Holiday weekends mean crowds, traffic, and stress, so in the past Andy and I have tended to just spend long weekends close to home. Especially after weeks of overtime at work, a quiet weekend at home sounded pretty perfect. That is until I noticed that WTA had work parties scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday on a trail that's only a 15 minute walk from my parents cabin! By the time I saw this, both days were full, but I put both myself and Andy on the wait list and crossed my fingers. If we managed to snag spots for either day, we could spend the remainder of the weekend at the cabin with my family - even better than spending the weekend at home. At the last minute, two spots opened up, but they'd moved the work party to the nearby Denny Creek trail. Instead of walking from the cabin to meet the group Saturday morning, we'd have to drive. Regardless of the location, the work was fantastic as always. Andy spent most of the day building rock steps, and I worked on drainage. Drainage maintenance is mucky, filthy work, but it's so satisfying to see clear water once again flowing down a drainage trench when you'd started with a debris filled mud pit and water running across the trail!

After the work party, it was a short drive to my parents cabin where we were greeted with cold beer, comfy chairs, and once my niece woke up from her nap, lots of hugs. My mom even cooked hamburgers for dinner to satisfy my typical post-trail work craving! Sunday, after a big breakfast cooked by my mom and brother-in-law, we went for a walk. Being as close as we were to a busy highway and popular picnic area, I was astonished at how peaceful our walk was. It didn't take long to hit some large snowfields that turned us around, but we managed a long enough outing to work some of the stiffness from the previous day's work out of my muscles. Andy had work on Monday, so we headed home late Sunday afternoon. Between the early start for Saturday trail work and our Sunday departure, we managed to avoid the dreaded Memorial Day weekend traffic entirely. Perhaps we've found the trick to a peaceful holiday weekend?