24th of July - Traversing the state

In the past, the 24th of July is spend with our family at Bear Lake. We just go for the day, leave early and get home late, but this year we decided to do more. The 24th was spent at Bear Lake as the past, but the following two days were spent in St. George and Zions. We essentially went from one end of the state to the other.

 

Bear lake was nice, we got some snorkeling in, played volleyball, and tried to jump on the floating Trampoline. We just had a general good time.

 



 

 

 

 

 

We arrived home late on the 24th, and early the next day headed down to St. George. We made a stop before in a little town called Kanarraville to hike Kanarra Creek. I think this was the highlight of the trip for most. It is a short slot canyon that leads to three cool waterfalls. Crowded, but not overly.

 

 

Climbing the ladder is not near as bad as it looks, we all made it up with no problem.

 

This slide is fun and popular, we all went down.



 

Day two in St. George we headed into Zions. There all but Mom and Hannah (who was not feeling well) made it out to the top of Angels landing. We followed that by a hike in the Narrows.

 

 

Scout look out, deciding who is going up.

 

 

Josh at the top, I wouldn't let the youngest do this.

 

 

Angel Landing! We all made it, any were surprised how young the kids were. Especially when our youngest at only 7 was passing much older people on the trail telling them how fun it was while they held tenaciously to the chain or tree.

 

After that we headed into the Narrows, people were tired but once in the water loved it.

 

 

They wanted to keep going while others turned back. It was overcast so not as warm as it normally is, some were having more fun than others at this point.

 

Going back, shivering and all, they kids were obsessed with floating in the water as much as possible. Dad may have sparked this interest. The camelbaks act as life jackets and blowing air into the reservoir only made them float better.

 

Before heading home, we stopped at the pioneer town of Grafton (and the ending of a killer bike trail). We enjoyed perusing the cemetery and the old log cabins. Makes you thankful for what we have now. Those settlers were beyond tough.

 

We arrived home early Sunday morning (1 AM ), everyone was tired but loved the trip. I have not doubt this will be on everyones list to do again.

 

 

Terrible Timp Hike

Ever had one of those hikes that you just can't find something good to say about it, except "At least I went" ? That was My attempted Timp Hike. First off Timp isn't my favorite hike, it's crowded, I've done it various times, and the first time I hiked it my dad dislocated his shoulder and we ran down in an hour. I was 8, it was not fun.  However, my two brothers and I decided, after much encouragement from Sasquatch, to hike it early Saturday morning. It wasn't a good start as we left at 3:30 and I didn't fall asleep until 2.  I just wasn't feeling well.

We began at a fast pace, we tend to hike fast, faster. Our goal was to finish it in 5 and 1/2 hours. We all hike, bike and workout frequently, so it was achievable. I was a little tired but just thought it was from a lack of sleep. Arriving at the first step, I was really feeling it, breathing hard and sweating, but just attributed it to the altitude. By the second step I was having trouble keeping up, and began feeling nauseous. Mid-way to the third step, the big valley where the shack is, I couldn't keep up at all and was feeling terrible. I sat to rest and when I started again felt like I was going to throw up and began to shiver.

Now understand, I never get cold. It was below 30 degrees, but I was dressed well and still shivering. I shouted that I was going back, they should keep going  and I would just lay in the back of the truck until they got back. It took me longer to get down than up. I spent about an hour laying in the dirt by the side of the trail. It took me four hours to go 11 miles.

The pictures were all taken on the way down, it wasn't that light, but I was bored.  Arriving at the truck I laid in the back,shivering, on the dog bed, for  an hour and a half until they got back. Driving down the canyon I never stopped shivering.

Arriving home I couldn't get warm, hot tub, blankets, nothing worked and I was having serious, shall we say "stomach problems". Turns out I had a fever of over 102 degrees. Now I associate the Timp hike with all that is horrible.

I will probably never do it again.

Actually, I'm sure I will.

I'm just that way, you can't let a trail beat you.

Why did I share this? Because I still feel lousy and I'm bored.

24 Hour Moab Trip

Everyone must visit Moab and Arches in their life time. My sister (sister-in-law) Amanda had never been so when she asked me to take her, I couldn't say no. We left Orem at three in the morning arriving in the Delicate Arch parking lot around 7 A.M..