Patrick's Blog

Quick Lone Peak Hike

2011-09-04T20:02:00.002-06:00

Saturday was a great day for a hike up Lone Peak, and I figured it was a perfect day to get in this year's 6th trip to the summit. I got started at the Jacob's ladder trailhead around 7:00 AM. Since I felt pretty good, I thought I'd put in a good pace and not stop until I reached the top. I made it up in 2 hrs and 58 minutes. Not a record, but not too bad. There were a lot of people on the trail, and it's always nice to see people enjoy the hike.

I only took one picture with my phone. It was a perfect day.

There were two Golden Eagles soaring just above the picture tree

where the Draper Ridge trail meets with Jacob's Ladder trail. Such an awesome sight.

One of the eagles was a juvenile, and had white spots under its wings

just like in the picture below.

I found this picture, which looked just like the eagle I saw.

I should have remembered my camera...

Draper Ridge - Lone Peak 2011 number 4 and 5

2011-08-14T10:10:00.001-06:00

The Last couple weeks (8/6 and 8/13) I hiked Lone Peak via Draper Ridge. When I first started running to LP back in 1983 this was the only path I'd take. I'd say in the last 10 years I've only going up the Draper Ridge trail once, in the 20 or 30 trips to the top. After once again using this path, I don't know why this is not a more popular route. I really like it. It's almost as fast as Jacob's ladder, but it evens out the steepness of the first 1/2 of the hike more that Jacob's. It is a little overgrown, but I'm going to make this the most common path to the top from now on...

Here are some pictures from the last two LP hikes. On 8/6 I went alone, and on 8/13 I went with Dave and Tanner Winnie, and two of Dave's neighbors, Ken and Chase Webster.

These First two pictures are from the hike on 8/6

Here are some of the trails up to Lone Peak.

If you want the Google Earth "kml" files,

leave me a message with your email, and I'll email them to you.

These pictures are from the hike on 8/13.

Here's Dave and Tanner making their way up Baldy.

Ken and his son Chase.

There is still quite a lot of snow in the bolder chute.

There were a lot of people on the trial today.

Here's some guys we met at the top.

Tanner with the flag someone left at the top.

Here I am making my way back down through cowboy camp.

First 3 Lone Peak Hikes - 2011

2011-07-16T14:30:00.001-06:00

In the following blog post I'll chronicle my last 3 Lone Peak hikes during the sumer of 2011.

The first hike chronicled was the most recent. It was on July 16th with Justin Davies, Jason Davies, Paul Peterson and Dave Winne. It was Paul's first time up to Lone Peak, which is always a fun experience to take someone up who's never been there before. The weather was perfect, and we had a great time.

The second hike chronicled was on June 24th with Steve Karafiath, Ronny Fehling, Charlie Burnett and Summer Brown. I was not able to start with them because of Work, but I got on the trail at 1:30 PM. I was able to catch them just before they reached the top. It was a very hot day at the start of the hike, and I pushed it pretty hard. I made it up in about 3:10 minutes, which with the conditions is not too bad. We had a great time on the way down. We were able to slide for long distances on the snow pack.

The final hike chronicled in this post was on June 4th. On this hike, Steve and Julie Karafiath, Chris and Summer Brown and I had a great hike to the top. There was a lot of snow, and we had a great time on the way up when we were able to walk on top of the snow. On the way down it melted just enough to where we post hole'ing with each step (not so fun).

Since this is my first post since November, and I've failed to chronicle many great hikes between November and June. Many were shorter hikes up the Sawmill trail and then riding the avalanche down the chute, but there were also a few longer hikes up to the Picture tree or up the draper ridge. I hope to be back to recording some of my adventures.

Before I get started on the pictures from each of the Hikes, I wanted to post this picture that shows the difference between the amount of snow Mid July 2011 vs Mid July 2010. Notice the red circle on the 2011 picture on the left, then the 2010 picture on the right. On the 2010 picture, if you zoom in, you'll see a person standing in front of the Rock that is barely visible in the 2011 picture. That rock is a good 10 to 15 feet high.

July 16th - 2011

Dave, Jason, Justin and Paul

June 24th - 2011

Summer, Ronny and Charlie

Still a little jump in my legs.

Steve brought along a rollup sled.

It worked great.

Charlie found a way to pass the time

on the long hike down.

Snake in the trail

We made it down...

June 4th - 2011

Summer, Julie, Steve and Chris

Lone Peak #11 in 2010 -Nov 6th

2010-11-07T12:57:00.010-07:00

Just a quick post to record the latest Lone Peak hike. I thought that I was done hiking Lone Peak this year, but the last minute on Friday night a few of us decided to make the hike, and see if we could make it to the top.

The weather was good, especially for November, but the conditions for hiking were not the best. The snow was somewhere between needing snowshoes, and not needing them. I can't wait to try the hike when there is a lot more snow and we use snow shoes.

I also plan on making a post soon with a detailed description on how to hike Lone Peak via Jacob's ladder.

The following are pictures of Steve, Julie, Matt and me.

Steve and Julie reaching the Ennis Peak (Picture Tree) summit

Me, Julie and Steve with Lone Peak in the background

Julie, Matt and Steve heading into Cowboy camp.

Steve heading across the snow covered granite

The boulder field

Making the north assent to Lone Peak.

Matt climbing the north side.

Steve making his way to the peak.

The snow on the rocks made it a little

to risking for me.

The bathtub is full. This feels great in the summer,

but just a little too cold for this day.

Lone Peak #10 in 2010 - Sept 18

2010-09-19T17:22:00.004-06:00

On Saturday I hiked Lone Peak for the 10th time this year. I'd made the hike only 3 days earlier, but Dave was going to hike with one of his neighbors, Rudy Tillman, so I thought that I'd hike along with them for at least part of the way.

They took the the Cherry Creek trail. I started later than they did, but caught up with them a few miles up the trail. We stayed together until almost reaching the top of the draper ridge, and then I hiked on ahead.

It was such a beautiful day. I ended up being the first to the top - I never get tired of this hike.

Here are the pictures I took:

Rudy and Dave

Rudy and Dave heading up Draper Ridge

Trying to get in place before the self timer goes off...

I ran into Dave and Rudy on the way back down

The views from Draper Ridge are awesome

Lone Peak #9 in 2010 - Sept 15

2010-09-16T07:32:00.008-06:00

Steve Miles had talked with Nick Larsen and me about hiking to Lone Peak for some time now, so it turned out that Wednesday worked for our schedules. I was able to fit a vacation day in yesterday, and we hiked Lone peak via Jacob's ladder. This was my 9th trip to the top this year, and it was a perfect day for hiking. We couldn't have asked for a prettier day, and the temperature was perfect.

The first time I hiked Lone Peak back in 1984 was with Nick, and since then we've run/hiked it together multiple times over the years. However, it's been quite a few years since our last trip with each other - it was fun to make the trip together again.

It was also great to have Steve along for the hike. This was his first trip, and as Steve described, it was a lot harder than he'd ever expected. However, he stuck with it, and kept going, even though I'm sure there were several times when he'd questioned his judgement about joining us.

We left the trail head about 6:30.

Here's Nick and Steve with their first look over into Provo.

I love this part of the trail. We're almost to the top of Jacob's Ladder.

Almost to the bolder field.

Steve with Lone Peak in the background.

Nick and Steve near the top.

Steve heading back down.

Got to have a "Picture Tree" picture.

Lone Peak #8 in 2010 - Aug 21/2010

2010-08-28T20:06:00.001-06:00

This will be a short post, but I wanted to add a record to chronicle my 8th trip this year to Lone Peak. I didn't feel all that great Saturday morning, but I wanted to do some type of adventure for my B-Day. I woke up pretty early and headed up to Corner Canyon. It turned out that the overly cautious Draper City and Forest Service closed the corner canyon road.

Since I couldn't go up to Jacob's ladder, I parked in the Orson Smith trailhead parking lot. There were a bunch of people there trying to figure out how to get to Lone Peak, and a couple guys came up to me as I was putting on my back pack and asked if I knew a trail to take. I told them about the Cherry Creek trail, and asked if they wanted to hike with me to the top. Wes, Scott, Joe and Dallin ended up joining me for the hike, and they were great company. It turned out to be a awesome hike. It was the first time up to Lone Peak for all of them, so that's always fun. The weather was very nice until the last 3 or 4 miles back to the trail head when the temperature got into the high 90s.

