Scotts World

Solo Backpacking into the Stansburys

2010-07-18T12:38:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning just after breakfast I headed up to the Stansburys to hike to Deseret Peak and then over to South Willow Lake to spend the night. The hike was very interesting as I passed at least 3 groups of Boy Scouts panting and complaining, one lone Boy Scout (all he knew was that his troop was ahead of him) that had some serious blisters on his heels that I gave him some duct tape for, and a group of hikers from Wasatch Mountain Club. Once at the summit I texted to my wife that I was there and then moved on after a quick meal of Peanut Butter and granola bars. I continued North and visited some other peaks then dropped down to the trail that heads towards South willow Lake. I set up camp and enjoyed the solitude of the area and the various wildlife. After a few hours of interrupted sleep I woke to rustling and a scream, I quickly turned on my headlamp to see the final take-down of a fawn by a cat no more than 30 feet from me. I lay there with my light trained on the Cat as he finished off the fawn and drug it to some nearby trees and began his feast all the while watching me watch him. As quietly as I could I packed up my pack and worked my way around the lake away from him and headed back to civilization as there was no way I was going back to sleep at this point even though it was 4AM. All in all it was a great trip and very tiring.. here are the pics I got.. and no I don't have pics of the cat from this morning :P - The visit from the Cat looked something like the GIF image at the bottom

A concrete Arrow from the early days of Airmail

2010-07-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

Once again I found an article online about some cool things to see in Tooele with some historical significance. Some chatting with the Author ensued and I found another Concrete Arrow with the help of google earth, so what else was there to do on a cool morning but to go check it out with the girls. A quick journey down some dirt roads and a little hiking through sage brush and we were there. - Check out the pics below

The Rock Tit

2010-06-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

So last night Tacoma and I went again to the crag in Ophir canyon to see what kind of damage we could do. My ribs have started feeling better as has my lower back that has been killing me but most of all I could just sit around and do nothing anymore. it was driving me nuts. Once at the rock we decided to climb a route that is right on the nose called the Rock Tit, it is a bit shorter than Poopy pants but is supposedly a 5.9. I red-pointed the route on the first ascent and Tacoma Pink-pointed. This climb seemed just as easy as Poopy pants so either our confidence has raised or it is rated wrong (I want to think it is a confidence thing). Anyhow I made 2 ascents and Tacoma made but one and then the sun was going down and we were out of light. My ribs hurt like a mother during the climb but such is life. Here are some pics

Vagas - Second Honey moon and freedom from the twits

2010-06-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

So on Sunday the 6th my wife and I headed to the Airport to try to catch a flight with Jet Blue on our free standby tickets that I had gotten from my friend Tacoma’s wife Tara. We were told when we signed in that it would basically be a cold day in hell if we got on in the next 3 days as they had been rolling standby passengers over for 4 days. Well we waited for our flight and didn’t get on so we rolled over to the flight later in the day. To kill time we went up to the Blue Plate Diner and had a nice breakfast and then to Tanner Park for a short hike. We still had hours left to kill so off to REI to spend our dividend on some nice sandals for Michelle then to Memory grove to read and lay in the grass. All this time I am nursing my ribs BAH. Soon we were back at the Airport to find that we are #28 on the standby list on a flight that is overbooked- At this point we decided to just drive down.

The drive was uneventful and we arrived in Vegas at 1AM and set out to find a room for the night. After trying a few different places on Fremont Street we found a room at the Stratosphere – we ended up with a upgraded room due to them selling us a room they didn’t have but I still have to say the room was small but more than adequate.

Day 2
Monday morning rolled around and we had some overpriced coffee from the Starbucks in the casino and planned to use our free entry (part of having a room) to visit the observation deck but it was not open yet. On our way back to the room we got caught by one of what we would find later to be the many people trying to get suckers to go to Timeshare presentations with the lure of free stuff. We were lured in with tickets to a show, a free dinner, and tickets to the Observation deck (about a $150 value for a couple of hours that we had to kill anyhow). We went to the observation deck with our free entry from having a room and watched a couple of people take the jump from the deck to the ground (I still wish I could blow $100 to do that jump – maybe next time). Then we headed down to do the presentation that was rather painful to sit through but worth $150.

We checked into my sister in laws timeshare around 4 after hitting up wally world to get some food and then hung out at the pool until we crashed.

Day 3
We basically did NOTHING but sit by the pool and drink. When I say basically that ignores the fact that we got suckered into another timeshare presentation at the timeshare we were staying at on the auspice that it would get my sister in law another 1000 points and us a $75 gift card.

Day 4Wednesday – my birthday we woke up and laid around at the pool and then went out for our planned night on the town. First we used a gift certificate we had to Applebee’s to have a nice lunch and then went and walked the strip. We checked out most of the strip with honorable mentions for the M&M shop, Excalibur (I still want to know how many larpers a year get kicked out), MGM and the lions, The flamingo and the flamingos, Bellagio and the gardens, and tons of people trying to give us handouts for “girls right to your room”. We then used our free dinner at the Diner in the Stratosphere (adequate but I wouldn’t pay to eat there), Checked out the observation deck again but this time at night to see the city lights then went to see a erotic vampire show BITE. All and all a good day.

Day 5
We again did nothing but lay by the pool

Day 6
We got up early and headed home –

Here are pictures

RC cars are cheaper and quicker to fix than ribs

2010-06-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

it all started about 2 weeks ago when my wife started telling me that I was not allowed to get hurt prior to our week long trip to Vegas.. thus I went rock climbing for the first time in 10 years (led a 5.7 without a single fall). Then Saturday took my wife climbing the same route for her first climb ever.. and still no injuries.. Then we went to my in-laws and played with RC cars for a bit.. Well I ended up on the course where my brother in law was driving his RC and almost stepped on his car but instead decided to jump out of the way.. I did a beautifully controlled dive (as my wife and mother in law said) only to land in the most improper manner on my side with my fist between my ribs and the ground. Needless to say I heard a few pops and knew that something was wrong.. We left for Vagas on Sunday and I made sure to pack my 2 year old bottle of Hydrocodone and spent the week in sin city :).. came home and saw the doc yesterday.--2 cracked ribs and had 10 dislocated ribs--. needless to say I am mostly annoyed that I can't go running, climbing, hiking right now!

Rock Climbing - back at it

2010-06-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday the 2nd for the first time in over 10 years I went rock climbing with my friend Tacoma - who you may remember from last years death hike 09. He also hadn't been climbing for at least 10 years as well so basically it was 2 old guys trying to relive the glory days HEHE. We went down to Ophir canyon just to the south of Tooele and climbed a route called 'poopy pants' a nice slabby 5.7 climb. Needless to say we both lead the route with very few problems and no falls. - hey after 10 years I think we did rather well.

On Saturday the 5th I was able to take my wife and little girls down and climb the same route. Michelle did a great job belaying for the first time while I lead the route. She then top roped the route for her first climb ever. She did a great job and I think she is even willing to go again YAY. After we both climbed a bit we put the girls on rope and let them climb up to almost the second bolt on the wall :) Well here are some pics from that day.. they suck as the sun was in the wrong position for good pics but something is better than nothing right :)

What is so wrong with being descriptive? -- (questions on the world series)

2010-05-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

My 5 year old daughter has a fascination with the Spanish language, every time she hears a Spanish word or a person speaking the language she points out (usually in a loud voice) “They are talking Spanish”. The other day we were at the store and she heard some people speaking Spanish and did just this and my wife and my immediate response was to tell her not to point that out so loudly as it can be offensive. This is the same child who a few days prior while we were in a restaurant said loudly “That dark brown girl has a beautiful necklace, mom” we also responded not to talk about the color of a persons skin.

Both of these incidents along with others made me start to think about what kind of society we live in where using descriptive terms to point something out good or bad is taboo. The black waitress had dark brown skin, this isn’t a bad thing nor a racist thing it is just a fact that gives us a way to describe the person who she was talking about, and the people speaking Spanish were speaking Spanish and it has nothing to do with something evil or wrong but in our society this is deemed as on the verge of being racist and bigoted to even point it out. It seems as though we are more afraid of being a seen racist/bigot than we are at being rude to others directly. I have no solutions to this or do I know if it is necessarily a problem per say but it is the world that we live in and at some point we need to decide what if anything should be done about this.

Camping in a Cave with girls

2010-05-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

Friday night my friend Mason and our eldest girls (Maci and Kahlan) went for a short trip to Lakeside just to get away from the world. We spent Friday night in a large cave while avoiding drips from the roof. Saturday morning we woke up early and for the first time ever Mason was out of his Jeep before I got out of my sleeping bag. After breakfast we headed across the rail road causeway and checked out the pumps that were put in to help with the flooding in the late 80's and then went up to Hogup cave to check it out. From there we headed out the way we came and picked up parts of my jeep that had fallen off on the way in. Great trip with a good friend and the girls had a blast.

The cobbler didn't cobble my boots this time

2010-05-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

So my last experience with a cobbler left a nasty taste in my mouth and I knew I would never go back to Steve's. This time I took my boots into Tony of Tony's Shoes and Repair Tony took the time when I came in with my boots to make sure that we had the correct sole even calling up Vibram on the phone to check on some different options. Tony also told me upfront that there was a 10% chance that the glue wouldn't actually hold onto the foam rubber that the sole had to attach to, but that he was willing to give it a try and if it didn't work that I wouldn't be out any $$. So a week later I called and he said he had them ready, once I got there he informed me that he checked them one last time and the glue didn't work. Annoyed that I had driven into Magna to get them I went home only to receive a Text from him later that he had gotten some different glue from another cobbler in town and that he was not giving up on my boots. In the end everything worked out great and he even came in on Saturday so I could pick up my boots.

End result, I got new soles on my $300 boots for $40 thus extending my boots life hopefully another 2.5 years.

Sunday morning hike to nowhere

2010-05-02T08:30:00.000-07:00

Well not really nowhere, the intent was to go to a opening in the side of the mountain by Lakepoint that I have been wanting to go into for years. From I80 it looked like a decent mine opening with prospects of being somewhere to go in and explore. Unfortunately it was just a small test hole that went back about 8 feet. Sam Tacoma and Myself were all supposed to head out at 6 this morning but Tacoma pussed out at the last minute. I picked up Sam from his house and headed over to Lakepoint to start the hike. The wind brought the balmy 31 degree temps down dramatically as we walked into it along the train tracks. Anyhow here are some pics.. it was a good way to start the day no matter what and now I know when I look at that opening that nothing is there.

Interesting along a rock wall that we passed were a bunch of RR spikes stuck into the wall, There was also a Rock climbing bolt on the wall (not that I would have trusted that rusty beast)

The hole to nowhere.. really just a animal den now

Saw 6 head of elk up on the ridge here.. unfortunately I don't think my little camera has enough zoom

Finishing the Basement - and adding some fun

2010-04-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

For as long as we have lived here half of the basement has gone unfinished. It has been our washroom, utility room, and general junk storage room. Well this has come to an end! In order to do some other changes to the house in the future (Remodel the main bathroom) we had to move the entrance to the crawl space from the half bath downstairs in order to put a shower downstairs, in order to move the entrance to the crawl space the washer and dryer had to be moved along with their plumbing/electrical and a new door to the crawl space installed. I figured if I am moving them I should just finish as much of the basement as possible as long as it didn't interfere with the plumbing to the upstairs bathroom that I still needed access to so that it can be changed later, And then I added a bouldering wall for those days that I don't want to go to the gym and can't get out into the real world as well cold sucks. Now for some pics to give you an Idea of where it came from to where it is now :)

It is currently a bit of a mess and needs things put away but it is 99.999% done just some touchups left to do.

Sunrise on the GSL

2010-04-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Went and took some pics this morning at sunrise out by the Great Salt Lake

A night of Caving and sleeping under the stars.

2010-04-18T19:32:00.001-07:00

Saturday night after running my 5K I joined a group of people to do some cave exploration, rope work and camping. I met up with the group in the town of Goshen and then we headed off in true follow the leader fashion. First stop was an old train tunnel that you can still drive through if you felt the need (I did)

Then we headed north to a Cave called Hush Hush (at one point this cave was also a mine), the cave required a 25 foot rappel to a 10 foot wooden ladder then a rope assisted 40+ foot climb down a old metal mine ladder. Going down was easy - back up that metal ladder was a challenge of upper body strength and coordination as the ladder was totally free hanging.

I have determined that the reason the Cave is called Hush Hush cave is that in order to get someone to go into the cave you have to be very secretive as the amount of Rat poop and urine is so high that even before you drop in the smell is over powering and you have to wear a dust mask to help avoid getting sick. It was still a ton of fun

we came out just as the sun was going down so we loaded everything up and headed toward where we would be camping, a couple wrong turns and and hour and a half of dirt roads later we pulled into where we would be camping. I slept next to the Jeep on a cot in the fashion of my friend Mason. The next morning after everyone finally got out of bed we headed to the Pink Lime Pits, did a bit of rope training refresher stuff and then dropped down the hole, only to climb back out again :)

On the climb up out of one of the little holes I came across this little guy.

in the end it was a great trip. I ended the trip a bit before everyone else so I could spend more time with the family.

