Moab Anniversary

Hanni and I met in January of 2005, dated for what seemed to be years and were engaged by May of 2005.  That summer I knew I would be heading down to my summer job as a river guide in Moab so we spent most weekends when I wasn't on the river in and around Moab.  It's always been our home away from home.  So when my mom offered to watch the boys for the weekend of our 11th anniversary we had to go back to Moab for the weekend.  It was a whirlwind trip though since we couldn't leave town until Friday afternoon.

We made it to the campsite just across the street from the famous Slickrock mountain bike trail at midnight.  Setup our tent and were asleep by 1230am.  It's amazing how much faster setting up camp is when you're only setting up tent for two people!

We woke in the morning to this beautiful site.

This was our first night on our new sleeping pads which we bought from Sierra Trading Post (my favorite online retailer for all my outdoor gear needs).  For years we have used an inflatable mattress which inevitably fails on camping trips after a few months of use.  We wanted something which would last longer and still be comfortable for car camping.  We landed on the ALPS Mountaineering Summit Sleeping Pads for 2.  They are self inflating through two small tubes on the top of each pad so you can set how firm you want to sleep.  Once you have the firmness set, you can close the tubes then be ready to be whisked away to dream land!  The two sleeping pads have velcro which can be used to attach them together for one large pad to cozy up inside your favorite extra wide sleeping bag. Once we figured out the firmness we wanted we both slept great.  They roll up and are able to be packed away in a bag.  They are not really light enough for backpacking but car camping they were absolutely perfect.  I highly recommend.

First item on the agenda was to ride the Slickrock trail together.  In all of our years we have never ridden it together.  We had a lot of fun but by the end of the 3 hour ride we were exhausted and it was getting hot!

Despite some brake issues on Hanni's bike and a torn sidewall on my bike we were smiling all the way.

Usually we are not for selfies but when there is nobody else around and you have to document there are no other options.

After Slickrock we jumped in the car and quickly headed south to Monticello to attend the LDS Temple.  It was a really cool experience.  And another opportunity for a selfie!

We returned to Moab for a good dinner at the Moab Brewery and spent the rest of the evening walking around town and of course we couldn't pass up a shake at the Moab Diner.

We planned to camp at Lower Onion Creek which is right on the Colorado River north of Moab the second night so we could float the daily stretch on our SUPs the second day.  That night we both slept great so we woke up early to pump up the boards and get on the river.  Since we started so early we had the river all to ourselves.  It was glorious!

The views in Castle Valley are second to none!

The rapids on the daily stretch are quite calm but being on a SUP makes them just that more fun.  Here's Hanni floating through New Rapid.

We took out just after White's Rapid and quickly started to process of getting 10 miles upriver.  It's a very technical process which I like to call hitchhiking.  Only about 10 cars drove by before one decided to pick me up (Hanni stayed with the gear).  It was a nice German family (coincidence, I think not!!) of a father and his three teenage boys on their way to California.  The father grew up kayaking so he told me he knows the plight of needing to hitchhike back up river.  We had a great time talking about kayaking and SUPing before he dropped me off at the car.

Hanni and I realized we had enough time to get back into town for Sacrament meeting if we hurried so we quickly packed up the gear and drove into town.

On the way out of town we stopped at a Moab favorite, though it was our first time trying it out, Milt's Stop n' Eat which is on the road to the Slickrock trails.  We highly recommend it.  Very tasty burgers!

We made it back to Pueblo at 7pm so my mom could head back north for a trip to the Pacific Northwest.  We had an absolutely wonderful time on our trip.  It was a great way to celebrate 11 wonderful years of marriage.  I love my wife!

Family Camping Adventure

This summer we had a few goals as a family.  One of the goals was to go camping at least two times.  The first trip was down to the Sand Dunes at the start of the summer but the summer went by so quickly we almost didn't get our second trip in!  The first weekend after school started we decided to take off Friday evening and head up to one of our favorite free spots in the San Isabel National forest, just 45 minutes from our house.  We left town a little later than we would have liked so we didn't make it to the area until the sun was just going down.  It was a busy weekend for campers so all of the spots were we usually camped in the past were taken.  We continued to drive down South Hardscrabble and just before it turns into private land we saw a campsite, but it took some work to get there.  To get to the site you had to walk down into a gully, then cross a little stream, then bike back up the gully to camp.  It took us some time to ferry all of the gear over but right as it got too dark to see, camp was setup.  Timing also worked out great because just as camp was setup, the rain started.  And it didn't stop.  For almost 2 hours.  We stayed relatively dry in our huge 12 person tent.  The two oldest boys have graduated to our small 2 person tent and unfortunately they had water all over the floor of their tent.  We didn't do the greatest job of laying down the tarp, mostly because it hardly ever rains.  