I forgot my camera, so all of the following pictures with one exception came from Wes' and Scott's phone. Thanks for the great pictures guys!!!

Dallin, Joe, Wes and Scott part way up Cherry Creek trail.

Not a lot of water running through the Bathtub,

but still pretty cool.

Almost to the top. These guys did great.

The sky was so blue...

More pictures from the top.

Back down at the Picture Tree.

I like this picture Wes took of draper ridge.

From here on it got pretty hot, but we still made it down.

Lone Peak #7 in 2010 - July 30th - Cherry Creek and Trail of the Eagle

2010-07-31T20:30:00.002-06:00

Dave called last night and asked - "so what are we doing tomorrow..."

That's all that was needed for my 7th hike to Lone Peak this year. This was probably the longest of the Lone Peak options. We went up the Cherry Creek trail to the top of Lone Peak, and then we came down the Little Willow drainage to the Outlaw Cabin. From there, we hiked down Trail of the Eagle to the bottom.

Going down the Little Will drainage was nice, especially with all the wild flowers out, but I still like Cherry Creek better. The total round trip of the hike was a little over 15 miles. We kept a pretty good pace, but didn't push too hard.

You can get a detail picture of the trail we took from the Garmin GPS link below. I've also included a screen shot of the trail.

Click this Link for Garmin Details

Cherry Creek trail offers great views

Dave on the top of Draper Ridge

Almost to the top

Looking over into Bell's Canyon

Shortly after cutting from the Top over into the Little Willow Drainage

Working our way down to the meadows

The Cabin is in the pines just to the left of Dave

This is such a cool old cabin

The meadow just below the cabin

Lone Peak #6 - July 24th 2010

2010-07-24T20:56:00.007-06:00

This is the 3rd blog post this week, but I wanted to add a few picture from today's hike. This has been a great week for hiking. Last Saturday and then Thursday (chronicled in previous post) I was able to hike lone peak with team members from work. We had a great time.

I hadn't planned on going to lone peak this morning, but I woke up around 5:30, and figured that since it was going to be a beautiful day, I'd better not waste the opportunity. On this hike I took the Cherry Creek trail. I think I like Cherry Creek best of all the trails.

This was my 6th trip to lone peak this year and 3rd in the last 8 days. Even though I'd hiked just a couple days earlier, I actually felt pretty good, so I pushed at a steady pace and made it to the top in 3:32 minutes.

Here are the Garmin Details of the hike: Cherry Creek to Lone Peak at Garmin Connect

It was pretty hot today, and I started a little later than usual.

I didn't take many pictures on the way up, and when I reached the "lunch spot" just below the peak, I meet 3 other hikers who'd never been to top. I hadn't planned on doing the last section to the peak, but since they'd never been before, I showed them the best path to the top. They did great, and they seemed much more comfortable with heights than I am.

I hiked back down off the top before they did and took the next two pictures of them standing on the peak. I gave them my blog address - hopefully they are able to grab these pictures.

It was such a pretty day today. The sky was extra blue and clear.

A couple climbers were in a section of the face (more to the right) than I've seen before.

I was able to get pretty close to this Rock Chuck. They are a lot bigger than you'd think.

I love this "bath tub." I can't believe in all the times I've been up here, I hadn't located it before.

Lone Peak #5 - July 22nd 2010

2010-07-23T20:30:00.003-06:00

Last Saturday I was able to go with several people from work up to Lone Peak. On Thursday, Derrick Cameron and Derek O'Neill joined Steve, Julie, Harry and me on another hike to Lone Peak.

I had a great time. It was such a beautiful day. The weather was a little bit hot on the way back, but it still does not get much prettier. This was Derrick's, Derek's and Harry's first time up to Lone Peak, and they all did great.

We only saw two other people on the hike, so we almost had the mountain to ourselves. On the way down, Harry and I took the Jacobs ladder route because Harry had to get down early, and Steve, Julie, Derrick and Derek took the Cherry Creek trail down. Here are some pictures from the hike:

Derrick, Steve, Derek, Harry and Julie
at the Jacob's Ladder trail head

The next 3 pictures are on the Jacobs Ladder trail

The Picture Tree (~9100 feet)

Walking towards Cowboy Camp with the Provo valley in the background.

The next pictures are after leaving Cowboy Camp

Making our way up the boulder chute

This picture was taken a few hundred yards from the top

Proof that sometimes I do go to the "real" peak

Harry pointing at the survey marker,
which according to Steve (wikipedia) is incorrect...

Steve and Julie at the top with some cool flowers in the foreground

If you look closely, you can see Derrick coming down the chute from the peak.
The reason for the picture was only 5 days ago this
chute was totally cover in a snow field. Today there
was only a little patch of snow left.

Down at the parking lot once again.

Lone Peak #4 - July 17th 2010

2010-07-18T07:22:00.010-06:00

This hike to lone peak was a lot of fun. It was fun going with a big group. I think there were more people on the trail than I can remember seeing before. This is the "before" picture of Charlie, Ronny, Steve, Julie, Ashley, Nate and Justin at the start of the hike.

It was great to have Ashley and Nate join on the hike.
Ashley hasn't done Lone Peak in 5 or 6 years. She did a great job.

This was Ronny's first trip to Lone Peak.
He did a great job.

Justin's waiting for the rest of the crew

Almost to the top.

Video of the Summit

Here's Ashley and Justin making their way to the peak.

Steve's watching as Justin, Charlie, Ashley and Ronny make the final summit

Glad to be at the bottom.
Looking forward to hamburgers at Astro Burger...

Lone Peak #3 - July 3rd - 2010

2010-07-05T10:09:00.011-06:00

This is my 3rd hike up Lone Peak this year. It was a perfect day. The temperatures were great, the sky was blue, and there was just a slight breeze.

6 others had planned on doing the hike with Steve and me, but by Saturday morning, just Steve and I made the hike. Lisa gave me a new camera for Father's day, so here are some of the pictures from this trip.

A group of people are in front of Steve.
We saw as many people on the trail as I think I've ever seen before.

Two weeks ago the Meadow in Cowboy Camp
was covered in snow.

Still lots of snow in the bolder field.

Not long ago this boulder was buried in snow

The next few pictures chronicle Steve's scramble to the Peak

If you look closely on the wall behind me,
you'll see two guys climbing the face.

The next two pictures zoom in on the climbers

Almost to Jacob's ladder

Big Willow & Lone Peak #2 2010

2010-06-26T12:40:00.010-06:00

This post is to chronicle a couple hikes. Lone Peak #2 on June 19th and Big Willow on June 26th.

last week on June 19th I hiked to lone peak. It was a last minute decision. I was not sure if I wanted to hike that day, but I woke up at about 5:30, got ready and went out for a hike up Lone Peak.

It turned out to be an incredible day. The weather was perfect, and although there was still tons of snow on the ground, it was hard packed.

This hike turned out to be one of the fastest "hikes" I've done to the top. I made it up to the summit from the Jacob's ladder trail head in 3 hrs and 3 minutes. I think I've done faster than that when I would run to Lone Peak, but most of those runs were up the Draper Ridge, and the few times I ran up Jacobs Ladder, I didn't keep the time.

I also forgot my camera on this trip, but here are a few pictures taken with my Phone.

The snow is finally starting to disappear
in the Cowboy Camp meadow

Here's the boulder field,
and a bolder in the middle is starting to show.

This picture was taking very close to the summit

Second Hike - This morning (June 26th) I wanted to see if I could find a better path to reach the Crow's Feet Ridge from Big Willow. The picture below is taken shortly after crossing over from Little Willow to Big Willow. I decided to bush whack over the ridge on the right side of the photo by hanging close to the rock cliffs.

It turned out to be a very hard trip. There was not trail, and most of the trip was through thick bushes that made the going slow. I took this picture on self timer as I finally neared the top.

Here's a picture of a cool huge pine tree at the very top of the ridge.

This was looking over into the other side.
There would have been a lot more bush whacking to make
it to the top of the Crow's Feet ridge, so now that I know
that this was not the best path, I called it a day.

Here is the path that I took today. I think in the winter this might be
the best way to get to the top of the Crow's Feet, but
in the summer, the path I took a couple years ago is much better.

This Map is turned at a little different angle than the map above,
but you can see how on this trip I went much higher up
Big Willow before crossing over into the next canyon and
then up to the top of the Crow's Feet ridge.

First hike to Lone Peak in 2010

2010-06-05T15:00:00.001-06:00

This was my first hike to the top of Lone Peak in 2010, and it turned out to be a great day. The weather was a little overcast, but it was still pretty warm.

