Hello From Lake Mead

Well I've finally gotten up nerve enough to begin blogging again. After the amount of BS I've put up with in this program it's hard to find the energy to post. Sorry for the gaps... I'll try to bring you up to speed. Most of you have been following the "action" on Kris' facebook.

The summer went very well. I rean numerous overnight trips this year (about three times the amount of last year) and way less day trips. The tips were great, the clients were tolerable and it reminded me why I've always wanted to be a guide. Besides guiding I spent most of my time this summer underneath our two vehicles.

The 1990 Subaru got new motor mounts, struts and a good going through. The van needed a lot of TLC which she got over the course of about a month up on jack stands. Talk about a lot of work. What was surface rust around the wheel wells when we bought her turned into major rot over the past 18 months. I found many places that needed to be completely taken down to metal, prepped and painted. I also had to replace sheet metal in a few areas and use fiberglass to span some of the more "daunting" holes.

All in all I would say I spent about 80 hours working on her. I could draw a picture of what she looks like underneath from memory due to the amount of time I spent under her on my back... I don't envy mechanics in the least. It was back breaking, trying at times and I spewed many profanities over the course of those 80 hours but in the end it was well worth it. The van is running better than ever, looks as good as it has in years and is now very "custom".

We had a few visitors this year.  Our friends Mike and Amanda came out in June.  Mom also came out to visit, which was great. She spent her time walking, looking at the local flora and questioning everything withing eyesight... That's Mom! I think she had a great time and she most certainly got a real taste of island living.

Kris and I left the island at the end of September and drove a short distance to Carnation, WA to celebrate our roomate Sarah's 30 birthday. We all went to her mother's house at Lake Joy to decompress after the busy summer. It was a good couple days of debauchery with most of our good friends from the island. Thanks for having us over Cathy!

After we left Lake Joy we pointed the van south on I5 and headed out of state. Our end goal was to pick up Kris' parents from Las Vegas. At that point we would rent an RV and take it up to Zion. It was a pretty uneventful trip the first day until Kris decided that she wanted to leave I5 and go into Redwoods National Park in NW California. We left the peace and quiet of the interstate to travel cross country back towards the coast. We entered the general area of the park late into the evening and began searching for a place to sleep. Since most of the campgrounds were closed for the season we ended up poaching a spot in a day use park overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

The next morning we awoke to the sound of pounding surf for the first time since last October when we were in the Olympics... amazing. There is something about crashing waves that I just can't live without. After a peaceful but COLD morning we dropped back down into the park to see what we could find to do for the day. At the visitors center we ate breakfast and spoke with the rangers. We decided to drive into the Tall Trees Grove and see the tallest tree in the world! Kris specifically asked the ranger about the road in and he said, "we send passenger vehicles down that road all the time". Once we turned off the main road I noted that his answer was sort of ambiguous as to the conditions of the actual road. Then we started climbing a 9% grade through endless switchbacks...

At the top of the road we finally found the entrance to Tall Trees Grove. After unlocking the gate with the code given by the ranger we started down the 7 miles of dirt road to the actual trailhead. After a teeth rattling half hour we finally dropped down one final steep section of road to the trailhead. The trail was wonderful, and not quite as steep or bumpy as the road. Ancient Redwoods towered into the sky with their canopies soaring hundreds of feet overhead. Huge Douglas Firs, much larger than on the island, were dwarfed by these monsters. Remnants of dead trees lay scattered among the forest floor like sleeping giants with younger trees growing on top of them.

The tallest tree looked much like the rest of them, big. It was a great hike and something I would recommend if in the area and you have the time. What I wouldn't recommend is taking a low clearance vehicle down the road. It was hell and the van is much heavier duty than most passenger vehicles. I noted a few Honda Civics making their way down the road and wondered if they would make it back out with their struts intact. Also the paved road out of the area is very treacherous. Again it is miles of 9% grade and switchbacks. On the way down we once again experienced brake failure and I had to use the transmission to keep the van from careening into the woods. Thank god the van is a five speed or we would have been right in the rubard! After this experience we've decided that it's time to upgrade the van to a newer, larger, more powerful model. More on that later.

