Let's Head to the Hills!

Pomerelle Hike with Carson

2010-07-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

I took our oldest boy Carson on a hike to local ski area Pomerelle on Saturday. He has been telling me that he wants to climb Cache Peak and other mountains with me. There is a local mountain near that is dubbed the "D". D standing for the small town of Declo. It is a good training hike where you gain 1300 ft in elevation and it takes less than an hour to get to the top. Carson really wants to hike the D, but there are some really steep (but short) sections that I am afraid he would have a hard time coming down from. Consolation prize for Saturday: head for Pomerelle. We parked in the parking lot and headed up the run called Milk. Very appropriate because there were cows and cowpies everywhere.

Here is Carson in all his hiking gear. Trekking poles and $2 binoculars!!
He really was a good little hiker.

There were beautiful mountain flowers everywhere!

Self portrait with Big C in the background.

There you are: you big messy cows!!!

It wasnt long before I was carrying all four hiking poles so that Carson could use his binoculars.

This is the half pipe. Full of weeds and trees. Not too much "vert" here!

Loved this picture of Carson....wish it came through better.

We drove to the top of Mt Harrison. Congrats Carson on "bagging" your first peak.....even if we drove to get there. To the left of Carson's head is Cache Peak.....maybe after a few more peaks and hikes, we can hit Cache!!

The skull and cross bones shirt is for Brig C !!

Redfish Lake

2010-07-12T12:39:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, we went to Redfish Lake to spend some time with some good friends and their families. I hadnt been to Redfish since I was in high school. What an awesome place!! The Sawtooth are an amazing mountain range.

Because our kids were up at the crack of dawn, we took them on a hike.....didnt want to wake the rest of the camp. Yes, the boys are still in their jammies here.

Logan chillin' in the carrier.

Carson and Nate looking for fish off the bridge.

The beaches at Redfish were nice. The water was a little chilly.

This is my favorite picture of the trip. Grand Mogul to the left and Mt Heyburn to the right (along with a few others mountains that I couldnt figure out the names).

The boys would cry each time we left the lake.

On the way home, we stopped at the fish hatchery south of Redfish.

They let Carson and Nate fish for free in the kids' pond. Worms were also provided.

These little fish were killing me. They were trying to jump up over this wall.

Carson: the concentration.

The joy!! Carson reeling in his 1st fish ever!

The Spoils! At least for a minute: we threw him back after the picture.

I loved this picture: Carson and Nate looking down into the runs to see the large salmon....and little Logan trying to get there!

What a great trip! It was fun to be with good friends. The scenery was great! The company was great! I would recommend Redfish to anyone looking for an awsome place to get away!

Mt Whitney

2010-06-30T07:11:00.000-07:00

I have looked forward to seeing Mt Whitney for a long time.

In May 2009, I went on a hike with a great friend Michael Monson to Ben Lomond Peak down in Utah. Mike mentioned that he and some friends were planning to hike Mt Whitney in just a few weeks. This piqued my interest: on idahosummits.com, I had read Dan Robbins trip report from when he went to Whitney. So, hearing Mike talk about this got me interested. In fact, last summer I contemplated going with Mike and his crew, but schedule didnt work out.

Shortly after the Ben Lomond hike, my wife and I met up with good friends Brig and Steph down in Salt Lake. I told Brig about Mike's trip to Whitney.We tossed around the idea of doing Whitney together, but not too serious :)

Fast forward to January of this year. I get a call from Brig. "Dude, you still want to hike Mt Whitney?" With a big gulp, I said Yes.

I had already been training, mostly to stay in shape. I quickly bumped up routine. DANG the treadmill.....lots of hours spent there.....mostly walking with the incline up. I hiked the D Mountain south of Declo a few times. Great place to train!!

Two weeks before Whitney, I decided to do a training hike up by Pomerelle, our local ski hill. I parked at the bottom of the Pomerelle road and walked the 7 miles to the ski hill parking lot. I put on the crampons (never been used) and hiked to the top of the mountain. Pretty routine hike. On the way down, with 3 miles left to go, my right foot started hurting. By the time I got to the car, I could barely walk. I went and talked to my dad. He thought I had plantar fasciitis. The Rx was to take it easy the next few weeks and to take Ibuprofen 3X a day.

Jeremy Bennett and I left Burley at 6:00 Tuesday June 22nd. We made it down to Lone Pine in about 11 hours. Brig met us at the Visitors center an hour later. We cruised up to the Whitney Portal to try to find a walkin campsite: there were several still available. We went to the Whitney Portal Store for the legendary burgers and fries. They didnt disappoint. It was fun to meet Doug and Earlene Thompson, the owners of the store. Doug wrote a book called "Mount Whitney: Mountain Lore from the Whitney Store".......which is a very good read.

