Diamond Rio & More Hiking

Emily and I are still hiking.  This time we did a longer hike with the group and a little heavier pack.  I was really worried for the 50 miler after this hike because they weighed our packs and mine weighed 25 pounds just with water!  I didn't even have a sleeping bag, tent, food, or anything else.  We are really going to have to get creative with what we pack and how we pack it when we do the 50-miler.  The hike was amazing though.  For this hike we started in Paradise at Dawna Major's house and hiked up and over the mountain to a spot that overlooked Mantua!  The view of the Mantua lake was awesome.

We started pretty early when it was still a little dark so as we climbed, we could look back and see the beautiful sunrise over the mountains behind us.  About a mile or two from the lookout point, we dropped our heavy packs and just took smaller day packs the rest of the way.  It was nice to loose the extra weight.  At the top, as we looked over Mantua and the valley below us, we were all impressed with the scenery and the realization that we had just climbed a mountain!  We ate our lunch and snacks up there and just enjoyed the peace.  Then we headed back down to retrieve our heavy packs and get back to Dawna's house.  The hike back seemed much faster.  We all sat and ate popsicles at Dawna's when we got back and planned future hikes.  I would definitely like to do this hike again unfortunately most of the trail is through private property...

Diamond Rio came to the American West Heritage Center for a concert this week.  I did not want to miss this so I signed up to work that night so I could get into the concert for free!  I grew up listening to Diamond Rio songs and they are all great.  After checking in all of the ticket holders, I was able to go out and enjoy the concert. 

Even though the singers are getting older, their voices were still so good!  They sounded just as good now as they did in their younger years.  The concert was so good.  I think my favorite song they sang was called "In God We Still Trust."  I am glad I was able to go to the concert but I was wishing the rest of the family could have come to enjoy it as well but they were busy doing other things.