing up and share the world with them. It is hard to save up with life always happening but soon we hope to share pictures of the places we see and where we have taken our paddle boards with our kids and our dog Meeko. He is the third dog my wife and I have had. Our other two dogs were rescue dogs like Meeko and take them everywhere with us. Sometimes they can be a pain with kids in the car all of our stuff, but they are part of our family.

 

We want to share this because there are always reasons why we shouldn't go and see new things but why not focus on the reasons why we should go and see new things. You always gain a new perspective on life when you travel, talk to different people and experience life in a setting different than what you have always known. Granted there is comfort in staying where you are and not doing this but where would the world be if everyone was this way? We look back in history and wish we could have lived in a different time, but we are here and know we need to make the best of our lives that we have. We want to share our passion for travel and adventure with you and hope you inspire you to take that adventure however small and experience the world around you. Yes I am sitting at my computer typing this, it is the middle of the week, kids in school and work. Each weekend we load up our car and drive to somewhere that we can explore and find new places to paddle board on. Several of the lakes that we have taken them to I know we are some of the first to do so. They are hard places to get to and it is a lot of extra gear to pack in. It is worth it to try to be the first ones to do something. We are truly Wanderlust and are exploring and traveling every chance we get. Each year our trips get longer and we do more things.

 

The world seems small with the internet and being able to see anywhere at the click of a mouse. We don't want to look at pictures we want to take the picture and share them.

 

Kickassie's Adventures: Kickassieskreations store info and links

Kickassie's Adventures: Kickassieskreations store info and links: www.kickassieskreations.com handmade bracelets inspired by nature. This is a preview of what is on our online store. We go to the mount...

Kickassie's Adventures: Tired of the cookie cutter non living life? Why no...

Kickassie's Adventures: Tired of the cookie cutter non living life? Why no...:  Are you tired of the cookie cutter life that everyone wants and expects? I know we have been very frustrated by so many people telling ...

Experiencing Freedom

Freedom. What does that mean? It means a lot of different things to many people. To us it means experiencing life when there are no distractions and we can just exist. Kayaking and paddle boarding are two things we do as often as we can to experience this. When we go I shut my phone off so we don't have the distraction of work. We drive to wherever the road and our Xterra takes us. Usually it is a mountain lake or river. Sometimes it is the drive that is most enjoyable. The weather can be beautiful here one minute and turn to rain or snow within an hour any time of year. So we have learned to enjoy every part of our trips. Even with the kids and the dog in our car we can find freedom and forget the world.

We take our paddle boards and pump them up when we get to somewhere that looks like it would be fun to take them out on. Sometimes we take them out when we probably shouldn't but it does make good memories. When I was working my last job I worked 90 hours a week and when I had a day off we did what ever we could to enjoy the time we had. One time we were up in the snowy range and the wind was blowing hard for Wyoming. My wife said I shouldn't take my kayak out but I hadn't had a day off in over a month was going to enjoy it. The paddle across the lake was nice the wind at my back the waves helping push me across this high mountain glacier fed lake. When I reached the other side and turned around it was not as pleasant. The waves were coming over my kayak soaking me. The wind in my face with the water spraying it. It seemed to take for ever to get back. When I did I was soaked and almost frozen. It was enjoyable and I will never forget it. I will probably not do it on a day like that again but it was worth it to be out and away from everything and just be part of the water.

The first time we took our kayaks out was in early October before they closed the road over the mountain. They came in and the next day we strapped them to the top of our Xterra and headed up. When we got there it was snowing. We had plenty of clothes on and took them out on the lake. Our daughter was 4 and went with (we all had lifejackets, it is a must here with the glacier fed lakes) and enjoyed paddling in the snow. It was the only time we took them out that year but it was late and most people we told thought we were nuts. Maybe we are but we try to enjoy ourselves and make memories that we can talk about.

With our paddle boards the wind affects them a little more than the kayaks. We have tried to be more selective on where we go. The thunder storms have been extreme this year and many times we have  gone we only got to enjoy the ride and getting a coffee in the little mountain town that is on the way. We had always talked about getting paddle boards and finally saved up enough to do so. We have them loaded in our car whenever we go anywhere and if we see a spot that looks good we get them out. With the job I have currently I get to enjoy my family a lot more and do things more often with them.

