Well well well...
It has been so long that I have put this off for over a month. I don't even know where to begin. I am embarrassed that I have abandoned my blog that long. It is crazy to think that they last time I posted, it was beginning of summer. Now, here I am sitting at home with the windows closed on the first cold night, with my fall decor up, leaves abandoning their home as mother nature changes her course that we all expect every year at this time.
June:
The beginning of June prove that it was going to be a busy summer. It started off with my niece leaving 2 1/2 month early for college. I was preparing for a summer full of fun and aunt advice on life lessons I learned but that came to a screeching halt when she got a job and decided to head down early. only 3 days after she had her wisdom teeth pulled, being a trooper, and going shopping with me to get as many things crossed off her list as possible. She did great and we got nearly the entire list checked off. I am rather proud that I didn't cry as I said goodbye to her. Oh man, what am I going to do when I have my own kids????
At the end of June I bought a new car! ok, well SUV. It has been my dream to own an SUV for a long time. We have been in the discussion of a new vehicle since January. We were browsing and I was figuring out what I exactly wanted in my vehicle. My first and only vehicle I have owned in my life was the bottom of the line... bottom of bottom. There was no picking and choosing what I wanted so this one we were going to do things a bit different. In April, I had finally figured out what I wanted. After searching and searching, putting my feelers outs there, going to car lot after car lot, test driving, heartache and all of not finding a vehicle - I finally decided to throw in the rag and give up. as I was telling Bryce all of this (I had a certain price range, certain miles, certain year, even specific 'add ons') I went on KSL to look at my 'back up plan' that had sold hours prior and there she was. 20 minutes posted. It was the color I wanted, in my price range, in my miles, features, everything. Next thing you know, we are looking at it shaking on it and heading home. I was beaming! I have been in love every since. There are definitely things that I learned with buying the vehicle but I think that is the case with any vehicle you get.
In July I took my first trip down to see her. Unfortunately, 2 hours after I got there, I came down with the flu. My trip was then spent the rest of the day and night in a hotel, leaving early the next morning to head home. Nothing sounded better than my own bed at that point. That weekend, Bryce also took a trip with the guys to aspen Co for a fun biking adventure. Poor him, coming home to a sick me.
In July I also celebrated My 30th birthday. It turned out just the way I wanted it. quiet! Bryce ended up working late so we went to a quiet small dinner late that evening. 2 days later, we had our 8 year anniversary. We have been dating since the first date. We celebrated by going to the Cheesecake Factory for a nice dinner. It was a nice quiet week. Wouldn't have it any other way.
At the end of July, we headed up to Idaho for my dad's family reunion. well that wasn't until the last day we were up there but it was 9 days of family fun! I have been planning this since January. It was a ton of work but well worth it. I needed a vacation away from my vacation when I was done with it but it was a good kind of exhausting.
Day 1: Saturday - Bryce and I got up bright and early to finish packing. We keep the pathfinder in the garage to keep it clean. The night before we had packed up the majority of everything and my parents had even come over to pick up the 4 wheeler while Bryce fixed a few things on their trailer before we headed out. The original plan was to leave between 7 and 8. When I couldn't get ahold of my sister by 8:30, I decided to take the chance of waking her husband who had probably just fallen asleep, to make sure she hadn't slept through her alarm. Luck had it that she didn't, she was just running a little late. and by a little i mean alot. 9:45, after she showed up, we finished packing her stuff, the bikes and the rzr we were on our way. We knew that on our way down we wanted to stop at a few places. Our first stop was smith and Edwards. We spent a good hour and a half looking through that place. It has been forever since I have been there. We ended up spending a ton of money and the only real thing I remember buying is a carhart jacket.
We got back on the road and went as far as we could before getting food. When we stopped at Wendy's, we took some time to call my parents and my sister who were coming up behind us. When Bryce had worked on my parent trailer their tires were balding. One was going flat. We changed it out to the spare but suggested that they get new tired before we left. My dad, being stubborn - especially around 'trip' time, ho hummed about it. When We called them, they were not only stopped to get tires since they wouldn't hold air, but also to pick up my dad some clothes since he forgot all of his at home (at least he didn't forget his medicine!!!!) How he forgot his clothes is beyond any of us. They were too far to turn back and grab them.
Back on the road we headed as far as we could until we got the the Idaho Army Surplus in Idaho Falls. That place is huge. It is like a mans best friend. Bryce could have spent hours in there but I think we were all exhausted from being up late packing, and up early to leave. Right before we arrived at the army surplus, I had my first adventure in 'hauling'. Whenever we are hauling something, Bryce drives. He was aware enough to know that it was not safe for him to drive, it was my turn to take over. I didn't mind it but I was so tense the entire time. My neck hurt (it was raining the entire way down there), my eyes hurt, my head hurt and I was tired. As we were in the surplus I was literally falling asleep on a rack of clothes. After an hour, Bryce got himself a nice backpack. We got back on the road and finished the last leg of our trip. It was so nice to break up the trip with the stops.
and hour and a half later, we were in Island park, cruising down big springs. The anticipation of getting there was driving me crazy! I was more excited than a kid on Christmas. I was even the first one out of the vehicle... possibly before it even stopped. I unlocked the key code to the house and opened it up for everyone. It was a big beautiful spacious cabin. Probably the most amazing cabin I have seen in a long time. 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, floor to ceiling windows, 2 fridges, 2 washer and dryers, game room filled with every gaming systems possible (and games!), amazing deck with an awesome view, all on a nice quiet cul-de-sac. about 30 minutes after we arrived, the rest of my family arrived. We all helped unload. The kids were antsy from being in the car for so long that it was nice to send them running back and forth with stuff they could carry in the house. Before we knew it, It looked like it was 'home'. We had everything we needed and everything we imagined. The night was still young so we unloaded the bikes and took a spin out on the rzr and 4-wheeler. When we got back We had a story for the kids. A story about Forest Faries.....
