On our Way!

Tomorrow's the big day! We head out to Boston for a few days to visit with family and friends, then on Monday, off to Iceland!! Here is our general itinerary: Fly into Keflavik, take bus to Reykjavic and spend the whole day. Next, catch a bus to Landmannalaugar to begin our trek. We will be trekking a full five days (it was supposed to be six but there was no room at the last hut and they dont allow camping there so we will have to push 13.5 miles that day and spend the extra day somewhere else). We'll be half the time in huts and half the time in a tent. We'll get back to Reykjavic and then fly to the northern part of the country. Have a hang out day in Akeuryi, then take a bus to Dettifoss to begin a two day trek tru the national park there. Then, a long bus ride (11 hours) to allow us to see more country, with stops to sight see, back to Reykjavic, then spend another day, then fly home! Here are some fun snippets from the description of our treks to give you some feel for what we are up t0:

1. "Near the trek is a sinister round hole - like the mouth of hell - which belches froth a roaring spume of riotously boiling water."
2. "... climbs trhough fields of shiny chunks of glinting obsidian and crosses high and perpetually snow-covered moors."

3. "...up on the plateau, steam rises in all directions from unseen vents."

4. the track descends to cross a stream, then bounces over parallel rhyolite ridges and snow bridges before ascending steeply to a ridge studded with hot springs and fumaroles."

5. "...there's a foot-numbing stream crossing, but it's the least of several you'll encounter on this stage."

6. "... the track then enters a lonely and surreal 5km stretch of black sand and pumice desert."

7. "...the bridge is in the middle of a canyon and a ladder bolted to the rocks is needed to reach the bridge."

8. "...takes you up past Falcon Cliff into a narrow canyon....onto the kife-edge ridge...plateau surrounded by vertical cliffs on all sides...directly between the two glacier covered volcanoes..."

Should be a very interesting trip!!

Cosmo and Ezra Visit!

Our stepbrother, Mitch, his wife, Kamala and their twins, Cosmo and Ezra, stopped by for an overnight visit on their way back home to Santa Cruz, CA. They have been on a month long road trip visiting grandparents in New Mexico and Michigan and friends along the way. (all those miles and no video, by choice, in their vehicle. I think that's awesome!) The last time we saw Kamala she was pregnant with the boys and due in just a couple of weeks! The boys are now 15 months old and cute as can be! They hava a ton of personality and each one has a personality all his own as well. It was great to have them all here and we look forward to another visit sometime soon.

Road Riding and Wildflowers

Great weekend! Back from the river trip and trying to catch up on sleep, still tired. However, we couldnt stay inside! Hot temps in the valley drove us to Park City, where it is about 10 -15 degrees cooler, and up to the mountains where it is often 15-20 degrees cooler. Saturday, Rich and I went to Park City for a road ride. Inspired by the first day in the mountains in the Tour de France, we decided to ride some hills toward Kamas. We did a total of 28 miles, a good day coming off of the river. On Sunday, a hike up past Alta to enjoy the wildflowers, usually peaking about this time of year. We were not disappointed! We did the short hike to Catherine's Pass and down, then to REI to stock up on supplies for the Iceland trip, can you believe we head out Thursday!? Here's to a productive week ahead, and an exciting Tour.....

Fire!

Rich and Laura requested some fire photos after Rich talked about the smoke in the valley and his inability to exercise because of it. For those that dont know, out west it's fire season. We had a few pretty severe fires but this Milford Flats fire is the grandaddy of them all. It started by lightning and within 24 hours burned over 100,000 acres. As of last Thursday it was well over 300,000 acres. The smoke was so extensive it carried into the valley here. (Milford area is probably about 2 hours south). The small picture on the left is what it looked like in our valley. It's crazy. The worst part of it is that the area that burned is the winter grazing area for many ranchers, without an area to graze their cattle, they are really in trouble. Many of them will have to either sell off their herds and go out of business or go broke buying hay to feed them, not a great choice. The first big picture is a fire that stared just south of our house, just past Little Cottonwood Canyon, started by a kid with fireworks. Fortunately, they got that one contained pretty quickly. This is the view as we looked back on our way up high for a bike ride. To read more about the big fire and see many more really awesome pictures click here: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6330065?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.comltrib.com-www.sltrib.com there are photo galleries, you'll notice, about half way down the page.