First 5K

2010-04-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Back in January I agreed to run a 5K with my wife - she does enough things that I do I may as well try out something she likes was my thought process. So onward to 2.5 months of training starting with running about a mile at a time and getting shin splints every time finally to running a 5K on the treadmill the Tuesday before the race. The 5K I we ran was in conjunction with the Salt Lake City Marathon so there were a ton of people in attendance both to run the race and to watch. As we left the starting line I saw that my parents had shown up to support and all that stuff and then we were off. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting and I finished with a decent time (I was assuming a 32 minute time before the race) I ran the 5K in 29:05, 41 of 97 in my age group and 379 of 1836 people that ran.. Michelle ran 27:26 and was 17 out of 232 of her age group. we ended up standing on the mat for about 15 seconds though so I would say take 15 seconds of that time. After we ran the race we hung out and Kahlan ran her first race a 1K. she did a great job and really had fun so hopefully a good experience for her in the long run.

Yep I was sprinting the home stretch.. and killing myself at the same time

Fifth water hot springs with the wife

2010-04-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

The original plan was to do some backpacking this weekend with the wife but with the recent storms we didn't want to deal with a lot of mud so we decided to keep things light, hang out at home and do a hike. The hike ended up being a short jaunt to Fifth water hot springs up Diamond fork canyon. The road up the canyon had changed from when I was last there (more than 15 years) it is now paved all the way up with a nice parking lot. Anyhow it is a 2+ mile hike along the north side of the river from the trail-head to the hot springs.

View of the waterfall at the springs

the springs we were hanging out in

yep.. underwater photography.. there is a pipe that brings in the hot spring water to the tubs and this is a underwater pic of where it comes in

Hanging with the wife in the nice hot water

right before we left we decided to go to a cooler area and then get out.. unfortunately the other tub had a higher sulfur IE burny content so we got out rather quick.. anyhow it was a great time. Then we headed home stopping at outback steak house on the way home for some dinner (note: I hadn't eaten at outback before and I don't think I will again).

KSL Tram Tower Hike

2010-03-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

While my wife was out for a run this morning I came across a blog post about the old KSL tram towers that took technicians up to Farnsworth peak up until the mid 80's and decided it would be cool to go check them out. So when my wife got back from her run I took off and hiked up to tower 3.

Here is the link to the blog post that got me interested

I parked further away than I really needed to but it made it 1.7 miles from the Jeep to the tram tower ( 3.4 miles total). max elevation was 5704ft starting at 4384ft - 1320 ft of elevation gain. Great hike, great views and got a little bit of running in at the end as I ran almost 75% of the way back to the jeep.. Enough text here are the pics you want :)

Some cool helicopters flew by on the hike up.

Visiting the Hill Air Force base Museum

2010-03-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

So the Family loaded up in the car and headed north to visit with my brother for a few minutes and then check out the Air Museum at Hill Air Force Base. Basically just wandered around and said.. yep.. those are airplanes and I don't know crap about them, but the girls enjoyed themselves

A Bomb and evil children :)

Afterwords we found a Baskin Robbins, had Ice cream and drove home.. Good way to start spring.

A short hike with my Monkeys

2010-03-02T11:43:00.000-08:00

I decided to take the girls on a short hike today so we headed up Settlement Canyon along the first part of the Dark Trail Loop and stopped at the playground to play for a little while. Then down the road and back home. Just a quick jaunt to help get the girls excited to do some more hiking this spring and summer. 1.5 miles total with all of the little side tracks we took. It was a good time.

Winter Trip 2010 - North Rim of the Grand Canyon

2010-02-24T08:24:00.000-08:00

For the last few years my friends and I have tried to get a long winter trip in, the rules seem to be, guys only, I have to plan most of it and have as much fun as possible camping/hiking/wheeling in the cold and snow. The first year we went it was the Paria Trip of 08, the next year I planned it but got sick at the last minute and this year a trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon - enough buildup here you go.

Attendees:
Mason, My brother James, and myself (Sam was supposed to show up but got a case of the flakes and couldn't make it)

The plan:
Leave home early AM on Feb 18th (Mason would leave the afternoon of the 17th and meet us near camp), Take the back roads avoiding I15 as much as we could and meet up near Hilldale/Colorado City.

View Larger Map
From there we would head south and camp along the trail when we felt like it.

Day 2 would see us driving to the Tuweep overlook and campground where we would spend all of Day 3 hiking and exploring as we saw fit. Day 4 we would travel back towards Mt. Trumbull and then to St George where we would make camp when we found a nice spot. Day 5 we would pack up and head home.

Day 2 would see us driving to the Tuweep overlook and campground where we would spend all of Day 3 hiking and exploring as we saw fit. Day 4 we would travel back towards Mt. Trumbull and then to St George where we would make camp when we found a nice spot. Day 5 we would pack up and head home.

Now for what actually occurred
Wednesday Feb 17 - Mason left home around 3:30 and made it to just outside of Cedar City where he got a flat that ruined the tire luckily he had a spare tire at home and called me up to grab it from his house and bring it down to him so he would have a usable spare for the off-road portion of the trip.

Thursday Feb 18 - James showed up at my house at 7:20 and we were loaded to go at 7:45 with all of his gear and my last minute gear. We headed south out of Tooele expecting to have smooth sailing all the way down, Mother Nature had a different plan as the road from just south of Stockton almost to Delta was slick with fresh snow and fresh snow was making its way down in abundance. South of Delta the roads were nice and we cruised towards Cedar City without a problem. about 20 miles outside Cedar City the gas light came on in the Jeep (not a big deal as I was hauling 10 gal of spare fuel but didn't want to use it yet) we were placing odds about if we would reach a gas station before running out of fuel and did but with only fumes left in the tank. Once the tank was filled back up we continued on and finally got to Hilldale around 2:00, Mason was waiting for us at the gas station (the only gas station) after a quick hello and throwing a tire on Masons Jeep he headed across the street to the tire shop while we stepped into the only "fine dining" place in town and ordered a burger from a local. A quick top off of gas and we were headed down the road, on the outskirts of town we saw a beer stand and decided to grab some last minute brews. I picked up a couple of high alcohol content beers - Werewolf and Lobster Lovers beer - then we were on the trail.

A couple hours later we set up camp along the road and broke out the firearms. James decided it was time to shoot his 30-06 after long neglect and we all had fun plinking at various targets. Then for a quick meal and to stand around the fire drinking beer.

Morning came to fast and soon I was cooking breakfast for the crew and tearing down camp for the drive to the North Rim. A few hours of dirt roads and some mud holes later we arrived at the North Rim overlook.

After staring into the giant hole in the ground and coming to the agreement that really you have to see it to really understand the sheer size of this thing we headed to the Tuweep campground to make camp for the night. We found a nice spot with a overhang to protect us from some of the weather and a somewhat flat piece of ground for the tent.

Once camp was set up we spent some time rappelling off the rocks above camp and hiking around the area.

We finished the day with a few beers and some seriously good Tri Tip sandwiches thanks to Mason and hit the sack. Saturday came along with cool temps and cloudy skies. We spent most of the day lounging around camp, taking pictures and BS'n about things in general. We did take a drive to the lava flow and hiked down it a ways. Basically it was a day to relax even more than the rest of the time. we did decide to break out the high alcohol content beers this night, the Werewolf beer's slogan was "you really wanna taste it", truth be told if I am ever able to forget what that crap and the Lobster lovers tasted like it will be a happy day, I would have much rather drank one of Masons Coors Lights.

Sunday morning followed hard rain all night long but everyone stayed warm and dry. A nice breakfast of French toast with cinnamon infused syrup thanks to James, then pack up and head north. We were unsure if the passage towards Mt. Trumbull would be passable so we decided that we would decide on that route once we tried it. The roads from camp to the turnoff towards the Mt were much worse than they were on the way down but we decided to try the road anyway. after less than a 1/4 of a mile of sloppy wet clay that had begun to cover every inch of my jeep and trailer and wasn't looking to get better but worse we decided that we would either end up stuck or run out of gas even with our backup supplies if we had to continue on this way for very much longer. That did it we would be headed back towards Fredonia AZ or Colorado City whatever was actually closer on the map. Fredonia it was, and we high tailed it north. Pulling the trail trailer across rutted roads covered with a fresh foot of snow was a huge hassle under 30 MPH as the trailer would often find other ruts to fall into and start pulling the jeep where it wanted to go, but above that it was a constant task to just stay on the road; so we traveled around 35-40 MPH on the back roads with a couple of hair raising adventures in sliding we made it to pavement.

We quickly drove to Hilldale/ Colorado City and used the low pressure car wash to remove some of the mud caked into the wheels that made it feel like we were driving a vibrating bed with the magic fingers turned on. Then on to Hurricane Utah for some lunch at a strange Bistro on Main Street, fill up our tanks and head over towards Zion NP camping on the south side of the road on the sand by the Virgin river. Just after setting up the tent and starting a fire for the evening as we commented on the nice weather a storm rolled in. Initially it rained but quickly turned to hail that left a 1/4 inch of frozen crap covering the ground and finally petered out to snowing for the remainder of the evening. We stood around the fire and under Mason’s canopy and enjoyed the evening non the less.

All things must come to an end so Monday morning we packed up and headed home but not before taking a last minute group picture.

Fatty is off the couch

2010-01-31T11:55:00.000-08:00

So I have finally really gotten into the habit of working out. in the last month I have been at the Gym an average of 5 days a week, 3 Days a week I have been doing 50+ minutes on the recumbent bike, 3 Days a week I have been doing the Spartacus workout, 2 Days a week straight weights (yes some of these happen on the same day) and recently I added a long workout of some kind on Sundays. All of this to A. get in better shape and get rid of at least some of my Gut and B. start running with my wife, hell she is willing to go backpacking with me I may as well try running with her. That brings me to today I just finished a 3 mile run in 40 minutes. The Down part to all of this working out is that I haven't lost a single pound.. I have in fact gained 5 lbs since the start of the year.. I have dropped 3% of my body fat though...

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New Year...

2010-01-19T13:57:00.000-08:00

So it is a new year and with new years often come new things.. my new year is drowning in new things;

Going back to school, just 6 credits of online courses but it is odd being back in school after so long

RC cars, so my wife got me a cool SC10 RC car for christmas, I immediately broke it but that is better now and I want to get to the track to play around
Working out religiously.. Started doing the Spartacus workout from Mens Health as well as tons of cardio and weights and watching what I eat - So far the mix is having good results :)
Brewing beer, Just finished a beer called Black & Tan (supposed to taste like a mixed Black and Tan), its in bottles now waiting on carbonation to happen so I can drink it.. Next up is a Recipe I got called the Dugway Divot (an American Brown)
S&S Adventures slowed down a bit due to lack of advertising and pushing it as Sam has been up in the air about living in PX or not.. looks like that is 99% now so we are moving forward again with my friend Mason as a contractor :)
Winter Sucks.. it really does I don't like the smog, snow and cold.. I want to go out and do things without tons of clothes on - that said
we have the guys winter trip planned for the Middle of February to go visit Indian Ruins in the 4 corners area of Utah
I am sure there is more but that's all my brain can come up with.. So much planed for when the weather turns into something other than crap. - oh and work on the Scout is stalled again.. big surprise hu

Harker Canyon winter camping

2009-11-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

once again it was time to get out of the house and spend some time in the hills. We headed back to where we went a couple weekends ago but this time to do some camping. In our groups email correspondence it the trip was often referred to as Beer, Guns and Campfire. All three were the essence of the trip. Started out Saturday afternoon around 1 into the teeth of the winters first snowstorm we soon saw one of the storms casualty's between Tooele and Stockton.

4 door long bed ford had rolled off the side of the road. 30 minutes later the snow fall had abated and we were coming up to the dirt road to head up Harker canyon.

Quickly airing down we headed up the trail. This is the Trail Trailers second trip out and it did great, tracked perfect and everything stayed dry. Soon we got to our campsite and set up a windbreak between Masons Jeep and mine and put up some awnings to protect from the driving wind.

Pretty nice view out over Vernon.

We all slept in our Jeeps and I checked the weather station close to where we camped. It showed a low of 1* overnight, but about 7:45 Saturday night it showed a windchill of -17*!!!! That was when we were having dinner served up by Mason of some good BBQ Steak and French bread. Morning came and once again I was the first up so I got coffee and a fire going and once all of the lazy bums woke up cooked some breakfast burritos and started shooting at some targets we brought up. after that it was time to head down the canyon and make our way home on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon :)

Riding the Hills South and West of Vernon

2009-11-04T13:44:00.000-08:00

Tacoma, Roger and I needed to get out, so we took a little ride on Saturday in the hills South and West of Vernon. Had a great time, found some nice places to camp, and rolled some fun trails. Plenty of trails to run and numbered thanks to the Forest Service.