 

The hike over to camp made it fun.  This was the first morning as we were drying everything out.

  So that night, the oldest boys spent most of the night just trying to stay on their dry sleeping pads and off of their wet floor.  Hanni and I realized around midnight that our air mattress had a leak, a big leak.  So by morning we were sleeping on the ground.  Which sounds comfortable, but it really wasn't.  We all woke the next morning to damp sleeping bags but we decided that as long as it was drying during the day, we would stay the second night.  We spent the morning hiking and exploring around camp.  The boys had a great time.  Then we headed over to Lake Isabel to meet up with Pete, one of guys I work with, and his family.  We all had a fun time walking up the stream which leads into the lake and exploring.  We packed a small lunch for us so we spent all day there until about 2pm.  As we were packing up to leave, the rain started, but nothing too hard.  

 

Exploring around camp.

 

Handsome explorers

 

Beautiful Lake Isabel.

Up river from the lake.

 

We got back to camp and decided that if our things were dry we would stay another night.  Miraculously everything was dry.  We had a tasty dinner which Hanni pre made at home, beef with broccoli and rice.  One of the best meals we have had while camping.  We built a fire and just enjoyed the time sitting around it and roasting marshmallows.  I brought up flint and steel and the boys had a great time trying to start a fire without matches.    

Back at dry camp.

 

Making fire!

 

S'mores!

By 6pm clouds were rolling and so we quickly braced ourselves for another storm.  We fixed the boys tarp so that water would not leak underneath and packed up everything in the tent.  The rain came at 615pm and it came hard!  By 715 we had numerous leaks in our large tent, with water dripping down like a water fall.  Nothing a little plastic bag catching it couldn't fix.  We decided that if the rain I didn't stop by 730 then we would pack up and head home.     Well the rain stopped right at 730.  We all were laying in our separate tents and we started to think about how this night would go.  I had tried to patch our mattress but was unsure if the patch would hold.  Our youngests' pack and play was completely soaked.  The older boys had a little water in their tent.  We said a prayer as a family and listened to what we should do.  It was unanimous that we should pack up and head home.  Everything was completely soaked and muddy and we were losing daylight fast.  We took down camp as quickly as I had ever seen us thanks to a lot of help from the boys and by 830pm we were on our way back home.  By 10pm all of the boys were in their own dry beds at home and our gear was drying in the back yard.  What a trip!   We learned a lot on this trip.  Here are a few of our learnings.  First, we need a better family size tent which is better at handling heavy rain.  As the boys get older we want to spend more and more time camping and staying dry even in a downpour is very important.  Second, we are done with the air mattress cycle.  You find a cheap one, it lasts a few trips, but inevitably fails while you are sleeping on it at night.  Since returning we have purchased a new sleeping pad system from Alps Mountaineering.  It's two extra large, extra long, self inflating pads.  When inflated they are 3 inches thick and you can remove or add air depending upon how firm you want to sleep.  These are made for car camping, not backpacking.  We are excited to try them out on our next adventure to Moab.  Gear review to come!      