Once we were safely down we noted that we had traveled many miles away from I5. I also noted that if we wanted to return to the safety of the interstate we would need to climb into the Sierra mountains and navigate their heights. Oh goody! The trip in was the usual grueling climb with the engine screaming and the trans in third gear most of the way. It was raining on and off making things a little more difficult just for the sake of it. Hours into the drive we noted that we seemed to be loosing elevation at an alarming rate. Very soon after this we dove into another batch of tight switchbacks that had us leaning over like downhill ski racers. Finally, after what was hours and seemed like days, we coasted into the last town before I5. Here we found a cheap hotel for the night, ate Mexican and relaxed.

Mike comes to town

So the next day we have rental bikes reserved at the local shop. We woke up and noticed the sky had turned from bright blue to a dingy grey. A light rain was falling and it was chilly. Since Moab only receives like six inches of rainfall a year we figured it would soon pass over.

An hour later the rain was still coming so we decided to go into town and see about the situation with our rentals. We wanted to know if we could switch to the next day, or were we stuck with the rain. Now I won't say which bike shop we went to but the girl who we were dealing with was rude as hell. Kris asked about switching our reservations and she said, "well it rains sometime here in the spring you know." This statement, said sarcastically, immediately put me on the defensive. The girl (she was no lady) continued to act put off by our very presence. Naturally I began showing my displeasure with the service by giving her sarcasm directly back to her. Finally we were on our bikes and out of the shop, thank god.


We drove a few miles up the road to access the trails in Moab. Now I haven't been on a mountain bike to actually ride off road for around 15 years but I was excited as hell. As soon as I got out onto the parking lot I was riding wheelies, running over stuff and screaming at the top of my lungs. I almost wrecked in the parking lot twice... Everyone got ready and we rode down a dirt road for a few miles into the trail system. Mike and I decided to ride a section of single track that was marked as "very difficult" and Kris went around on an easier trail to meet us. It was the most excitement I've had on a bike in years. The bikes were fully suspended with six inches of travel in the front shock and four in the rear. You could literally climb six foot tall rocks with enough speed and skill. Mike was tearing it up, I was just trying to stay upright.

After the first trail we all met back up and rode miles of slick rock trails. The views were amazing and the riding was excellent. Mike and I had turns at leading the pack through the trails for hours. I can't describe the feeling of riding hard like that. It made me feel like I was a kid again. I want one of those bikes...

After the ride was over we had some beers in the parking lot and headed back into town for some burgers at the local brewery. Our waiter was the strangest person we've ever met in life. He wouldn't speak to us unless totally necessary. He wouldn't reply to our thanks, or look at us. As we were pondering the reasons he came to the table behind us and with a smile said, "my name is John, I'll be your server today, can I get some drinks started for you?" What the hell is going on here, was he just mad at us? We were thinking about questioning his motives when he returned to our table and said, "thank you for coming in, here is your check, I can take that whenever you're ready." We were speechless. No idea what was going on.

After we headed back to the campsite and had some whiskey and sevens and relaxed. My butt hurt so much from sitting on that bike seat though.

Oh yeah forgot to say that another girl who was working at the bike shop who checked the bikes out for return was also a jerk...

I'll Be Home Soon!

So the next day Kris and I spent in Arches again. We did an amazing loop hike that was seven and a half miles round trip. We hiked the majority of the trail and didn't see any other people. Once we got onto the main trail we ran into a busload of French people and things got kind of strange.

We also ran into a middle aged man who was in a panic. He had lost his youngest son and was beside himself with worry. We told him we would walk down into the trails that stemmed from the main area and look for the boy. We asked him to stay put, and if we found the boy we would send him back up the trail to his father. He told us he wouldn't move.

