New Addition - Check it out!

Look to your right - I've added photo links so that you can see the complete albums of our adventures! Enjoy!!

Sweet Endings

Well, it was an awesome week here with Beatrix visiting. I just love how it is to have her around, so easy and free and like being home again. For those of you who dont know, Bea and I have been best friends, literally, since we were 12 - that's 32 years!! She's like a pair of perfectly comfortable old shoes - haha!! :-) We've covered about 30 or so miles by foot this week - starting off on Round Mountain in Park City, then to the hot springs, and of course, down south. We finished off our week with the most perfect dinner you can ever imagine at the Silver Fork Lodge (the big picture). It's up Big Cottonwood Canyon about eleven miles. We both had melt in your mouth beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes and perfectly cook broccoli and asparagus. A glass of wine and a little cheese cake for dessert topped off the evening. A perfect ending to a perfect week - now if I can only get Bea to move out here!! :-)

Little Wild Horse Canyon

The adventure continues in Little Wild Horse Canyon. LWHC is a slot canyon near Goblin Valley State Park and it is usually done (as we did it) in a loop connected with Bell Canyon for an amazing 8 mile round trip jaunt. It's a good thing we decided to do Capital Reef first because, as we found out, it rained majorly there and had a good 'ol flash flood through the canyon. This can be extremely dangerous as the water rises many feet in a VERY short period of time and there is no escape. Anyway, the flood left lots of pockets of water that we had to negotiate, sometimes stemming on the walls (straddling the water) and sometimes wading up to our mid thighs (VERY cold, cold water!). Add to that some boulder hopping and other sundry fun spots and it made for a very exciting and adventurous hike! After you get through LWHC, you walk along an old jeep road for about a mile and a half and connect to Bell Canyon, another slot. All in all about 5 and a half hours. We enjoyed some awesome pizza, made trail side in our camp "oven" and, of course, an ice cold beer! A gorgeous day and tons of fun had by all!

Capital Reef National Park

Whewwwww-hooooooo!! What a great couple of days!! So much adventuring and stories to tell. For a complete write up, visit our website. Bea and I took the Vanagon and traveled south to Capital Reef and then to Little Wild Horse Canyon. First, Capital Reef.... We chose not to start in Goblin Valley area due to weather concerns and headed a little further south. We took a long, 9 mile hike through Cohab Canyon, the Frying Pan and to Cassidy Arch. The weather was grey and threatening the whole day with spots of sunshine here and there, just to keep us going. Unfortunately, as we got to the top of the hike, that would be a solid rocky peak that ends on top of Cassidy Arch - and the sky turned really ugly. It has been raining on and off and now is currently raining - we had some spots of hail along the way as well - and when we got onto the solid rock - BANG! A huge crack of thunder! Well, I was outta there! I took one quick photo of the arch and we, wisely, retreated. No lightning, but I wasnt going to sit there and wait for it!! So, back we went, 4.5 more miles to get out. But what an amazing, gorgeous hike it was!!!

Sunshine and Hot Springs

Today we met up with Amy and Steph (that's Amy in the bottom picture) from work and hiked a few miles into Diamond Fork Canyon to the hot springs. It was incredibly warm and hot springs seemed a little odd, considering, but they were beautiful and relaxing and really cool. The hike seemed very reminiscent of Montana, complete with a cowboy on a horse that rode by us. There were probably a dozen people around, not too many. There's a lower pool, a middle pool and an upper pool. The bottom one was filled with nekked people :-) so we opted to hang in the middle pool. The temps had to be in the low 70's and the sun was super warm - we all got a little too much sun, I think! So much to explore around here!

March 17

I'm a day late posting! Bea flew in today for a week long visit - yea!! We met up with Kathy and took a hike to stretch legs out at Round Mountain in Park City. A good warm up for hiking in the Wasatch because it's not straight up and straight down! :-) Afterward, in Bea's honor, a great dinner of brats (because she loves brats!) and salad and then, to kick off the spring/summer season - our first Saturday trip to the Dairy Queen for ice cream. Yep, that's the way to begin a great spring - best friends, brats on the grill and DQ!

