We finished! @lydiahintze kicked my butt!
Taken at Greenwood Tri Finishline
The older I get, the more photos mean to me. I am still amazed at the way so many photos can timewarp me back to the very moment they were taken.
Over the past 2 weeks I have been organizing all of my pictures in Picasa, matching names and faces. I wasn't prepared for the way it would suck me in and make me miss the days when my kids were so small. You see, Picasa automatically detects faces and presents them to you row after row, so you can attach a name. There's nothing chronological in the way the pictures get processed. Sometimes there was a baby picture of Samantha right next to one taken of her last week. That was part of the magic; randomly being shuffled along the timelines of my kids' lives as I move from photo to photo.
I miss the days of holding my babies close to me, kissing their necks and rocking them to sleep. But at the same time, I love playing and talking with them now. They are fun to tease, to have meaningful conversations with and, of course, to be silly with.
Last night we camped up Hobblecreek canyon with my parents. Cuddled together in the motorhome, we watched Young Frankenstein (such a classic). They laughed at many of the jokes (I'd be a terrible parent if they laughed at ALL the jokes) and now we share a classic movie together. And this morning we did obstacle races from one end of the playground to the other; timing each with my phone. It was one of those moments you feel so close to your kids and, more importantly, share a love and appreciation for each other.
I want those moments every day.
Back in July I decided to escape the heat with a quick backpacking trip to the Uinta Mountains to summit Kings Peak (the tallest peak in Utah). We left late on a Friday afternoon and drove through Wyoming to begin our adventurous weekend.
We drove through Evanston entering Henry's Fork Basin from the North. We arrived with only an hour or two of daylight, so we quickly jumped out of the car and started down the trail. The moment we opened the car door we realized the most important thing we forgot: bug spray. The mosquitoes were everywhere. Hold still for even the slightest second and they would cover any exposed skin. We figured they were just bad in that area and that by setting off down the trail we could escape them. Boy were we wrong. Unless you were walking very fast they were on your arms and legs at all times.
Luckily, we came upon a couple walking back to their car and I saw a bottle of bug spray on the outside of their pack. I asked to bum a little spray off of them and, mercifully, he said we could just take the whole bottle with us because they were on their way out. If we had not been that fortunate I am not sure we would have lasted long.
That evening we had only enough daylight to hike in a couple of miles. So we stopped by a little lake and pitched our tent in the dark. The moment the tent was up we jumped inside and zipped the door back up to escape the mosquitoes. Even though we had the spray on, the air was thick with the annoying things!
The next day was the longest hiking day. We set out early in the morning toward dollar lake and gunsight pass. The landscape was breaktaking. The whole area was lush and green. Wild flowers were everywhere. It seemed like there were countless colors and varieties of flowers growing everywhere. One thing we didn't expect was how wet it was. Many times it seemed like we were walking through a swamp and dodging huge puddles of water along the trail.
We made it to Gunsight Pass by mid-day and decided to leave our full packs while we summitted. We filled our water bottles and headed up the pass. Painter Basin on the other side was incredible. I've never seen such a beautiful, majestic sight. Ahead of us was a huge, green valley dotted with lakes. Surrounding the valley were towering peaks. It looked like we stepped into the Land Before Time. We stood there in awe for as long as the mosquitoes would let us.
But we ran into another challenge as we got up to the top of the pass: my boots.
I got these boots from my brother, who had used them just a little bit but didn't like the way they fit. When we started, the sole was coming off just a little bit at the tip of the toe. Luckily I grabbed some duct tape or we wouldn't have gotten very far with them. Once we got to the top of the pass and started crossing the snow fields the sole came off at the heel, too. So we applied a new layer of duct tape at the back of the boot. By this time my boots were quite the sight and we got comments from many hikers we passed.
After doctoring up both boots at the front and back of the sole, we ran out of duct tape. By our 3rd snowfield the entire sole crumbled and fell completely off. Not willing to be hindered by a little boot malfunction, I cut the tape off and continued walking awkwardly with the internal brace slipping around in the snow. By the time the sole fell off the left boot I decided that was all I could take. I took the boots off, found a nice little rock and unceremoniously buried them beneath it. I donned my Chacos and socks, which I had brought along just in case.
Unfortunately, we knew the summit would require passing through a lot of loose shale and we didn't want to chance it wearing sandals so we headed back. Turns out, we were lucky to turn back when we did. As we were coming back down the pass to our packs we noticed some backpackers checking out our packs. They saw us coming down and hiked up to us to tell us that some marmotts had gotten into our packs. Sure enough the buggers tore a hole in my pack and started to eat our bagels.
We still had quite a few hours of daylight left, so we decided in lieu of summitting we would take the long way back by going out and around to Bear Lake for the last night. We underestimated the distance and hiking time by quite a bit. By the time we got to Bear Lake we were completely spent. The trail on the way there seemed to disappear a couple of times and we found ourselves in squishy, marshy grass as we trudged along.
At the end of the hike, we were a little disappointed that we didn't actually summit, but we sure loved the scenery and the experience. Next summer we will make it to the top. We will start earlier on Friday, hiking to Gunsight Pass that night. So we can wake early in the morning and summit before noon.
Once again, the pictures are woefully inadequate at conveying the beauty and granduer of the Uintas, Henry's Fork and Painter basins. This hike should be on the list of anyone claiming to love the outdoors.
This weekend I took a Kynetx developer visiting from France to see some of the natural wonders Utah has to offer. Loic loves the outdoors and truly appreciated all that these two parks had to offer. It was a whirlwind trip, trying to see as much of Southern Utah as possible in the short 48 hours we had. By the end of the weekend we felt pretty beat, but completely amazed at the beauty we were surrounded by.