There is still an incredible amount of snow up on Lone Peak. It was beautiful. Everything was totally covered. Last year we hiked to the summit on almost the exact same day in June, but there was a lot more snow this year.

The snow did make the going pretty hard, and we wished we'd taken our snow shoes. We were in snow from Cowboy camp to the top, and with each step we'd sink in pretty far, but it was worth the effort.

We saw about 5 Mountain Goats on Jacob's ladder. We normally don't see goats this low.
I missed the picture of one of the baby goats with the group.
It must have just been born, because it was the smallest I've every seen.

I've got to have at least one picture tree picture.

Steve with Utah Lake in the background.

Walking up through the boulder field - without the boulders

That rock in the snow to my right is
really a huge bolder about 10 feet high,
when not covered in snow.

Making my way up out of the cirque. This section is normally
a bunch of huge boulders and rock cliffs in the summer,
but today it was just a steep snow hill.

Steve is just making it up the last part of the north assent.
You can't tell from the pictures, but much of this section
was hard going, as we'd sink all the way in with each step.

We often see eagles flying around lone peak, and today was no exception.
However, as we started to head towards the top, we noticed
what looked like a bird on the snow cornice in about middle of this picture.

As we got closer, we could tell that it was a golden eagle.
It just sat there and didn't seem to care at all that we were there.

It was amazing to watch, and I feel terrible that the video I took
didn't turn out well, because after we watched the eagle for a minute,
it finally tired of us, just spread its wings, and slowly, and effortlessly,
lifted off the ground and soared around the peak.
That alone make the hike worth the effort.

Coming down was many times faster, however much of the time
the slushy snow would work it's way into my running shoes,
and I must admit that my feet were frozen.
It helped to empty the snow from time to time.

Here's Steve on the trip back down.
We made great time back to cowboy camp.

Zion's East Rim and Oak Grove to Signal Peak

2010-05-23T21:24:00.001-06:00

I take a little criticism about all my blog post being about hikes. In fact, when Lisa and Linda were driving Dave and me to the start of today's hike, I was complaining that I needed to get a connector to upload the pictures from my camera to my computer. Being the comedians that they are, I was told to just use pictures from previous hikes. No one would know the difference... That's probably true :)

Well anyway, I'd like to start out this post saying something non hike related...

Since Lisa and I are celebrating our anniversary this weekend, I must say that I'm grateful to have met Lisa and been married for all these years. I'm thankful to have such great wife and great kids. I'm proud of all of them.

Ok... for those who know me, that's about as mushy as I get, so now I'll move into more comfortable ground.

Here is a short description of the couple hikes that Dave and I went on this weekend.

The hike we did today was one that I've always wanted to do. When in St. George you can look to the north east and see the mountains that rise above the city. Some of the peaks rise 10,000 feet high, so Dave and I thought we'd try and reach the top.

We decided to hike to Signal Peak, and it turned out to be an awesome hike. Here are some directions that will hopefully save others some mistakes that we made:

To get to the trail head, drive about 15 miles northeast of St. George. and take the Leeds exit. Drive through leads and turn on Silver Reef road as shown below:

Silver Reef road turns in to Oak Grove road. You'll drive on the dirt road up the canyon for about 8 or 9 miles. Make sure that you take the right fork in the road or you'll end up back in St. George. After you take the right fork, you have about another 6 miles until you reach the Oak Grove campground. Once there, you'll see a parking lot and a trail head on the right side of the road. This is where you'll start the hike.

When Dave and I started the hike, we tried to follow the instruction on the sign behind us in this picture, but it turned out to be quite confusing - at least for us. We ended up taking the wrong trail, and added an extra 2+ miles to our hike. Since we didn't start our hike until later in the day, we didn't quite have enough time to reach the summit of Signal Peak - also, since there was so much snow at the top, and since we didn't have snow shoes, the going would have been very hard.

Here is a map of the path we took. The key is to take the trail to the right after you've gone only about 50 to 100 yards from the sign. We didn't do that...so we had to backtrack before getting back on the right trail.

You will know that you're on the right trail, because you'll start gaining altitude very quickly. We made it the summit of about 9800 feet, and we would have had a flat walk to get to signal peak, but from about 9000 feet to 9800 feet we were walking in snow, and since we were not familiar with the trail, we would have had a challenging time - snow shoes would have made things much easier. I was really surprised to see so much snow this late in the year.

Here are some pictures from the trip...
It was a very beautiful hike.

Dave...

Me...

When we hit the snow, it was a little more challenging staying on the trail.

The picture was taken from the top.

Here's looking towards the west into a beautiful little valley up on the top of the summit.
We were told that from here you can walk down into Pine Valley.
I'm going to do that later this year when the snow's gone.

I decided to add a couple hikes to this single post. On Thursday Dave and I hiked the East Rim of Zion's park. I also did this hike with Justin last year. I really love this hike.

Here are a few pictures from the day...

Big Willow Showshoeing

2010-04-17T14:08:00.006-06:00

Today Steve and I went on a snowshoeing hike up Little Willow to Big Willow. I really like this hike. This is really my first attempt at snowshoeing any distance, and I'm going to do a lot more of it. It was a lot of fun.

We hiked quite a way up Big Willow, and could have even gone further, but we decided to test out a new path to get from Big Willow over to the top of the Crows Feet ridge. From the map below you can see the direction we took. The last little left turn at the top took us up a very steep chute that would be a lot harder to make in the summer without snow. An avalanche had come down the same path a few days earlier, but the conditions were OK, so we climbed to the top, and we had a great view.

Just starting out. The infamous - "don't go any further..." sign

After crossing over into Big Willow from Little Willow,
we walk through the pines, where there is still a lot of snow.

Once we broke into the open, this turns into one of the more beautiful hikes around.
Here's Steve making his way up the steep hill. In places we could walk
on top of the snow, and other places we would sink in a little,
but it's amazing how well the snowshoes work.

The pictures don't do justice to how beautiful this canyon is - even with snow.

Here we are going up the chute. It's much steeper than it looks.

Here is a picture from the top of the chute.

It may have taken 30 minute or longer to get to the top of the chute,
but it only took a couple minutes to slide back down.

I'm looking forward to more hikes this year!

First Moab trip - 2010 - Ouch...

2010-04-12T11:41:00.000-06:00

So I wanted to do a quick post about our first Moab trip for the year 2010. Ronny Fehling was in Salt Lake, so I wanted to show him one of the best places that Utah has to offer - Moab...

Shaun and Dave joined us for a quick one day trip down to ride Slick Rock. The day turned out to be perfect - for some that is :)

We left Sandy about 5:30 AM, and made it down to Moab in good time. Ronny rented a bike from Poison Spider, and we hit the trail about 10:00 AM. It was such a beautiful day. Perfect riding weather.

This is my second time riding the Slick Rock trail on my new 29" bike, and it was Dave's first time on his. I must admit that although I love the new bike, I'm still not quite used to how it rides. It seems much better riding down steep hills, and climbing over rocks and ledges, but I still struggle a little with it on Slick Rock - I've fallen on some hills that I've ridden up many times without much problem on other bikes. I'm sure that we'll figure it out soon, but both Dave and I took a couple good falls... which leads me to the video below.

About 1/3 of the way into the course there is a fun hill that is always a good test. Here is a video of Dave making an attempt. Now there are a couple things that I want you to pay attention to.

First, if you look closely at his left shoulder after the fall, you'll notice it is not where it should be... yep, he dislocated his shoulder.

The second thing to notice is that he's not screaming his head off in pain.

There were a lot of people on the trail, but we couldn't find anyone who really knew how to reset a dislocated shoulder, so Dave and I decided to try and walk back out. Ronny and Shaun would continue on and finish the loop and meet us back in the parking lot.

Probably one of the reasons that I needed to stick with Dave stems from another injury he suffered back when we were around 16 years old. Dave and I were running/racing home to my house. We were side by side as we jumped the neighbors hedge about 75 yards from my house. Dave stumbled and fell as we cleared the hedge, so I kept running, happy in my victory at being faster in that race. When I got home I went in side and shut the door, waited for Dave to knock and admit his defeat. Dave didn't show up, and after about 10 minutes I figured he'd decided to turn around and go home. I got busy with other things and kind of forgot about Dave, but about 30 minutes later there was a knock on the door. When I answered the door, there was Dave, in great pain - he'd broken his hip and had to crawl to my house. Well... I figured this was my time to make it up to him - about 35 years late, but who's keeping track of time.