TBC
Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
Year in review
I think it is that time of year to do my year in review. I am still standing by the fact that if I make goals at the beginning of January I am automatically setting myself up for failure. So here we are getting ready to start February, so I think it is time to review last years goals.
Here were my 'wants':
Get off of the phones at work - switched departments. Check and check! I have to cover phones every once in a while for 'breaks' It comes down to twice a month. can I tell you that I absolutely hate it! I do not miss that job! Every time I have to go up there it is a nice gentle reminder to be grateful for what I have.
Go back to the Paiute.. yep! We did that. Paiute - 2 us - 1. We will be back with a vengeance this year. Paiute will not kick our butts!
Go back to Island park.... did that too! It was such a great time, yet a harder time leaving. I'm considering moving up there.
Do something fun and different for myself. As I stated last year, I took a cake decorating class last year. I also helped my sister photograph a wedding... quite an experience. I also took my friends family photos... Cherry hill, Moab by rzr... I am sure there are many more things to add to that list but that will make one very long post!
Get back to grocery shopping bi-weekly. I did ok on that. It made it extremely difficult not having an oven. I got a new stove the week before Christmas. it wasn't a complete fail but it wasn't a complete success.
Now on to my goals:
I want to lose 20 pounds and keep it off. What I didn't know was that about a month after that I went to the doctors for a routine check up. Sad to admit that the year prior I gained 20 pounds. Can I say emotional eating. Do we need to mention work??? Yeah - scary point in my life. It was awful! I made myself an agreement that I wanted to drop that 20 pounds before island park. I did it! It was a success. I was hoping to kick another 20 by the end of the year. I have not done that. but I have kept off the 20 that I gained...
Get back to kickboxing - not to lose weight but to enjoy myself. Check! It was the best thing I did last year. I love kick boxing and it has helped with my stress levels. There are weeks that I don't want to go, there were weeks that I didn't go... but I went on a regular basis.. enough to say that i did it!
Wear make up once a week. I tried that, I did really well at the beginning of the year - then I forgot about it and once again, that 10 minutes extra of sleep became more important.
Start 'my favorite things' post. Yep! did that too... I still have more coming, don't worry!
Buy a new pair of shoes every other month. I got through 4 out of 6. 4 great pairs of shoes... but I sucked at taking pictures.
Try a new restaurant every month. FAIL!
Goal as a couple: Dress up, get out and do something together. Last year was a tough year for us and we did not do this. Kinda sucks to look back on that goal and realize that it was probably the most important and we failed miserably.
Now for the past month I have been racking my brain of new goals that I want for the new year and only one comes to mind.
Be Happy
I spent far too much time last year stressing and worrying about the 'what ifs' and 'could bes' It effected me personally and professionally. There are things that are out of my control and at the end of the day it is up to me of what I make of it. This year I am not going to worry about the small little things. I am going to embrace life and enjoy it as it comes. Sounds pretty easy right? Well only time will tell.
Now that I have that out, here are a few things I am going to do this year:
Bi-weekly lunches with my dad
Island Park
Piaute
Cut back on hair - just cut back on days
Kickboxing
change my hair style (just the way it is colored....)
facials
Get my first hand gun (pink! nothing wrong with being powerful yet girly there)
massages
spend more time with my sisters
More niece/nephew dates (scary frankweenie was a HUGE success)
get a new car (SUV actually - already in the works. SO. FREAKIN. EXCITED!)
rzr trips
camping
backyard bbq
redo the kidney bean out front
Last but not least... love my man and spend more time with him.
Sounds like lots of fun??? Yep, this year is going to be epic.
Here were my 'wants':
Get off of the phones at work - switched departments. Check and check! I have to cover phones every once in a while for 'breaks' It comes down to twice a month. can I tell you that I absolutely hate it! I do not miss that job! Every time I have to go up there it is a nice gentle reminder to be grateful for what I have.
Go back to the Paiute.. yep! We did that. Paiute - 2 us - 1. We will be back with a vengeance this year. Paiute will not kick our butts!
Go back to Island park.... did that too! It was such a great time, yet a harder time leaving. I'm considering moving up there.
Do something fun and different for myself. As I stated last year, I took a cake decorating class last year. I also helped my sister photograph a wedding... quite an experience. I also took my friends family photos... Cherry hill, Moab by rzr... I am sure there are many more things to add to that list but that will make one very long post!
Get back to grocery shopping bi-weekly. I did ok on that. It made it extremely difficult not having an oven. I got a new stove the week before Christmas. it wasn't a complete fail but it wasn't a complete success.
Now on to my goals:
I want to lose 20 pounds and keep it off. What I didn't know was that about a month after that I went to the doctors for a routine check up. Sad to admit that the year prior I gained 20 pounds. Can I say emotional eating. Do we need to mention work??? Yeah - scary point in my life. It was awful! I made myself an agreement that I wanted to drop that 20 pounds before island park. I did it! It was a success. I was hoping to kick another 20 by the end of the year. I have not done that. but I have kept off the 20 that I gained...