My brother Scott and his step father-in-law rolled into camp sometime around midnight.

We had breakfast at the portal store. The pancakes were massive and yummy.

To burn time and to acclimate, we went on a hike to Cottonwood pass, a trail that starts at 10,000 feet elevation. Very cool area and hike.

Here is Brig and Jeremy chillin' !

Picture out of place: Visitors center

Trailhead to Mt Whitney

Jeremy

Dave

GQ Brig

Looking towards Cottonwood Pass

This area was very sandy. The trail felt like walking at a beach.

Self- portrait: mostly wanted to show off $10 glasses from Maverick. Tom Cruise eat your heart out!

The Portal Store

Breakfast!

Morning of the hike: We woke up at 3:00 and were on the trail by 3:45. It was awesome to hike with headlamps on. The sunrise here was amazing.

The crew taking a break.

Mike Monson described these mountains as "dramatic". They were indeed.

Mt Muir from Trial Camp

Whitney and the Needles from Trial Camp

A good look at the switchbacks and the chute to the right that most people were ascending. Lots of snow on a few of the critical switchbacks.

Upon arriving at Trial Camp (12,000 ft), I had a hard decision to make. My foot had flared back up. I didnt know if it could handle going up the chute on my tippy toes with crampons. After thinking it through, I decided to call it a day. To make it significant to me from a hiker's standpoint, I decided to press on to at least get to the same elevation of Mt Borah, the high point in Idaho, 12,662 ft. I wanted to see that I could at least hack the elevation in Idaho.

This picture was taken a few months ago.I like it cause it shows the chute and the switchbacks. Pretty steep stuff. No wonder they made 97 switchbacks to get to Trail Crest.

Marmot on top of the rock! Hungry sucker wanted all our food.

Whitney from 12,662 ft.

Looking down on Trail Camp

Jeremy and I made it down the trail safely. Scott, Brig, and Dave all summited! Congrats!

Picture from the Portal Hostel.

From the McDonalds parking lot

Boundary Peak, high point of Nevada

What a great trip I had!! Great hike and great company. I would like to return someday!!!!

Check out these other pictures and trip reports:

http://brigsblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/mt-whitney-trip-report-summits-and.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51591226@N03/

Little Sister Mtn. in the Lemhi Range

2010-04-19T08:30:00.001-07:00

I went on a fun hike this past weekend in the Lemhi Mountain range in Idaho. I met up with several of the regulars that post on idahosummits.com for the spring outing on Little Sister. There ended up being 14 people for the outing. It was fun to finally meet so many of these people that I have come to know via the internet.

I drove up to the campsite on Friday. It is located in the Little Lost River drainage.....about 20 miles or so north of Howe. I had been on the east side of the Lemhis at Birch Creek, but never the west side. These first pictures are from my car driving to the campsite (Mud Spring).

A blurry picture here: Big Dan and Jeff enjoying some breakfast.

This photo is courtesy of Dan Robbins at idahosummits.com. This is our pre-hike shot. John (splattski), Michael (boisedoc) , and Dave (superdave) left around 5:30. Our group left around 7.

Front row: Margo, Margie, DAve, Alex, Steve W. (deltaoperator17)

Back Row: Matt (mtybumpo), Jeff B, me, Big Dan (idahosummits)

I do have to add that Steve, the night before, whipped up some wild jalepeno mushroom salmon and rice that was killer. thanks again Steve.

I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast. That was a dumb idea. For some reason, it didnt sit to well in my stomach. I was in and out of nausea all morning. Probably the milk!

Rock garden

There were lots of clouds in the morning over the Lost River range.

Some of the crew breaking through the snow.

Time to put on the snowshoes. We hiked about 23oo ft before we had to put the snowshoes on. We found the trail (trough would be a better word) that was made by the earlier group. To be honest, the snow was horrible. Thin and crusty top layer, very loose underneathe. The early group had to work their butts off to break trail. I was VERY thankful for them!

This is a picture of the "trough" we trudged through with snow shoes. It was at this point where you could see breaks in the snow that had been created by the early group. I turned to Big Dan and said "Those snow slides make me nervous"......and he said, "me, too". Coming from Dan, who has done a ton of winter snowshoeing/climbing, it made me a little nervous about possible avalanche in the area. It turned out that all were safe.

