Attempt at Timp

A few weeks back we made our first attempt to summit Mt. Timpanogas this year. I say first, because we were unsuccessful in reaching the top and so now, we'll have to hike it again so we can summit later in the season. Anyhow, we took along with us several kids from YHA, which is the youth program Tiffani works at part time. We also invited my little brothers to come along, but since Sterling was busy with a soccer tournament, just Steve came along.While Tiffani has experienced the beauty of Timp many times, this was the maiden voyage for the rest of the group. And, even though we went in mid-summer, there was still lots of snow and plenty of run-off water that we had to get across. It was a trade-off, however. For although the snow made the going difficult at times, it also created a breathtaking cascade of streamlets that flowed down the canyon, forming an enchanted natural marvel.
We had several surprises on our adventure. We had to cross several different glaciers, navigate narrow trails, walk behind a waterfall, bushwhack through some areas when the trail was lost under the snow, and even scramble up a small cliff. We also encountered a mountain goat coming down the trail toward us. We definitely weren't expecting that.
But we were even more surprised when we got to the storm shelter near the saddle to discover several herds of mountain goats grazing on the alpine slopes. They even let us get close enough to snap some good pictures. And of course everyone thought the little baby goats were adorable.

The view at the saddle made the trip worth it though. To the north, you take in the majesty of the Wasatch Mountains and the backside of Lone Peak (which we plan on climbing in the next few weeks as well)
To the east, you could look out over Deer Creek Reservoir and the Heber Valley, as well as take in the beauty of the mountain below.
Unfortunately, the snow at the base of those cliffs is where the trail goes, which made it too dangerous for us to continue to the top without the proper equipment.
But, the snow also provided us with some fun on the way down. In fact, we used it was our way down from the saddle. We either slid down on our butts, or crouched in skiing position to make our way down the snowy hill.
Our last surprise came our descent, when out of nowhere, a large rock fell onto the trail below and cut open Jeremy's (one of the youth in our groups) head. By the time we got to him, his head and hands were covered in blood. We followed the Scout motto to "be prepared" however, an quickly cleaned and bandaged him up. He later had to get 8 staples put in his head to help mend the nasty wound.
After that though, the climb down was uneventful, but made for a wonderful day hike and a time to enjoy the splendor of God's handiwork.

Positive Reinforcement

Please let us know we actually have an audience and comment occassionally on our posts if you enjoy them. Will is doubting his writing skills and ability to entertain people through the written word. Shout out to Elise, our most faithful blog commenter.

4th of July in Alton, UT

Over the Fourth of July, we headed down south to Alton, UT, a tiny, rural farming town of 150 people, nestled between the Utah Dixie's metropolises of Panguitch and Kanab. Every year my family gets together for family reunions and a patriotic Fourth of July in Alton. We turn Granny and Grandpa Andersen's home there into a lively family bed and breakfast.

The first night we got there, siblings and cousins were anxious to play. They taught us a new game called Kubb, an old viking pastime, in which you must use large, wooden dowels to knock over the small wooden blocks of the opposing team. The first team to knock down all of the oppositions blocks, wins.


We spent the whole first night playing all sorts of games with all the cousins.

The next day was our day for adventures. We all piled in Uncle Lance's 12 passenger van and headed for the Arizona border. An hour and a half later, we piled out and started a hike down Wire Pass Canyon, a small, easy-to-hike, slot canyon. At the end of the 1 1/2 mile canyon, we all posed for a family picture.


While half of group turned back and hiked out Wire Pass Canyon, Tif and I were extra curious about an adjoining canyon that met up with another trailhead a little ways up the road. So we took a few of the cousins with us, and hiked 6 miles up Buckskin Gulch. Unfortunately, Buckskin Gulch turned out to not be much of a canyon. Instead, we hike 5 miles through a wash in the hot sun. Blah! Amazingly though, we still beat the rest of our group out and were waiting for them along the road when they came along to pick us up.

The next day was the actual 4th of July, which is a big deal in Alton. Tif started the day by running the 4 mile fun run. She's still trying to convince me that fun run isn't a paradox. After a quick shower, we ran out to watch the town parade. The greatest part about a small town parade is that there are more people in the parade then there are watching.

After the parade, the town program started, which consisted of patriotic tributes and lively music. The biggest crowd pleaser was a family of fiddlers that played some bluegrass tunes. The greatest part was that they gave all of the kids in the family fake fiddles to play along with the adults, and one little boy took it very seriously.



The afternoon provided a little more downtime, with a town lunch, games, and then a classic rural dinner of roast beef and mutton. I think Alton is the only place I've ever had mutton. Maybe that's why I like it.

And I almost forgot... We all took a ride in Grandpa Andersen's famous train! Using his first name as an acronym, Grandpa single handedly created A.R.T'S. (Alton Railess Transit System).


Grandpa built his lawn tractor powered train by putting seats in barrels that he cut in half. He also built a few large cars to accommodate bigger people. When running the train, he sets up an entire train station, including a loading platform and a train engineer uniform. Oh Grandpa... living the dream.

After dinner, we headed over to the town hall for some boot-slapping country dancing. Too bad Tif and I are dancing retarded. Luckily for us, there were a few slow dances too, which allowed us to slowly spin in circles together.

When the time came to leave, we crammed five adults into our little '92 Dodge Shadow named Franc, and with the air conditioning belt screaming, slowly made our way back home.

Canyoneering Expedition

Well, we made it back to Boulder once again, but this time with a whole new crew to accompany us on our adventure. Elise, Ryan, Jake & Chelsea all came along. Luckily, Jake & Chelsea were kind enough to bring their Ford Explorer which allowed us to get to trailheads that would be completely inaccessible to my little Pontiac.