As we started backtracking on the trail we luckily had the help of a forest ranger who happened to be marking the trail. He took us a little off track to meet into the jeep road. There we ran into a vacationing Fireman in a tricked out jeep. This guy was so helpful. I was very nervous to ask for help, but I got about halfway through my description of what happened, and he said - "let's go get him."

The jeep guy put Dave and Dave's bike in the jeep and drove back to the parking lot. I rode my bike and waited for them there. It took them about an hour and a half to get out. I really don't think that with the pain Dave was in that there would have been any way for us to have walked out. We would have been in big trouble had we not run into this very nice and helpful Fireman from California.

Dave had quite an experience at the emergency room in Moab, and after two attempts, they finally put him out so they could pop his arm back into the socket.

Ok... So Dave does not feel bad about falling, here is a video of me falling - twice - just after Dave. On the first try I couldn't get out of my clips and almost went over the ledge, which would have been very interesting. On the second attempt I made it past the hard part, but I got a little off line and messed up. Luckily I didn't meet the same fate as Dave.

First attempt:

Second attempt:

(Thanks to Ronny for capturing these videos)

We are better riders than these videos might indicate, but always glad to take a fall for the enjoyment of all.

Hopefully I can make it back down to Moab soon - but hope for a much better day...

Easter in Fillmore

2010-04-03T20:07:00.007-06:00

As part of the Davies Easter family tradition we went to the farm in Fillmore. This year I wanted to ride my mountain bike part of the way, but the weather made it a little challenging.

We've had a lot of snow this spring, and the weather has been cold the last few days, but Friday started out sunny. I hoped to take a 1/2 day off work, but got a late start, so by the time Jake and I got to the starting point outside of Levan, it was a little too late in the afternoon. Also, the weather was starting to change. The wind was blowing hard, and it was getting much colder. Because of the late start, I decided to only try and do a 45 mile section. I've always wanted to take the back roads that parallel I15 from Levan to Fillmore.

Things started out pretty good, but with about 10 miles to Scipio it became quite miserable. It was very cloudy, and a cold headwind made going forward difficult. I wanted to at least make it to Holden, so I kept going and pushed forward. Once I made it over Scipio summit it was not as bad.

Here is a picture just before getting started.

I headed over to Yuba reservoir then cut back to Scipio.

I'm going to do this ride again - in the summer - when it's warmer.

It will be more enjoyable then...

We had a great time at the farm.

We did the typical Fillmore trip activities...

The weather wasn't perfect, but not that bad either...

We shot lot's of guns...

We 4 wheeled up in the sand hills.

We abused the junker car someone left behind...

We watched Mark recover from a fall off the motorcycle...

We listening to Becky's infamous Easter Egg Hunt lecture...

We held the Easter Egg Hunt...

We gave the "bigger kids" their turn...

A great time was had by all!

Spring Hike - Cherry Creek to Baldy

2010-03-20T15:48:00.004-06:00

I love spring, especially when we have a day like today.

After looking up at the mountain all winter long while using the Stair Stepper at that gym, it was great to finally get out for a real hike. Dave, Steve and I hiked from the Orson Hyde trail head up the Cherry Creek trail to the "Picture Tree" on the top of Baldy.

It was a great hike. We were in snow most of the distance, and it was pretty hard going, but still a lot of fun. I'd like to try it again with snowshoes. Snowshoes were not needed all the time, but it was pretty laborious going in sections without them.

The 4500 foot elevation gain took considerably longer in the snow, but going down in the snow is fast and easier on the knees.

I hope to do many more hikes in 2010 - it's good to get the first one in the books...

Here's a picture of Steve and Dave not too far up the trail.

Here's a picture of Steve and me a little higher up the hill.
Sticking to the south side of the ridge makes a big difference.

At about 7800 feet we saw cougar tracks crossing our path.
It had snowed last night, so we knew they were very fresh.

The cougar didn't sink in nearly as deep as we did.
It was cool to so clearly see the footprints.

Looking back down into the valley.
The cougar tracks are off to the right in this picture.

It was considerably colder as we reached about 9000 feet.
Steve's refueling...

This is the last pull before we reach our destination.

A hike up baldy is not complete without some pictures
standing by the "Picture Tree"

Ride & Tie - A Great Race

2009-12-04T20:52:00.013-07:00

I thought that it was about time to create a blog about the Ride & Tie, for it's the Ride & Tie that got me involved in everything endurance related. Back when I was 25 my brother Mike called and told me that his running partner had a friend, Nick Larsen, who needed a race partner. I'd always loved horses, so I thought that I'd give it a try.

That spring I met Mike, his running partner Tim Fenton and Nick for a test ride. Mike and Tim had done the Ride & Tie the year before, but this was a first for Nick and me. On this "test" ride we probably went out and rode/ran for about 5 miles, and you'd have thought we'd gone around the world. At that time I'm sure we never thought we'd be able to do 40 mile training rides and runs in the mountains, but over the next 10 to 15 years that's how it worked out. We improved each year, and about 4 years after the first Ride & Tie we had our best race chronicled in the video.

Justin, Karli, Jake and I were going through some old videos, and found a video of the Park City Ride & Tie. Using that old footage, I put the video below together.

The Ride & Tie race is amazing. It's exciting, tactical, dangerous, and many other things wrapped into a single tough race. I've run in many marathons, but they don't compare to the pain this race put one's body through.

The greatest part of the race is the friendships that are gained. Also, the bond and teamwork between the two runners and the horse is something you just don't find in other races, and can't adequately describe in words.

I hope you enjoy the video. We came pretty close to beating the two best Ride and Tie runners in the world (Con and Tod Wadsworth), but they got us in the last couple miles. I hope you also enjoy watching Nick's horse Dandy. He was without a doubt the best endurance horse I've ever seen. He was totally crazy, and every time we got on him our life was at risk, but he was truly special - that horse loved the Ride & Tie. He knew exactly what it was all about, and it was a challenge to hold him back during the entire 35 to 40 miles (the sportscaster said 26.2 miles in the video, but that was wrong). Dandy unfortunately died before his prime. The picture above was taking in the National Ride & Tie Championships in Gorman, California a few years after the Video below. Dandy died a few weeks after the picture was taken. Both Nick and I miss him greatly - even though we believe that he may have ended up killing one of us had he lived a few years more.

Enjoy:

Hiking Lone Peak, Dad and Porcupine Rim

2009-11-07T18:12:00.015-07:00

This post will cover a few random topics. I wanted to tell a little about my hike to lone peak today (11/7/2009), and then I've been thinking a lot about my dad this week, so I thought I'd mention a couple things about him. Finally, I'll show a few pictures of the Porcupine Rim mountain bike ride from a couple weeks ago.

So that brings me to the hiking section of this blog. This has been a great year for hiking - not bad for one year:

Lone Peak - 6 times
Timpanogos - 3 times
Mt Olympus - 1 time
Zion's North Rim - 1 time
Zion's South Rim - 1 time
To the top of Baldy only - 3 times

Today I hiked to Lone Peak, which was pretty cool considering that it's Nov 7th. I went alone, but still had a good time. It was a little hard going with the snow at the higher altitudes. The snow had a hard crust, and with every step I'd sink in about 8 to 12 inches. It made the going slow and exhausting.

I don't have any pictures of the best part of the hike - the snowy section towards the top, because I lost the camera on my way up. Losing the camera caused me some frustration because I wasted a lot of time trying to find it.

I decided to try taking the new chute from the cirque to the top, but as I got a little more than 1/2 way up the chute, the snow became very icy, and it was a little too dangerous, so I backtracked and went up the old trail where there was less snow. As I was making my way up the north side to reach the top of Lone Peak, I reached for the camera to take a picture, and realized that the camera was no longer in my pocket. I thought that I'd probably lost it on the chute, so I had to hike back up the ice in hopes of finding the camera, but it was not there. By that time I was pretty tired, and it was frustrating trying to retrace my steps, especially in the rocky sections. I didn't want to lose that camera however, since it's really Karli's camera :) - so I kept looking.

I did finally end up getting very lucky and found the camera in a snow patch by the bolder field.

I was glad that I found the camera because I was able to get a picture of this tarantula that was right next to the 4-runner. I had a good time playing with it...

Now to change subjects... I think about my dad quite often, but I though about him even more this week.