When I reached somewhere near 10,100 ft. I decided to call it quits. I had hiked up 2300 ft in some steep terrain, and then gained 700-800 more feet in snowshoes on steep terrain. This was a great accomplishment for me! I think I could have made it to the summit. I was worried about having enough gas in the tank to make it safely off the mountain and then to drive 3 1/2 hours bcak home (after 2 really bad nights sleep).

Some really cool, unique trees.

Lost Rivers again.

Bell Mountain to the north in the Lemhis.

Heading back down to out camp.

Diamond Peak from the road.

I loved this barn.

this is my favorite picture that I took. I think that is Diamond in the background.

Elba Pass: First Snowshoe Outing of the Season

2009-12-21T08:32:00.000-08:00

December 19, 2009

I went with a great friend, Justin Mitchell, and his biking friend, Stan Baker to Elba Pass. There is a dirt road here that connects Oakley and Elba. I had never been on this road before. From what the guys says, it is terrible in the summer. The road was snow covered most of the way. It got progressively deeper as we pushed for the top of the pass. We decided to park 400 yards or so from the top. We donned our snowshoes and got after it.

Here is a shot of Justin by the truck before we left. On my phone, the splint he has on his finger looked like a cigarette in his fingers. Doesnt look that way here, but he is still one bad mutha!!

Blurry Picture here of me. This is the point when I was gassed (after almost an hour of going at a good pace)......maybe fitting that the picture is blurry...kinda like my eyes felt fot a minute there. Guess who rescued me AGAIN?? Swedish fish!!!!!!!!

Loved this shot: Me, Stan and Justin. Stan is 60 years old. I really hope I can be at his fitness level when I reach 60. The man is a machine!! Move over young bucks (thats me, of course!!) At one point, I asked Stan where he was with his heart rate and he siad 172 (heart rate monitor). He held it there for a while! Awesome!

Stan and Justin heading back down trail we broke earlier.

This picture makes it look like we were in fresh powder. Not! We had to WORK to break throught this crusty snow!

Good thing my finger is in almost everyone of these pictures. Argghhhhh

Dont mess with this guy!!

Loved this picture of Stan: Our GPS navigator guy for the day

I believe this is the west side of Mt Independence

Thanks Stan and Justin for pushing me on this day!! It was a perfect day........No wind, a little sunny, not cold. In fact, I was overheating with just a fleece jacket on. We didnt make it to Indepedence Lakes, but this was just as fun and satisfying!!

BYU vs TCU Game

2009-10-29T13:10:00.001-07:00

Courtney and I went to the BYU/TCU game on October 24, 2009. I was very excited for the game. Honestly, I thought the outcome would be a little better........I wasnt expecting a blowout. TCU outplayed BYU in every facet of the game! Dang! It was still a fun time!

Before the game, we went to Legacy Hall in the new Student Athlete Building on campus. I liked this Heisman display for Ty Detmer
Pregame snap of the Cougar outside of Lavell Edward Stadium.

Close up of Ty's prize.

Standing by Ryan Denney's jersey on display. He and I were mission companions in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a big guy.......6'7"...............lets just say I always felt safe out in the streets with Ryan.

The weather before and during the game was crazy. Dark clouds swirled all around us during the game. This is Provo Peak to the east.

Mt Timpanogos to the north.

Very cool atmosphere !!

Cache Peak, ID

2009-10-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

I had a fun hike this last weekend, Friday, October 16, 2009. I climbed Cache Peak, located in Southern Idaho. It is the tallest peak south of the Snake River in Idaho, standing at 10,339 ft. I have wanted to climb this mountain for a long time. I decided to do a solo climb. Honestly, I was pretty apprehensive about going by myself........getting stuck, mountain lions, turning an ankle, etc. To my luck, everything turned out okay. It was a very nice fall day.....sunny as ever, hardly any breeze. I decided to take the southwest route, following the description given at http://www.idahosummits.com/cache/cache.htm . Most people try to climb Mt Independence on the same day as Cache. Due to time constraints, I decided to just do Cache. I plan to return to climb Independence....in fact, I would like to approach it via the Independence Lakes trail to the north.

Trailhead was easy to find. The roads getting to the trailhead were very muddy, due to melting snow. I almost got stuck in a giant puddle. I hiked up this rangers trail to start. Very nice trail.

It wasnt long before I was hiking in snow.

This is a good picture of saddle between Independence (left) and Cache (right).

Another view of Cache

I loved this part of the hike. This is peering down into one of Independence lakes.

Once I got to the saddle area, the snow got deeper. I was wishing I would have packed my snowshoes.

It was awesome to finally see the cairn on top.

Getting closer.

In plain view now!

View from the summit. You can just see the tip of Independence.

Loved this view. City of Rocks to the south.