Dont'cha love this second picture - hiking on snow in shorts!! Utah is awesome that way. Kathy just got back from St. George area where it was 80, back to 70 here with cyclists and runners all over the place, and yet there's tons of snow and great skiing still up in the mountains!

Spring has Sprung!

Ah yes, we are getting spring fever around here for sure! The flowers are blooming, doing some yard work, getting ready for spring break. I'm happy to report that I've started running again, and it feels great! No problems, except for the ache in my legs and my out of shape self. :-) I'm trying the "short-timers, condensed half marathoners" training routine, we'll see how that goes. Other than that, I'm trying to get Beatrix out here for spring break for a visit and, hopefully, a road trip in the Vanagon! Too bad for Rich, that he has to work and I get a full week off! 66 beautiful degrees today, and the same for the rest of the week. Aint that grand!!

Karen

The days pass

Well, here we are antoher week has gone by and I only wrote today. I need to get better at the writing daily thing (or at least one week day). Awoke to rain here today, though when I got up to the hill it was snowing, with about 3-4 inches new. Hard to see early, but cleared off and the new powder and sunlight was a GREAT day!! (don't tell karen). Anyway after about 3 hours, my ankle and achilles hurt, so I decided to call it quits and leave some for tommorrow.

We went to a birthday party tonight. Our friend Markus turned 40!! I'm not too far behind they tell me. Anyway, it was at a great place downtown adn was definately a suprise. Good food and wine, with the requiste black balloons and regalia. Not me man, I am going to celebrate my 40 with bright colors!! Why? Because now I am at the BOTTOM of the age group!!! If I don't get to hawaii in the next 2 years, It may never happen. Guess I should get back to the workouts eh?

Off to another hard day at the hill tomorrow. Maybe I'll get over into snowbird for a while. Choices, choices!!!

Worshiping in Devil's Castle...

Wow!! What a day. From the title you all may think I have gone over the edge. Well, today I may have... a few times!! A day of worship at Alta in the area called Devil's Castle. Since Karen has not been able to ski, I decided today, I am going to ski everything that Karen has more brains than to ski. I started on the hike to Devil's castle... and kept going back. I wonder if this is what they mean by being seduced to the dark side. Kind of ironic on such a beautiful sunday (45, sunny, recent 6 feet of snow) that the best skiing was in Devil's Castle, as evidenced by the traiffic jam to get in. A few more trips here, then one to the backside to "rest" my legs, than back to play with the Devil. Though it seemed tracked out from the lift, it was all powder base and NO ROCKS!! Not utah powder, but having lived in seattle for awhile I was used to the heavier stuff (still lighter than there). After skiing for 3 hours and then having no more legs, I came home.

Karen is doing well recovering from her heart procedure (again), so we went for a walk up city creek. Great day, lots of walkers and bike riders. Almost makes me feel guilty not riding my bike. Soon!! Hopefully we will continue to get some more snow this month. They say March is the snowiest of the year here? Just some of my pics to enjoy the Utah day.

rk

Lost...

Yes, we have been lost for the past week or so. Lots of happenings last week. Karen had her heart procedure done and is recovering nicely. As expected she was sore and tired for a few days, now just seems bored and tired of sitting around not able to be active. Monday her activity restrictions are up and she is allowed to do aerobic activity, though still nothing that will involve a fall. SO back to the running/ walking and amybe training for the salt lake half marathon in april. Also starting to get in shape for the bigger plans later this summer. Right now our goals include a trip to the Wind river range in WY, climbing the Pfiferhorn and hiking Iceland. A busy summer, but should be well attainable. Anyway, doing well. I hope to ski some this weekend in all our new snow. Karen will be jealous, but there is always pictures?!

rk