Ten minutes later we rounded a corner and noticed the boy standing up off the trail speaking to a woman. I flagged him down, told him that his father was waiting up the trail, and sent him the 1/4 mile back to his dad. We got our views of the arches and headed back up the trail. Soon thereafter we noticed the father still searching for the boy. When I told him that we sent the boy directly to him he admitted that he had moved right after he spoke with us. The boy must have walked right by him. Idiot. First rule of finding a person, if you say you're staying somewhere to wait stay there! They did find the boy a while later wandering on the trail...

After the hike we headed back into town and called Mike, who was arriving later that afternoon. When I got in touch with him he said he was already in town and we should come over to the City Market (AKA shitty market) to meet him. As we rounded the corner into the parking lot we immediately noticed Mike in the parking lot and I drove the van to park near him.

As I stopped the van and rolled down the window I noticed a Prius and a jeep backing out of adjoining parking spaces at the same time. Strange to see two cars backing out in unison like that... Just as I thought about it Kris yelled, "there's nobody in that jeep!" I looked again and sure enough the jeep was unmanned and rolling towards a nearly new GMC truck. "Grab that jeep.", I yelled at Mike. He looked at me quizzically wondering what in the hell I was talking about. Kris jumped out and ran for the jeep, Mike figured it out at that exact moment and he too ran for the back of the jeep.

Before I thought about it I have the door to the van open and started getting out. The van began to roll and I remembered I hadn't shut it down or put it into gear. I pulled the e-brake and left it running as I tore after Mike and Kris. The jeep slowly rolled and just as it was about to ram the GMC Mike and Kris got hands on it. With some effort they stopped the jeep six inches short of hitting the truck... crazy.

We pushed the jeep back into the space and blocked the tire with a rock. As we entered the store everyone was talking about how a group of people saved the day in the parking lot. We spoke to an employee and she said she watched the entire thing happen. Apparently the Prius actually clipped the jeeps mirror and caused it to pop out of gear. Good reason to always use the parking brake in addition to putting it in gear.

Mike, Kris and I got stuff for dinner and headed back to the campground. We ate, drank and were merry.

I will write more but I'm in Seattle, WA (best big city in America) and we are going to Shakespeare in the park to get cultured. I'll be back on air tonight.

Hope things are going well. Flying out for home on Wednesday! Sweet!

Blogger Sucks!

I also wanted to write that the Blogger Dashboard (the program used to create this blog) Sucks!

I am attempting to post more but this thing is being so frustrating that I'm going to set it down for a while.

Please read the post I finished under this one!

Happy Easter to everyone! Mom and Dad wish I could have been there for the holiday! Love you guys!

I don't even know what's going on right now

So Kris and I just got back from BLM land north of Moab, UT. We were staying in a campground there with our good friend Mike Morin. More on that later. Basically we haven't had internet or cell phone coverage for days now. It's Easter as I write this and I'm sitting in the laundery room of a campground so I can be warm, have internet and charge our electrical gadgets. Talk about a non-traditional holiday!

So I left off in Canyonlands last time. At this point it's been days since that happened so it's now exactly fresh in my mind. We got up that morning and got out of the site early. We hiked a mile and a half up to a lookout of another part of the canyon. It was warm, dry and sunny. Typical southern Utah day around here. We chilled out near the trail for around an hour while Kristen made rock art and I slept on the slickrock.

After this we got back to the van and started the long drive out of the park and back onto I70 to Moab. We stopped along the way and got some pics in Canyonlands but it was a pretty lazy day overall. When we got into Moab we stopped at a few places in town to look into rafting/canoeing in the area and hit the grocery store. We spent that night in the same campground that I'm in currently. The most eventful part of the night was moving our campsite due to the proximity of screaming children... Actually that's not true. Kris and I (using Ben's recipe) made our first batch of green curry. What a success! A new meal for the road and it was so good that I may add it into the guide menu this summer.

That night was a windy one so there were branches down all over in the campground. We ate breakfast and went over our plan for the day. Our friend Mike Morin would be coming into town on friday afternoon. We had to find a campsite a little further from town that would be more suitable for our ranger friend. The problem is that due to the 45th annual Jeep festival town was a madhouse and all the campgrounds were full. We new that BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campsites are all first come first serve. So we decided that we would leave in the morning and drive to the BLM site we had in mind. We would then stalk the site until we had found one open.

