Becky is my other friend. She is wearing the orange top with light blue jacket above. If I sow too much of the Word into her life on any given occasion, she kindly changes the subject. Our common interest over several years has been her Schnauzer dog, Pug, whom we have dogsat when she has been out of town. We even took care of Pug for several straight months when Becky went to Finland on a Fulbright scholarship. We've seen less of Pug in the last couple of years, since Becky's only child, Ben, died at 21 years of age in an avalanche while skiing near Bozeman. Pug was her main comforter. Since then her father also died & her mother has moved to a rest home. Pug developed gastrointestinal lymphoma in this past year. She lost that battle a month or so ago. I've hoped to develop other bridges with Becky to keep our relationship going. She loves to hike or bike, so we set up a date at the beginning of September to finally spend a day together on the Hiawatha Trail, one of the most scenic rail to trails in the USA. Esther, my sister, also joined us for the 15 mile route which crosses the Bitterroot Mountains between Idaho & Montana.
The Route of the Hiawatha is best known for the 1.66 mile long, dark Taft Tunnel or St. Paul Pass, which burrows under the Idaho-Montana state line. The temperature is around 45 degrees in the tunnel. Moisture drips from the tunnel ceiling, creating lots of puddles to dodge. The trail winds through 10 tunnels & over 7 high railroad trestles. My bike light went out in one of the tunnels. I scraped my left arm along the side of the tunnel before I could fully stop my bike & get the light to turn back on. Around 5 p.m. the day before, I had started experiencing rapid lightning flashes in my left lateral peripheral vision every blink of my eye. Multiple floaters also made my visual field appear to have a plague of flies. So I had my eyes dilated during an emergency appointment that morning to see if I would need a spot laser weld for a retinal tear. Thankfully no tear was apparent yet. These symptoms & the scrape were just distractions on an otherwise awesome hike.
As we were returning to the trailhead below the Taft Tunnel by bus shuttle, we watched a moose feeding from the bottom of one of the ponds in Loop Creek Canyon.
Becky is my other friend. She is wearing the orange top with light blue jacket above. If I sow too much of the Word into her life on any given occasion, she kindly changes the subject. Our common interest over several years has been her Schnauzer dog, Pug, whom we have dogsat when she has been out of town. We even took care of Pug for several straight months when Becky went to Finland on a Fulbright scholarship. We've seen less of Pug in the last couple of years, since Becky's only child, Ben, died at 21 years of age in an avalanche while skiing near Bozeman. Pug was her main comforter. Since then her father also died & her mother has moved to a rest home. Pug developed gastrointestinal lymphoma in this past year. She lost that battle a month or so ago. I've hoped to develop other bridges with Becky to keep our relationship going. She loves to hike or bike, so we set up a date at the beginning of September to finally spend a day together on the Hiawatha Trail, one of the most scenic rail to trails in the USA. Esther, my sister, also joined us for the 15 mile route which crosses the Bitterroot Mountains between Idaho & Montana. 
The Route of the Hiawatha is best known for the 1.66 mile long, dark Taft Tunnel or St. Paul Pass, which burrows under the Idaho-Montana state line. The temperature is around 45 degrees in the tunnel. Moisture drips from the tunnel ceiling, creating lots of puddles to dodge. The trail winds through 10 tunnels & over 7 high railroad trestles. My bike light went out in one of the tunnels. I scraped my left arm along the side of the tunnel before I could fully stop my bike & get the light to turn back on. Around 5 p.m. the day before, I had started experiencing rapid lightning flashes in my left lateral peripheral vision every blink of my eye. Multiple floaters also made my visual field appear to have a plague of flies. So I had my eyes dilated during an emergency appointment that morning to see if I would need a spot laser weld for a retinal tear. Thankfully no tear was apparent yet. These symptoms & the scrape were just distractions on an otherwise awesome hike.
As we were returning to the trailhead below the Taft Tunnel by bus shuttle, we watched a moose feeding from the bottom of one of the ponds in Loop Creek Canyon.
