April Fools???

Hello again! Remember me? I’m that guy (friend, relative, fried of a relative, co-worker) that used to blog…

Well I’m that guy again and I’m here to tell you that Utah is gosh darn beautiful! That’s right. I’m sitting in the side seat of the van again and this time we’re rolling through Utah. South of SLC and on our way to Zion for 5 days!

“But how did you get there?” you ask. Well now that is a story in itself. A fairly long one, which I suspect would be boring to tell, and one that I can only summarize at this point anyway. I guess it was just that exciting. I’ll give it a try…

As you know Kris and I arrived in Bend, OR sometime in mid October of last year. We spent some time staying with a friend that I worked with in Maine. We then found a beautiful house in a nice quiet neighborhood and prepared for winter. What a winter it turned out to be. The first six weeks of the winter were the snowiest I’ve ever seen. It was a great introduction to PNW skiing due to the snow levels but something was missing. I couldn’t decide what was wrong until Kris reminded me that for the fifth or so ski day in a row we couldn’t see where we were skiing…

You see Mt. Bachelor is a lovely little butte of a mountain but it has a large problem with low visibility. This can be caused by wind blown snow, fog, rain, patchy rain fog mixes, clouds low enough to envelope the mountain, or numerous other factors (in Oregon). I began noticing that there weren’t very many days where one could see in front of ones ski tips. Shortly after I noticed the phenomenon it went away… due to the longest period of zero snowfall I’ve ever seen. The sky was blue, the wind was gone (some days) and the groomers were hard and fast. So I traded one malignant problem for another.

Finally when March began the snow gods looked down upon us and bestowed unto us the gift of snow. It fell in sheets. It came in storms that would last an entire week. It dumped, nuked, schralped and puked snow. March was a good month, I couldn’t see again, but it was a good month. By the time March rolled around I had learned to ski with my other senses. I no longer paid attention to anything but the snow at my ski tips. I learned the mountain well enough that I skied even when I couldn’t tell what trail I was on. Bachelor will do that to you.

Kris worked all season as a per diem PT for a few different companies in Bend. I worked at the mountain in the rental shop. Work for me was, well, work. Not mind blowing that I didn’t have to apply myself much. I think Kris enjoyed herself and discovered that working part time for multiple companies is a good way to make more money and work less! I like that equation, I think she does too.

The skiing was… variable. I will say that there was a lot of it. As of today I have in 64 days total this season. I’ve registered over 750,000 vertical feet skied not including three days Kris and I skied in Tahoe, CA. That reminds me of something I wanted to tell you. Skiing in Tahoe is figan awesome! It was sunny and warm with light or no winds the entire time we were there. Nice job CA! Thank Arnold for me when you talk to him next. Kris has a respectable 20 days in so far this season. She apparently dislikes skiing when she can’t see... go figure.

So that is the catch up synopsis. Now on to the fun stuff. Back in late January we decided to get on with our lives and get out of Bend. We wanted to see and ski Utah for a while and Kris recommended we head out first of April. Which brings us right back to today! We are around an hour and a half outside of Zion National Park. We plan on soaking in the sun, biking, hiking and relaxing over the next fives days. We’ve never been to the desert of Utah (or Utah for that matter) and we’re both pretty stoked about it. So far the landscape has been amazing and the Wasatch mountains are some of the most rugged I’ve seen from a car. Can’t wait to get up in them!

After Zion we head back to SLC for 10 or so days. We’re checking into an extended say motel for the duration of the SLC part of the trip. Kris is going to work a few days while we are there to offset vacation costs (love that woman) and we’re going to ski a few different areas we’ve never been to. The plan is to ski snowbird, park city and snobasin while staying in SLC. I can’t tell you how excited we both are to ski something new in the spring! The weather here is amazing so far and the sun is just beaming down on us!

After we finish up in the city we are heading back south to hit the Moab / Canyonlands area of Utah. This will also be National Parks Week, which Kris and I love. “Why do you love it so?” you ask. Because we love it when things that should cost money turn out to be free… like getting into national parks! That’s right, we can hit as many during that week as we want, no entrance fees! We used this to our advantage last year and visited Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons National Park and Craters of the Moon National Park. All extremely cool!

So that pretty much catches you up eh? Oh yeah, we will be coming home for the month of May. I believe we have our full itinerary written down somewhere so I’ll catch you all up before we get back to the ol’ East Coast! Can’t wait to get home and see everyone!

Well as of today the blog is back up and I plan to keep it updated for this entire trip and update it periodically while back east. So please take a read, drop me a comment, and enjoy your spring!