After some good climbing, and tight switchbacks, came to a dead end. Good point to stop and check out the scenery. Sort of the first snow run of the year. Well, a little snow.

Looking to the east.

We had some really tight spots. Plenty of new trailstriping. Fullsize? Don't even try it. We wound up in a couple spots too tight for my XJ and Rogers ZJ.

Roof rack seems to help collecting stuff...

Its not a good run if you ain't got some striping... Most should buff out. But the scrub oak took its toll on us today.

Headframe for the mine up Harker canyon (got to hike up a bit next summer and visit it)

Nelsons peak - Take 2

2009-10-12T10:20:00.001-07:00

Last Friday I met up with Mason to head up to Nelsons peak, The plan had originally involved my friend Tacoma as well but he called out sick, So with Willy and Lilly our dogs we headed up to nearby Bates canyon and started hoofing it up the trail. The temperatures were perfect for hiking and we soon found ourselves amid fallen gold and red leaves and the loamy scent of fall. We made our way to some old buildings that I had passed on my way down on the last attempt to the peak and did a little exploring. One building had burnt some time in the past and had totally fallen down would have been about 30 X 30 with a tipped over outhouse nearby, across the trail was a half fallen building covered partially with talus from the hillside and then a mostly intact tar paper shack that at one point had a glass window and a stove and electric lights. We decided with the temps dropping quickly that we would set up camp here and just enjoy ourselves by the fire.
Setting up camp was easy for me I just laid the bivy out on a little hill and stuffed my sleeping bag inside. Mason started setting up his tent only to find that he had packed his summer 1 person tent that was all screen and would hold in no heat. He opted to roll his tarp around his bag like a bivy. Once camp was set we started searching for firewood, my new Gerber machete came in very handy cutting up larger logs (very happy with the purchase). We found a couple of stools in the shack next to us and sat around the fire BS'ing drinking a little Vodka and Spiced Rum and turned in around 1030?

After a goon nights rest we had breakfast and put on our day-packs for the trip to the top. We both started out fresh and the dogs were having a grand time running up and down the trail. Soon we were within spitting distance of the talus field at the bottom of Nelsons peak. My back had started twinging a while back and with the daunting climb ahead I knew it would only get worse. After being out of commission for the last month due to back problems I decided it would be best to throw in the towel so I didn't hurt myself any more.
Heading down went much quicker and soon we were grabbing our packs from where we had hidden them near the old buildings and down the trail we went. Soon we were back at the Jeeps and had a beer to top off the trip.
End result we didn't make it to the top but it was still a great trip. Gotta pick another route next time and see how it goes :).. I will make it to the top of this thing one day HEHE.

Trail Trailer

2009-09-23T16:32:00.000-07:00

So last February I picked up the ass end of a 87 2door Jeep Cherokee from my friend Roger and decided it would make a good trail trailer and something different. Basically I wanted something that I could tow behind the jeep on long offroad trails to carry my camping equipment and extra fuel.. well in the end this will do it. It is running 33X9.5R15 tires (close enough to what is on the Jeep that I can use the Jeeps spare on there if I need to), has capacity for 20 gallons of fuel with its own fuel pump to facilitate transfer of fuel, it will have 20 gallons of onboard water storage and basically will make it so I can take the whole family on long offroad trips.. Here are the pics from day 1 to today..

Buckskin Gulch

2009-08-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

Back in June my friend Sam sends me an email with the subject line of "Lets do this in October" and the email contained the following link http://climb-utah.com/Escalante/buckskin.htm 20 minutes later I replied with "I'm game" and that got the ball rolling on our trip down Buckskin Gulch. The plan was to start at the Wire Pass trail head follow it down to its confluence with Buckskin gulch until its confluence with the Paria river setting up camp there for the night before heading up the Paria to where we would leave a shuttle car at the White House trail head. With this basic information the adventure began.

We both arrived within 15 minutes of each other at the White House trail head on 8/14/09 around 6:30 in the evening. We immediately set up our little camp Sam in his one man tent me in my hammock attached to a tree and the picnic table. Once camp was "set up" we went wandering around the surrounding cliffs and scrambling up the steep sandstone walls only to find lots of polished rocks that were great for throwing off to see how far we could make it. The sun started to go down so we went back to camp for a little food and then we sat up and talked in the dark about life, S&S Adventures and other odd topics. Before heading off to sleep we spent a fruitless 30 minutes scouring the area with flashlights trying to find scorpions but instead found a Kangaroo Rat that we were able to watch for a while before it scampered into a hole.

Saturday morning came quickly we both had a poor nights sleep Sam due to allergies and me due to the rope I used to tie up my hammock stretching causing me to be bent in half most of the night. We packed up and took Sam's car over to the Wire Pass trail head and were on our way by 9AM. As soon as we entered the slot canyon in Wire Pass everything got really interesting with a few easy down climbs and some of the tightest squeezes of the trip we both had grins from ear to ear and couldn't stop talking about how cool it was.

Tight squeeze here

We took our first break at the confluence of Wire Pass and Buckskin gulch 1.7 miles in and continued from there. The sights were amazing, Sheer cliff wall, undulating walls like waves stood on end, Logs and debris lodged into the canyon above us, a Tarantula, Thousands of moth wings littering the floor, small plants, Lillis and even a dead mouse in the middle of the trail that I almost stepped on to name a few.

Big Spiders :)

Dead Mouse (RIP)

Sam at the first of MANY water crossings

At this point we thought the mud was nasty

After the first water crossing we quickly learned that Teva type sandals were the wrong choice of footwear. Though great when you were in the muck as soon as we were out and walking along the cobble floor the thick layer of slimy mud between our feet and the sandals caused our feet to slip in the sandal. After a number of incidents and some nasty ankle twists and strains we decided that for better or worse our backpacking boots were the best option if we didn't want to kill our ankles.

We figured out shortly after this picture was taken that we had "slightly" overestimated our distance traveled. With Topo maps useless, GPS useless we had relied on what our normal pace would be and figured we were more than 3/4 of the way through Buckskin and that a large rock jam that is very definitive to being almost done would be just around the bend. Well around the bend I noticed that where we were was exactly how the Middle Trail escape route had been described. We had fallen pray to the splendor of the trail and had seriously lagged. DOH. This wasn't a big deal at least we now knew where we were in the trail so we picked up the pace for the next hour and made it to the rock jam covering 3.5 miles in that hour.

We used hand lines to get down the rock jam and continued hiking towards the confluence. The final few miles would show themselves to be some of the wettest and hardest of the day. Coupled with the fact that we had already hiked 7+ miles at this point the mud began to get deeper and deeper and the pools of water on top the same. Sometimes with mud up to our knees and water above our belly buttons (remember we are both over 6'3").

We finally made it to the confluence into the Paria river only to find that the Paria was so silt laden from the recent flood that extracting any water from it was going to be futile (we tried and even with pre-filtering with some socks we filled 2 socks with silt and gave up knowing it would only plug the water-filter rendering us waterless) and had to head back up Buckskin to some of the clearer pools of water. We had originally started with more than enough water for both days but due to 3 water mishaps during the day (my water bladder leaking in Sam's car in the morning, The nipple pulling off my water bladder on the trail and spilling a gallon of water while filling water bottles at one of the stops) we had to get water else we would be very dehydrated on the hike out in the morning. After getting some water the sun was almost down and we set up a camp on a small sand bar just north of the confluence and tried to sleep through the night yet having a hard time not talking about just how cool what we had just come through was.

parting shot of Buckskin Gulch

Sunday morning came upon us early and we were packed and hiking up the Paria by 4 AM. Both Sam and I have spent plenty of time hiking at night with headlamps but this was a bit different than your normal Alpine environment.

Imagine you have a 25 Lbs pack on your back (this will become more as soon as it gets wet and it will), Your boots are full of water and now you have to cross a river so full of muck that the ripples that would normally be prevalent to show you features under the water are softened by the silt in the water, you start on a soft sandbar stepping down onto a thin sheet of clay that acts like ice for a few feet then you step into 6-12 inches of overly wet clay that sucks your feet in, now step into the river this step and any other in the river could be from 3 inches deep to 5 and a half feet deep. now that you are in the river go to the next sandbar with the same features as the last. Repeat every 30-40 feet. This whole time you only have enough light to see 15 feet in front of you well. your eyes start to burn from the strain over time... ya this was the first 2.5 hours of our morning.

When the sun came up the canyon also started opening up letting us know that we were about 3 miles from the end of the trail so we had made good time. We took a break had some coffee and a snickers bar and headed back up the river. Things got easier from here with more time spent on larger and larger sand bars and less river crossings until we finally made it back to the car. Glad to be able to rinse off some of the Alkali laden silt on our bodies that was starting to burn a little bit...

Both Sam and I agree this was one of the most difficult hikes we have done. from reading other peoples experiences our 10 hour trip through buckskin is not that uncommon but the recent flood caused us a lot more physical toil that was normal for the hike at the end of Buckskin and up the Paria.

In the end this was a GREAT adventure. Would we do it again? Yes we were already talking about doing this again but hiking all the way down to lees ferry (3 more days) next year.

Adventures in hair cutting

2009-08-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

So Saturday I thought I would go to the new Dollar Cuts here in town to get one of their grand opening day $1 haircuts. Upon arrival I decided that it wasn't worth it to wait 1.5 hours just to get my ears lowered so I drove over to Super Cuts.
When I pulled in to park the car to the right of me was parked directly on the line and the car to the left was parked with his rear end into the parking spot I was going in. So I parked dead center between them totally between the lines (no other choice). I then proceed in and get an immediate seat in the cutting chair. The girl cutting my hair had just gotten my order (1 on the sides and barely enough to comb over on the top) when a woman barges in and yells to everyone in the store "Who owns the Blue Jeep parked out here?" I turn slightly and say "Thats mine" She in turn demands "You need to move it you parked too close to me and I can't get in my car". I don't like that she can't even ask nicely so I reply "No" flabergasted she walks towards me "What did you say?" "No, I don't feel like moving it" I reply. She goes on for a few minutes about how rude I am and then tells me again to move my Jeep "No, I'm sorry you can't get in your car but it is not my problem". (yes I am being stubborn at this time and two wrongs don't make a right but it has become a annoyance to be commanded by this woman who has yet to speak nicely and I have made sure that my tone is totally neutral).

My Stylist asks what she should do and I tell her its not her problem and just continue (this probobly led to my bad haircut). The Lady at this point starts telling me that she has friends in the Highway patrol and she knows lots of people I replied with "If the Highway patrol gives me a ticket for parking between the lines I will be very surprised have a good day". She then leaves and proceeds to ... Wait... Wait... Get in her car through the door she said she couldn't get in through.

About 5 minutes later her husband walks into the store asking for the guy who was driving the Jeep and wouldn't move. I replied "that would be me" He starts going off on me on how I was rude to not move so she could get in etc I replied "well it looks to me like she got in the car and drove off without a problem so why are you here?" He continued to rant for a little while and then stormed out.

In the end it was a interesting experience and my haircut sucked (glad my hair grows fast). hint for those reading this someday you may run into someone who will be just as stubborn as I am so start off by asking nicely instead of yelling and demanding things from people.

Have a great day :)

The S&S Adventures Newsletter

2009-08-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

Its now out.. You may have gotten it in your email.. it will be up on facebook soon as well as on the S&S Adventures blog :)

Dear inhabitants of planet 234,586,981,458,900.3 V2

2009-07-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

Dear inhabitants of planet 234,586,981,458,900.3 V2 (you have named your planet Earth),

I am writing you this letter that I will place onto your internet so that it can propagate my apology to you. Let me first start with explaining how all of this happened, when I was in primary school in my elementary physics class we were assigned to create a miniaturized life support unit mine was designated by my instructor as planet 234,586,981,458,900.3 V2 (V2 due to the fact that I dropped it killing all of the lizard creatures that had grown from the primordial ooze that all creatures grow from) I will call it Earth henceforth as that is easier for you to refer to. I was supposed to terminate the project as soon as self aware life had formed VIA the evolutionary process but I had put the planet at the top of my closet and just plain forgot about it until a few hundred years ago your time.

When I found Earth again while I was cleaning my room I was amazed that you humans had created cities and even language (I was a little disappointed that some of the people had decided that everything that happened was due to some imaginary creature instead of the laws of physics and the cosmos but as it was only a primary school project I figured I shouldn’t expect much). I did something at this point that seems to have caused a lot of problems inadvertently but I guess that can’t be helped. I decided to communicate with one of you so I brought a carpenter out and tried to explain things to him but I think he was a little unstable and when I put him back in I guess he started a cult causing all sorts of problems in the years hence (I would suggest that you get over this stuff and focus on reality).

Now that you are all considered sentient beings it is illegal for me to dispose of you in the incinerator so I will place you in the attic where no-one will find you. At some point your sun will burn out and natural courses will take care of my little problem for me (I can’t stop it this is just how things go once you figure out elementary physics and not the basic math you all think of as hard core science you will understand.).

