Family
Epic Adventure – and Longing
Hi. My name is Shelli. I’m 43 years old. I have been married to Jerry for almost 20 years and we have three young sons, Wolf, 11, Hayden, 9, and Finis, 4.
This is a post about a wife and mother’s longing. It is also [...]
To Win, Back Yourself Against a Cliff
I am a goal-oriented person. I always am working on a goal, or ten.
From time to time, I refer to the goals I set as Ulysses pacts. A Ulysses pact, or contract, is a self-made decision that binds one to the future. The term refers to the pact Ulysses (Odysseus) made with his men as [...]
My Brooks Range People Made Me Better
This is Post 2 in a series about my recent Alaska Brooks Range backpacking course.
It was Aug. 6, the afternoon before the start of my NOLS Brooks Range Hiking course. I was in Alaska, enjoying the comforts of the Ah, Rose Marie Bed & Breakfast, in Fairbanks, while waiting for others enrolled in the course [...]
My NOLS Brooks Range Hiking Course: Not a Vacation or Guided Tour
Greetings from my beloved Frontier of Wyoming. I am re-entering upon returning from my National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) course in Alaska’s remote Brooks Range and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
For two weeks, I backpacked a country that is so big and unending and wild and spectacular that there is no way I can adequately communicate [...]
Alaska’s Brooks Range or Bust
I leave you with this video blog as I depart for my NOLS course in the remote Brooks Range and Arctic tundra of Alaska.
Cyclone Pass “Prize” Makes Shoshone Lake Hike (Grunt) Worthwhile
Shoshone Lake is a big lake that is in my backyard. Tucked in the foothills of Wyoming’s southern Wind River Range, the lake is situated at about 10,000′, and in the Shoshone National Forest.
My husband, Jerry, a friend, Kathy Swanson, of Casper, WY, and I hiked to Shoshone Lake and beyond on July 8. The [...]
Conversation with Stranger on Airplane Leads to Love Story
NOTE: Sorry for the “bedhead” hair. I got into a rambunctious dog pile with my husband and three young sons at the start of the day. Or, this is just how my hair looks because I live in windy Wyoming. Both are correct.
I challenge you to ask yourself what may happen as a result of [...]
Coral Pink Sand Dunes–A Giant Sandbox
We have three young sons, ages 11, 9 and 4. As toddlers, they all loved playing in the custom-built corner sandbox their Pa-Grandpa built in our backyard for them. When we go on beach vacations, the boys relish playing in the sand.
So it was a highlight when we spent the final day of our recent [...]
Kodachrome State Park is Great Base Camp
On our recent spring break camping trip in southwestern Utah, we spent two nights camping and one day hiking and exploring Utah’s Kodachrome State Park. We had been to the area before and loved it.
This state park gets its name, Kodachrome, from a 1948 National Geographic Society expedition that named the area after its popular [...]
National Park Trips
Yellowstone International