Get back to kickboxing - not to lose weight but to enjoy myself. Check! It was the best thing I did last year. I love kick boxing and it has helped with my stress levels. There are weeks that I don't want to go, there were weeks that I didn't go... but I went on a regular basis.. enough to say that i did it!
Wear make up once a week. I tried that, I did really well at the beginning of the year - then I forgot about it and once again, that 10 minutes extra of sleep became more important.
Start 'my favorite things' post. Yep! did that too... I still have more coming, don't worry!
Buy a new pair of shoes every other month. I got through 4 out of 6. 4 great pairs of shoes... but I sucked at taking pictures.
Try a new restaurant every month. FAIL!
Goal as a couple: Dress up, get out and do something together. Last year was a tough year for us and we did not do this. Kinda sucks to look back on that goal and realize that it was probably the most important and we failed miserably.
Now for the past month I have been racking my brain of new goals that I want for the new year and only one comes to mind.
Be Happy
I spent far too much time last year stressing and worrying about the 'what ifs' and 'could bes' It effected me personally and professionally. There are things that are out of my control and at the end of the day it is up to me of what I make of it. This year I am not going to worry about the small little things. I am going to embrace life and enjoy it as it comes. Sounds pretty easy right? Well only time will tell.
Now that I have that out, here are a few things I am going to do this year:
Bi-weekly lunches with my dad
Island Park
Piaute
Cut back on hair - just cut back on days
Kickboxing
change my hair style (just the way it is colored....)
facials
Get my first hand gun (pink! nothing wrong with being powerful yet girly there)
massages
spend more time with my sisters
More niece/nephew dates (scary frankweenie was a HUGE success)
get a new car (SUV actually - already in the works. SO. FREAKIN. EXCITED!)
rzr trips
camping
backyard bbq
redo the kidney bean out front
Last but not least... love my man and spend more time with him.
Sounds like lots of fun??? Yep, this year is going to be epic.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Paiute Trip
Well it has been a while.... I have made a deal with myself to spend less time on the computer. I was spending my nearly non existent down time on the computer/Internet and then complaining that I have no time with Bryce. So I made a promise to myself to only spend 30 minutes a week on the computer. anyways, enough of that....
I am sitting in my purple room looking out the window, literally watching the gold colored leaves swirl around in the wind as the clouds are moving northwest in with a potential storm. I love fall. With that being said, I realize I am really behind on my blog posts. As I am watching the leaves fall off of the roof, I figure I would blog about our last fun,amazing, scary, sunny, wet trip to the Paiute. It was our last trip to wrap up our camping season and it was the most memorable yet.
Bryce and I headed down on a Friday morning to the Paiute, to get in some much needed down time to ourselves. I think this is our first 'camping' or 'outting' trip by ourselves this year. We had a plan. We were making that plan happen. We traveled through 10 different cities/towns and traveled nearly 300 miles of dirt/rock filled trails. We packed our camp up 5 times. We rearranged our gear 5 times. Friday was our first leg of the trip. We started in Marysvale. We always park at this little (uh, not so little?) place called Lizzie's and Charlies. We like to pay to keep our truck under a watchful eye. They are great at always accommodating us at a fair price. As soon as we got down there, we packed up our gear and headed North. Man oh mighty we had a ton of gear! We could feel the weight! We had to stop a few times to rearrange our weight. We headed north into Monroe and back up southeast to the Monroe loop. The views were amazing... from a great distance of the ledge. :) As we go to the top of the mountain and in to Monroe loop it became extremely cold. We stop and got out our 'winter gear' (we experienced all sorts of weather so we had to pack for all seasons) We continued on the Monroe loop and decided around 6 that it was time to find a place to hunker down for the night and make some dinner. We found this awesome little cove that was far enough off the road to have privacy but close enough to have help if we needed it. We were all alone... or so we thought. We had an elk as a visitor that hung out all night calling for a mate. It made for a very long night but it is all in the adventure. We did sleep in a bit on Saturday morning because we were so exhausted from the long drive that we had made and no sleep.
We weren't for sure how much we were going to travel each day (weather permitting) so we had several back ups. On Friday we pulled the map out and decided which route we were going to take for our Saturday adventure and see how far we got. This was one of our longer days. We were up, and down and up and down and back and forth. In different cities and towns. We had amazing views. We had a really rough patch of trail before lunch. It took use about 2 hours to go 4 miles. After lunch we jumped back on the trail and just cruised. Covering as much ground as we could. We had to make another huge loop back in to marysvale to pick up our friends on Sunday morning. We also has to make sure we were in national forest and not BLM land so we could have a fire. We found another cute little cove off of the road on the very top of the mountain. We settled down at about 6 knowing we were only an hour drive from marysvale the next morning. We knew we would have enough time to make it back to meet our friends and take our time. We had a fire, talked, told stories and hung out. By the time the sun went down, we were back in our winter gear, standing in the fire to stay warm.... That was about to change....