Xterra Aspen Valley Race Report

The Aspen Valley Xterra triathlon is a race which I was looking forward to this year because I felt that I could improve on my times from last year.  I was excited as well because I was able to camp right next to the starting line.  This made the morning of the race very nice as I was able to sleep in and slowly prepare my transition area.  I slept great the night before and had my transition setup with plenty of time to relax and prepare mentally for the race.  With an hour to go I was all set and went for a nice jog to warm up. By 830am I was ready to go.  I put on my wetsuit and went down to the water to start to swim warm up, still feeling great.  The swim is in a lake specifically made for water skiing so that water is pretty shallow and murky, but very warm.  I really felt great on the swim.  It was one loop around the lake and I exited the water in 10th overall, really feeling good about the rest of the race.  The mountain bike course is very unique.  The entire course is on private land and the owner built their own mountain bike course with banked downhill corners and epic single track.  My race was two 6 mile loops.  The first loop I felt a little slow but as I came towards the end of the first quarter I was picking up the pace. At mile 5 or so a racer in front of me was climbing a steep part when their chain snapped and flipped off.  I asked her if she had everything she needed to fix it and she said that she did not and needed help. I figured I could help her out since others have helped me out in the past.  It's part of an unwritten code that racers help out other racers when possible.  I helped her shorten her chain and gave her a quick link (a cool part that allows you to connect a chain without a tool.  I always carry one on me for just this reason.  I helped her out and then we were both on our way With the first lap done I was ready to really crush the second lap.  Then at mile 8 I came around a corner and cut it too short and crashed, slashing my leg up pretty good.  With blood dripping down I continued, still feeling pretty good.  Then at mile 9ish I came around a corner and noticed a large rock in the trail.  My first instinct was to stop and move it out of the way but instead I went around the left of it, too close though because my rear derailleur slammed into the rock, proceeded to get ripped off and thrown into my spoked because of my forward momentum.  Not a good situation.  This had happened once before with my hard tail so I always carry a spare derailleur hangar.  I spent the next 25 minutes replacing the derailleur hangar and trying to get my derailleur to work but realized that it was much too bent up to be useful.  I then decided that since I only had 3 miles left I would just push my bike.  Not a good idea with lots of up and down sections.  So I stopped again, this time deciding to remove the derailleur completely, shorten my chain, and run single speed the rest of the way.  What I didn't have was a quick link since I gave mine to the other racer. Thankfully a different racer stopped and gave me one of her quick links and a better tool to shorten a chain.  Karma.  After another 20 minutes of work I was up and running.  At this point I had already lost 45 minutes which on a 2.5 hour race is pretty significant.     Thankfully the chain worked well, just a lot of work and more planning when you only have one speed to work with.  In the future I think it would be fun to have a single speed bike, just not in this type of situation when it was forced on me. I entered the transition area in pretty much last place.  So going into the run I just wanted to give it my all.  I did beat last years time on both the swim and the run, the bike was obviously much, much longer.  I learned a lot in this race though.  I learned that my will to never give up is stronger than the will to qualify for nationals or place on the podium.  This is the first time that I have ever encountered such major technical issues but I felt good that I was able to work through it and still finish.  Overall a great race experience despite the not so great result.  

Such a beautiful venue at Xterra Aspen Valley

 

 

This is what it looks like to convert a 20 speed mountain bike into a single speed on the fly.  You pick a ring on the front and a ring on the back and that's all you get!

 

 

   

Lake Isabel Natural Slides

For a few years friends at church have invited us to hike to a natural water slide by Lake Isabel.  They usually do this on Memorial Day and I always have to work so we decided that this year we were going to pick a Saturday and do the hike on our own.  So we picked our Saturday, did some research, and headed up to the start of the hike.  We had a hard time finding a really good description of the hike so this post will not only share our experience at a really fun place close to us, it will also give a more detailed description of the entire hike with pictures!

Each way the hike is just short of a mile.  With the five boys (9, 7, 4, 3, and 1) it took us about 45 minutes each way.  The hike starts on the north side of the dam of Lake Isabel.  You park on the west side of the road next to the cars parked for fishing.  There is not marker or sign for the start of the trail so you have to look for it on the east side of the road.  The start of the trail follows the spill way from the dam down. This part is pretty steep but doable for children (our 3 year old made it down just fine).

You can see the trail as you look over the edge of the road.  It heads straight down next to the spillway.

At the bottom of the spill way you cross a small stream then you are able to look back up towards the spillway.

The trail continues to be very well marked and you will come to a fork, either path will take you to the falls.  The one to the left just puts you walking closer to the river, the one to the left has you walk through an aspen grove.  There are a few times when the path splits.  We found in every case, it always came back together to the one trail.

Once through the aspen grove you come to your first climb up and over a small hill.  There are a few of these types of climbs up and over on the hike.  Hanni was a trooper carrying our youngest on her belly the whole way there an back.

The trail is very well defined as you go up and over another little climb.  Here are the boys climbing up.  On this one I did need to support our 4 year old so he wouldn't slide down.

The trail now goes back through a forested area.  You can see how well defined the trail really is.

You will come across a really cool camping area with a fire pit.

Again the trail takes you up and over another little hill.

After coming down from this one you come up to a cool little waterfall.

After this you really follow the river closely.  A few times during the next part of the hike you can choose to walk down in the river or hike up on the rock.  It was a little slippery so I chose to carry my three and four year old as I walked through the water.  