Upon arriving at the Big Bend site we noticed that every lot was full of campers. People were everywhere. Jeeps being pulled by trucks were lining the dirt roads. We had little hope that we would find an empty site anywhere. After driving the loop twice we noticed a sign that pointed the way to sites 1 through 5. As we slowly drove down the road we noticed a family coming out of site #2 and packing things into their truck. We also noticed there was no little yellow slip of paper on the site marker, score!

We had found our site. Located right along the river with huge sandstone cliffs all around us. The trees were perfectly space so that it was very open in the site but was totally private. We couldn't hear another camper from our picnic table. What a treat! After we signed in we decided it would be best to get into Arches National Park and see what we could in the ramainder of the day. We spoke with the ranger, who was nice, knowledgeable and respectful, and she pointed us to a handful of trails that would keep us busy for the next two days.

We hiked a great loop right off the bat. It incorporated three large arches into one loop trail. The weather was mild, on the breezy side, but it was sunny and pleasant. The walk walk was not strenuous in the least and we meandered onto the desert floor and then up into huge sandstone formations. It was a great little walk, three miles round trip I think.

Afterwards we drove to the trailhead that accesses Fragile Arch. Even if you haven't been to Arches you have probably seen a picture of this arch. I believe it is actually depicted on the Utah state license plate as well. Kristen was super excited to see this one as well. The trail was four miles roundtrip and it was a moderate climb up dirt trails and exposed sandstone. For some reason that only weather understands the wind began to pick up just as we entered the trailhead. As we climbed up onto the sandstone it was forceful enough that it was actually helping us climb the steep sections of trail. Everytime we turned around to look back windblown sand threatened to enter our eyes and mouth.

As we climbed higher on the trail the wind continued to build. As we rounded the final corner onto the platform that supports the arch my guess is the wind was gusting around 60mph, stronger at times. We had to put our heads down and push into the gale to gain any ground at all. The numerous people on the platform were loosing articles of clothing and crying out at the more extreme gusts. As we were taking pictures a man trying to show off for his friends was standing under the arch and almost got blown down by gusts. He didn't really understand that three feet behind him was a sheer drop, hundreds of feet down. We got our pics and got out of there. We spent the next thirty minutes half running, half stumbling into the wind to get back down to the trailhead.

Aftewards Kris and I were pretty sick of the wind so we headed back to the campsite. We spent an uneventful night in the van reading and got to bed early.

Little Wild Horse Canyon to Canyonlands

After our coffee we went in search for our first slot canyon of the trip. Little Wild Horse Canyon is on the outskirts of Goblin Valley. We had to drive down a washboard road for five miles to get to the trailhead. As luck would have it we got behind a grader about half a mile in and the trip was smoother thereafter.

We got out of the van and quickly got lost. I didn't read the trip synopsis and Kris elected not to tell me about the sign we were looking for. She decided we needed to stay right and pretty quickly we were in an unnamed canyon in the middle of nowhere. We turned back and found the trail, mostly due to the amount of other hikers on it.

The canyon quickly tightened up to a few feet wide. Due to the amount of rain we had the night before there was standing water in many places on the trail. The only options were to get soaked, or go above it by wedging your body against the canyon walls and climbing up and over it. We passed several section like this that weren't much trouble and we had a lot of fun going over. The walls were amazing with rock of differing colors swirling into eachother and creating amazing views. The light was also great due to the shadow in the canyon but the light streaming in from above.

We reached a point in the canyon where another family was heading into. I noticed that there had to be feet of standing water in this section so we sat back and waited for them to enter. The father put the son on his shoulders and the mother followed them in. Immediately the father, who was over six feet tall, was up to his thighs in water. The mother was well over her crotch by the time she began asking, "is this a good idea?" The father pressed on in true fatherly fashion and they soon disappeared around the corner out of sight.