Now before I continue on to Sunday I have to tell you, we were surrounded by cows. They were everywhere. At around 730 we heard a bell and all of the cows take off running to the east of us. like a stampede... only slow. Cows are slow. Right before it gets dark (around 830) we see this baby calf running west down this road. We are about 50 yards off the road. We know there are no cows down that way, they all went east. Right at the entrance to our cove the cow stops, looks at us and starts mooing. it was the cutest this ever! at the same time, sad, knowing that it was going the wrong way looking for its mama. I ALMOST made Bryce drive down to make sure it was ok. stupid, but cute.
Sunday:
5Am - we are both wide awake. Frozen, like a Popsicle. It was awful. Night 2 of no sleep. We were tired, cold, and frustrated. We did everything we could to warm up and nothing was working. Finally at 5:15 Bryce got up and built up our fire. I finally got out and was once again standing basically in the fire. We talked about our options and decided that if we left by 6 we would have enough time to get into marysvale, drive to richfield and get some warmer sleeping bags. Bryce ate breakfast and I packed. 6:05 we were on the road back to marsvale. I left out my sleeping back to lay over the top of us. We each had on 4 layers of clothing. It was so cold that our phone and GPS froze up and wouldn't work. We got back to marysvale in record time. We were flying. We packed our bags into the truck and left everything else and jumped on the highway 50 minutes to richfield. The only thing open was the walmart. We were SOL. They had no sleeping bags. awesome! so we headed over and decided we could sacrifice some of our other things to make room for a microfiber blanket and a few other necessary things. We had enough time to grab breakfast and head back to marsvale. We got there in enough time for me to shower and Bryce to repack before our friends arrived. We quickly switched our tires (some of the trails were 60 inch only and we were barely over 60 inches. Since our tires are off set to make us wider, we switched with brit and eddie to make them just under 60 inches. That also took us down to 58 inches) and on the road we went. We decided to head west then north this time to make a giant loop in to joseph and then back in to marysvale. We had no idea that they trail would take so long and by dinner time we were still 20 miles out of Joseph. We did not have time to make it to Joseph and back up on the mountain side to camp. We opted to find a camp spot and have some dinner. We were literally on the mountain side so anywhere you went you were on a down hill slop. After about an hour of running around we picked the best spot suitable and called it home for a mere 9 hours.
Monday, we woke up with great rest. We finally were warm, got great sleep (except the people who were elk calling {maybe it was an elk???} all night long! we had a nice warm breakfast and then it was time to haul butt. We packed up in record time and hit the road to cover the 20 miles to Joseph, 10 back into marsyvale. Once there we restocked on water and took a trail that is familiar to Bryce and I. I am not for sure what 'number' the trail is but it is the best trail down there. (All the trails are labeled by numbers - Paiute is 01) It was on the west side of marysvale and our plan was to take that trail up to 01 then cover 01 down south. We were going to take a detour on a trail that takes you towards beaver to check out some 'ice caves'. We made the LONG drive to our detour and hit it somewhere around 330. It was about 40 minutes up the trail to the ice caves. We spent a ton of time at the ice caves, exploring and looking... oh and eating! Around 530 we decided that it was time to get back to the Paiute trail and find a place to camp. Brit and Eddie drove ahead of us. We had walkie talkies to keep in contact with each other. about 2 miles in to the trail, there was this uphill climb that was pretty rough. In order to make it up the hill we had to put our rzr in low. slowly we ascended up the hill. when we got to the top, we stopped to put it back into high. When we put the rzr in to high, something went terribly wrong!
Our rzr barely moved. We sounded more like a 4-wheeler than a rzr. there is a big difference. We are trying to speed up but we cant. The more we move the worst we sound. To make matters worst, there was a storm coming in. We had stayed ahead of it the entire time. We were over an hour away from the Paiute, and we still had to find a place that we could camp and it was dinner time (not to mention I was completely freaked out that we were in bear country). Like most standard walkie talkies we had a page. I hit the page and we slowly descending. Luckily B and E were stopped on the trail to take pics. The patiently waited for us to catch up. We determined that something was indeed wrong and we could no longer drive our rzr. We were several hours away from the truck (at least 8) and we had to find camp, fast before it started down pouring. Driving with the machine on was not an option. We pulled out our towing straps and had them tow us. It wasn't working out so well, lucky us we were down hill. since that wasn't working out we basically were bumped down the hill. after debating, alot we finally found a place to camp. Our very first order of business was to have the guys set up a tarp between a couple of trees to park the rzr under. The girls were setting up tents. at this point, there was lightening everywhere. We barely got the tents up while I made dinner, and it started to down pour. Everything in our tent was getting wet. The rain was coming right through the material. Not to mention there was an inch of water creating a river right were our tent was sitting. We were cold and hungry. We basically just went to bed for the night. Bryce worked under the tarp trying to figure out our problem. After about and hour and a half, he finds it. A tube had cracked that feeds the oil into the top end of our engine. We talk about it and explore our options: to try to fix it and drive the rough terrain the rest of the way to the truck with the chance that we could break down anywhere or the boys drive B and E's rzr all the way back to the truck and come get us (we were a mile off the road where we could get the truck and trailer in perfectly). We had alot of things playing against us. We had the rain and mud. We had the chance of leaving and not being able to get the truck to where we get stuck, we have the weight.... B and E's rzr cannot haul our rzr plus their gear plus our gear plus us... so on and so forth. We all agree that it is best the boys leave and us girls hang back.