Anyhow I am sorry for the trouble that has been caused by my forgetfulness in the first place and then my interference in the later years that has caused you so much trouble (though in truth it all started with the imaginary creature so I don’t think that I am totally responsible for your day to day pains you cause yourselves.) I hope that you can enjoy the rest of your existence. And I will do everything I can to stay out of the way henceforth.

Sincerely
Tad

P.S. I have tried to correct the problem with the automated probes that check your vital statistics randomly (it was a requirement to put them in place) I hope to have corrected their invasive-ness (or to make it so you don’t remember them so you don’t have to keep saying you have been abducted by aliens either way takes care of the problem I think).

lagoon & Flaming Gorge with the Fam-Damnly July 18-20th

2009-07-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

So the original intent was to come down Kings peak on the 18th and make my way over to Flaming Gorge for some boating with my Brother his wife and new little person, my wife and girls and my Mom and Dad but as we came down all the way on the 17th I invariably decided to make the drive back to Tooele so I could go with my wife and her whole Fam-Damnly creating a very long day from 4AM until 11PM but it was worth it.

On Saturday morning we woke up and had breakfast packed the car and waited for my wife's mother and father to call and say that they were already on the road (This is a change from normal as usually they tell us they will be driving at X time and we come to find out that they left quite some time later and that we will be sitting around twiddling our thumbs while waiting for them to get there). Once we got the call we loaded up the girls and went to Lagoon. First thing when we get there is the family picture in the old west garb (how do I get drug into these things). While there we noticed that they had a guy in a Captain Jack Sparrow outfit and it reminded me that I had never been to lagoon with my wife without seeing a Pirate, the first one being my sister in laws ex who I referred to Cap'n Hook due to his missing hand and now this one. After the picture was done we went over to the water park and played around.. the girls had a blast playing in the water and it was very relaxing other than the ground in the pools tore up my already sore feet.

When we got done at the water park we headed over to some of the kids rides that Kahlan wouldn't ride alone until her cousin or Michelle went with her but she had a great time in the end, even Danneke went on a few rides :) it was about 5:30 at night by now so time to hit the road for 3 hours to Flaming Gorge.

The drive was uneventful and we arrived to camp (well my parents trailer where we would spend the next nights with my brother and his wife). We set up the beds and crashed relatively quick after such a long day.

Sunday morning rolls in and my brother and I cook up breakfast for everyone, hash browns eggs and bacon and something that resembled coffee. then we headed down with my parents to the boat. From there we headed south towards the Dam. on the way down we stopped and played around in the water being towed on a tube thing. My brother gave Kahlan a ride on the tube and she loved it then I got on with Danneke to give her a ride. Somewhere along halfway through she fell asleep so when we got back on the boat she was down for the count. Michelle got on with me at this point and proceeded to fall off a couple of times.

A storm rolled in so we loaded back on and headed south again. Along the way I decided to fish a bit so we hooked up the trolling motor and my dad handed Michelle the controls that she ended up sending us in circles and decided she wasn't driving anymore. Fishing didn't pan out well so we kicked back up the speed and headed south again at speed. 3:30 rolled around and dad decided it would be best to head back so that we could eat at some point. I took over driving as we headed north and began watching the gas gauge drop and drop finally hitting empty and leaving us stranded and laughing at our misfortune. The radio couldn't get out of the Gorge we were in to call the marina so my dad decided yelling at people would do the trick (this added to more laughter). Finally we were able to flag someone down and they gave us a tow back to the marina for fuel.

Calling it a night we headed back to the trailer to cook some tandoori chicken on the grill and rice. While I was cooking my sister in law and wife figured out that we were out of water in the trailer. Instead of hooking up the trailer to my dads truck and towing it to water we decided to haul water 6 gallons at a time by hand from the spigot to fill up the tank. a few trips later thanks to my wife helping out with a couple trips the tank was filled back up so we could give the girls a bath before bed.

After the girls were down for bed and my mom and dad had headed back down to the boat where they were sleeping my brother his wife and Michelle and I sat around the fire eating smores and recounting stupid things my bother and I did in our youth.

Monday started out good with my brother driving to the marina store for some good coffee and then we cooked up some sausage and eggs. The plan was to go out on the boat and try our hands at wake boarding but as soon as my brother dropped in the water the first time the motor died on the boat. After playing with the engine for a bit I figured out it was getting no spark and without any tools or parts there wasn't a thing I could do (later it was found that the shift stumble switch as gotten stuck causing the issue). So we fired up the trolling motor and headed back to the boat ramp so my dad could take the boat to Manila for service (cheaper than at the marina by about $100/hour).

We decided that with the boat down for the count we would head over to the beach for a few with the girls, do some swimming and then head home. The girls had a blast playing in the mud and water (as did my wife rubbing mud all over her legs saying that it was a good mud for mud bathing or some such craziness).

Then we loaded up and headed home. We stopped for lunch on the way home at a small town drive through that had some good burgers but oddly enough said they couldn't give us water only carbonated water.. odd

Long weekend... Fun weekend...

Kings Peak 2009 - Highest Point in Utah

2009-07-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

This trip has been in the planning since early May when we (S&S Adventures) were contacted by a gentleman from New York by the name of Marty who wanted to be guided up Kings Peak as it was his goal to reach all 50 of the US high points Utah is the 7th highest. We began looking into permits and found that a company based out of Ft Bridger WY has the only permit available and will have for the next 5 years. We decided we wanted to go up anyhow and told Marty that he could join us as a guest but not as a client as we were at this point interested in going anyhow. Based on the information Marty had given us on what he had already done and his skill-sets he should be able to go up without any assistance and that would make it a no work issue for us.

Fast forward to July 15th, after many phone calls to the company that owns the permit and failure to contact them we decided that I would go up early and try to track them down. This turned out to be a slightly futile effort though I did learn from 2 hours of runaround trying to find the guy in charge that the best time to contact him would be after 9:30 at night (not what I would call normal business hours).

We all met at the Henrys Fork Trail-head near 6PM (Marty hitched a ride with Sam from Salt Lake) where we set up camp ate some dinner and sat around the campfire talking about previous trips and the hike up the next day.

July 16 the start up the trail came at 7AM after taking down camp and application of liberal amounts of bug spray. The trek up was beautiful as we went from 9364 feet to 11067 Feet in elevation in 9 miles. Much of the way we were walking in the shade of the trees and just enjoying ourselves. We reached camp around 1PM just below Gunsight pass in an open meadow. We lounged for the rest of the day in the sun playing cards or just looking at the mountains that surrounded us going to be early so we could get an early start the next day. Both Sam and I were testing out some new gear on the mountain. Both of us had new stoves to play with, I tested out a Mil Spec Bivy and my boots and Sam a new lightweight backpacking tent (Detailed reviews of these will come out soon).

July 17 Summit Day. We started hiking up Gunsite pass at 4 AM by the light of the moon and then hiking back down into painters flats on the other side by the rising sun. Soon to be hiking up the west side of the mountain until we reached the last major rise and the beginnings of the boulder field. We ended up going up the West face instead of the long northern slope while more climbing up is needed the footing is about the same and you cut off a lot of distance going up this way. After the long scramble we made it to the top of Kings peak for a short rest and then to head back down. Marty pounded his head good on a rock coming up and the altitude had some effect on him as he is a lowlander but made it to the top. Sam summit ed a little before us as we decided Sam would rush down to get Marty's pack and move it to Anderson pass where we would go down the Chute to cut 6 miles off the return trip.

Looking down Anderson Pass and the Chute our way down to Henrys fork Basin and back to camp. Dropping 1200 feet in a little under 1/4 mile. Great fun sliding down the scree field.

Once back at camp we decided to push for the trail head and drive back to Salt Lake for the night. We averaged 2.2 MPH going out even after the long trek to the top and with our packs ending the day by saying bye at the trail head as we drove back to civilization.

Great Trip!

Helton Hot water Shower system in the Jeep

2009-07-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

So a month or so back I acquired a Helton Hot water shower system for my jeep through a barter. It is basically a heat transfer device that takes heat from the engine coolant and heats water that you pump through the device.

Yesterday I finally got around to installing it. a few hose clamps, some angle iron, some 1/2 strap, a bit of welding and some hose and it was in and providing some nice hot water from the cold water in my cooler. It will be very nice to have a hot shower on any trip that I go on I am seriously looking forward to taking a hot shower after 3 days in the Uintas hiking to Kings peak in a day or so :)

Tour De France is in action

2009-07-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

Most of the time I could care less about sports but the Tour De France has always intrigued me. Maybe it is the fact that these guys are nutz. It is like they are running a marathon every day for 20 days it is just a ton of effort and some good strategy to get through it.

So I was going through watching some of the stage recaps - I don't have cable and don't really feel like watching TV - on http://www.cyclingfans.com/ and listening to how everyone was placing and kept hearing Lance Armstrong not taking a Jersey but he was consistently landing in 2nd place. Now for a guy who just took 3 years off of competition he sure as hell is coming back strong (helps that he never stopped riding just stopped competing). I know there is controversy about drugs and doping and all that crap but that doesn't matter to me. Lance is one hell of a competitor.

Lance continues to rank second in the overall standings, with Team Astana members rounding out the rest of the top 5.

OVERALL STANDINGS BY TIME
Result after stage 6
Total distance covered: 181.5km/112.8 miles

1. CANCELLARA Fabian 33 TEAM SAXO BANK 19h 29' 22"
2. ARMSTRONG Lance 22 ASTANA 19h 29' 22" 00' 00"
3. CONTADOR Alberto 21 ASTANA 19h 29' 41" 00' 19"
4. KLÖDEN Andréas 23 ASTANA 19h 29' 45" 00' 23"
5. LEIPHEIMER Levi 24 ASTANA 19h 29' 53" 00' 31"
6. WIGGINS Bradley 58 GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM 19h 30' 00" 00' 38"
7. MARTIN Tony 76 TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 19h 30' 14" 00' 52"
8. VANDE VELDE Christian 51 GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM 19h 30' 38" 01' 16"
9. LARSSON Gustav 34 TEAM SAXO BANK 19h 30' 44" 01' 22"
10. MONFORT Maxime 77 TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 19h 30' 51" 01' 29"
11. KREUZIGER Roman 93 LIQUIGAS 19h 30' 53" 01' 31"
12. HINCAPIE George 74 TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 19h 30' 58" 01' 36"
13. NIBALI Vincenzo 95 LIQUIGAS 19h 30' 58" 01' 36"
14. SCHLECK Andy 31 TEAM SAXO BANK 19h 31' 03" 01' 41"
15. ZUBELDIA Haimar 29 ASTANA 19h 31' 03" 01' 41"
16. POPOVYCH Yaroslav 27 ASTANA 19h 31' 07" 01' 45"
17. VOIGT Jens 39 TEAM SAXO BANK 19h 31' 25" 02' 03"
18. KIRCHEN Kim 75 TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 19h 31' 38" 02' 16"
19. SCHLECK Frank 36 TEAM SAXO BANK 19h 31' 39" 02' 17"
20. MILLAR David 56 GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM 19h 31' 50" 02' 28"
21. PELLIZOTTI Franco 91 LIQUIGAS 19h 31' 54" 02' 32"
22. ZABRISKIE David 59 GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM 19h 32' 05" 02' 43"
23. SASTRE Carlos 1 CERVELO TEST TEAM 19h 32' 06" 02' 44"
24. ARVESEN Kurt-Asle 32 TEAM SAXO BANK 19h 32' 17" 02' 55"
25. HESJEDAL Ryder 54 GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM 19h 32' 18" 02' 56"
26. EVANS Cadel 11 SILENCE - LOTTO 19h 32' 21" 02' 59"
27. HUSHOVD Thor 6 CERVELO TEST TEAM 19h 32' 21" 02' 59"
28. PEREIRO SIO Oscar 111 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 19h 32' 25" 03' 03"
29. PAULINHO Sergio 26 ASTANA 19h 32' 33" 03' 11"
30. GERDEMANN Linus 181 TEAM MILRAM 19h 32' 33" 03' 11"
31. URAN Rigoberto 119 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 19h 32' 34" 03' 12"
32. NOCENTINI Rinaldo 87 AG2R-LA MONDIALE 19h 32' 35" 03' 13"
33. ROCHE Nicolas 89 AG2R-LA MONDIALE 19h 32' 38" 03' 16"
34. PINEAU Jérôme 156 QUICK STEP 19h 32' 39" 03' 17"
35. ROJAS Jose Joaquin 117 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 19h 32' 39" 03' 17"
36. POZZATO Filippo 167 TEAM KATUSHA 19h 32' 40" 03' 18"
37. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon 118 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 19h 32' 40" 03' 18"
38. CAVENDISH Mark 71 TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 19h 32' 55" 03' 33"
39. KARPETS Vladimir 161 TEAM KATUSHA 19h 33' 03" 03' 41"
40. GRABSCH Bert 73 TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 19h 33' 03" 03' 41"
41. LANCASTER Brett Daniel 8 CERVELO TEST TEAM 19h 33' 05" 03' 43"
42. EFIMKIN Vladimir 81 AG2R-LA MONDIALE 19h 33' 06" 03' 44"
43. BOTCHAROV Alexandre 162 TEAM KATUSHA 19h 33' 13" 03' 51"
44. SORENSEN Nicki 38 TEAM SAXO BANK 19h 33' 16" 03' 54"
45. PASAMONTES Luis 116 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 19h 33' 16" 03' 54"
46. ROSSELER Sébastien 157 QUICK STEP 19h 33' 25" 04' 03"
47. ASTARLOZA Mikel 61 EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 19h 33' 26" 04' 04"
48. BARREDO Carlos 152 QUICK STEP 19h 33' 26" 04' 04"
49. GUTIERREZ José Ivan 115 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 19h 33' 29" 04' 07"
50. O’GRADY Stuart 35 TEAM SAXO BANK 19h 33' 40" 04' 18"

The Canoe

2009-07-07T10:09:00.001-07:00

So I have been searching for a cheap Canoe for about a year and a half now and finally found one for $125 on KSL classifieds a couple of weeks ago. It was in Logan so I called the guy and asked him a lot of questions about 30 minutes of talking to him later I decided that I wanted it based on what he said. So I gave some $$ to my sister in law to go pick it up and I would figure out how to get it home later. Later ended up being about a week later and my sister and brother in law brought it down on the top of their Tahoe.