Mt Harrison/ Pomerelle area to the North

Looking directly east.

Summit shot by the cairn.

I really enjoyed the hike. It wasnt hard at all. The trail head is at roughly 8400 ft. The elevation gain is just under 2000 ft. From car to car, it took a little over 3 hours round trip.

It wasnt the same going by myself. It is so much more fun to share something like this with other people!!

Ben Lomond- May 2009

2009-10-13T15:04:00.001-07:00

I went on an awesome hike with Michael Monson, my old roommate from BYU, and his friend, Dave Fawcett. We hiked to the top of Ben Lomond Peak, UT. I have always had an admiration for this mountain. My parents both grew up in the Pleasant View/North Ogden area. During family reunions at the Barker Family Park, I remebering seeing BL and thinking how awesome it is. One summer, my Aunt Mary Ann used to take us to the top of the Pole Patch and we would ride out bikes back down to their home in PV. I remember seeing the gullies on the south side of the mountain and wondering what it be like to climb.

Mike, Dave, and I met at the Fred Meyer parking lot in Ogden and traveled up to the trailhead near North Ogden Park (I think that is what it is called). Very nice trail! The switchbacks at the beginning seem to take a while to traverse, especially coming down.

This first picture is at near 7200 ft. Looking south toward Big Pine resevoir.

Ogden Valley from the Summit

Summit Marker

Mike and Dave on the Summit

Willard Peak to the North

It was a wonderful trip. I treated myself to some Taco Time afterwards and then made the trek back to Rupert.

Toxaway/ Petite Lake Loop and Snowyside Peak

2009-09-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a few pictures of the trip that we took with our Ward Scout Troup to the Sawtooh mountain range in Idaho. We did the famous Toxaway/Petite Lake Loop. We left early Monday morning July 20, 2009. For the most part, the hike was pretty good. This area is surrounded by mountains, high alpine lakes, trees everywhere.....it is very beautiful.
This first picture is a summit shot of me on the top of Snowyside Peak
Here is a group picture of the troop on top of Snowyside.

Wooden cairn on the summit. Register was inside the box.

Alice Lake with the Sawtooths in the background. I thought this little area was the reason the range has the name "Sawtooths"

We found this water fall/ stream area above Toxaway Lake. Water running down the soild granite hillside was AWESOME!!

El Capitan and reflection on Alice Lake

Toxaway Lake with Snowyside Peak on the far left. Believe it or not, it is the highest of the 3 peaks here.

Some of the scouts above Toxaway Lake

This is a great place to hike, fish, climb, etc. There is so much wilderness in this area. The downer of the trip was dealing with the mosquitoes. They were EVERYWHERE!! I took my own personal can of repellant and ran out in 3 days. They say late August is a good time to go: low bug count and no snow! It was fun to be with scouts. WE must have pumped over 100 gallons of water over the course of 4 days. No problems with diarrhea or the likes.

Trip Stats:

Loop is a little over 18 miles.

Trailhead elevation: 6500 ft??

Snowyside elevation: 10651 ft

Hike could be done in a long day, or broken up into multiple-day trip. Between the streams and lakes, there were plenty of places to filter water. No fires are allowed on the trail.

Black Mountain, Idaho

2009-09-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

I went with Dean Molen from Lehi, Utah to hike in the Black Pine Moutains on the Utah/ Idaho border. I have noticed this mountain range for the longest time. It is right off of I-84 to the west. Being that this is my first outdoor post and my blogging skills are ghetto, dont expect too much today. It was hard for me to figure out how to line my pictures up with the comments. Any how, enjoy!!

Coming down the mountain, we ran into this big storm. It really didnt start dumping on us until we were 1/4 mile to the truck.

This is Dean Molen on the summit. He is 69 years old and is a retired dentist. I connected with him over a year ago. We exchanged emails over the year.....mostly me picking his brain on mountains, nutrition, gear, etc.

Here is my self-summit shot. Dean is talking to his wife in the background.

Dean making a push for the summit.

This is Bull Mountain, UT to the west.

It was a fun mountain to climb. I felt like I had my nutrition under control. Iwent with a mixture of 2/3 water and 1/3 Gatorade. I snacked on Clif Bars, Swedish Fish and almonds. usually on these climbs, I experience bouts of nausea. I am not very good at taking breaks. On this day, we took a few 5 minute breaks. I got some food down the chute and guess what?.......nausea went away.

My first post

2009-09-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

Wow! I cant believe I am doing this. I have entered the era of blogging. I must be crazy! I decided I would create a spot where I could share outdoor adventures, family adventures, etc.