The next morning, we got up and made the boys breakfast, packed a cooler full of food and sent them on our way, as Brit and I stayed hunkered down in the tents and rain. I think besides us being broken down, the boys really enjoyed their time together while us girls could not stop giggling! We talked ALOT. We had lunch around noon and went back in the tent right after since it was still raining, although not near as hard as it was the night before. I told the boys, if I didn't hear back from them by 4 I would be calling for help. 4 was plenty of time to get within reception to send us a message to say they were running late or they were making the 2 hour drive back to us on the highway. Brit and I both fell asleep. I woke up knowing something wasn't quite right. I told Brit that and started to get on my shoes to walk down the trail to get reception. As soon as i got one shoe on I heard a truck. It was Bryce! Little did I know it was nearly 530. The minute he pulled up it started to downpour again. We literally through everything in the truck and got the rzr on the trailer. The road was closed (we didn't know that until they got back to us) and we had to take another hour and half detour on a dirt road that was extremely wet. We were sliding everywhere. By the time we got to beaver it was 830. We were all tired, wet, and hungry. For the first time in a very long time I did not fight eating McDonald's. Let me tell you, I don't know if I was just extremely hungry or if they really were that slow. It seemed like 30 minutes before we got food. I knew I wasn't going to make it to work the next day since we were 4 hours from home, it was 9, and everything was wet. After we filled our tummies we jumped on the road to make the 4 hour drive home. I have never been so happy as to see my house as I was that night. We got home just after 12:30, grab out backpacks, and went inside to take a quick shower and hit the bed. The next day we spent the entire day cleaning up the mess, drying everything out, and getting the 5 inches of mud off of our trailer. We also determined that we lost our entire engine. It was a sad day in the house, but it could have been alot worst. We could have been stuck without anyone to help us or anyone with us. it could have happened before B and E got up there. We could have continued on the trail and had to hike out to call for help. There are so many things that could have happened but at the end of the day, it is all worth the stories and the experience. We will never forget this trip. Brit and I will never forget the laughs... We will never forget ninja mole, or the squirrel that almost ate B's veejay jay... (seriously.. funniest story ever). I cannot forget to mention the accidental back handing of her boob (seriously! how do I get in these situations????) The boys will not forget the 8 hour trek back to the truck. They said the trail was pretty dang awesome. We will never forget the downpouring rain, the views, and the time we had together. It was all worth it in the end.
I am sitting in my purple room looking out the window, literally watching the gold colored leaves swirl around in the wind as the clouds are moving northwest in with a potential storm. I love fall. With that being said, I realize I am really behind on my blog posts. As I am watching the leaves fall off of the roof, I figure I would blog about our last fun,amazing, scary, sunny, wet trip to the Paiute. It was our last trip to wrap up our camping season and it was the most memorable yet.
Bryce and I headed down on a Friday morning to the Paiute, to get in some much needed down time to ourselves. I think this is our first 'camping' or 'outting' trip by ourselves this year. We had a plan. We were making that plan happen. We traveled through 10 different cities/towns and traveled nearly 300 miles of dirt/rock filled trails. We packed our camp up 5 times. We rearranged our gear 5 times. Friday was our first leg of the trip. We started in Marysvale. We always park at this little (uh, not so little?) place called Lizzie's and Charlies. We like to pay to keep our truck under a watchful eye. They are great at always accommodating us at a fair price. As soon as we got down there, we packed up our gear and headed North. Man oh mighty we had a ton of gear! We could feel the weight! We had to stop a few times to rearrange our weight. We headed north into Monroe and back up southeast to the Monroe loop. The views were amazing... from a great distance of the ledge. :) As we go to the top of the mountain and in to Monroe loop it became extremely cold. We stop and got out our 'winter gear' (we experienced all sorts of weather so we had to pack for all seasons) We continued on the Monroe loop and decided around 6 that it was time to find a place to hunker down for the night and make some dinner. We found this awesome little cove that was far enough off the road to have privacy but close enough to have help if we needed it. We were all alone... or so we thought. We had an elk as a visitor that hung out all night calling for a mate. It made for a very long night but it is all in the adventure. We did sleep in a bit on Saturday morning because we were so exhausted from the long drive that we had made and no sleep.
 |
| We saw an amazing amount of wildlife. I have never seen so many dear in 4 days as I did on this trip. |
 |
| you cant tell but I have no pants on... just thought I would share! |
 |
| Our little cove, getting ready to leave for the day. |
 |
| All ready to go. |
We weren't for sure how much we were going to travel each day (weather permitting) so we had several back ups. On Friday we pulled the map out and decided which route we were going to take for our Saturday adventure and see how far we got. This was one of our longer days. We were up, and down and up and down and back and forth. In different cities and towns. We had amazing views. We had a really rough patch of trail before lunch. It took use about 2 hours to go 4 miles. After lunch we jumped back on the trail and just cruised. Covering as much ground as we could. We had to make another huge loop back in to marysvale to pick up our friends on Sunday morning. We also has to make sure we were in national forest and not BLM land so we could have a fire. We found another cute little cove off of the road on the very top of the mountain. We settled down at about 6 knowing we were only an hour drive from marysvale the next morning. We knew we would have enough time to make it back to meet our friends and take our time. We had a fire, talked, told stories and hung out. By the time the sun went down, we were back in our winter gear, standing in the fire to stay warm.... That was about to change....
