Mills Grapevine: The Highlight of the Mills Family Summer

We hiked Mt, Moran, Wy Aug. 28!

I'm sure everyone has their own opinion of the hike, for me it was

the hardest thing I've done, but loved every minute of it.

It's exciting having memorable experiences together as a family.

The weather forecast said 80% then getting closer to the date 100% chance

of rain and thunderstorms! I didn't think we would possible still go, however

Seth said he and Wind were going no matter what and, "if we planned everything

around the weather up here we would never do anything"

So, we all decided to go for it and come what may!

We rented canoes from Adventure Sports in Moose, Wy.

We put our canoes in at Jenny Lake that connects to String Lake.

At one point some of us got out to pull the canoes through the shallow water.

We had to carry our canoes along a 1/4 mile portage to Leigh Lake

The lake was perfect and so clear. It was a beautiful sunny day.

It was fun watching each pair of canoers doing their own thing.

For the most part it was quiet and peaceful out there.

Wish we had time to go for a swim. We didn't get started till 1 pm due to Seth and

Wind having some issues with their crews on the job sites so a few things had to

be done before heading out.

We canoed for about an hour and our hike started where the fallen rocks meet the lake.

The glacier melt off was running under our feet below the rocks, couldn't see but

could hear that cool clear water.

With the altitude and steepness we took many breaks just to catch our breath.

The incline was so steep and with the backpacks on we couldn't stand totally

vertical. At times the person in front of me would stop and I would bump my

pack into them. Sometimes we needed 3 points touching the ground.

I was under the impression that camp was not too far in, just before reaching camp

I was starting to give up. We've been hiking for almost 4 hours when Seth told us it

would be about an hour! Sundi, Robert and I were resting when Dallin and Blue came

back for us saying that the CMC camp was just around the corner.

Dallin took my pack for me and Blue encouraging me.

But we made it and I felt like I HAD HIKED THE MOUNTAIN.

Wind had a 6 man tent (really holds 5) and Robert had a 4 man tent (really holds 3),

so Troy and I split up. I slept with Robert and Sundi, and dad with with

Wind, Blue, Dallin and Michaela.

Seth and Jessica had the perfect size so no room for any extras, just how they like it.

The view was beautiful, we could see where we had started from.

That first night Sundi and I were up till, I think almost 4am.

I think our bodies just couldn't relax enough to sleep.

The 3 of us kept laughing about everything.

Jessica said she could hear us and wanted to see what we were laughing about.

I was amazed that we had all just climbed up this mountain and were laying

in our tents up there.

In Robert's words, "Anyone on this mountain is Bad Ass!"

Seth, Wind, Troy, Blue and Dallin left in the morning to hike to the very top.

Robert, Jessica and I hiked to a cave across the way and then Jessica and I

hiked higher to the glacier.

Sundi and Michaela stayed at camp, sitting on the rim watching us.

They were these 2 pick spots we could see (they had pink coats on)

The day was beautiful. We could see the Grand Teton from our camp.

We started to worry about the guys when the dark clouds started rolling
in at the top, the wind kicked up and started to hail, but then we saw them.

Troy was down first and while telling us all about his crazy experience we see
Dallin and Blue going to find Dallin's hat that blew off just
when they started out (they found it) and we could see Seth and Wind were still
trying to figure out where they went wrong.
They didn't make it to the very highest peak.

They did make it to Drizzlepuss.

We all headed to our tents for the duration of the storm.

While in our tents we heard a deep rumble and felt a shudder of the earth...
EARTHQUAKE!

Wind fumigated the tent about killing all of us, I finally joined Sundi and Robert.

Poor Michaela had to sleep with these guys listening to and smelling them.

At one time Wind, Dallin and Troy were all snoring and she would hit them to

make them stop. She was a trooper. For stressing over this hike for

weeks prior, she did awesome.

Even after the rain stopped the fog was all around us, it was pretty cool.

The views out of our tent. The day we were hiking out we awoke to it snowing.

Robert, Sundi and I were discussing our options since it snowed not sure if we
could still hike out, when Troy came to our tent and said we were hiking out and to get packed.

Robert sits up, "Well this is the real deal"