Hunter Fall backpacking

Hunter finished the first two weeks of school and as a school they went on a fall backpacking trip for 7 days. Each student could sign up for a 10, 35,45 or 70 mile trip. Can you guess which one Hunter chose? You got it…..he chose the 70 miler.

Here are the pictures of the students and a little write up of the week.

First day of school

First day of school for Noah (10), Abbie (9) and Preston (6). Hunter is already at school and we faced timed him. We love these 4 so much and are super proud of them. ❤️ 🏫

Hunter off to MWSB for the school year


We just got back from a week to Montana dropping Hunter off at Montana Wilderness School of the Bible. This is a 9 month program to set him up for a solid life foundation. 

Abbie couldn’t make it on this trip with us due to here high school cheer training schedule so we missed having her with us. 

To break the trip up on the way there we drove a little more than half way to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and spent the night. Weather was hot so we spent the following morning at the lake before traveling on. 

We stopped briefly in Missoula to check out the University of Montana and got huckleberry shakes in St. Regis, MT.


Day 2 ended arriving in Montana staying at an off grid airbnb near Craig Montana. 

Day 3 we stayed relatively local going to Great falls and visiting the Lewis and Clark center along with a state park - Giant springs.  Great falls is where the Lewis and Clark expedition had to spend a month portaging around 5 waterfalls.  
I’m the evening we explored more around our cabin. 


Day 4 we went to the east side of glacier national park.  An area called two Medicine Lake.  

 
Day 5 was drop off day for Hunter. The schools is in such a beautiful setting tucked back at the end of a canyon road (Dearborn canyon) with no cell service making it the perfect location to study and fellowship with the 65 other students there. 

We are hoping the other kids want to go as well. Here are some videos I took to show Abbie some of the campus grounds since she couldn’t make it. 

We feel really good about this school for hunter. 

Blacksmith 101class

I followed up my intro class from July with a 101 class in August at the “DIY Cave” in town. The project this time was wall hooks to learn a number of new techniques in shaping metal.   Couple more pics of the transformation/shaping process.  

Noah 16th Birthday Backpack

Noah wanted to do a backpacking trip with some friends for his birthday. Unfortunately, one of them broke his foot, so it was just 4 of us this year. A few years ago we did the same on his 13th birthday.

This trip we went to another one of the cascade volcanoes. Mt. Thielsen in southern Oregon. 

Variable terrain from burned out forest to mountain streams coming right out of the snow. Only downside is that the mosquitos were horrible.  

Blacksmithing intro

Today I took a 2 hour intro to blacksmithing class a place in town called the DIY cave. We have been there a few times before including one of hunters birthday building camp chairs (https://blog.donaldsoncrew.org/hunters-13th-birthday-party) and an intro  to welding (https://blog.donaldsoncrew.org/diy-cave-welding-class) class with the boys. 

The project today to get is started in learning different hammer techniques was a bottle opener.

Here is a picture of me with my two other classmates and a video of the opener in action. 

  


Family Rafting: Lower Deschutes (June 2023)

We just completed a super fun and leisurely 3 day raft trip on the lower Deschutes River, north of Bend putting in at Buckhollow (just outside of Maupin) and taking out at Mack’s Canyon.  It was only about 20 miles making for shorter days on the river and lots of fun at camp.   This trip was with the Lovejoy family as usual and the Starlings, (Chris, Hattie and their 3 girls) who we have known for years but never had the opportunity to boat together. 

We drove north to Maupin and we were on the river around 10:30 on Friday morning.


Camp on night 1 (Friday) 

Warm day so the river and the shade along the shore was greatly appreciated. 

Starlings hosted dinner the first night. They served flatiron steaks, smashed pesto potatoes with a wedge salad.  Chris is a great cook and the presentation was phenomenal.

Classic Donaldson/Lovejoy camp shenanigans.
 
As the trip was only 2 nights and 3 families, we hosted breakfast Saturday morning since there were only 2 dinner meals. We did up spicy sweet potato hash and scrambled eggs along with fruit salad and OJ + mimosas for the adults. 


Camp night 2 (Saturday)

Saturday target was a camp that Chris (has done this stretch of river a number of times) said was the best site by far. We ended up getting the site and it did not disappoint. An A++ site for sure. Big sandy beach, rapids and a great eddy to swim in and park/launch boats.  Lovejoys hosted dinner Saturday and made pulled pork tacos which were delish. Mark got things rolling early with the margaritas which made for a fun afternoon. 


Sunday was a short 4 miles to the take out.  A great weekend trip that was too short.