Weekend Camping Trip

Friday evening we drove up Ogden Canyon, through Huntsville, and on to the "South Fork" campground to spend the night. South Fork is only one of a half a dozen national park campgrounds nestled within two and a half miles of each other in the canyon beyond Huntsville. The popularity of the area is understandable given its scenic canyon views, access to the creek running through the campgrounds, and proximity to nearby reservoirs.

To our dismay, a trailer was parked in our reserved campsite. Since no one was there and because he had no way of doing anything else about it, the camp host had us choose a different available campsite and gave us a couple free bundles of firewood for the hassle. We ended up in a larger double campsite near the creek. After setting up our stuff, we realized we had forgotten to bring the bread we needed for breakfast the next morning. So Nate drove back down to Huntsville while I tended the fire and monitored our food in the dutch oven.

While I waited for Nate to return, I noticed this young robin in the shrubbery by our campsite. His parents were watching over him and periodically flying in to feed him. It was fun to watch.

After Nate returned, we ate dinner. We had pizza baked in our dutch oven with carrot sticks and pineapple on the side. For dessert we had s'mores. Actually, we didn't start out with enough coals on the dutch oven, so our pizza took a very long time to cook. Since we were hungry and were running out of time, we ate our s'mores while our pizza was still baking.

Unfortunately, we slept pretty poorly that night. This was in part because we forgot to bring allergy medicine with us, and Nate's allergies became maddening. They kept him awake almost the whole night, and Nate's discomfort and movement kept me awake most of the night as well. As the first glow of the sun began to softly brighten the sky, and as the birds began to sing their morning duets, we somehow finally managed to drop off into a more settled sleep sometime between five and six. Then, since we were so tired, we ended up sleeping in longer than we had hoped and got a late start our our morning plans.









We made French toast for breakfast before picking up camp and heading further up the canyon to Causey Reservoir for our hike.

Causey Reservoir's shape is defined by the narrow valleys its water fills. It has three distinct arms: a north arm, an east arm, and a shorter south arm. We took the "Skull Crack Trail" which goes up along the east side of the south arm and then follows the east arm to its tip. It was a short easy trail that would be great for a beginner or inexperienced hiker (although I am not sure exactly how long it is since everything I have looked up about it lists a different length varying from 3.2 miles to 5.2 miles round trip).



















It was a scenic trail though and we obviously hit it while wildflowers in the area were in full bloom. We saw buckwheat, yarrow, arrow-leaf balsamroot, wild flax, Grey's desert parsely, prairie lupine, sticky geranium, steppe sweetpea, prairie star flower, bitterbrush, and many other flowers in bloom.


This picture was taken at the end of the trail looking back up into the reservoir. It was a beautiful spot, so we took a short break here before heading back. Near the waters edge there was a wet patch of ground that was very popular among the butterflies, as seen below.


So overall, despite some setbacks, we had a good time and enjoyed the trip, especially the scenery.

Congratulations Ben!

On Thursday we drove down to Provo to attend my brother Ben's high school graduation commencement exercises. The program itself was on the long and boring side, but it was nice to see Ben in his official attire. He has done very well academically and graduated as one of the top ten students in his class.

Ben (sitting next to Allan) holding up his new tie given to him as a graduation present.

Memorial Day

Our Memorial Day turned out to be a really relaxing break from our usual routine. We started off the day by hiking up Adams Canyon, which is only about a 10 minute drive from our apartment. Apparently we were not the only ones who thought this would be a great hike to do Monday. That is one of the busiest trails I have ever seen. Everyone and their dog (literally) was there hiking the trail too. I was delighted to see whole families there with all their kids. However, having so many people on a narrow trail really slowed us down. We kept running into large traffic jams or getting stuck behind slower moving groups.














It was a great day to go hiking since the weather was warm but not too hot, and the trail was very scenic even with all the people. There was also plenty of shade along the trail, making it all the more pleasant.



The trail was also very wet since it follows Holms Creek for most the the way and crosses it in a couple places. The creek was cold, rapid, and swelling with spring run-off. Some maintenance would really help the trail in a couple places, especially when it comes to bridges. The trail ends with a beautiful 40 foot waterfall. To get to a point where we could see the waterfall, we had to make our way across the creek through the icy water (as you can see many other people doing behind us in the picture below). Burrr!