It may sound unadventurous but Kris and I both agreed that we didn't want soaking wet shoes for the remainder of the trip, some six days. Instead we decided to eat some snacks and have a break. Shortly after we sat down another family happened upon us. We let them evaluate the situation before we gave any information. Finally the father asked if we were going in and we told him that the water is near four feet deep and we had several days left of our trip.

To their credit they never wavered for a second. The smallest boy, about eight years old, stripped off his shirt and said he would lead the way. The oldest boy had a GoPro digital video cam on his head to capture the footage of their trials. As we watched the oldest began stemming (holding yourself against the sides of the canyon off the ground) across the canyon. The youngest followed and the parents waded in, shoes and all. Before long they were all squealing about how cold the water was, and how muddy the bottom was. The oldest touched down near the end of the tunnel in thigh deep water and the youngest refused to drop down. Finally they called back they were ok and on the other side. We had a good laugh and turned back down the canyon.

We walked another stretch of canyon before we headed back to the car. At this point there was nothing left to see at Goblin Valley so we set the GPS for Canyonlands National Park and started the van. About an hour later we were on I-70 and had our first cell phone reception since we left SLC on Saturday. Kris checked her email and had a message from our real estate agent. We were to fax yet another form by 5pm eastern standard time that day... It was 2:15pm mountain standard time. As we all know there is a two hour time difference between EST and MST. We had 45 minutes to print and fax the form. We were in the middle of east bum fuck (pardon the saying) and going nowhere quickly. We called the agent back and explained our dilemma. Life's a bitch, is pretty much what she said.

We hauled the van down from speed at the next exit and found a key bank. The lady there was kind enough to point us in the direction of the local library. The librarian was kind enough to lend us a computer and fax our forms to our agent. We went from totally screwed to saving the day in a little under thirty minutes. Needless to say our agent was ecstatic!

Back on the road we finally got to Canyonlands and started looking for a campground. We hit the park entrance, which is located 17 miles from the main road. The park ranger told us she had no idea about the status of camping that night and if we wanted to know we should "just drive down and check it out." Well that was another 18 miles into the campsite... thanks for the advice moron. Why don't you and the other rangers get those new fangled walkie talkies and sort this stuff out? Just a thought.

We drove into the campground and quickly noted it was full. Now our option was to drive back to the road some 30+ miles away, or try to sweet talk another camper into letting us poach their site. As we drove through for a second time Kris noticed the handicap site was not filled, or reserved. These sites are reserved until 5pm for handicap persons, but after this time it's first come first serve. It was 4:09pm so we elected to wait in the campground parking lot. Kris was concerned that someone might drive in at 459 and steal our spot so she walked up and got a little closer to the sign in front of the site.

Minutes later she came running back to the van. "It says we can park there until 5pm but if someone handicap comes we have to move. After 5pm it's ours.", she said. Now I had seen the sign. I didn't see any of this information other than it was reserved until 5pm. I figured she was fibbing to me so that I wouldn't refuse moving the van to the site. I reluctantly moved the van into the site and sure enough she was correct. The sign was worded funny but it said that we could be there unless someone hadicap came before 5pm, then we had to vacate. After 5pm it was anyones game. We sat in the van until we were sure things were cool.

After that we walked down to the Green Point overlook. The walking path literally ends where the canyon wall drops off to the valley floor. You're leaning against a post and beam fence overlooking thousands of acres of valley, canyon and river. It's one of the most amazing view points I've ever seen. The pics don't do it justice so you'll all have to go see it for yourselves!

We then drove up to the Mesa Arch trailhead and walked in. The main pic at the top of the blog is from this arch. It was amazing. We were sitting on a ledge that dropped straight down for hundreds of feet. Through the arch you could see snow capped mountains in the background. This was also a once in a lifetime view!

Later that night we were settling in to our site when we noticed the same Subaru drive by again and again. A guy named John happened into the park off of I70 and was looking for a site. Obviously there were none to be found so Kris offered to let him share ours. When he finished setting up he came over to the table. "I want to chip in for the site but all I have is a $20 bill and four $1 bills.", he said. The site was $10 so I told him just to give us the four bucks and not to worry about it. Later that night Kris looked at me and said, "you should have told him you would take the twenty." I love that lady.