Now before I continue on to Sunday I have to tell you, we were surrounded by cows. They were everywhere. At around 730 we heard a bell and all of the cows take off running to the east of us. like a stampede... only slow. Cows are slow. Right before it gets dark (around 830) we see this baby calf running west down this road. We are about 50 yards off the road. We know there are no cows down that way, they all went east. Right at the entrance to our cove the cow stops, looks at us and starts mooing. it was the cutest this ever! at the same time, sad, knowing that it was going the wrong way looking for its mama. I ALMOST made Bryce drive down to make sure it was ok. stupid, but cute.
Sunday:
5Am - we are both wide awake. Frozen, like a Popsicle. It was awful. Night 2 of no sleep. We were tired, cold, and frustrated. We did everything we could to warm up and nothing was working. Finally at 5:15 Bryce got up and built up our fire. I finally got out and was once again standing basically in the fire. We talked about our options and decided that if we left by 6 we would have enough time to get into marysvale, drive to richfield and get some warmer sleeping bags. Bryce ate breakfast and I packed. 6:05 we were on the road back to marsvale. I left out my sleeping back to lay over the top of us. We each had on 4 layers of clothing. It was so cold that our phone and GPS froze up and wouldn't work. We got back to marysvale in record time. We were flying. We packed our bags into the truck and left everything else and jumped on the highway 50 minutes to richfield. The only thing open was the walmart. We were SOL. They had no sleeping bags. awesome! so we headed over and decided we could sacrifice some of our other things to make room for a microfiber blanket and a few other necessary things. We had enough time to grab breakfast and head back to marsvale. We got there in enough time for me to shower and Bryce to repack before our friends arrived. We quickly switched our tires (some of the trails were 60 inch only and we were barely over 60 inches. Since our tires are off set to make us wider, we switched with brit and eddie to make them just under 60 inches. That also took us down to 58 inches) and on the road we went. We decided to head west then north this time to make a giant loop in to joseph and then back in to marysvale. We had no idea that they trail would take so long and by dinner time we were still 20 miles out of Joseph. We did not have time to make it to Joseph and back up on the mountain side to camp. We opted to find a camp spot and have some dinner. We were literally on the mountain side so anywhere you went you were on a down hill slop. After about an hour of running around we picked the best spot suitable and called it home for a mere 9 hours.
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| On our way to Joseph, our friends lost their extended rack. On a hill. It took some time to get everything reorganized. |
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| look! A rzr Mohawk! |
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| Good to go! |
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| Our base camp for the night. There was cow poop everywhere. Luckily the boys took care of the dung for us. |
Monday, we woke up with great rest. We finally were warm, got great sleep (except the people who were elk calling {maybe it was an elk???} all night long! we had a nice warm breakfast and then it was time to haul butt. We packed up in record time and hit the road to cover the 20 miles to Joseph, 10 back into marsyvale. Once there we restocked on water and took a trail that is familiar to Bryce and I. I am not for sure what 'number' the trail is but it is the best trail down there. (All the trails are labeled by numbers - Paiute is 01) It was on the west side of marysvale and our plan was to take that trail up to 01 then cover 01 down south. We were going to take a detour on a trail that takes you towards beaver to check out some 'ice caves'. We made the LONG drive to our detour and hit it somewhere around 330. It was about 40 minutes up the trail to the ice caves. We spent a ton of time at the ice caves, exploring and looking... oh and eating! Around 530 we decided that it was time to get back to the Paiute trail and find a place to camp. Brit and Eddie drove ahead of us. We had walkie talkies to keep in contact with each other. about 2 miles in to the trail, there was this uphill climb that was pretty rough. In order to make it up the hill we had to put our rzr in low. slowly we ascended up the hill. when we got to the top, we stopped to put it back into high. When we put the rzr in to high, something went terribly wrong!
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| We got up to 12,000 feet. it was FREEZING. It was a very stormy day |
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| On top of the world! At the highest point on the trail at 12,000 feet |
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| Bryce got a pic of me putting on my pants (see pic above in the tent) so I didn't want Brit to feel left out. sorry Brit!!!! |
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| Where the hell are we?!?!?!?!?! |
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| Are we there yet??? |
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| Inside the ice caves |
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| Buddies! |
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| I am shocked Eddie didn't get stuck! He did however, get a bit dirty! |
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| The outside of the ice caves. |
Our rzr barely moved. We sounded more like a 4-wheeler than a rzr. there is a big difference. We are trying to speed up but we cant. The more we move the worst we sound. To make matters worst, there was a storm coming in. We had stayed ahead of it the entire time. We were over an hour away from the Paiute, and we still had to find a place that we could camp and it was dinner time (not to mention I was completely freaked out that we were in bear country). Like most standard walkie talkies we had a page. I hit the page and we slowly descending. Luckily B and E were stopped on the trail to take pics. The patiently waited for us to catch up. We determined that something was indeed wrong and we could no longer drive our rzr. We were several hours away from the truck (at least 8) and we had to find camp, fast before it started down pouring. Driving with the machine on was not an option. We pulled out our towing straps and had them tow us. It wasn't working out so well, lucky us we were down hill. since that wasn't working out we basically were bumped down the hill. after debating, alot we finally found a place to camp. Our very first order of business was to have the guys set up a tarp between a couple of trees to park the rzr under. The girls were setting up tents. at this point, there was lightening everywhere. We barely got the tents up while I made dinner, and it started to down pour. Everything in our tent was getting wet. The rain was coming right through the material. Not to mention there was an inch of water creating a river right were our tent was sitting. We were cold and hungry. We basically just went to bed for the night. Bryce worked under the tarp trying to figure out our problem. After about and hour and a half, he finds it. A tube had cracked that feeds the oil into the top end of our engine. We talk about it and explore our options: to try to fix it and drive the rough terrain the rest of the way to the truck with the chance that we could break down anywhere or the boys drive B and E's rzr all the way back to the truck and come get us (we were a mile off the road where we could get the truck and trailer in perfectly). We had alot of things playing against us. We had the rain and mud. We had the chance of leaving and not being able to get the truck to where we get stuck, we have the weight.... B and E's rzr cannot haul our rzr plus their gear plus our gear plus us... so on and so forth. We all agree that it is best the boys leave and us girls hang back.
