Sunrise on the GSL

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

A night of Caving and sleeping under the stars.

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

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

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).