Goblin Valley

The next morning we said goodbye to Ben as he was heading to Texas. It was great meeting someone on the road that we had so much in common with. Although he was from NY (he isn't a Yanks fan) he is a great guy and we look forward to seeing him again in the future.

Kris and I headed to the next stop in the road, Goblin Valley. This state park is home to hundreds of formation which have formed in one valley. We stopped at the gatehouse and got a campsite first thing. The campground was really nice. The picnic tables have enclosures over them with two sides shielded from the elements.

We elected to take a short nap in the van. When we woke we noticed a few families had just pulled in and were attempting to set up large cabin style tents across the way. Each family had around seven children (Mormon country) that were standing around the flattened tent as mom and dad tried to figure out the instructions. Each time a pole would go in the tent would be erected and then fall flat again. This continued for over an hour with both families. The wind was cooking at this point and making the job much harder. One dad finally got his tent up after moving it into their picnic shelter and tying it off to the posts.

The other dad continued to work for another half hour before he and the family had the tent set to full height. At this point Kris and I were sitting in the van, enjoying a beer and laughing our asses off. All of a sudden the wind gusted stronger. The dad quickly grabbed his tent which threatened to blow away with the children holding on. At this moment we looked past his tent to the next sight back and noticed a small tent cartwheeling end over end into the meadow beyond the campsite. It rolled and skidded for hundred of feet before disappearing behind some rocks. Moments later three kids and a mom went running in the general direction of the fallen tent. Haha, we love that stuff.

Just as it couldn't get any better the families tent began to look like an accordion. The wind would blow and it would squish the walls togehter, then the wind would change directions and pull the tent away. The entire family was holding on for dear life. At this point we decided to offer some advice. Kris told the family they could use our tent area since we were sleeping in the van. Our area was much more sheltered and would get them out of the wind. After much thought the dad neglected. I told him to move the tent into the picnic shelter and tie it down. After another few minutes the family got hold of the tent and moved it in avoiding further disaster.

Kris had finally had enough of the family tent antics so we headed out to see the valley. The trail there was not well marked but we eventually found our way. The valley was really neat. The formations were all very similar, and not very tall, but they sparked the imagination all the same. The neat thing about it was that you could walk anywhere, there was no trail. This allowed one to get away from the majority of people and meander through the "Goblins" alone. The light wasn't great but we did get some good pics.

On the way back to the campground we walked the road to see something different. When we got back the wind was still up and growing stronger. We decided to put the bed up and cook our meal in the van to avoid the hassle of the wind. As we sat in the relative comfort of the van the folks outside were dealing with a legit sandstorm. The winds had to be gusting into the high sixties and it seemed like all the dust in the desert was blowing with them. The van was rocking back and forth the entire evening. I actually feared the roof box would blow off or crack under the stress. The windows were closed but even so a fine layer of dust settled on the dashboard.

As we were sitting there we noticed the tent a few sites over from us had lost its fly. The family had left when we pulled in and hadn't returned. The fly was holding on by one corner and flapping violently. My lovely wife suggested that we should go over and try to rig it back on. When I approached the scene I noticed that around two inches of sand had already blown in under the fly and was covering the families gear. Kris and I rigged the fly back down and staked it out in as many places as we could but the damage was already done...

When the family returned they were grateful for our help. It was getting late so we made up the bed and brushed our teeth. We read a little and went to bed. In the dead of the night I bolted awake as the van swayed violently from side to side. The wind had picked up even stronger and now it was pouring. I fell back asleep quickly but the storm lasted much of the night. In the morning the other campground tenants looked as though they had weathered the great storm. Everything was soaked and coated in sand. The backs of trucks, which people were using for storage, were filled with standing water.

Kris and I jumped out fo the van and made our coffee, wondering the whole time what the fuss was about...