The death of our friend Neil this week from H1N1 made me think how sad it is to have a father pass away too young. I feel very sorry for Neil's kids. Neil was way too young to leave his family, and I'm sure they will miss their dad all the time.

Dad died when I was 39, and I often think about how he would have loved to participate in the major events that have occurred in our kids' lives since then. He would have been proud of each of them.

While hiking today my dad was on my mind even more. For some reason I kept thinking about how he met me at mile 20 on my first marathon and ran along with me for a mile or two. I wish he were around to hike lone peak with me. I'm sure he would have loved that hike.

Dad as a young man up in the Fillmore Mountains

Finally, just a couple quick notes and pictures about the porcupine rim ride I did a few weeks ago. On Monday, Oct 26th I took the day off, got up at 3:15 AM, and drove down to Moab to meet Steve and a couple of his friends (Harry and Dave). We met at Poison Spider and took the shuttle up into the La Salle mountains. The shuttle took us up to 9500 feet. We could not go all the way to the very top because of too much snow. We then rode 26 miles down single track and over slick rock. This is a great ride, and the scenery is amazing.

Timpanooke Trail - Emerald Lake - B25 Bomber

2009-09-27T08:35:00.013-06:00

This is my 3rd hike up to Timp via the Timpanooke trail this year. In my previous posts I provide more detail on how to get to the trail head and the length of the hike. I enjoy looking back at the pictures and seeing the difference in the scenery between the hikes taken in June, July and now in September.

Here are the links to the past posts:

First Timpanooke Trail hike - June 27th, 2009
Second Timpanooke Trail hike - July 18th, 2009

Here is the video Justin made of the hike.

This hike was a lot of fun. The total distance of this hike was 16.5 miles - due to the B25 hunt. On my previous two hikes up Timp I went alone, so this time it was fun to have Steve, Julie and Justin join me. It was a perfect day for a hike.

On this hike went to the summit, then we went around on the west side to the glacier/snow field that drops down into Emerald Lake. After making the big loop, we took an additional journey to find the B25 bomber that crashed back in 1955. Steve had the GPS coordinates for the crash site, which helped us locate the wreckage with just a little searching. I'll describe that in a little more detail later in the post - The yellow arrow show the location of the crash site.

Almost to the meadow before making before making the last push to the top.

It's amazing to see the difference in this meadow
between June, July and now. I missed going in the month
of August, which I'm sure would be the best month to see
the wildflowers.

Here we are almost to the saddle. I love this view of the meadow we just crossed.

We just reached the top, and now have a great view of Provo.

We still have a good hike to the summit, but it's visible in the distance.

Steve doing his Karate kid impersonation

Justin - with a great view of the valley

Here's Julie and Steve making their way to the top,
but the real reason for taking the picture is to show
these 2 little kids heading back down after reaching the summit.
If they can do it, I guess anyone can.

Justin - with the summit in view

These pictures are taken after we made it to the top
and made our way around the other side.
I really like taking the trail to the snow field. The views on that
side of Timp are some of the best.

After reaching the glacier we looked way up in the cliffs and
saw a herd of goats. This picture is zoomed in, in the following
picture you can see the same cliff without the zoom.

In this picture I'm just getting ready to start down the snow field.
The Last time I made the hike in July there was a huge snow cornice right here,
and although it was a fast slide down in July, it was a lot safer.
This time the snow field was icy and covered with rocks,
which made the trip down more difficult than a few months
earlier. If you decide to take this route later in the summer, you'll
want to be careful. Having poles help.

Emerald Lake...

After making our way around the big loop,
we took a detour and found the B25 wreckage. There are several trails to the crash,
but we followed the trial from the "toilet" sign located at the far east side of the meadow.
If you follow that trail for about 3/4 of a mile,
you'll find the B25 wreckage. It's not the simplest place to find,
and you need to hike up a steep hill to the west that will get you onto a shelf.
The arrow in the Google earth image at the first of this post should help.

This was another great hike!!!

Lone Peak - 9/18/2009

2009-09-19T14:47:00.008-06:00

This will be a very short post, but I made another hike to Lone Peak today and wanted to make a quick record of the trip.

I went by myself this time and decided to go at a good pace and see how long it would take to make it to the top.

I took the Jacob's Ladder trail and left right around 7:00 AM.

It took me 3 hrs and 15 minutes to reach the top.

It was a very beautiful day and another great hike.

Also, here is a video that Justin made for our hike from a couple weeks ago.
Justin did a great job.

Lone Peak - 9/7/2009 - Labor Day

2009-09-08T16:54:00.021-06:00

Ok, I will admit again that 99% of my posts are about hiking and biking, but it's fun to record the trip's memories in pictures on a blog. I wish that I had been doing this for years. I would guess that I've run and hiked to Lone Peak closing in on 40 times, and I would love to have a record of all those hikes. I wish even more that I had recorded how long each hike took and all the different trails that we've taken to the top.

This trip was one of the best Lone Peak hikes. The weather was just perfect. It was a little windy, but that even helped keep it cool. This trip was especially fun because it was Nate's first Lone Peak hike. It's always fun to go with someone on their first trip.

One of the best parts of the hike was all the different wild life that we saw on the hike. I think we saw more deer than I've ever seen before. We also saw mountain goats in several locations and a golden eagle, which I'll tell about later in the post.

Here is a picture of Nate, Justin, Dave and me at the start of the hike.
We started the hike around 6:40, and 4 hours later we made it to the summit.

It doesn't take long to gain enough altitude to see into the Provo valley.

Nate thinking "when you're looking down on a helicopter after only
hiking for a short period of time, something is wrong"

I like these pictures of Justin and Nate.
They show the steepness of the Jacob's Ladder trail.

It's always nice to reach the top of baldy and make
it to the "picture" tree. There's still a lot of
hiking left, but it's more scenic.

Heading towards Cowboy Camp.

Heading out of Cowboy Camp.

Breaking into the open granite fields.

The last time we were in this section on July 4th
this was all covered with a deep snow field.

Here we are just below the cirque.
Nate's working the cramps out of his legs.

Making our way up the steep chute out of the cirque to the summit.

After making it over the final north ridge to the summit,
we looked up and there were 5 mountain goats right
in front of us just 50 yards from the peak. They stood there
for awhile and then walked around and down the
east side of the peak - the side one would not think of hiking down.

This was also an incredible part of the hike.
While at the top a golden eagle entertained us for about 15 minutes.
At times he was only 50 feet from us, and he put on quite a show.
He would gain altitude, then tuck in his wings and drop several hundred feet
before pulling up to gain altitude.
He'd then do a perfect barrel roll into another dive.
It was amazing to watch. It was like he was out there playing for his own enjoyment.

Here is a video of the eagle.

Here are some pictures of Justin and Nate at the top.

Here's Dave looking into Bell Canyon near the top.

Just to the south of Lone peak is question mark wall.
If you zoom in on this picture, you'll see a guy climbing up
the sheer face, and another person at the top.
Follow the crack in the rock that runs from top to bottom
on the left side of the picture.

Here's Justin and Nate looking over into Bell Canyon.

We saw another 3 goats feeding in the meadow on the north side of the peak.

Here is one picture of the many deer that we saw on this hike.
This is just down from the cirque.

Heading back through Cowboy Camp.

Walking towards baldy before the hike down Jacob's Ladder.

Here's another video - one of my favorite views.

The required "picture tree" picture.

Here's a video of the the best way to make time down Jacob's ladder.
We usually run most of the way down from the top of Baldy to the trail head.

We made it!
4 hours to the peak.
1 hour messing around at the top.
3 hours down.
A pretty fast trip.
Lot's of great memories.

Moab - August 8th

2009-08-08T17:18:00.004-06:00

This morning the weather was supposed to be bad in Salt Lake, and nice in Moab, so I woke up early and drove the the 225 miles down to Moab. It's normally 104 degrees in Moab this time of year, but a cool front moved in and the temperature was perfect for a bike ride. The car temperature gauge showed 37 degrees on the top of Soldier summit, and it was in the high 70's Low 80's on the Slick Rock trail.

As you can see from the picture in the parking lot, hardly anyone was there, which is normal for the middle summer months.

It turned out to be a beautiful day. I finished the ride a little after 12:00, grabbed a quick lunch (no Lisa, I did not eat in your new car), and made it home around 4:00. Not a bad day...

Since I went on this adventure alone, it was
nice to run into some company along the trail. Ed, who I met not too long into the course,
was down in Moab on a family vacation, and we ended up riding most of the trail together.