Here we are at the waterfall.

Butterfly on Nate's shoe.

After returning from our hike and cleaning up, we headed down to my grandparents' place for a hot dog roast and some games, including water-balloon volleyball.

Pack Meeting Hike

Saturday morning we went on a hike for the cub scout pack meeting (since Nate is the leader and I help out a lot too). For the hike, we headed up Centerville Canyon a little ways. We made a bingo game for the kids to play along the trail, and those who wanted to looked for items such as different plants, animals, and bugs to cross off.




Those who made it far enough got to see this waterfall across the canyon. I was impressed that some of the younger kids held up so well, including one girl who was at the front of the group much of the time. She did get pretty tired on the way back though, so Nate carried her for part of the way.







At the end of the trail there were cookies for everyone to close the activity. It was fun. I really like how pack meetings get the whole family involved in things and allow siblings who aren't in scouts to participate.




After the hike Nate and I headed to Salt Lake City where we visited the Conference Center and saw the church's international art competition/show. There were a lot of really nice pieces there, along with some bizarre stuff, but it was really fun to see. I even have a couple classmates from BYU who made it into the show and had the church buy their pieces. If you are in the area and have a chance, we would recommend visiting it.

Anniversary "Adventure"

Yesterday we celebrated our second wedding anniversary. The day started off well. Nate surprised me at breakfast with a new Tech 4 O Accelerator Series Hiking Watch. The watch acts as a pedometer, and based on information you give the watch, it calculates your speed, distance, and calories burned. Additionally, it has other useful features such as an alarm and timer. I was pretty excited about it, and promptly spent most of the morning trying to figure out how to work it.

Nate got off work early that afternoon so that we could go on a hike. A couple days earlier we had found a trail on Antelope Island that we thought would be a good length for the time we had. We thought that conditions for hiking there would be nice since it is spring. Boy were we wrong! Unfortunately for us, we were unaware of the swarms of brine flies that would hound us there. Although I have been to the island a couple times before, the conditions must have been just right to keep the flies at a minimum, so we were unaware of them. This time, they were simply unbearable. They congregated on our clothes, stuck to our skin, and became tangled in our hair. They crawled in our ears and got caught in our mouths and noses. There must have been billions of the tiny creatures everywhere. Apparently, they bit too, making things itchy as well. It was rather miserable.


As expected, the scenery was pretty, and the still reflective lake was beautiful. We even saw a lone buffalo near the trail, but those things are hard to enjoy when you are being overwhelmed by masses of tiny flies. We continued on for a bit, hoping that maybe the flies would abate some, but when it was apparent that conditions weren't getting any better, gave up our hike and headed back to our car. We then wiped as many of the flies off ourselves as we could. It makes me wonder how the buffalo and other creatures living on the island manage to endure it.

According to my new watch, we went about 4.2 miles on our short hike. I guess my watch isn't very accurate if you are waving your hands all over the place to ward off flies...


After getting back we took a much needed shower. I was amazed at how many bugs were still stuck in my hair despite all my efforts at the park to deter them. After taking my hair down and starting to comb it out, our bathroom quickly became filled with the flies. There were a couple hundred dead ones on the floor, and more live ones flying all over the bathroom. Disgusting. I know.

Showering usually feels nice, but it feels extra nice when you really need it. When you have lots of dead flies smeared on you, you really need it. Feeling clean and fly-free afterward felt wonderful.

The rest of our evening was much more pleasant. We went to Olive Garden for dinner and used a gift card my aunts had given me for my birthday. Luckily, we didn't see any flies in the restaurant.

After coming back, I presented Nate with a gift: a beach towel and a book (thanks for the idea Lori!) with our blog entries and pictures from the past two years of our marriage.

Here we are with Nate's beach towel and my watch.

Since our actually anniversary hike was a disappointment, it is a good thing we have many other exciting adventures planned for this summer, from hiking and camping excursions to weddings. We don't expect to encounter so many flies on those trips, thank goodness!

Date Night Adventure

Last week we decided to do something completely different for our date night. Rebecca's camera has this cool feature that can make a stop-motion video from pictures you've taken, so we decided to make our own claymation video. Check it out. There's no sound on it, but maybe next time.