Unfortunately not all was how it was described to me. It was not "Sea worthy" and needed a bit of work. I set to work patching the bottom with Fiberglass resin, fiberglass cloth and JB weld. then I put a coating of roll on bed liner over the bottom and then Painted it green.

I fliped it over and got to work on the inside, a couple of fiberglass patches, some white paint and fixed the seats. then to straighten out the aluminum gunwales and it is ready for action :)... Some of this I am still working on but will be done in the next couple of days I will post pics of the finished product when I am done for now here are the pics that were posted in the ad as I didn't take any before pics.

Soon I will take this out on the lake for some fishing and then down a few smooth rivers!

Well the 99.999% finished pics are in.. I still need to install the seats but otherwise you get the Idea :)

Living Planet Aquarium

2009-06-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

So last Thursday between running errands I saw the living planet aquarium and figured I had some time to kill so me and the girls went in. to have a look around. Kahlan got to touch a sea star and some other poky thing and a big flat thing that kills crazy austrailians :)..

now for the pics.. didn't get a lot of good ones at all as someone was too lazy to change the settings :(

Green Eyed Monster

2009-06-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I got the opportunity to go into GEM again only this time I was leading the group (John, Cameron, Sam, Jeff, Spencer, Shane). Everyone had a great time that I know of. The water level and mud level was much lower this time compared to the last time I was there a few months ago. I went through the loop a couple times and finally got to go into the pool room (I still have bruises from forcing my body in there). The great thing about GEM is that it is just one giant formation and that is odd for a cave.

Again please note this Cave is on private property and you need permission from the owners to go in. People not following the rules will cause the owners to stop saying yes to entering the caves and mines in the area.

The wonderful pics from in the cave and thanks to Shane and everyone else who was holding flashes all around the place :)

Cave Locations - Grottos and the good old boys club

2009-06-16T10:26:00.000-07:00

So I ran across the article today regarding caving and how to find the locations of caves in Utah. Basically why you have to join the good old boys club and they have to like you...

CAVE LOCATIONS - MAP OF THE STARS HOMES
As the Nutty Putty Cave Access Manager, I had the privilege to visit the cave on June 15 with some very experienced cavers and our dialogue while driving along the west side of Utah Lake led to the unrealistic expectations of many new cavers that join the grotto. It was obvious that the biggest new member disappointment deals with not being able to find out where all of the Utah caves are located.

New cavers see the very low $15 annual Timpanogos Grotto membership fees and think, “Wow, for just $15 I can join and then receive access to all the known caves of Utah.” That is far from reality.

I know very few cavers that know where more than 20 of the hundreds of Utah caves are located. Most cavers get exposed to Utah caves one cave at a time. Line upon line, precept upon precept. As they gain the favor of a Trip Leader qualified for a certain cave and they prove themselves by being responsible in that cave,word spreads that they can be trusted and another Trip Leader will invite them along to another cave.

What happens when you and Trip leader don't get along? These trip leaders with all of this power to show you the cave - how are they chosen (well they aren't chosen they are part of the good old boys club and somehow you just happened to get a in for this one trip). I know a few people who have been caving for more than 15 years and know the location of maybe 10 caves in Utah. These guys really know there stuff too and are respectful of the cave and all it entails. Unfortunately they don't agree with all of the Grotto decisions and well don't get invited to many new caves in the area.

The biggest disqualifier occurs when the new caver is reckless and unwilling to follow direction from the Trip Leaders. Over time the responsible new cavers become exposed to many caves. It should be noted that most private cave trips have a purpose far beyond just experiencing the thrills of the cave. This may include cleaning the cave, installing monitoring equipment, or mapping a new section of the cave.

Who are they trying to kid? they do this stuff to make sure they can see more caves and have more thrills and to tow the line otherwise they wouldn't get invited to see new caves to enjoy the trills that that entails. Mapping is a hobby to some people in the caving community in case you didn't know.. why not spend 12 hours in a cave looking at every little bit of the cave and have people think that you are great.

So why can’t joining the Timpanogos Grotto be like buying a “Map of the Stars Homes” that would allow new grotto members the ability to just start touring all of the local Utah County caves? Why? Cavers destroy caves. Cavers destroy cave habitat. Cavers destroy cave features. Cavers are just plain bad for caves... But wait a minute. If cavers do all of this damage, then why are their caving grotto clubs like the Timpanogos Grotto?

The Grottos are established to teach good caving ethics and help preserve caves. People join the Grotto to get involved with cave conservation, preservation, exploration, and mapping. Unfortunately, many cavers just want the next rush, the next challenge, the next video game type experience. And this is why most seeking the high adventure adrenalin thrill never get to do it with caves. Out of frustration, they end up moving on to other adventure sports like bungie jumping and hang gliding and leave the subterranean world behind.

We only want followers, and people to do work. if you are not part of the group you don't get to know where these caves that are mostly on public lands are because you are not IN

But there are a few of us who learn to love caves and want to invest time with conservation, preservation, exploration, and mapping projects. Those that express these desires to help get invited on private cave trips. One of the first thing new grotto members realize is that they will rarely see highly published cave trips attempting to garner huge masses of the public. Instead, most cave trips are planned in private amongst groups cavers that have proven themselves to be involved for more than just the immediate rush of adrenalin.

And this is where the Nutty Putty Cave fits so nicely into the Utah County caving experience. The Nutty Putty Cave is a sacrificial exploration cave that allows beginner to novice cavers the adrenalin rush in a rather safe horizontal caving environment. It is difficult to do any real damage to the Nutty Putty Cave because there are no delicate features. Most of our visitors have no grand motives of conservation, cleaning, or mapping. Instead, they are there for the thrill of making it through the next tight spot and into that next room. The Nutty Putty Cave fuels the desire to explore more caves and this is where we invite our Nutty Putty Cave visitors to give caving more thought and hopefully we can inspire you to join the Timpanogos Grotto and learn to care for our other great caving resources. And while you won’t be immediately flooded with cave access directions, you will find opportunities to both enjoy and preserve the caves of Utah.

Yep.. it is going to take me a while to find a bunch of caves that I can go visit.. but I don't like the grottos ideals of scocialism :)

0 out of 3.. A Deseret Peak Adventure

2009-06-11T18:33:00.001-07:00

Well the last 3 planned trips have been a bust due to the environment.. Today's trip as well. We planned to take a hike up to Deseret peak (the highest peak in Tooele county) then we would hike over to south willow lake and make camp coming home in the morning.
Unfortunately the environment had a different set of rules today. I had not expected the amount of snow that was still on the trail leading up to the summit and then on the summit ridge was still a ton of snow. To top it off it had a nice sheet of ice on it that made kicking steps very difficult. Honestly crampons would have made a huge difference. on top of this a huge storm had just begun at 10AM dropping snow and rain at the lower levels. We decided to call it a bust on the peak and head down a ways to find a place to camp.
Once down far enough for a decent place to camp it was 11AM - umm I don't want to be holed up in a tent all day long. So we decided to hike further and see if we could cut over to south willow lake. by the time we got to the cutoff is was about 11:30 (you move so much faster going down hill) by then Michelle had fallen and hurt her shoulder and I had tweaked my ankle . Whatever- we have been denied so we quit while we were ahead.
So home we went. on the way out of the canyon the rangers were closing the road up the narrows as they expected the storm to wash out the road and make it impassable (well that is one lucky thing right). In short we went for a 7 mile hike in nasty weather with 35lbs packs on our backs :)..
Here are some pics!

Fishing in the Uintas

2009-06-08T14:39:00.001-07:00

So Sam and I were originally planning on summiting Lone Peak last weekend. unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side so we decided to be safe and not go.

Instead we took off Friday afternoon with the tent trailer to go up SR150 up by mirror lake and camp where we could near a lake and spend the time fishing. We ended up at Lost Lake just south of Lilly and Teapot lakes (the gates were still closed to the campground). We did have to make our way through some deep (3-4 foot deep consolidated) snowdrifts to get to a camping spot. A little use of the winch, a bit of digging with the little shovel and a heavy foot on the gas got us through. once camp was set up we walked down to the lake and threw our lines in. I got the only fish on day one..

Day 2 we woke up and started fishing the stream with no luck then headed to the lake. by the end of the day we had 21 fish for the trip, I had even got 2 fish at once a couple of times. most of them were rather small fish and were thrown back but by noon we had a couple nice fish that we decided to wrap in foil and cook on the fire. We were a little too relaxed and ended up burning both of them. Luckily we got some more large ones for dinner. we called it a day around 5 when the snow started to come down. We fried the fish up in the trailer and had a nice little dinner. During the day others had used the trail that we had forged the other day making it much easier and we were confident about getting out the next day without shovels or winches :).

Some hot coco and 100 proof cinnamon schnapps gave us a bit of extra incentive to relax. At this point we figured out that we both had some sun damage to our faces but on top of that both of us had failed to wear sunglasses (mine because they were lost the last weekend, Sam because he is a tard and had them on his forehead all day). with bloodshot eyes we decided sleep would be good.

Sunday morning we woke up and had coffee and oatmeal and packed up the tent trailer and our gear. As we were hooking up the trailer the snow started to fall hard and neither of us wanted to deal with the snow so we headed home.

In short it was a great trip, 21 fish total, I got the first and the most and Sam got the largest. -- No pictures were taken during the trip---

Hey.. I found a pic that was taken a few days after we were there.. when we broke the snow here it was at least2.5X higher :)

Death Hike 09 (a trip to nelson peak)

2009-05-31T05:08:00.000-07:00

So yesterday my friend Tacoma and I went up to nelson peak - 9359 feet approximately 4000 vertical feet in 4 miles.
We met up at my house at 6:30 and headed up to the trail head (using the term trail and trail head VERY loosely here) at the top of bates canyon road at 6:45. From there we started hiking up and trying to stay on the ridge as much as possible. Trying to stay on the ridge let alone move forward was what made this the Death Hike. Once we hit the 6000 foot level we began to have to SLOG our way through (and I quote Tacoma here) the "Impassable Expanse of Scrubby Trees".

From whence we came
to where we are going From this point on we were bulling our way though scrub oak, some kind of nice thorny berry plant, some other foliage that I don't know what it was but was always growing in the worst possible direction for travel. On more than one occasion the shrubbery was covered with some rather large red and black ants that had a nice bite to them (Tacoma claims bruising on his sac from getting bit). Occasionally we would come to small clearings to get some wonderful views of the valley and where we had come from. On the ridge before the end of the hike a couple of golden Eagles gave us a show, Flying at eye level, then up above us to circle for a bit where I got a couple of pics
after about 7 hours of hiking (with only short 1 minute stops to catch wind and 2 5 minute stops for a granola bar) we came to the last climb of the hike. a 300 foot class 5 climb to get to the top (that or add another 3/4 mile walk on 70 degree slopes to get around said climb). We decided to stop for a rest. We laid down on the rock for 30 minutes took some pictures and took stock of the situation.
We decided to be on the safe side with how tired we both were it would take us almost 40 minutes to get to the top, rest and then start down. Coming down from the top would keep us on the ridge for a much longer period of time before there would be a safe area to descend. We had storm clouds coming in from the south west that would hit anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour later.. so we headed down. Just after we got down into a group of aspen trees about 1/4 mile from where we were it began to sprinkle.
Throwing on our rain gear just before is started to pour. for 2 hours we we inundated with the smell of the wet forest, ice cold rain, Hail and rolling thunder and lightning often hitting close enough to make both of us jump. we finally made it back to the jeep at 6:15 after about 11 miles of hiking we got in and started home. Unfortunately with the rain it turned the the road to something slick as snot. The jeep got stuck for a minute but with some nifty driving, engaging the Locker and bumping into a couple of trees we were free!

