Over the weekend...

I agreed to sing the National Anthem (in a quartet) for the 5K Parade Day event on Saturday.  I DID NOT, however, realize I would be singing at 6:45 AM.  That was an EARLY morning for moi.  But it was for a great cause, so it was worth it.

Before that request came in, three friends and I had made plans to ride to the top of Cyclone Pass on our 4-wheelers.  This would be my third trip. (I wrote about it last summer- Labor Day weekend.)  Two of the four had not made this ride, and we wanted them to see/experience it.  So later that same morning, we headed for the mountains.

Brett and Marlene were riding in their side-by-side ATV, and about 3 miles up the trail, it overheated.  Dang!  This is the second time/trip this has happened.  Brett thought the problem was fixed... evidently not.  Unfortunately, they felt it best/wise to just turn around and go home.  What a disappointment.  So then, the next decision was if Julie and I would go ahead and make the trek.  Well, after considering all the options, we decided to go on ahead and give it a try.  Once we got to "the chutes," if Julie thought it was too rough, we'd turn it around.  Or if one of us got wedged in somewhere, we could always ride out on the other machine.  So, we decided to go for it.

Here's a little reminder of the trail of boulders once you get to "the chutes."  It is stepper than it looks in the picture, and it's a slow, bouncy ride!  You have to carefully pick your way through the sea of boulders and sharp rocks. 

The Chutes is a 3-mile section and took us an hour.

Looking back at what we just rode through!!

But we made it to the top!!  We took pictures, ate lunch, and thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of the panoramic view.  The elevation is close to 10,000 ft.  The wind was blowing, so we were hoping we could hold the cameras steady.

Shoshone Lake and the Wind River Range

Oh yeah, and then we had to bounce back down... a 2 hour trip back to the pick-up. We were tired, but happy,  puppies at the end of the day.