Lewis & Clark, Kathy and Me

Kathy and I just returned from a week on the Missouri River retracing the steps of Lewis and Clark. Our school paid for us, and 5 other teachers from our school to attend an Outward Bound for Educators course and it was awesome. We canoed from Ft. Benson, MT about 90 miles down in 6 days. We generally did around 15 - 20 miles a day although had a short 12 mile day when we were to spend 4 hours on a solo in the afternoon and a short day the afternoon we got off the river. We were in a group of 15 participants and 4 instructors. We set up camp, hauled bags, cooked food, cleaned up and did all the chores. Our group was amazing!! What a diverse and incredibly awesome gathering of people, from all over the country. All ages, and skill levels. We had folks that had NEVER been camping or canoeing before! We saw a bunch of bald eagles, pelicans, hawks, and various other birds, deer and snakes! The river was mild, a gentle current that kept us paddling most of the time. We also had some curriculum built in to learn more about expeditionary learning and about Lewis & Clark. Some of this included book clubs, reader's theatre, and more. It was a total blast and I am so happy that I had the opportunity to get to know these people and develop these relationships as my life is richer for it, in so many ways. It truly was a very special experience!

Fire, Smoke, crappy air..

Not much news to report. No picks as the air here has been awful this week due to the huge fire south of us and all the smoke in the air. Visibility in the city is about 2 miles. Hot weather (pushing 100) everyday, leaves ozone alerts, not to exercise outdoors. Killing me!! I can't remeber the last time it was below 90? THough went ot Alta for sdinner the other night and was actually raining!!! for 10 minutes and temps were in the 70's (at 8000'). Felt cold!! Not sure what we are going to do when we go to Iceland where the HIGH temps are 55 right now!! Might need to bring the down coat!! I think even when I ran my night leg in the Wasatch back relay 2 weeks ago at 3am it was in the high 60's, now we are going to 60 as a high and 40(or less) at night? What to do.......

pics will return when it is worth taking them. Watch the Tour!!
rk

Happy 4th of July!

Independence Day. Cool. Went up to Brighton to partake in their annual pancake breakfast and then ride the Crest trail. It was sunny and hot, but excellent. We had a group of 8 - fun! That's about it.

The picture at the bottom is showing some of the fire - we've had a bunch all around and a HUGE one out in the Unita area... crazy dry and super hot with only about 8% humidity. We'll see what all the fireworks bring tonight, hopefully, it wont be disasterous!

Happy Birthday To Rich!!

Yesterday was Rich's 40th birthday, yes, 40! :-) I tried to surpriese him with a new Surly singlespeed bike frame, but, long story short, he went to the bike shop to buy one for himself, and found out one had already been purchased for him! There went the surprise. Rich's comment was "Dang, that meant I had to wait now to get it!" heehee. http://www.surlybikes.com/karatemonkey.html Love that bike geek of mine! :-) We then went to dinner at an amazing place: Log Haven. We made our annual pilgrimage into Smith's to empty our change can and came up with $238 to have dinner with! We do this every year for our anniversary (the 5th). http://www.log-haven.com/

Another summit bagged! Pfeifferhorn!

What an AMAZING hike! Wow. Rich , Ian, Tammy and I went up on Friday to Red Pine lake, camped for the night (had a blast! Thanks to Tams for hauling up 4 lbs of wine! heehee) and then headed up to Pfeifferhorn the next morning. Red Pine lake is situated about 3.5 miles up trail in Little Cottonwood Canyon, about 20 minutes from our house. The lower lake, where we camped is at about 9,600 feet. We hung out, drank a little wine and turned in for a perfect night. After a gross breakfast of oatmeal and coffee (I hate oatmeal!!) we left camp around 9:00 am. First we had to hike around the lake, through a little foresty area and across a boulder field. Fortunately, we came across a couple of guys on their way down at the upper lake because we really had no idea what the best way to get up to the ridge line was, and our thinking was all wrong, based on what we read in some trail books. The route up was still pretty steep and loose, but definately doable with careful footing. Once we got to the ridge we had a bit of a flat stretch as we wound our way around to the "Knife's Edge". The knife's edge was not scary, as it looked, but one spot definately made us nervous. Looking across on this side of the knife's edge to the route to the summit looked impossible, although, it wasnt bad at all once you got there. At 11,338 feet, the views from the top: astounding.