The end result my legs hurt, knees are swollen, Tacoma states that "my left knee seceded from my body" and we are both covered with bites and scratches from the evil trees. This was an Epic adventures

Zions weekend with the wife

2009-05-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

So last weekend (Memorial Day Weekend) was my anniversary to my wonderful wife person, that being said we decided to ditch the little minions and head south to Zion National Park for a weekend of relaxation.
Freedom started early when we dropped the kids off at the in laws on Friday night just before their bedtime. Then we headed home to pack for the trip. We had originally planned to take the motorcycle down but with 50%+ chances of rain in the afternoons down south we decided to take the car instead. Once the car was loaded with the necessity (Cameras, clothes, 5 gal water, and redvines) we headed to bed to toss and turn until the morning hoping it would come soon.
Day 1
Morning came soon enough and we headed out bright and early grabbing a couple of Mocha's on the way out of town and some Mc'D's breakfast. Our first stop was going to be the Meadow hot springs but when we arrived the partiers from the night before were still trying to wake up and we decided to move on.
We got to Cedar city around mid day and decided to have some local food (non chain). We stopped at "nastys Pizza" sorry that was "The Pizza Factory" - No beer other than near bear was served and the calazones that we had well lacked everything other than the taste of a fresh opened can of Prego.
Heading on our next stop was just east of LaVerkin at the LaVerkin overlook to see some beautiful views before we hit the park. Then we headed to the park. Paid our $25 for the 7 day pass and drove through catching a look at the splendor as we headed to the east side of the park to our budget rooms in Mt' Carmel at the East Zion Thunderbird Lodge famous for their HO-Made Pies. after checking in and finding our room "clean" and everything we needed for sleeping we decided to head back to Springdale (the town just on the west entrance of Zions) and have some dinner. We first decided on some Fresh Mex in town but after waiting 20 minutes to be seated (noone else was waiting at the sign that said "Please wait to be seated") we were told ohh you can just sit anywhere. Sit anywhere we did and waited another 20 minutes watching people who had been there for longer leaving we decided to leave. we walked down to the Spotted dog and it was just a bit too pretentious for budget Hikers and I really just wanted a nice big meal for the energy I would need in the morning. So we cross the street to the "Whiptail Cafe". Quick service.. good.. those that know me know I don't eat salad dressing, sour cream etc so when I ordered it without that stuff on the salad I expect it to not be there. it came.. it was on the salad with the comment that the Chef figured he would just put it on. then to top it off whatever flavor was in the food was masked behind more red chili peppers than was needed. We both decided to be done with the day at that point and to get something simple from the convenience store and take care of ourselves for food the next day. Back to our room to become inebriated and pass out.

Day 2
We woke up at 5:15 and headed out ASAP to get on the trail. First to stop near the visitor center to the SOL Cafe for some Mocha's (hoping they didn't mess them up) and a couple of breakfast food things. The food was excellent and we enjoyed the first good meal of the trip with smiles. Then we headed over to hop on the shuttle for our first hike of the day. Angels landing - 1 word- BREATHTAKING - Described by the park handout as Strenuous, long drop-offs and narrow trail. Not for anyone fearful of heights. Ends at summit high above Zion Canyon.

After Angels Landing we headed over to the Hidden canyon and weeping rock trail heads on the park shuttle. The hike up to weeping rock was not a hike in any way more of a stroll for .25 miles only to end up inundated with Throngs of people standing still and panting from over exertion. Quickly heading back to the TH we had a quick lunch of PB sandwiches, granola bars and crackers and then we were off to Hidden Canyon. This is a great hike but unfortunately it was later in the day and the number of people on the trail took away from the coolness that should have been there. In the end it was a good trail.

Once we were done with Hidden canyon we hopped the shuttle towards the museum and walked the Pa'rus trail from the Museum over to the visitor center then to the SOL Cafe' for a early dinner (Yerros and Rubens and Beer). Once dinner was done we decided to relax the rest of the day and we went back to east Zion sat in the hot tub for a bit then crashed.

Day 3
Come to find out the beds in our room were not as comfy as we first thought then again we were a bit inebriated at the time so that may have been part of the issue. Today we are going to head home. so we showered and packed up the room checked out and headed west to the east entrance of the park to take a quick hike to the overlook trail. Some seriously great views could be had here as well as a nice little hike to get the blood moving in tired legs.

From there we headed back to the SOL Cafe' for some more coffee and then headed north to Kolob canyon to take some pics then head home.

In the end this was a great vacation!

Great Salt lake Expedition 2009

2009-05-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

On Thursday May 14 My friends Mason (and his Daughter), Steve (and his son) and Chad (with his son and father) met up at my house in Tooele at 9AM to begin a 4 day 3 night circumnavigation of the Great Salt Lake with Me and my eldest Kahlan. The basic plan was to head west on the pony express trail until we reached gold hill for the first night's camp. From Gold hill we would north west to Wendover NV for our last fuel stop in 350 miles and to pick up the last member of the trip Sam who couldn't get away until Friday morning. Lucin Utah and the Sun tunnels would be our lunch stop on day 2 and then to head to the highest point (85** feet) in our trip for our planned 2nd night in the sawtooth National Forest. Day 3 we would head east and north touching into Idaho for a short time and seeing the 5 house town of Standrod then head south east as directly as possible to Locomotive springs on the north point of the Great Salt Lake (GSL). A quick visit to the Spiral Jetty and then down to Promontory point for camp 3. Day 4 would just be driving from Camp 3 home on I15.
As the old Maxim states the The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry this is why on any trip of this sort you have to be willing to be flexible and enjoy the changes as they come and not let the little modifications in plan ruin the trip everyone on the trip was well prepared to go out and have a great time even with the changes to the plan that happened :)

In the end we didn't camp at the highest point of our journey due to cold weather.. We missed the spiral jetty due to fuel issues and finding out that our route wouldn't be a loop down to promontory point and we didn't camp at promontory point as it is all private property instead we camped just south of Brigham city in a KOA camp but still had a great time.. here are some pics

Kahlan Stretching at our first stop Simpson springs

Steve's Jeep heading down the road
Camp 1 just south of Gold Hill. Yep that is a Snake with gunshot wounds..

We took a quick stop on day 2 at Lucin to look around then headed back down to the sun tunnels where Sam tested his climbing skills

From there we headed north through the grouse creek area to the high point of our tour
Camp Day 3 Nice little sheep corral where the kids dug up old bones
Lunch at Locomotive s

Got to see some trains (This was cooler when I was a kid was said by almost everyone at some point well all but the kids said it that is)
Heading down the east road towards promontory pointProof that you can sleep a 6'4" person in the back of an XJ

Boot repair gone bad

2009-05-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

So I the seam on the back of my full grain leather boots had started to split a little bit so I figured I would take it into a cobbler to be repaired. I took them in.. made sure that the guy knew it had a Gortex liner that I didn't want screwed up and that I wanted a couple of other things touched up as well.

FAIL
Steve's Custom Shoe Services

1767 S State St
Salt Lake City, UT 84115

(801) 556-3452‎

Not only was the guy unfriendly, he didn't pull up the liner on the boot and just sewed right through it, Didn't trim excess threads off, did a single seam instead of the double seam that was there. Only did the area that was pulling up with no overlap on the area that wasn't pulling up. Didn't even give them the quick shine that I have gotten every other time I have taken my boots in somewhere for soles or any other repair..

Basically they guy did a half assed job of repair that if it lasts the summer I will be surprised and I will end up getting a new pair of boots long before I should have to :(

Hanging out in the Garage

2009-04-29T07:56:00.001-07:00

That is all.. Thank you

Green Eyed Monster

2009-04-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

So today I had the chance to explore a cave called the Green Eyed Monster. This is a cave that was found by a mine that mined right through it. Due to the wet and TIGHT nature of the entrance and other sections of the cave I did not take my camera in with me so no pics other than the maps :)

Most people don't get to go into this cave as it is on private property and the owners can be kinda.. finniky but I got in with a group that got the OK to go in so off we went.. to get to the entrance of the cave you head up Ophir canyon and park at the lot just before the first river crossing. from there you hike the south face about .65 of a mile up 65degree slopes of loose scree and talus to the entrance. The entrance is the modified entrance to the mine and is a 2 foot steel culvurt at a 45 degree angle down about 12 feet and then you have to shimmy through a triangle shaped entrance in the rock that is well.. SNUG for 5 feet or so. all of this is done while sliding in mud.

Once in you are walking down the main shaft of the mine. most of the shaft has 2-3 inches of water on the floor and you can see the rotting steel rails just under the water. after about 200 feet or so back you come to the main haulage tunnel on the left and from there another 100 feet to the climb into the un-mined cave area shown in the maps. you enter the cave from the mine into the Medusa room.

it was really cool inside with some very tight squeezes in places and some nice features.. next time I go in I will have a small waterproof camera so I can get some pics :)

EDIT: Found some pics others took so here they are

socially responsible

2009-04-15T09:14:00.000-07:00

Why do we need to be socially responsible? everyone talks about the need to do this or that for the good of the planet and for other people but rarely do they admit to doing things for themselves anymore. It has become Taboo for you to be the center of your own world. If you live your life in accord with making yourself happy that is a "Bad" thing now. But if you waste your life doing things for other people that is good?

it is all semantics anyhow people just need to get a grip and figure out that everyone is out there for their own good and not someone else..

An Aborted trip to run HITR Trail

2009-04-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

Day one.. Drove 8+ hours and explored capitol reef all was good just a bit cold

Day 2. 12 + hours driven Started at 6:30 AM Drove to the Ferry from camp just off Notom road.. still cold. 3 minutes from the end of the ferry ride Kahlan Pee'd all over herself while in my seat with the window rolled down and me about 8 feet away. I cleaned up really quick and we drove on.. Kid being a pain in the ass for the most part... about 4:30 we are at the top of the wedge.. I get out to look at what has to be done come back and she Pee'd all over herself and her seat.. by this point I am done and say screw it.. turn around and leave the group and head back.. on the way back Kahlan pukes on herself and all over her seat.. Quick clean up and drive until dark. Stop in the middle of the trail and camp in a Jeep that smells of Urine and Puke.. Too cold outside to dry clothes or roll down windows..

Day 3. 11 hours driven wake at first light Drive to Ferry.. catch the 10 AM ferry and drive home. Just outside green river while slowing down on the ramp to I70 I hear a wallowing sound.. stop in green river for gas and look at my Drivers rear tire and I am missing a wheel stud and all of the lug nuts are at least 1/4 inch out.. so I tighten them up and drive home stopping every 70 miles to check the wheel..

in the end a very poor excuse for a trip :(
Some pics

Melville sucks.. Betterworldbooks.. rather cool

2009-03-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

ok.. So in the last 5 days I read Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. First off I would like to take a moment to say that it should never have been standard practice to pay writers per word rather than based on sales and such.. anyhow Moby-dick is not a bad story but it is noticeable that he was writing to fulfill the need to make more $$.. the book could have seriously been 1/4 the length and been just as good.. Really I don't need to have it explained to me 4 different ways what the tail of a sperm wale looks like :)

Oh and if you want to buy a book online check out betterworldbooks.com
1. they have free shipping if you are not in a hurry - usually a week out
2. seriously good prices (I don't mind owning a used book)
3. I don't want to support barns and noble all of the time :)

High Def Range Photos and a new lens

2009-03-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

Well Saturday I was supposed to go Caving but one of they guys I was going with (the one leading the crew) begged off due to a injured rib. Then I was going to go explore some mines on Sat morning but I slept in due to getting home at 2Am from the Opera and then having drinks at the Red door (Gin and Tonic is great). anyhow I decided I had to do something outside so before it rained today I went out into the gusting winds to take some pictures.

Using my new 50MM lens (I don't have to borrow my wifes anymore) I shot some range photos and some clouds. Then I brought them home and decided to edit them up a bit... This Wiki how shows a great software and some basic steps on how it is done.

Anyhow here are some pics... my only regret is not cleaning my lens before going out :(

Time Machine?

2009-03-13T08:05:00.001-07:00

So I found the Magazine in the basement while I was searching for something to read. I remember "Borrowing" it from the Dr office when I was having my boys disconnected last year(or one of the appointments related to it I was there 3 times). I borrowed it because it had an article in it about Belize. I never did have a chance to read it until recently as I had forgotten that it was even around. Anyhow as I am reading the article some of the facts in there seemed a little odd to me.