I gave Ed the address to this blog, and posted a few pictures picture I took of him.
Ed is from Florida, and this was his first time to Moab.

Moab's a great place. I never get tired of riding Slick Rock.

Timpanooke Trail - 7/18/2009

2009-07-19T09:02:00.028-06:00

This is my second Timp hike this year, and this one turned out to be great. The weather was perfect the scenery was amazing.

For those of you who don't know, you get to the Timpanooke trailhead by driving up American Fork canyon about 8 miles past the forest service booth at the mouth of the canyon. You stay on highway 92. The parking lot is just above the Timpanooke campground (one of the biggest challenges about doing the hike is finding a parking place). Sure enough, when I arrived around 7:00 AM, the parking lot was full. I talked with some guys I met on the hike, and they told me the parking lot was full at 4:00 AM as lots of people do the hike during the night to see the sunrise. I had to drive up the road about a mile and found a place to park in a campground.

I got started about 7:15, and it took just under 3 hours to make it to the summit. I did hike at a fast pace, stopping periodically along the way to take pictures. I think the hike to the summit could take around 4 or 5 hours.

Here is a Google Earth screen shot of the hike -
about 14 miles total with the extra Emerald Lake loop.

Below is a picture of parking lot where the hike begins.
There were literally 100s of people on the trail.

Not far up the trail, I ran into this guy standing
right in the middle of the trail.

I love the views as the hike progresses up the mountain.

About 2 or 3 weeks ago when I made this same hike,
this meadow was buried in many feet of snow. In a few weeks
this will be covered in wild flowers.

The Timp Saddle is the middle of the picture.

Once reaching the Saddle, the views are amazing.

For the first time the Provo Valley is visible.

There is still some hike left to the top, but the views are amazing.

The small hut at the very top can be seen in the distance.

Almost there...

Here is a picture looking back down the trail I had just walked up.
This picture was taken from the hut at the top.

Here is a picture looking towards the East into Emerald lake.

I decided to make the loop around Timp, and go down the
"glacier" into Emerald lake as opposed to backtracking.
This picture was taking after heading south of the summit.

Here is a video from the top:

Top of Timpanogos from Patrick Davies on Vimeo.

Going to the south provides for even better views of the Provo valley.

Here are a couple videos from the top of the snow slide. The second video is of Sammy,
whom I meet on the trail, making the slide down the snow field:

Mt Goat on Timpanogos snow field from Patrick Davies on Vimeo.

Sliding down Timpanogos snow field from Patrick Davies on Vimeo.

This picture was taken of the huge snow field I just slid down.

Emerald lake was very cool. Most of it is still frozen,
but it was crystal clear. I imagine it will be even more beautiful
in a couple weeks.

There were Mt. Goats all over the meadow by the lake.

Here is yet another video:

Mt Goats by Emerald Lake - Timpanogos from Patrick Davies on Vimeo.

There is another very cool snow field slide below the meadow.
Since I was alone, I couldn't ask anyone to film me,
so I just took a video of a random guy:

Another Timp snow field slide from Patrick Davies on Vimeo.

Here is a picture of one of the many water falls along the trail.

Heading towards the bottom.

The wild flowers are starting to bloom in the lower elevations.

Here is a look back at Timp.
I hope to do this hike again this year.

Lone Peak - July 4th

2009-07-08T21:22:00.012-06:00

So it seems like most of my blog posts are about hikes, but since Justin was able to hike to Lone Peak with me for the first time in a few years, it's worth a blog post.

Dave, Justin, Steve, Julie and I had planned on hiking to Lone Peak on Friday, but the weather was bad, so we had to postpone until the 4th. The weather report was still a little iffy on Saturday, but we decided to give it a go anyway, and it turned out to be a great day. The only exception was some bad weather that moved through just as we hit the peak.

As always, the start of the hike has beautiful
views right away.

There was still a lot of snow on the way up.
Here is the large bolder field just before reaching
the cirque, and it was still covered with snow.

A little storm started to move in just before we got to the top.
Here is Justin crossing the last section before the top.
Justin did great job for his first hike this year.

Steve also went to the peak, but he snapped the following
two pictures of Justin before joining him on top.

We had our usual fun time sliding down the snow fields
as we made our ascent. This time Steve came prepared.
The garbage sack made for a great improvised sled.

Here's a video of Justin sliding down down using a rain jacket as a sled.

This area is a little steeper than it looks on video, or at least that's my excuse for almost falling several times.

I'm not sure why, possibly because I hurt my leg a little,
and was not paying attention like I should have, but
I ended up leading us a little astray towards the bottom.
I should have listened to Steve, who caught the mistake early...
Still, the scenery was great...

Here we are in Cowboy Camp, and pictures don't
do it justice.

We're almost to the picture tree...

It was great to make the hike with Justin...

... and with Steve and Julie

Timpanooke Trail

2009-06-27T21:32:00.013-06:00

Last night we all went to a movie, and it was kind of late when I got to bed, so I wasn't sure if I wanted to go on a hike in the morning. I set my alarm for 5:30 just in case, and since I had never hiked Timpanogos before, when my alarm went off, I forced myself out of bed and made the drive up American Fork canyon to the Timpanooke trail.

What an amazing place to hike. I can't believe that I've never hiked Timp before. As I'll describe later, there was still too much snow to make the summit, but that didn't matter. The hike was so pretty, that it was worth the effort. I talked with several people along the way, and they told me that the best time to do the hike is in August, when the upper meadow is covered in wildflowers. I can hardly wait to make this hike several times later this summer.

It doesn't take long to start seeing beautiful views along the way. The hike is much easier than Lone Peak, and there are lots of switchbacks so it's not terribly steep - in fact, this is a perfect mountain running trail. Here is a picture looking back down the trail, with Lone Peak in the distance.

Scout falls can be seen in the distance.

Here's a closer view.

This pictures was taken above Scout Falls.

Still making my way up towards Timpanogos meadow.

As is shown below, there is still a lot of snow in the meadow.
I actually had to hike up over some big snow fields before even reaching the meadow.

This picture below does not show it very well, but at this point I had actually hiked up quite high out of the meadow. This was the only section of the trail that was not covered by snow. I went a little further up the snow field, but no one else had gone higher, and some people with crampons had turned back, so I decided to end the hike before reaching the summit, and come back another time and enjoy the hike when there's less snow.

I'm crappy at the video narration, but here goes...

Timpanogos Hike from Patrick Davies on Vimeo.

Hiking Mt. Olympus

2009-06-16T17:20:00.014-06:00

I wanted to get one last hike in while taking some time off from work, so today I hiked up Mt Olympus. I've never hiked all the way to the top before, so it was fun to take the time and make it to the summit.

Be sure and check out the video of the rattlesnake at the bottom of the post.

Just getting started...

This hike offers a good view of the back side of Lone Peak

There were nice views of the Great Salt Lake, visible in this
picture on the far right.

This last section required some bolder hoping to get to the top,
but the view makes the climb worth the effort.

The Mt Olympus hike is not super hard, but it's still a pretty good pull - especially the
last section which is steep and requires some boulder hopping.

I ran into this guy and his dog on the trail. The dog made it all the way to the summit,
which I would not have thought possible.

The top of Mt Olympus.

I ran down from the top, and as I was getting closer to the bottom, I saw a guy and his dog on the switchback below coming up the trail.

I was paying attention to them, and not watching the trail as closely as I should have been, but Luckily I figured out in time that what looked like a stick laying in the middle of the trail was really a rattlesnake.

I slammed on the brakes just in time and stopped just a couple feet before stepping right on the guy in the picture below.

Before I could get my camera out, he moved off the trail a little.

Here is an picture and a video...

Rattlesnake - Mount Olympus Trail from Patrick Davies on Vimeo.

Mt Biking - Leeds to St. George

2009-06-15T17:26:00.007-06:00

Today I rode my Mountain Bike from Leeds to St. George via the Silver Reef road. Leeds is about 15 miles outside of St. George, but when taking the Silver Reef dirt road up into the Mountains, it makes the trip about 24 miles to St. George, and 31 miles to the condo.

Here is the trail marked on Google Earth.

Lisa drove me to the start of the dirt road this morning, and from here there is about 11 miles of mostly up hill. The rest is downhill into St. George.

It's not a tough ride, but the elevations starts around 3200 feet and reaches 5300 at the highest point.

Ready to start...

After going up hill for a long time there is a long flat section
before making another good gain in altitude.