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| Being towed down the mountain side |
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| This about sums up how I felt! |
The next morning, we got up and made the boys breakfast, packed a cooler full of food and sent them on our way, as Brit and I stayed hunkered down in the tents and rain. I think besides us being broken down, the boys really enjoyed their time together while us girls could not stop giggling! We talked ALOT. We had lunch around noon and went back in the tent right after since it was still raining, although not near as hard as it was the night before. I told the boys, if I didn't hear back from them by 4 I would be calling for help. 4 was plenty of time to get within reception to send us a message to say they were running late or they were making the 2 hour drive back to us on the highway. Brit and I both fell asleep. I woke up knowing something wasn't quite right. I told Brit that and started to get on my shoes to walk down the trail to get reception. As soon as i got one shoe on I heard a truck. It was Bryce! Little did I know it was nearly 530. The minute he pulled up it started to downpour again. We literally through everything in the truck and got the rzr on the trailer. The road was closed (we didn't know that until they got back to us) and we had to take another hour and half detour on a dirt road that was extremely wet. We were sliding everywhere. By the time we got to beaver it was 830. We were all tired, wet, and hungry. For the first time in a very long time I did not fight eating McDonald's. Let me tell you, I don't know if I was just extremely hungry or if they really were that slow. It seemed like 30 minutes before we got food. I knew I wasn't going to make it to work the next day since we were 4 hours from home, it was 9, and everything was wet. After we filled our tummies we jumped on the road to make the 4 hour drive home. I have never been so happy as to see my house as I was that night. We got home just after 12:30, grab out backpacks, and went inside to take a quick shower and hit the bed. The next day we spent the entire day cleaning up the mess, drying everything out, and getting the 5 inches of mud off of our trailer. We also determined that we lost our entire engine. It was a sad day in the house, but it could have been alot worst. We could have been stuck without anyone to help us or anyone with us. it could have happened before B and E got up there. We could have continued on the trail and had to hike out to call for help. There are so many things that could have happened but at the end of the day, it is all worth the stories and the experience. We will never forget this trip. Brit and I will never forget the laughs... We will never forget ninja mole, or the squirrel that almost ate B's veejay jay... (seriously.. funniest story ever). I cannot forget to mention the accidental back handing of her boob (seriously! how do I get in these situations????) The boys will not forget the 8 hour trek back to the truck. They said the trail was pretty dang awesome. We will never forget the downpouring rain, the views, and the time we had together. It was all worth it in the end.
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| The boys getting the fire going for us before they left. A fire wouldn't be a fire without some fuel to get it going. |
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| In between down pours. It felt very winter-esque. I loved the clouds and feeling the sense of their closeness. So close I felt like I could touch them. |
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| Proof that us girls were hunkered down. Brit said I couldn't post the one of her actually smiling... but she didn't say anything about this one. This is how we spent most of our day. |
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Piaute
A couple of weeks ago Bryce and I decided it was way past due for a vacation. I had been working way too hard at work and it has been kind of stressful since last November so I was on the bandwagon! Our original plans failed miserably so we had to make a mad rush to get ready for plan B. The only problem is that we didn't have a plan B. Bryce had seen some forms online about the Piaute ATV trail so we decided to give it a shot. I swear anything that could have gone wrong before we left did but after putting in all the effort that we did for this trip we were hell-bent on going. We left a little later than we wanted to but we made it safe and sound. We stayed in Marysvale since it was central and we had never been on the trail before. We stayed at this cute little KOA type place called Lizzie's and Charlies. We got down there on Thurs night just to set up camp and get dinner going. We went on one tiny ride since it was storming and cold. Friday morning we woke up to sunny and warm - although once we got going we found out that sunny and warm wasn't so sunny and warm. Before we got too far up the trail we headed back to camp for warmer clothes. After we bundled up we headed up some trails and ended up on the awesome trail that had us climbing through the river. Since we were so involved in water I did not want to pull out the camera so we didn't get pics. It was over all a fun day.
On Saturday we had this cute old retired guy come to us in camp and ask where we were going. since we did not have a plan he rambled off some trail numbers that he was taking and told us he would love to have us come with him. People there are so nice! I am amazed. Everyone hooks up with everyone and rides around for hours. Once again we bundled ourselves up for what turned out to be 10 hours of fun! We learned that this guy was retired and lost his wife 4 years ago to breast cancer. His granddaughter thought he was too stressed out and told him to go do something for himself so he bought himself a RZR and has spent the last 4 months riding to his little heart content.