-- A little background here, in 2000 I spent a month in Belize doing an archeological dig at a site called Baking Pot - Just 20 minutes ride from Cahl Pech Village where we stayed - I was working with a group called BVAR (Belize Valley Archeological Reconnaissance)under the auspice of the Minister of Archeology one Jamie Awe. (one day I will write out this adventure in full but not today)--

As I was reading it stated that Dr Awe had been working on the caves in the area for 15 months.. wait when I was there he had been at it for 2 years and I am sure they are still at it - (I know I checked their website) - Then the pictures of Dr Awe and Caroline Audit (His girlfriend and the lead on the site I was working) didn't show them to have aged even a little bit. Hey he is wearing a shirt I know he wore when I was down there. Finally it dawned on me and I looked at the date on the Mag.. well it was a mag from 2001 but it is in pristine condition.. how was I to know?
Some Pics for you:

Once I finished reading about Belize I came upon some other articles and in one of them they were talking about Jedidiah Smith redwood forest in northern CA, they also referenced Crescent city CA. and it got me thinking about my honeymoon right in that neck of the woods. That was a great trip that I will go into later but it is odd how a mag that you find out of time bringing back memories of other times.
Here are some pics of the redwoods for you :)

GeoCaching

2009-02-20T13:24:00.000-08:00

So the girls and I decided to take up a new activity Geo caching. since I just got a new GPS (Rino 530) I decided that I should use it and that it would be a good thing to go do with the girls as I was sure that Kahlan would enjoy the treasure hunt aspect of it!.
So I got onto Geocaching.com and found some local caches here in Tooele and headed out to see what we could see. The first cache was on the Stockton bar at the top on the west side. The trek up to it in the Jeep was a mudbath that we ended up sliding sideways and spinning 360 degrees at one point. Kahlan was loving it and Danny was fast asleep.
Once at the general area we got out of the truck and slogged our way through sagebrush and mud to the cache. We traded a my little pony hair brush for a little police car that Kahlan gave to Danny when she woke up.
There was to be another cache on the road down but we failed to find it :(. Then we headed over near the Stockton cemetery and found 2 more Caches where Kahlan got a "Got God" Pink Bracelet and a little plastic lizard :)(We left a valentines eraser and a butterfly hair clip and I left business cards at each one www.ssadventuresutah.com ).
We attempted to find 2 other caches on the way home that were supposed to be just on the side of the road but I think that road cleaning crews have taken them or something.
No pics this time out maybe when I am not covered with mud I will get the camera out the next time.

Tecopa Ca, Mine exploration 2/5 - 2/8

2009-02-10T07:47:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I got the chance to go to Tecopa California to explore a few mines due to a donation/ advance from MelvaLue :) (Thanks). The weekend started off at 3AM on Thursday morning and then a long drive down with the group I went down with to get to the East entrance of the War Eagle mine at 5PM and set up camp. right after we had camp setup we went in the mine for a couple hours of exploration we knew were were going in on the 5th level and were just getting a quick look around to know where we had to go the next morning to go down to levels 1-4. When we came out around 7:30 we cooked up some steak and went to bed (well at least I did as I am almost always the first to go to bed).

The next morning came and after a hearty breakfast of breakfast burritos we headed into the mine. we initially wend down the main haulage tunnel to the 4th level for a quick bit of exploration and decided to explore from the bottom up. So off we went down the stairs on the 30 degree slope down the hundreds of feet to the bottom. (every level in the mine is approximately 100 feet above the last). We began exploring as a group for the most part and on level 2 we found about a dozen sticks of dynamite and some blasting caps as well as a pit that had a shovel in it (these were later brought up by others a day later). once we got to level 3 we had lunch and due to some peoples poor planning had to head out to get their water bottles filled up and head back in. Once back in we checked out some Ore cars on level 3 and finished exploring level 4. once on level 5 our main goal was to find some cribbing (stacked timbers to hold ceilings etc) that the passage to level 6 and 7 was to be found near. after crawling through said cribbing and searching the tunnels further on only to find what looked like the haulage tunnel to the 6 and 7 levels but was inaccessible due to lack of rope on the team at the time. as we were climbing back through the cribbing I noticed a passage going up and followed it for a bit. it looked to go up 100's of feet with lots of 2'X 2' timbers creating the cribbing. I called down to Robert (the guy leading the group) to have him come take a look and once he was up we both looked behind us and up for the first time instead of toward the passageway I had found and jointly said lets get out of here. it looked like 50 ton rocks had crashed down in the past and broke the huge timbers by the dozen like they were so much kindling...
We continued back to the main passage and past a long stope (slope that miners would make when the vain they were mining went sideways) to the last passage in the mine that we hadn't explored (minus level 6 and 7). this tunnel was at least 1.75 miles long with many ore chutes from above leading into it. One chute had an arrow on it and a sign saying "Grant" another mine in the area giving us a better idea how far back in the mountain we were. This ended day 2 and we trudged out to eat sub par lasagna and French bread.. and once again I went to bed before almost anyone else
- Note my camera battery died sometime during the day.. and didn't have a spare or a charger :(
Day 3 Saturday we decided to head over to the Colombia mine to explore some ore cars that we had been told we could go ride in (I have seen video of these guys riding them like Indiana Jones). We found the first set of ladders in the haulage tunnel in about 5 minutes and headed down the 45 degree slope to the bottom in search for the second set of ladders. we missed the turn at first and came to a very old section of the mine that there was a fire in at one point to the extent that all of the rock was black and looked like it had been seared. we headed back and found the second set of ladders and began the decent. these ladders went down about 150 feet straight down in 30 foot or so sections (unfortunately they are slightly canted back). once at the bottom it was a quick walk to the next section of ladders. we had been told that these ladders were sketchy and that rope would be a good idea but not necessary. we were also told they were a max of 150 feet down. after some debate a couple guys went down the ladders to see how bad they were and what would be needed to get down. as they descended they kept us apprised of what they were coming across. at least 100 feet down they came to a section where the ladder was missing and climbed down the walls past it. Up top we decided to drop the rope we brought (150 feet) down an adjoining hole to set up for the repel down. we didn't hear the rope hit bottom when we dropped it so we pulled it back up and tied a light to the end and dropped it again. by now the initial guys had reached bottom and we told them to look for our rope.. the light was soon out of view from us due to a slight curve and unfortunately never came into view for the guys below. the rope was too short and most of us thought it prudent not to have a large group go down bad ladders only to get stranded at the bottom so we called it quits and headed out.
Now I said that the ladder we came down was canted back a little? this makes climbing a serious pain as you have to hold your body to the ladder the entire time causing your forearms to burn out way before they normally would.
Once out of this mine we decided to look at the west entrance of the War Eagle (at level 7) and see if we could find out how to get to level 5. We quickly explored all of the easy to access areas of level 7 and then found a slope with a ladder and headed down it into the main Haulage tunnel.. we had found the way down. a couple people went down the loose scree that led them to the ore car on level 5 that we had found. so we decided to slide our way down the 500+ feet of loose scree and come out through the east entrance. we were quickly down and then climbed a short ways up a pit into level 5 and walked out. once out (around 430) a few people hiked back over the mountain to get the trucks we had left behind.
Sunday morning we woke and began packing up to leave. as we were packing up a couple of guys who had gone down to level 2 and brought out some dynamite and blasting caps decided to hike to the edge of the tailings pile and light off the dyno (I guess to send us off with a bang HEHE). anyhow the Dynamite was a dud but the blasting cap was still live and went of like a couple of M80s.. Then for the long drive home.. I got home at 930 on Sunday night and passed out :)

Here are some pics.. it was a great trip

Mine Exploration

2009-01-29T15:16:00.000-08:00

So the Saturday prior to going into Spanish Moss cave I had the opportunity to join with a group called Mojave Underground and attend a Photography workshop - A underground Photography workshop to be exact. That meant going into a local Mine and taking some photos :).

I invited my friend Sam to come along even though he is not much of a Photog at least he would enjoy the underground experience:)

So Sam came over to my place at about 11 AM on Saturday and we loaded up our gear in my Jeep and headed south to the area around Ophir Utah (about 25 minutes south of my house). We got there early so we could pop off a few shots with our 9MM's, the 44Mag and my little 380Auto drop gun my friend gave me saying that it didn't work (well if he would have cleaned it and oiled it with something other than 90W maybe it would have worked for him HEHE)

We finally met up with the Mojave group at 1 and went up to the main Ophir mine (never did get another name for it - I later found out that my Gpa Harold's brothers used to work in that mine. After BS'n for a few Sam and I went and explored some of the nearby buildings and the old hardware that was in them (I hadn't grabbed my camera yet but next time I am out there I will for sure as there were some great old relics - even an old drill press).
Soon we all lined up and headed into the Mine. we were in there for around 5 hours seeing many really interesting things from Blue green water, underground lakes, old hardware, nifty crystals and some scary bridgework and undermining there-of. all told it was a great time that went by way too fast. The only downfall to the experience was that they did not get into how to do things very much but given the opportunity to try what they were doing I learned how to take pics underground anyhow :)
Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

Caving

2009-01-21T08:36:00.000-08:00

Years ago when I was in Boy Scouts I got my first taste of spelunking in a cave called Horsetheif in Wyoming. I knew then that underground was a great place to be and have wanted to go back since. Here are some pics of Horsetheif

Recently I had the opportunity to go caving again and I jumped on it. I had to pick up some ascension gear and in the end a new harness (I guess I have gained some size in the last 10 years). Anyhow on Monday the 19th I met up with 3 guys Jeff, Jon and Dan and headed up to Spanish Moss cave. The initial hike in was a nice uphill stroll in 6degree weather to get warmed up for the ascent to the cave. we had to trudge up a 45* slope in knee high snow for about a 1/3 of a mile to reach the entrance. even this did not lessen my spirits for the adventure to come!.

Once at the entrance we all geared up and began rappelling into the cave. The first section of rappel is through a corkscrew for about 20 feet then to a rope change and then down into the main cavern about 150? feet of free rappel.

next some exploring, getting down the main slope about 150 feet of steep slick muddy rock face VIA rappel.

Then for some features :)

The ascent up the slope was a hand over hand with the rope ascenders and then up the rope we went out the same rope we dropped in with going using a "frog" ascension system a real full body workout.

As we came out blinded by the sun to a beautiful view and no inversion:)

now just to get out there and do it again :)

October... hmmm

2008-10-23T08:32:00.000-07:00

So in a few weeks we will be voting for our new pres... at the same time we are in a major financial crisis in the US and around the world...
We have Obama who wants to .. Spread the wealth (Robin hood style)- I always thought we were a Democracy based on Capitalism not a bunch of socialists?. wants to get us out of Iraq (hmm another loss for Americas military?).. Is mr Hussain a a Natural born US citizen?

McCain SSDD.. Has a ditz for a running mate.. wastes 150K on clothes for her
Does Vote with Bush 90% of the time - not a good thing at all almost worse than not being a US citizen?

and who else is there to vote for? our mainstream media would have you think that no-one else is running. I mean no-one else got free add time for Debates.. probobly were not even invited? have you ever thought about this?
Charles O. Baldwin
Robert L. Barr, Jr.
Ralph Nader
Cynthia Ann McKinney

Are we just a country of people who are unable to think anymore? I don't know but I would put my money that most of the people will vote the way their "social group" tells them to.. be that church, their job or their friends (all of them got it from someone else I am sure).

Maybe we should just listen to Mr Carlin

CHICKENS?

So I have been reading and searching like a madman on forums and other places on the net about Coops, chickens etc and finally decided to build my own coop for my back yard :)..

In building the coop I had to stay under $100 including feeders light source and all the goodies..
I also had to make sure that it would be somewhat pleasing to the eye as I live in a residential neighborhood
it also needed to have the ability to withstand the different weather conditions that the state of Utah has to offer... COLD winters with a bit of snow and long periods of sub freezing temps, 100 degree plus summers.. strong wind storms sometimes upwards of 70MPH gusts.

