Solo Backpacking into the Stansburys

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

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

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

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