Getting out into nature and doing things that we enjoy is what freedom is for us. We still have bills and have to work but we escape as often as we can and enjoy our slice of freedom.

Bear Lake, Fishing and Paddle boarding

This post is to share our trek into Bear Lake. It is probably not the Bear Lake many of you know of or are thinking of. This one is nestled into the heart of the Snowy Range. It sits ar over 10,000 feet in elevation and has a beautiful rock cliff that skirts one side of the lake. On this side the lake dives down very deep. Those that are daring leap from them into the very chilly mountain water. We however did not do this when we were up there because there was a chill in the air and there where several small thunderstorms that kept rolling through. We decided that it would be best to stay on our paddle boards and try to get the fish to bite. We have been up there several times and with the clear water you can watch the fish follow your fly or lure up and then turn away without even hitting it. We tried every lure that we have and several of the flies that I have tied that look like the bugs and shrimp. Still nothing. After a failed attempt at fishing we blew up our boards and decided to play. We did not all go out at once since we had Meeko with us and the kids. It is hard enough to balance with the dog running around the board without adding a kid into the mix. So we took turns letting Meeko run around and explore and playing on our ten toes boards. 

We spent most of the day at the lake and had nice picnic. We took Meeko out on the board and he loved it. He is the type of dog that will go anywhere and try anything with us. Meeko loves exploring and trying to knock us off balance on our boards. This day he decided he would just lay down and relax after being out and exploring around the lake and chasing us along the bank. We let our daughter try out one of the boards. She did quite well but we suggested that she stay on her knees or sitting since the water is cold and it was her first time out. She picked it up as quick as her mom and enjoyed the day. Now we need to get her a ten toes nano board. We may wait until next year since it is mid August and here the leaves are starting to change. It is sad to see them since our summers are so short and it seems like they slip away too quickly. 

While we were up playing Kas was inspired to make a bracelet. It is the one that is featured in the first picture here and is rightly named the Bear Lake bracelet. Her business is up and going strong and she is enjoying the freedom of being able to let her creative side shine. She has always made things, she enjoys sculpting things from clay, painting and anything else that she can mold into what her mind thinks up. She has recently created a two web shops one at www.kickassieskreations.com and the other on estsy, https://www.etsy.com/shop/Kickassieskreations?ref=search_shop_redirect. Take a look and see what she has to offer and look for her at art festivals, farmers markets and craft bazaars. We hope you enjoy what she makes. 

The story of the luckiest frog, Hopper

We went fishing up in the mountains, our son who loves to eat fish but usually gets bored decided to try out his new Dock Demon fishing pole. As you can tell in the pictures it was a nice day but a little chilly. On his second cast he caught a Brook Trout. Nothing special in his size but it was his first fish. Once he fought the "monster" and landing it I went to get the hook out. When I grabbed the fish I thought he had a night crawler in his mouth with the hook. After getting the hook out and trying to dislodge what was caught in his throat I was shocked to see it was a little Chorus Frog. He was quite stunned but alive. We decided to let it stay on the bank by us and let it be free. The little frog "Lucky Hopper" stayed by my son for 2 hours while we fished. When we were done fishing and I was drying off from getting my wife's lucky lure un snagged on rock (luckily it wasn't as deep as the last time and you can tell by the look on my face the water wasn't very warm) the frog was still sitting there. My son wanted to keep it since he saved it from the big mean viscous predator of the brook trout he caught. We explained how it is better for them to stay in their habitat but in the end he won out and we brought it home. Once home we bought a setup for him and placed him in it. All was fine and then one night he was gone. We looked and looked and figured he had gone dormant and buried himself to rest. Later as we were cleaning we found him in the floor drain in our basement. How he got there we don't know. He had to sneak his way past Meeko our dog and Clinker our cat who sleeps in the room he was in. He was happy chasing spiders and what other bugs our in our basement. After we got him back in his habitat we setup I decided to make it more escape proof. Since then he has been very happy eating the worms and spiders we catch to feed to him. Just yesterday we got to watch him stalk a daddy long led and eat it. It was quite a feet to see him slowly sneak up on it and then pounce. We couldn't believe how fast he sprung and swallowed the spider. Then he sat there with the legs sticking out of its mouth and seemed to smile at us. Our kids love to go fishing with us and we spend as much time in the mountains as we can. With our paddle boards and our kayaks we will have many more stories to share. We also love to spend time snow shoeing when there is snow here (they don't call it the snowy range because the name is pretty).