We started our weekend late Friday afternoon by heading straight down to Red Cliffs, just outside of St. George. Red Cliffs holds a special place in my heart as I have been taking my family down there every spring for the last 13 years. We got there with just an hour of sunlight left and we took full advantage of it. We quickly hiked to the waterfalls and then over the mountain towering above it. Luckily we got past the sketchy parts just before it got too dark to see.
By the time it was dark we just weren't tired at all and decided to take Loic to St. George and show him the town a little. We headed straight for Dixie rock, at the north end of town. Back when I was in high school a friend took me to a crack in the rock where you can shimmy your way to the top. With barely 8-10" of space, we shimmied our way up about 30 feet to the top in the dark. Fortunately, we didn't see the spiders lurking in the cracks we had just crawled over until we were out in the open.
After a quick trip to Walmart for supplies we headed out to Virgin to find a spot to camp. We had no idea where to go, we just figured we would find some random place to pull off the road and pitch our tents. Well, between Virgin and Rockville we found the perfect place: Coal Pits Wash. As we pulled in we drove past about 15 cars (14 more than we expected) who had the exact same idea.
In the morning we rushed up to the Zion Backcountry desk to get a permit for Keyhole. A popular slot canyon. After enduring a soul-sucking 15 minute video about backcountry ettiquette and saftey we were off to conquer Keyhole.
I have been down Keyhole 3 or 4 times with my brothers. It's a beautiful, but short slot canyon that isn't very technical. While I have been canyoneering several times, I knew I wasn't up for anything too technical without my brother as the guide.
It's very difficult to describe the beauty of being 30-40 feet down in a canyon that's barely a couple of feet wide at places. The way the sun reflects off the different shapes and contours of the sandstone should be left to your own experience rather than my lame attempt at describing them. Stepping out of the sunlight and into the canyon is so exhilarating.
Keyhole is the perfect slot canyon for a nice, quick trip with people that have never done a canyon before. There are just a handful of rappels and they are very short. The hardest part about the canyon is at the very end. You have to swim through a section that is about 30 yards long, but over your head. The canyon is wide enough you can push yourself along the walls, and believe me, you are doing everything you can to get out of the water because it is frigid. I'm sure it's only 7-8' deep, but I've never dared put my head under that icy water to test it. My mind has only one goal: get out quickly!
After the canyon we sunned ourselves on the rocks next to the car while we rested and ate, preparing for our next adventure. We drove down to the first switchback before the tunnel and hiked up about 1/4 mile to a couple of pools and waterfalls I swam with my family only a month ago. In the 3 weeks since I had been there last a flash flood had ripped through and completely changed the pools. Grass was gone, sand bars had formed and all kinds of debris was strewn about. It was cool to see the huge impact a little rain had on that quiet little stream.
Angels Landing was our next big adventure with the remainder of the day. I had never hiked it before, but everyone who has told me it was a must-do. So we hopped the shuttle and headed up the canyon. From down below Angels Landing looks like an impossible hike. The peak is so high above the valley floor. We trudged up switchback after switchback all the way to the top. It's hard to believe that such a trail was a built, but I was so glad that it had been done. Sitting high atop that peak, looking over the park is a surreal experience. As you stand on that peak, on every side there are more peaks even taller than the one you are on. If you look down, it's a staggering 1,400 foot drop. Talk about feeling insignificant.
That evening we drove out the East side of Zion and headed toward Bryce. By this time it was about 10pm and just like the night before, we had no idea where we were going to land. Fortunately, we made it to Red Canyon, just outside of Bryce and found a campsite among the Ponerosa Pines.
The next morning we drove into Bryce, starting at Bryce Point, then Inspiration and finally Sunrise points. Bryce is so beautiful and the wide horizon behind it made it even more majestic. We hiked down Wall Street and out through the Queen's Garden.
This trip was amazing. I could spend weeks on end exploring both of these parks and it's only a small portion of Southern Utah. I hope I can get down there again before winter hits us.
It took about 4 hours to summit from Timpanookee. We spent about 30 minutes on top. We would have spent more time taking in the sites, but the wind was so cold we couldn't take any more.
On the way down, we hiked over to Emerald Lake and the old cabin. On the side of the hill was a whole herd of mountain goats feeding on the brush. We sat there watching them forever. It was so amazing to see their dexterity on the cliffs.
I wish we had gone down the Aspen Grove side, but Timpanookee is just as beautiful. Round trip the hike took about 9 hours.
We started at the mouth of Provo Canyon, making a 3,800 foot ascent to 8,000 ft at the summit. Then back down through American Fork canyon. The downhill was the perfect angle to get you flying down, but not so fast you feel you're going to die.
This was by far the most beautiful ride I've ever been on and the hills made it into a great workout. I hope I can get one more loop in before the end of the season. Big Cottonwood canyon is next!
If you've been watching my Twitter or Facebook you may have seen some strange pictures of a cute little penguin all over San Francisco. That little guy is Pengy. I'm not sure where my son acquired Pengy, but I do remember the first time I paid him any attention: we were camping and Braden was just playing and doing his thing. I look down, and Pengy's head is sticking out of the collar of his t-shirt. Braden needed both hands to play, but he certainly didn't want to leave Pengy out.
Since that time Pengy has been a part of our family. Several years ago, April had a great idea before one of my business trips: take Pengy with me and send pictures of him on my trip.
Many trips later (and countless funny stares from bystanders), Pengy and I have quite the collection of pictures. I love sharing my trips this way with the kids.
This week Pengy and I traveled to San Francisco for TwilioCon and other meetings. Pengy was very good and stayed out of trouble, for the most part. You can follow Pengy on Facebook, too.