I decided on a double decker design with the coop up top and a small run under it. I plan to have up to 6 Layers at one time (I will be starting with 4 hens that my Grandfather in Law has that are already laying I will get them on Saturday if all goes well with building and painting :) ) The dementions are 5 Feet tall total split in half for Run and Coop. The floorspace is 3 feet by 4 feet with 2 nesting boxes at this time.. will add another when I get more hens. behind the nesting boxes will be easy access ports so I can get eggs without risk of letting chickens out (and so my 3 going on 4 year old daughter can get them out too). There will be a number of Plexi glass windows and a couple of vents put in to maintain good airflow. Durring the winter I plan on putting Plastic around the bottom of the run to block off the cold winds and snow.

without further flapping my yap here are some pics of Said Coop - its not done yet but will be by this evening :)

Last Day of summer

2008-09-22T08:09:00.001-07:00

So yesterday Sam and I decided to spend the last day of Summer on our bikes.. So we took off around 1:30 and headed out west on I80 - The original intent was just to ride west for a bit then come back but soon we found we were almost to Wendover (I guess cruising at 95+ gets you places just a tad bit faster). So we stopped in Wendover for an hour or so to stretch our legs play some penny slots and eat some food at the Buffet.. Then we headed home Stopping at the halfway point rest stop and took a little hike up the hill then finished the ride home. my legs are a bit sore today but it was worth the 218 miles :)

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Pony Express (Foust to Eureeeeeka)

2008-08-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

This is the short version as people have asked for pics Sam, Mason and I each took 1 dog and 1 child with us and ran 475? Miles of dirt road on the Pony express route last weekend.
We started out on Thursday afternoon and hot tailed it over to Gold hill to set up camp 1

Tried a little trail side seal fix (didn’t work)

We got up Friday morning loaded up and headed for the unknown. Our goal was Ruby Valley

Shortly after going through the town of Ibapah we saw our first PE marker of the new trail

as well as an old cabin

Shortly there after we crossed on to the reservation. Unknown to us this sign is not just a “stay on the road” sign. It means STAY OUT. coming home we ran into the law. They were nice enough about our trespassing and said that as long as we call ahead they allow you to cross the reservation. I have the name and number if anyone ever heads out that way

We then came to the abandoned town of Tippett. Tippett was just about as cool a place as I have ever been.

about 20 miles past Tippett we hit the Stone house. Stone house is not on the PE but a very worth while stop

The entrance to Schellbourne

Random Llama

From Schellbourne it was a quick detour to Cherry Creek. Cherry creek was once a booming mining town, what remains is a run down community with one store, which is a Bar. We had ourselves some lunch and a beer

From Cherry Creek we got back on the PE and headed into Egan Canyon. This is when the road changed from a nice broad graded road to double track

Once through Eagan Canyon we ran into a 150 year old cemetery

We encountered a variety of terrain from this point… all of it stunning

Hit Camp 2 in the ruby valley camping above a wildlife refuge.

A little fun with a snake

Next morning we decided to head back home on Saturday rather than Sunday as originally planned

The wildlife refuge

Before heading home though we wanted to make our way over the pass and down into Eureka

After hitting Eureka it was paved road back to Schellbourne then back to dirt all the way to Faust beautiful sunset drive

Great time, Awesome trip, Good company.

Still Trying to save the world.. and a buck :)

2008-07-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I installed a Clothes line in the basement (well 5 lines across the room) to help cut electric costs for drying clothes and also add some humidity to the house.. while I was thinking about humidity I got to thinking that in the winter Humidity is lower than the summer but with the cool temps the humidity from line drying wasn't going to help much as we would be using the dryer (unless we want our clothes dry in the next 2 weeks HEHE) so I figure that if I were to do some routing of the dryer vent into the heating system (with some filters of course) that I could use the Heat and Humidity from the dryer in the house instead of wasting it into the great outdoors...
--More thinking and planning needs to be done on this but I think it will work.
Finally got a Fan installed in the Kitchen and now the main level of the house doesn't seem too be quite as hot as it was before (now I can run the AC at 79 during the day and be comfortable :))
That is all for now

Saving the world?

2008-06-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

OK.. So in an effort to be come less of an American (Massively wasteful consumer) we have begun a trend of becoming more environmentally friendly. While it does take some changes it is not really that hard to do.

Around the house-
We have Fans in almost every room- This is good for both winter and summer as it is summer now We constantly have a breeze in the house that has a nice cooling effect. This also helps move air in and around the house at night when we turn off the AC (set at 78 degrees) open the windows and enjoy the cool night air. - It is currently 88 degrees outside and with just fans and cooling the house down at night it is 76 in the house - That is less electricity than running the AC :)
I am going to be building a Shade for the AC unit that is on the south side of the house to increase its efficiency next week :) Talking about shades we got darkening shades for the girls room and the playroom and they have made a world of difference as to how hot it gets in there :)
Turn off the lights.. there is no reason to have a light on if you can see well enough to read so keep them off during the day, we have also switched most of our lights over to florescent lights :)
Cooking - We try to cook with the BBQ or the Toaster oven as much as possible as both of these use less power than the Stove and Oven, also try to use 1 pot when possible to cut down on cleaning costs :)
We have cut back dramatically on the amount of Beef that we eat - Do some research on the amount of energy that a 1lb of beef takes compared to say.. chicken..
The watering system on our garden is very efficient, Peat moss to hold in moisture and the watering system directly waters the plants with very little waste

These are just a few of the things that can be done

In the car we have begun "Hypermiling" basically doing our part to 1 Save fuel and $$, and Lower emissions.. you just have to pay attention to how a car works, aerodynamics and use gravity :) you will be surprised how much you can improve your fuel economy - you do have to leave earlier though - Just the other day my wife came to me and said that she could get the Forester up to 40 on our road by just putting it in neutral... SWEET!!!

162 mile Bike ride :)

2008-06-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

So my friend Brandon and I decided to go for a ride today.. South from Tooele to Vernon (First stop to have a little Mt Dew) then over to Eureka (very cool old mining town I didn't get any pics :( ), from there we headed over to the west side of Utah Lake and into Saratoga Springs for lunch at Artic Circle. Then home VIA the 5 mile pass area with a detour up Murcur canyon for kicks.

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The newest Toy

2008-05-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

So just the other day 4/29/08 to be exact I picked up a brand new 2007 Honda Shadow Aero

Today 5/4/08 my friends Sam and Brandon and I went for a 120 mile tour from My house to Dougway by way of Rush Valley (Great little place to eat out that way - don't remember the name). Up through the Goshute Indian Reservation stopping to look at the graveyard at Isopea and then home VIA Grantsville and I80..

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Scott's 2008 Goals

2008-02-07T11:52:00.000-08:00

Here are my goals and things I want to complete in the following year.. These are in no particular order :)

1. Repair fence
2. finish garden beds in the back yard
3. Build Brick enclosure for BBQ
4. fill in back yard with ground cover
5. Lift Tent trailer and put on scissor Jacks
6. Get Scout to reliable running condition
Wiring - Tranny Tcase work - Brakes - etc should pass safety when done
7. Go camping or do something outdoors 2 weekends a month
8. Backpack to peak in Tooele
I am sure that there is more I just don't remember right now and will have to add more later :)

Tour'D Paria

2008-01-21T14:58:00.000-08:00

Day 1
After a monotonous day of work the adventure began with Sam and his dog Loulabelle meeting me at my place and heading down the road. A quick stop at Arbys for some sandwiches and we were on our way.
-- Travel time up to 4.5 hours on the following route
We met up with Kevin and Jon in Beaver where we topped off our tanks and it was down right cold around 12 degrees with a south wind that bit right through.

From there we continued towards Kodachrome State park where Mason and his pooch Willy had already set up camp and had partaken of the free warm showers in the park. Due to the freezing temperatures the fire that was burning was having a hard time thawing the ground under it (12 degrees if my notes are correct). Quickly everyone set up their sleeping arrangements (Sam in the back of his LJ, Kevin and Jon in tents, Mason in the back of his JK and myself in the back of my XJ) and decided that an early start was in order and that it was warmer in a sleeping bag than in front of the fire.

Day 2
Sam started the day with some Coffee Pancakes and Corned beef hash. After we all mowed breakfast we loaded up and headed towards sheepcreek canyon at 8:40 and then down the Paria river. The first 3/4 of the trail was spectacular as we drove over the frozen river with 300 foot cliffs on both sides.
The last 1/4 of the trail was a trial on our vehicles and stress level. Breaking trail through the ice and fording the river at least 25 times. I had to be strapped at one point by Mason when my ARB decided not to work (determined later that I just didn't have the Air Pressure set correctly) and I lost traction on both passenger tires while burring my drivers side in the river.
At some point Mason lost the a cowling that goes under his front bumper (no big loss). Then I decided to squeeze my way through a tight part of the trail that the 4 wheelers usually go through and got seriously tippy. Everyone came together and hooked a strap to my rack and pulled while I got through the tippy section (thanks again guys). Kevin decided to give it a valiant try but got too tippy for his short wheelbase and backed off to backtrack and come down the river avoiding the area.
While worming their way down Sam's front track bar came apart (the Hiem Joint stripped the threads out of the weld in thread insert). We were able to get it back together by changing the axle side mounting location and threading the Hiem further in and mounting everything back up in about 45 minutes.
Shortly thereafter I sliced the sidewall of my Drivers front tire and had to change it out (later to notice a sharp cut in the drivers rear sidewall that still makes me nervous)
At some point both Sam and I caused damage to our fog lights as we both have a broken fog light.
About 5 minutes from the paria Cemetery and the Footings that are left of the Town Set I noticed smoke emanating from the back of my HEEP. I hollered over the CB that I was on fire. Shut everything down, Grabbed my Fire extinguisher and went to the passenger rear where the smoke was thickest... after a quick look the smoke was coming from my rear window switch and I gave the door a shot from the extinguisher and started pulling the door apart to find out what was burning. In the end the switch had melted and the plug with it. So we disconnected it and were on our way.
From here we headed to BigWater and filled up and headed to Alstrom Point to camp for the night. Mason treated everyone to Spaghetti with sausage and Garlic bread for dinner. while eating we took a moment to look over some of the days pictures on Jon's Laptop and soon headed off to bed (well I crashed everyone else took a hike somewhere) This was the warmest night of the trip only getting down to 20 degrees.

Day 3
Since we were behind our initial plan a bit we decided to cut out the last section we had planned through the bowels of Capitol Reef instead take it a little easier and make camp in left hand Collet Canyon that night.
I provided what my family has always called a paul bunion breakfast (Eggs, bacon, Hash browns and Cheese all cooked in the same dish) to get the day started.
Then we packed up and headed to Grand bench where we got to visit with the cows and see the cow herders camp. On our way to Croton Bench Sam's rear Trackbar sheared a bolt. Luckily Kevin had the perfect spare bolt and we were on our way in 15 minutes.
Over the last couple of days my steering had been getting softer and softer and finally I had Mason or Sam or someone turn the wheel while I inspected only to find my Draglink ends blown on both sides :(
From there we headed up the Croton road the first few miles were riddled with cuts in the road both down and across caused by run-off water smoothing out from there as we followed switchbacks and ridge lines higher and higher onto the tops of the plateaus that look over the area (BEAUTIFUL).
When we arrived at the turnoff onto Lower Trail canyon that leads into Left Hand Collet Canyon the trail was impassable. Huge boulders riddled the trail for about 75 yards. Since none of us were driving a buggy on 42 inch tires we decided to head toward Escalante and camp where we could. This ended up being the Broken wheel campground with hot showers in downtown Escalante. This was potluck night we cooked our own steaks and sat around the fire talking about the trip and the next ones to come. This night was the coldest by far getting down to 6 or 7 degrees.

Day 4
After everyone had partaken of the hot showers we were treated to French toast and bacon from Kevin and Jon then we headed north east on SR12 towards Torrey and saw some of the majesty of Escalante Grand Staircase... Then it was the long road home.

In the end it was a great trip with a great group of guys.. I couldn't ask for more

here is a basic Google Map overview of what we did

2007 Trail info

2008-01-05T08:35:00.000-08:00

- 763.5 Miles
Trail info --
1. Rattlesnake and Constrictor on - 2/19/07 Approximately 9-10 miles
2. Part of Porcupine rim and Fins and things - 3/15/07 6.5 miles
3. Poison Spider Mesa - 03/17/07 9 miles
4. The fun parts of Fins and Things - 03/18/07 4.5 miles
5. Hells Revenge - 3/16/07 5 Miles
6. Exploring out by Horse Shoe springs - 4/7/07 24.5 Miles
7. Exploring up Jacob city - 7/14/07 19 Miles
8. Rattlesnake - 4/29/07 7.3 Miles
9. Middle canyon exploring side trails and playing around - 5/20 and 5/21/07 10 Miles
10. More middle canyon exploration - 5/27/07 5 Miles
11. Exploring near Bates canyon and the Bonaville lake waterline - 5/28/07 14 Miles
12. Exploring trails East and south of Tooele and Various trails up Ophir canyon - 6/4/07 24 Miles
13. Forest Lake and Mineral Basin and dinking around American Fork Canyon - 6/9/07 22 Miles
14. Forest Lake and Mineral Basin (MULTIPLE TIMES) - 6/22-23/07 58.3 Miles
15. Forest Lake and surrounding area (Multiple times) - 6/28 -29/07 48.4 Miles
16. Rattlesnake and some exploration - 7/9/07 11 Miles
17. Pony Express trail and Topaz mountain exploration - 8/2 - 4/07 304 Miles
18. Forest Lake - 8/18 20 Miles
19. Middle Canyon - 8/25 20 Miles
20. Capitol Wash Capitol Reef - 9/1/07 13 Miles
21. Exploring east of Stockton - 9/9/07 15 Miles
22. Exploration in Middle Canyon - 10/13/07 3 Miles
23. Trail South and east of Tooele - 10/14/07 10 Miles
24. Rattlesnake out VIA Sunshine canyon - 11/3/07 11 Miles
25. Exploring near Bates canyon and the Bonaville lake waterline - 11/25/07 14 Miles
26. Rattlesnake out VIA fire road - 12/2/07 11 Miles
27. Black Rock Canyon Exploring - 12/9/07 32 Miles
28. Black Rock Canyon Exploring (again) - 12/29/07 32 Miles