There's a very cool ranch up on top. A stream passes
through, so everything was very green with lots of trees
(at least for being in the desert)

One section had very cool rock formations in a rock canyon.

Notice the section of rock that looks almost fake.
It's like someone poured cement and stamped it.

Here's a close up. This canyon was worth the ride...

I had a little fall before reaching the top, and
as you can see - the sprocket did a number on my calf.

I reached the top, and the rest is down hill...

I'm getting closer to St. George, and the
scenery has totally changed...

St. George - Red Rocks

2009-06-14T11:19:00.006-06:00

On the north end of St. George there are red rock cliffs that make for fun exploring and cool pictures.

In this picture we're hiking up to the "Dixie" cliff.

Up on the Dixie cliff looking out over St. George.

Not far from the Dixie cliff there is a very cool slot
in the Rocks. This picture is taken at the very
beginning. Climbing through the slot
requires a very, very tight squeeze for about 50 yards.

This picture is looking back down towards the start.

There are sections where I had to lay on the ground
and side stroke through tight parts, and
I still almost got stuck.
It's not for anyone with claustrophobia.

Here is looking at the slot from the top.

It's hard to see, but the hikers are about 20+ feet below.

Here are a few family pictures....

Anyone who knows my love of heights
will know what's really below me...

Zion's Park - East Rim Trail - Observation Point

2009-06-12T18:00:00.017-06:00

I went hiking in Zion's Park again today, and this time Justin came along. It was great to have Justin with me. We hiked the East Rim Trail and went up to Observation Point. I liked this hike as much, if not more than the West Trim Trail.

It was a little more hazy today, but still perfect weather for hiking.

This shot shows the cliffs across the street from the Weeping Rock/East Rim Trail.

The trail gains altitude quickly.

There is a cool slot canyon section about a 1/3 the way
up to Observation Point.

We saw hawks circling above. This picture isn't that great...

The views from the trail are beautiful.

Observation Point was amazing.

While taking pictures at the top of Observation Point,
Justin walked over to look off the south edge.
A lady asked him if he wanted to see a rattlesnake.
This bad boy was just a few feet away. It was huge - almost
as thick as a mans arm. You can't tell from the picture,
but just to the left of the snake is a very, very
long drop to the canyon floor.

Here is a video of the snake...

The rest of the pictures are making our way back
down the trail to "Weeping Rock"

Here are the Garmin tracks shown on Google Earth

Zion's Park - West Rim Trail

2009-06-11T16:30:00.013-06:00

Lisa, Jake, Karli and I decided to head down south to St. George for a few days. It turned out to be a good decision, since the weather in Salt Lake has been way too stormy for this time of year.

Today I decided to try a hike in Zion's, which is less than an hour drive from St. George.

Zion's is an amazing place. It's sad to say that I've only been here a few times, and the last time was many years ago when we hiked the Zion's Narrows.

Today I hiked up the West Rim Trial to Angel's Landing, then to the "Cabin Springs" on the West Rim trail. What a beautiful hike. I think it was only around 10 miles round trip, but there was some pretty good elevation gain up to the springs. I took a few pictures of the hike. I hope to do the East Rim trail within the next couple days... So hopefully I'll have more pictures later.

This is at the start of the hike just after crossing the Virgin river
by the "Grotto" trail head.

Starting up the switchbacks, heading towards
Angel's Landing

This section is very cool. There are about 25
switchbacks cut into the mountain. They
gain some elevation just before the start of Angel's Landing.

Angel's Landing has a chain in places that helps
when climbing the steep sections.
One slip and you're a goner!

Here is the last ridge up Angel's Landing.
Not fun for anyone who is afraid of heights (like me...)

Looking back down into the canyon below.

After Angel's Landing, I continued on up the West Rim trail.
Although the trail earlier was quite crowded,
not many continue on up the trial, and I only ran into
a few people.

After making a climb out of Angel's landing, things
open up again. There are huge cliffs all around.
The water stains shown below are from
"Cabin Springs," which is my final destination.

The trail is very cool. It's cut into the side of the rock cliff.

Once making it to the top, the Spring is not much
to talk about, but the hike to it was well worth
the effort.

I saw quite of few Sego Lilies along the way -
not a bad State Flower...

Walking back down the trail below Angel's Landing
there was an Owl in a tree right along the trail.
It was only 10 feet away, and seem totally content to
sit there and sleep.

The next couple pictures were taken after
arriving back to the bottom of the trail.

Lone Peak Hike - 6/6/09

2009-06-08T08:07:00.024-06:00

Last week I took a test hike up to Cowboy camp to see if we would be able to make it to the top of Lone Peak this week, and I had my doubts. There was so much snow in Cowboy camp, which is about 1/2 way, that I thought the going might be too hard. However, that same week Dustin, who works with my sister Sheri, sent me some great pictures of his hike up the Phifferhorn and down Bell Canyon. He told me that the snow was hard enough to walk on, so when this weekend rolled around, Dave Winnie, Steve Karafiath, Charlie Burnett and I decided to give it a go.

The weather reports said that it was supposed to rain around 11:00 AM, but it turned out to be a beautiful day. The snow wasn't bad to walk on at all, in fact, it often made walking up the mountain easier, and the down hill was even better.

It was fun to have Charlie come along on this hike. Charlie is from Atlanta and lives in Massachusetts. It's always a lot of fun to be with others when they experience Utah's awesome mountains for the first time. Steve and Charlie also made this great video.

Steve, Charlie and Dave - Just getting started...

Almost to Cowboy Camp

This bowl usually requires walking over and around car
sized boulders. Now it's all covered with snow...

Steve and Charlie nearing the top.

We stopped here, just a 100 yards or so from the top.
We had on running shoes, and one slip on the
icy snow would have been fun for a few minutes,
but the 500 foot fall would have ruined the day...

Enjoying the view on the way back off the mountain.

Steve and Charlie getting ready for
"Peanut Butter Jelly time"

Ashley's Wedding

2009-05-31T09:44:00.008-06:00

So Ashley's wedding was on Friday 5/29/09. We had a couple great days. The wedding dinner on Thursday was a lot of fun, and it was very nice to meet the Roe family and their friends. It was also a lot of fun to learn more about Nate.

I'll continue to add to this post over the next couple day's, but for now, I wanted to post two of Ashley's bridal pictures taken by her cousin Courtney Winnie.

Lisa had David Perry do a "Wedding Video" that turned out very nice. Although the actual video contained more than what is below, here is the "Date Video" and "Temple Video"

Nate & Ashley Date from David Perry on Vimeo.

Nate & Ashley Wedding from David Perry on Vimeo.

Moab - Slickrock Trail - Trip #1-2009

2009-05-18T23:50:00.000-06:00

I've not posted a blog for quite awhile, but last Friday Steve Karafiath and I took a quick trip down to Moab, so it's time for a post.

Moab is one of the most amazing places I've ever visited. I never get tired of the Slickrock trail, and this trip was a lot of fun, especially since it was Steve's first time making the ride. The weather was perfect, and we had a great time.

Most of the following pictures were taken by Steve - including the video (thanks Steve!!!).

As you might notice from the video below, I was pretty tired when we hit the end of the trail, but it was still fun to try one of the last hills found just off the marked trail.

The hill might appear slightly steeper than it really is, but it's pretty steep. It's the hill Dave and I usually test our climbing ability on each time we ride Slickrock. It's fun to try and keep forward momentum going, not lug out, not lean too forward and lose back tire traction, or not far enough forward and pop a wheelie, and most of all, not stall. Stalling causes a very slow ascent to turn into a very fast backwards decent.

Enjoy the pictures and Video.

Here's the Video Steve took:

Backyard Deer

2009-01-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

We have a lot of deer pass through the lot, and sometime we catch a glimpse of them. More often than not, we don't see them at all - which was apparent by the nightly damage inflicted upon the garden this summer.

Now that the dog is gone (we miss you Hurley), they are not scared away as quickly as before. However, I usually fail to get the camera out in time get a picture of the rare buck willing to pose. Last night was the exception. Just as evening was setting in, a herd of about 10 deer passed through the upper lot, with a couple nice bucks in the bunch. The guy in the picture below stood still long enough to take a quick shot.

The picture below was taken with a zoom lens, and I could not hold still. Plus, it was a lot darker than it appears from the picture, so it's a little grainy. Still, not a bad 4 point.

