The Indian Trail

For awhile now, I have been wanting to hike the Indian Trail, which runs from a point up Ogden canyon to 22nd street in Ogden. We planned to hike it a couple weeks ago, but ended up canceling due to the rain. Then we were going to go Monday, but the friends we planned to hike with canceled on us. However, this evening we were able to hike the trail. We parked one car at 22nd street, then drove up and started from Ogden canyon. We started hiking just after six, and we finished the trail in about two hours.

There are a lot of good views of the valley and the canyon along the trail. This picture was taken at the Nevada Viewpoint. Below Nate and Mark are sitting in the little log shelter found at the viewpoint.

Mark and Rachel taking a break at the viewpoint.

If anyone is ever looking for a nice trail in the Ogden area, this is a good one. It is about 4.3 miles long (one way). The trail is well maintained and easy to follow. It climbs some as you go up to the view points, but it is not too steep. There are lots of trees along the trail, so even in the middle of the day it is pretty shady.

The leaves at the higher elevations had already changed colors, making the scenery all the more beautiful. Because we hiked through the evening, we also were able to see some stunning lighting, watch the sunset, and see the moonrise.

Webelos 3-miler

Since I am the Webelos den leader in our ward and Nate is the Cub Scout Master, Wednesday evening Nate and I took the Webelos Scouts in our ward on a hike so they could pass off a requirement for their Outdoorsman badge. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as planned. There are only two scouts in the den. One of them showed up promptly at 5:30 well prepared for the hike. The other scout did not. We waited quite awhile at the church for him, but he didn't come. We couldn't really go on the hike without him, and he didn't live far away, so we thought we would just drive over to his house and pick him up.

Only, he wasn't at his house. One of his siblings informed us he had gone roller blading to the store with a sister but would be back soon. Well, soon the sister returned, but not the scout. He had gone to the church. So, we went back to the church to pick him up there. As he told us, he had realized he needed to get some things for the hike, so he left his house and roller bladed to the grocery store at 5:15 to buy some things.

Before we could actually head out to the hike, we had a couple more delays. We needed gas, and we had forgotten our flash lights. At first I thought this wouldn't be a problem, but since we were running so late, we realized we needed to go back and get them.

After all that, we didn't start hiking until about an hour later than I had hoped. So much for getting back by about 7:30! We didn't get back until 9:00. We went all the slower coming back down the canyon in the dark.

















But the hike itself was fun, and the boys enjoyed it. We went up Adams Canyon, which is actually about a 3.5 mile hike. This is the same hike we also did at the very beginning of the summer, but it wasn't nearly as crowded this time around, and the water levels were much lower.

















Getting back so late was frustrating, but at least we saw some nice lighting and a pretty sunset on our way down.

Birthdays: A How to

This year, I somehow managed to have three separate birthday celebrations and still have presents coming later! Here's how to do it:

1. Plan a pool party conveniently close to your birthday then right beforehand decide that you might as well call it a birthday party and have cake and ice cream too (this works better for adults who care more about seeing their friends than it does for younger folk who are mainly concerned about getting gifts from as many people as possible). The party was really fun because we played THE best pool game - soccer, that is - and we got to see a lot of people that we haven't seen in a while.

2. Have a low-key evening with your wonderful spouse who fixes anything you choose for dinner. Rebecca also spent a lot of time designing this hilarious birthday card.

(outside)

(inside)

3. Have cool in-laws who live close enough to throw you a birthday party of their own. It's especially beneficial if a really good dinner is a requisite portion of any gathering. If you can also manage to marry into a family with only four children/grandchildren/nieces/nephews that need spoi... I mean ... generosity, then you have yourself a pretty good bounty of gifts. (Thanks again!) and if you're wondering, I don't usually go for pink cakes. It's just that strawberry cake was the only cake mix we had besides a boring white cake mix and the frosting is hard to make Red without having to use a TON of food coloring.

4. Have parents who pretend they forget your birthday, but are really just waiting to see what is left from your wish list before deciding what to mail you. ;)