We stopped in at Capitol Reef National Park on our way down so everyone could see it. That's where these pics are from, including this one, with only Elise posing, as well as this fascinating shot of Ryan trying to take a picture of himself on his phone.

The group wasn't too impressed with the petroglyphs left my the ancient inhabitants. In fact, Elise is still skeptical of their authentic origin, since the National Park Service just left them on the cliffs rather than putting the images behind glass. We also checked out Hickman Bridge, a large natural arch within the Park. We tried scrambling up some boulders to get on top, only to be hindered by a large drop off that prevented us from getting right on top of the arch. But it did make for some sweet pictures (which are, unfortunately, on someone else's camera).

The next day was the trips real adventrue. We hiked a two different slot canyons off of the Hole-in-th-Rock road near Escalante--Spooky and Peek-a-Boo canyons. Round trip it was probably 10 to 12 miles, which took most of the days. We wente down Spooky first. After hiking through a gorge with for a while, we had to bust out the rope and repel down a 20 foot drop to get into the actual slot canyon.

Like the guidebook said, this was definitely not a canyon for the claustrophobic or obese. There were a lot of tight squeezes and technical parts in which you had to stem, or in other words, jam your body between the cliff walls and move forward while suspended in the air. There were even a few drop offs with some rank pools of water waiting for you at the bottom. I tried stemming across one in particular, but after realizing the the walls were two far apart, I just dropped in. It was in this same pool that our hiking mate Elise slid right down in. Unfortunately, she panicked and didn't realize that it was only waist deep until she was swimming up to her neck.Like I was saying though, this slot definetly wasn't for those with extra poundage. And Jack, if you read this, I would have to say, you would probably excel in these parts of the canyon.

And here, Tiffani stemmed up above us to take a cool shot.

As we got close to the end of Spooky canyon, the slot got windy, which created some exquisite rock formations in the red sandstone.

Unfortunately, after we hiked down one canyon, we had to go back up the other in order to get back to the car. We were almost out of water, even though most of us brough three liters a person, but we made it up okay. We realized later though that we took a wrong turn heading back to the car and ended up hiking in between the two canyons, but we made it back fine all the same. If you're looking for a cool, short hike, you can just do the bottom ends of both of these canyons and you'll still have a lot of fun.

The next day, we were all pretty wiped out from Friday's hike, so we took it easy. We went on a 1 mile hike to the beautiful Upper Calf Creek Falls. It's nice because its less well-known than the Lower Falls, and has a couple pools of water above the falls that you can jump into and swim in.

After the falls, we, like all manly man, got some testosterone pumping by pushing a 400 lb. rock down a mountain. Man must move rock... grunt.

Finally we took a trip down the Burr Trail to play around in a large crevice in the canyon wall. there we climbed on rocks, posed for pictures, and practiced slack-lining. For those of you who aren't familiar with said sport, its like tightrope walking on a piece of webbing (and its really hard at first like I found out).


After all was said and done that, we have another cool story to add to our increasing collection of summer adventures.

And P.S.

Make sure when you wear Chaco's or any other sandal, use sunblock, otherwise your feet will end up looking like mine!

Stewart Cascade Falls

Here's a handsome couple, a little too preppy for a hike, but we survived.

The coolest thing about my job is that I can get paid to hike, play tennis, and go on bike rides. Basically, I am a mentor to youth that are in the state's custody. Granted, I have to do some community service and help them fill out job applications and such, but it's worth it. I really like the kids I work with and I enjoy spending time with them.

A couple of weeks ago, Will and I took one of my girls on a hike in Provo Canyon. Stewart Falls is great because it's only about two miles to get there. We had a nice little picnic beforehand and then we burned off the oatmeal cream pies on the trail.

Mt. Olympus- A Mythical Adventure

So, the title was a bit cheesy--maybe climbing Mt. Olympus wasn't exactly mythical, the only demon we encountered was a baby rattlesnake--but it certainly was memorable. A couple of weeks ago, Will and I convinced two of our single friends, Abby Stevens and Pamela Porter, to hang out with us for a day. Since they are former Badger buddies, they couldn't pass up the chance to be in the mountains. Since most of the peaks on the Wasatch front were still fraught with snow, we had to settle for one of the lesser mountains. Mt. Olympus is only about 9,000 feet high, and the trail to the summit is just a little over three miles; however, there is a 4,000 foot elevation gain in those three miles. Basically, it's stair-stepping most of the way up. Suffice it to say, I was sore for two days afterward. Although it was a little crowded, we found that the hike was definitely worth the view.Abby is sitting right at the saddle. Behind her is a beautiful backdrop of Twin Peaks.
Here we are trekking up to the summit. It looked much more daunting in real life. This picture was taken somewhere during the final ascent. (I like that phrase, "final ascent" it makes me feel like we climbed Mt. Everest, instead of just scrambling up rocks for a couple hundred feet.)When we got to the top, we took a little lunch break. We struck up a conversation with a stranger and as I was busy listening to his road-tripping tales, my foot fell asleep. It took me about a half hour to get the circulation going. Will was anxious to get to some shrubbery so he could take a little break. Here we are posing like Greek gods and goddesses. We figured out why Mt. Olympus is so named. On top, it looks like a god had a temper tantrum so he just hurled down rocks from the sky. It literally was a mound of boulders, one piled on top of another.
That pretty much wraps up our adventure. I would encourage everyone to take a hike. Literally.