More to come soon. ENJOY

  

Camping and paddle boarding

This post it dedicated to one of our favorite trips this summer. We recently purchased two Ten Toes inflated SUPs. We have never used them before but always wanted to try them out. We take our kayaks at go to as many spots as we can. They are some prohibitive in where you can go since they are 14 foot and hard to pack down a trail. So they usually stay closer to roads (well some wouldn't call them roads but more trails that do allow motorized access) and don't take them into areas like this. More on those in another post, this one is our trip to the secluded lake that the few that do go in pack as light as possible due to the extreme nature of the trail. This lake sits at over 10,000 feet in elevation. The last part of the trail is a very steep and hard to navigate with all our gear. But my wife and I always wanting to do new things and trying to do things in areas that others have never thought of before decided that since we had the inflatable Ten Toes Boards we would make the trip and see what it would turn out like. We also took the newest addition to our family, Meeko a rescue pup for the local shelter. He was 8 months old at the time and is a hound mix, we think he is beagle and ACD. But we don't know for sure what he is, what we do know is that he is ours, and he loves our family as much as we love him. The hike in took a while. The kids packed as much as they could which consisted of their inflatable tube, orca whale, clothes, water and sleeping bag. My wife and I packed in everything else for our stay, food, tent, cook ware, fishing poles, and of course the SUP. We decided to only take one since they weigh 30 pounds (not a lot but on a backpacking trip down this trail it seemed like more. Once we arrived at the lake after being caught in a down pour (luckily I always have a tarp strapped to my pack) we were not too wet and our gear was in good shape. We set up camp did some fishing (my wife caught the only fish), we made dinner which consisted of canned chicken mixed with dry packaged noodles (light to carry) and the fish. Meeko loved helping my daughter and I collect fire wood. When I got the fire going using our PET balls (dryer lint mixed with petroleum jelly, messy to make but they make starting a fire with flint and steel a breeze) Meeko gave me the saddest look, why was I burning all his sticks he helped gather to play with. He soon forgot this as I got our grill out over the coals and setup our small cast iron skillet along with our Stanley cookware. The Stanley cook ware is great, good quality stainless steel, 2 quart pot with bowls that stack inside and light weight which is always a bonus when trekking in somewhere. After we had dinner my wife and kids unpacked our Rumpl and cuddled up around the fire. In the morning I make bacon and pancakes. Meeko loved both. The kids ate a bunch and we had a good meal to start the day. We waited until about 9:30 when the sun was hitting the lake over the trees and then we enjoyed the cool mountain lake until we hiked out that afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow shoeing

Snowshoeing in the Snowy Range
This winter we saw lots of snow. We spent as much time as could up in the mountains. Spring came so fast(for the Rocky Mountains) that we didn't find time to post much on here. My wife was finishing school the kids had activities and every moment we weren't doing that we were in mounting exploring and teaching them about nature. These pictures are of one of the snow shoeing trips we took. It was one weekend when you could drive here and not see only snow blowing and guess where the road is. It was a realtively warm day (0deg F) but we all had on our Eddie Bauer down and different kinds of snow pant. So we stayed nice and warm. We packed in a picnic in my Eddie Bauer Alchemist pack (I use that every time we go to the mountains, it fits well has a spot for a hydration pack and holds everything we need) and ate in a little grove of aspens. It is roughly a 3 mile round trip so by the time we are there the kids are hungry. My wife always bakes brownies or some other treat for us (it is hard to beat brownies in mountains), she always does small things to make our trips special.