Sunday is was storming like crazy so before it hit us we packed up the truck and left at 8 AM... just in time for the storm to come in and plaster everyone like they stepped in to the shower.
Some of the highlights:
We had all sorts of weather. Rain, snow, sun.
We got stuck in snow. Good think we were with retired guy - he pulled us out of the snow to safety.
We actually made it to the piaute loop. Several passes were closed with up to 30 feet of snow but we tried to go through.
We rode for 10 hours straight and it was awesome!!!
We had to drive in the middle of the river for over a mile. After that we weaved back and forth through the river 4 times.
One of those time the river actually came up and over our seat.
We met alot of new people. Everyone was so nice
We had the chance to use our new 2 pound sleeping bags. That is the moment I learned I can no longer use it. I am way too claustrophobic to use them. I ended up waking up far too many time dry heaving from not being able to breath. Awesome!!
We had a skunk sit out side out tent in the middle of the night. It smelled so bad!!!!!!
We used everything on the rzr except the spare tire.
A full size SUV got stuck in mud up to their door. We were able to use our jack to try to help them out. Once we got them high enough to get rocks under the tires another RZR came and winched it out.
Even though we were camping we manage to find and ice cream stand... YUM!
We found mud!!!!
We had problem after problem happen up until we left but one we got there everything went smooth!!!
Since we were bundled up we didn't have to use sun screen.... or so I thought...
Just a few of the highlights. I cannot wait to go back to this place. We only drove on 5% of the trails that they have down there. For us - we would recommend this place anytime to anyone. It is now a must on our list.
On Saturday we had this cute old retired guy come to us in camp and ask where we were going. since we did not have a plan he rambled off some trail numbers that he was taking and told us he would love to have us come with him. People there are so nice! I am amazed. Everyone hooks up with everyone and rides around for hours. Once again we bundled ourselves up for what turned out to be 10 hours of fun! We learned that this guy was retired and lost his wife 4 years ago to breast cancer. His granddaughter thought he was too stressed out and told him to go do something for himself so he bought himself a RZR and has spent the last 4 months riding to his little heart content.
Sunday is was storming like crazy so before it hit us we packed up the truck and left at 8 AM... just in time for the storm to come in and plaster everyone like they stepped in to the shower.
Some of the highlights:
We had all sorts of weather. Rain, snow, sun.
We got stuck in snow. Good think we were with retired guy - he pulled us out of the snow to safety.
We actually made it to the piaute loop. Several passes were closed with up to 30 feet of snow but we tried to go through.
We rode for 10 hours straight and it was awesome!!!
We had to drive in the middle of the river for over a mile. After that we weaved back and forth through the river 4 times.
One of those time the river actually came up and over our seat.
We met alot of new people. Everyone was so nice
We had the chance to use our new 2 pound sleeping bags. That is the moment I learned I can no longer use it. I am way too claustrophobic to use them. I ended up waking up far too many time dry heaving from not being able to breath. Awesome!!
We had a skunk sit out side out tent in the middle of the night. It smelled so bad!!!!!!
We used everything on the rzr except the spare tire.
A full size SUV got stuck in mud up to their door. We were able to use our jack to try to help them out. Once we got them high enough to get rocks under the tires another RZR came and winched it out.
Even though we were camping we manage to find and ice cream stand... YUM!
We found mud!!!!
We had problem after problem happen up until we left but one we got there everything went smooth!!!
Since we were bundled up we didn't have to use sun screen.... or so I thought...
Just a few of the highlights. I cannot wait to go back to this place. We only drove on 5% of the trails that they have down there. For us - we would recommend this place anytime to anyone. It is now a must on our list.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Favorite Camping Recipe!!!!
Since it is the 4th of July this weekend I thought I would take some time to post my favorite camping recipe that is so easy that no one can resist!!! It is a great treat for anyone!!! First you need to have the cast iron sandwich makers that you can get almost anywhere in the camping section. Walmart has them for around $3.00. I like the single one but you could use the double one (around $5.00). We have a couple so we all can do it at the same time.
Make sure you spray the cast iron on the inside with cooking spray or it wont come out. Here is what you need for FIRE PIES:
Pancake Mix
Your favorite Fruit or your Favorite candy bar
Water
That is it!
Mix your pancake mix with water. We use the little disposable paper bowls to mix up the pancake mix, those size are perfect for two of these. Fill the cast iron maker half way. Put your favorite fruit or chocolate in the middle and then cover the top of the fruit/chocolate with a little more pancake mix. Now if you use fruit remember to mix it with some sugar. If not it is bitter - I may be speaking from experience and I may not. The pancake mix is not sweet enough to compensate for it :( Close up your cast Iron and put these bad boys on some hot coals from the fire. Watch them closely - They cook quick (4 mins or so) Make sure when you take it off to always check the middle. Carefully dump onto a plate and enjoy.. It is our favorite and we do these every single camping trip. YUMMY!!!!!
*For those who have gluten intolerance/gluten allergy/celiac, Kinnickinnick brand pancake mix is the best... I still use just water for it.
** wait for the cast irons cookers to cool down a little bit and wipe out with a damp cloth. If you use too much water, like anything cast iron, it will rust. In the morning when they are completely cook we wipe them down with oil or use cooking spray and put them away.
Our all time favorite 'gut' is Rollos!!! But close behind would be M&M's, twix, along with strawberries and raspberries mixed....
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