My wife had some relatives from Jersey stay with us this weekend and wanted to take them to see the mountain. The weather didn't look too good but we packed up the cars and headed out about noon. We hit the first lookout, Hoffstadt Bluff, about 3:30pm after having stopped for lunch on the way. After the kids piled out I went to the back seat to grab my binos and scope to take a look at some elk down in the river bottom, they weren't there. I opened up the trunk, they weren't there, hmmm

I closed the trunk deep in thought and then it hit me, like a kick right between the legs

I set them on the ground in the corner of the driveway, right next to the sidewalk while I was hurying the kids and packing the car. I guess my 4 year old son had me worked up enough to have left them sitting there. Well about 4:00pm my wife, who was not at all happy, called from Johnston Ridge and got in touch with my brother who was at my moms about 10 minutes from my house. I told my wife not to bother, there was no way people walking by would just leave them sitting there, they were gone. Well we went for a small hike along the ridge to take pics and get a good look up into the crater, as good a look as we could get without binos or a scope anyway, and then headed back to the cars. When we reached the lot we had cell service again and my brother had called and left a message. He said I have to be the luckiest guy he has ever met, the gear was still sitting there and he had picked it up. Guess that karma thing is still working

Anyhow, I did manage to get a few pics of Alvin while he was stuffing his face, thought I might share them. What a cute little guy.