Outlaw Cabin to Lone Peak Cirque

2008-10-25T20:07:00.000-06:00

Today Steve Ellis, Steve and Julie Karafiath and I decided to make one last Lone Peak hike before winter hits. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Our plan was to hike to the Outlaw Cabin, and then determine if we wanted to head up to Lone Peak.

Here's Steve, Julie and Steve just before heading out from the
Conner Canyon lower parking lot to the Trail-of-the-Eagle.

After hiking a long time in the shade, we finally broke out into the sun.
I love this section of the hike.

We made it to the Cabin...

People have stocked a small cupboard with a few "essentials"

After the cabin, we decided to see how far we could make it up towards Lone Peak.
Instead of going south over the ridge to "Cowboy Camp" and then on up to Lone Peak,
We decided to do a little exploring and head directly east and see if the
canyon in which the cabin is located would lead to Lone Peak.
It turned out to be a very beautiful hike.

After a long hike, and reaching an altitude of over 10,500 feet,
we got to a step ridge that drops down into the Lone Peak cirque.
At the top of our hike, we crossed through a very cool solid granite bowl.
Although it's a long way, this is a nice alternative to the more common
Jacob's ladder up to Lone Peak.

We had to make the decision if we wanted to make the last assent up to Lone Peak,
but since we were there just last week, and we were running short on time,
we headed back home.

As we passed again through the granite bowl,
Steve K. climbed on top of a cool camel's hump rock.

Steve E. and I joined in the fun...

Once again, it was an awesome day. Thank you Steve, Julie and Steve for making it a great hike!!!

Lone Peak - the hike never gets old

2008-10-19T09:38:00.000-06:00

Saturday - 10/18/08 - Another great trip to the top of Lone Peak.

This trip was a lot of fun. Steve, Julie and Shaun came along, and it was their first trip to the top of Lone Peak. It's always fun to take others up to Lone Peak, and have them enjoy what we often take for granted in our own back yard. Steve took the picture above from the top of Baldy.

Steve and Julie recently moved to Utah from Maryland for the ski season. We've been talking about doing this hike, and the weather warmed up enough to give the hike a try. The evening before the hike Shaun Stevenett called and wanted to join us, and it was fun to have him along.

Steve posted a much better blog post than I did, so hopefully he wont mind that I provide a link to his blog. Steve also has a youtube video on his blog that does a great job of showing what it's like from the very top.

Steve and Julie's blog
Steve's Youtube Video

Steve, Julie and Shaun did great on the hike. In fact, as you'll see in the pictures below, Steve made the last 75 yard scramble to the peak. Something I don't really enjoy even when there's no snow on the rocks, and something that I was too chicken to do when the rocks are covered with snow and ice.

I've included a lot of pictures. Hopefully you'll enjoy...

Starting at the trail head of "Jacob's Ladder"

Making progress towards the top of Baldy.

I like this tree - We took pictures again on the way down when the lighting was better.

Shaun in a death defying climb...
Hopefully you can't see his feet touching the ground.

A little more than 1/2 way there, but a great view.

As we approached the cirque, we ran into more snow.

We're getting close to the top.

Here is where we ate lunch,
while Steve made the final scramble to the top.

Here's Steve - almost on the top...

...and now victorious...
One thing you can't tell from the photo above and below - if you slipped,
you'd keep going for 600 feet or so before hitting the ground.

On our way back down to Cowboy camp.

Here we are back at the top of baldy.
The lighting's a little better,
so here's some picture repeats.

Everyone at the finish line.

Time to head home. What a great hike!!!

Lone Peak to BigWillow

2008-09-27T19:21:00.000-06:00

This Saturday Jason, Dave and I hiked up to Lone Peak. The hike was great, at least on the way up, but the section from Lone Peak down to Big Willow will rank in the top tier of stupid things that Dave and I have done. Since we've been doing stupid things together since we were 15 years old, that's saying a lot. I'll provide more detail on Big Willow a little later in this post, but for now, here's an overview of today's hike.

I figured out how to download the GPS tracks to google earth. The image below shows the trail we took. We went up to Lone Peak using the Jacobs Ladder trail, then we dropped down into Big Willow (the totally idiotic part of the hike), and then we took Big Willow/Little Willow down to the bottom.

After making the long steep pull up Jacob's Ladder to the top of baldy, the destination can be seen in the distance.

Here's Dave with the Provo Valley in the background.

Here's Jason heading towards Cowboy Camp.

Me working my way up the mountain.

Here's Dave and Jason at the top of Lone Peak.
We made pretty good time on this trip.
I think we made it to Lone Peak in around 3:45 Minutes.

Here's Jason towards the top of Lone Peak looking back down into Bell Canyon.
Jason had a golf tournament to attend, so he returned back down Jacobs Ladder.

Here I am at on the ledge that leads down into Big Willow, which brings me to the description of our now infamous Big Willow assent.

After coming down the from the top of the Lone Peak summit, Dave and I looked down the steep drop off into Big Willow. As we looked down off the ledge, we knew that it would be a little risky, but from the best we could tell, it seemed passable. Boy, did we misjudge things. We should have never gone that way. It turned out to be incredibly dangerous. Before beginning, we felt that even though it was very steep, we'd be OK if we slid down the dirt, moving from rock to rock as we worked our way down to the bolder field far below.

After going just a short distance, we soon learned what a big mistake we'd made. What looked like dirt was often a very thin layer of dirt on top of ice. It was terrible. We'd start to slide, and there was no way to dig in with our feet. We had to reach out and grab a rock or boulder. Now here's the really bad part. The rocks, and even some of the boulders we thought were solid, were just sitting on top of the shell and ice and would slide when we grabbed them. What really scared us was many of the large boulders were precariously balanced, and we could tell that without much help, the boulders could be sent crashing down the mountain - us with them. Once when Dave and I were trying to cut over to a section where we could hopefully avoid a steep drop off, I worked my way between a pile of large rocks, when I leaned against a rock about as big as me, it started to slip. I had to hang onto another boulder so we both didn't take a ride.

Dave and I ended up putting about 30 yards between us because we were in danger of sending large rocks on top of each other. Neither of us had a good path at all, but I ended up getting stuck in an ice section where I was really worried that I was not going to be able to hold on. At one point I started to slide and turned on my side and grabbed for rocks. I scraped up my leg and cut a nice hole in my hand, which was actually bleeding pretty good for awhile.

Luckily Dave located a somewhat safer section, so I used one of my poles to stab into the ice, and worked my way over to Dave. I'm not sure how long it took, but it seem like an hour before we made our way down far enough to feel safe. Looking back up the mountain we could not believe what we'd just done. It would have been so easy for a boulder to have rolled down on us, or to have slipped down for a good distance before being able to stop, and sliding down would have been a terrible ride.

As Dave and I surveyed what we'd just done, I think we both succinctly summarized with the following statement - "that was a dumb ass thing to do!!!"

Here is an image of the actual GPS tracks loaded onto google earth.
Not sure the picture does it justice, but you can see where we went down into Big Willow.

This one is zoomed back a little, and you can see the Big Willow trail.

What a relief when this was taken. A little scraped and cut, but soooo happy to be at the bottom.

Dave took his nice camera along, so I hope to post a few more pictures later.
This is looking back up at the ledges we climbed down.

The rest of the hike was a piece of cake, and the fall colors are starting to show. It was beautiful.

Trail of the Eagle Hike

2008-09-20T15:58:00.000-06:00

Today Dave and I hiked the Trail of the Eagle up to the Outlaw Cabin below Lone Peak. The forest service has done a great job improving the trail, and it turned out being an awesome hike.

This is a picture of the Outlaw Cabin. The thunderstorms were passing overhead, and if we had to, we could have hung out here. The Cabin in found in a very cool area with meadows surrounded by rock cliffs and pines.

We were a little unsure if we were going to be able to make the hike. We wanted to get started at 8:00, but a thunderstorm passed through and it rained for about 15 minutes. We ended up getting lucky because the thunderstorms remained a little to the east.

A couple of Dave's neighbors (Steve and Curtis) came along for part of the hike, but had to head back early for soccer games.

There were some nice views of Big Willow.

It's a little hard to see, but the root of the tree growing in rock in the middle of the picture almost looks like it's painted on the rock.

This is the Ridge that is visible from the house. It was really windy, but very pretty.

This was our turnaround point for this hike, and it was well worth the effort.

Dave and I ran down the trail, and we made it down in 1/2 the time.

Down at the bottom of the trail, the fire damage is really visible.