Next you start walking right on the rock, it's slippery so be careful but doable to children.

After coming up over the little climb here you descend again back towards the river.  At this point you are almost there!

We arrived!  

You start the slide right in the water next to my son with the blue shirt on.  Push yourself forward then gravity, the water flow and the slippery rocks do the rest!  You finish in water about waist deep (around 36" for me).

We had an absolute blast going down the slides.  Finn and Tiig both went down on their own.  

I had to show them first that you wouldn't die so I made a little video.  It's a bit chilly when you first hit the water.

Here is Tiig on his first attempt.

I took Kell and Rees on my lap each separate.  Kell was a little apprehensive so I took Rees first and everything went great.  I lifted him up as we dropped into the last part.  This convinced Kell that he would be fine.  So Kell and I started down.  For some reason the first drop knocked Kell and I sideways, Kell almost nailed his head against the rock, then I couldn't get us to sit straight up so we poured over the final part on our sides and both were totally submerged.  Kell was not super stoked about this run.  Makes for a good story though!

Just a few fun pictures from the hike.

Luuk fell asleep on the hike back so Hanni had to hold his head like this the entire way.  She was not such a fan of this.

We had such a blast playing in a super cool natural slide that was so close to home.  Hopefully this helps anyone else who wants to find this fun local place.

An Epic Adventure

A few friends of mine, Karl and Amy, are planning to hike Mt. Rainier in July.  We planned a training trip months ago to help them know what hiking at elevation would feel like and how their bodies would handle a long day of hiking.  Initially, our plan was to hike Democrat, Lincoln, and Bross but as the trip drew nearer, we decided to hike the 14,433ft Mt. Elbert.  It is the second highest peak in the lower 48 states and slightly higher than the 14,411ft Mt. Rainier.  I wanted to best simulate their summit day on Rainier so we decided to leave Pueblo around 1030pm to start our ascent at 230am.  My oldest Finn really wanted to go but I was concerned about his ability to hike on little sleep.  I found out later in the day that this should not have been a concern!  The drive up was uneventful, lots of talking about gear and my experience on Rainier in 2014.  We made it to the trailhead at 2am and began to gear up for our summit bid.

Initially, the trail to Mt. Elbert is very tame.  Not a lot of elevation gain as you follow the Colorado Trail.  We hiked by headlamp through the forest as the trail slowly increased in elevation.  You leave the Colorado trail and that is where things get steep.  I didn't take any pictures in the early morning hours of our hike because we were making really good time.  We made it to treeline just as the morning light was shining.  I pointed up to what I thought was the summit and said "There's the summit!"  I was wrong.  The trail to the summit has about 3-5 false summits as you climb, this was just the first of many moments when you felt you had reached the top when in reality you had much longer to hike.  

Once above treeline, the trail really starts to pickup some elevation gain.  We stopped much more frequently to rest and regroup.  Karl and Amy were really beginning to feel the effects of climbing at elevation, on no sleep, and after coming straight from sea level the night before.  The climb from treeline to 13,000ft seemed to take hours.  At one of our rest stops, I took the first photo of our adventure.

Here's Finn resting around 13,000ft.  The conditions were much colder than we thought so we were wearing every layer we had throughout most of the hike above treeline.

As we continued hiking after this rest stop Finn was pretty tired.  I could tell that the excitement of the summit was wearing off.  I decided to ask him about the books he has read recently and this is exactly what he needed to take his mind off the lack of sleep and quick elevation gain.  From 13,000ft to 13,700ft he hiked almost continuously as he told me about the two most recent books that he read.  Up until this point we hiked close to Karl and Amy but Finn was in such a zone climbing I didn't want to stop him.  Before we knew it we were above 14k and closing in on another false summit.  When we reached the top of this false summit we were both a little frustrated but we could see that we were on the final ridge to the summit so we quickly regained our energy and continued hiking.  Finn and I reached the summit just after 8am after hiking for 5.5 hours.  We were ecstatic and tired!  It was windy and cold at the summit but we found a good place outside of the wind to rest and wait for our friends to summit.  I told Finn that I wanted to look down the summit ridge to wait for them as he rested in our wind-block.  When I came back a few minutes later to check on him he had fallen asleep!

Finn fast asleep at the top of Colorado.

Karl and Amy made it to the summit ridge just before 9am and the summit right at 9am.

The final push!

Finn and I at the summit!  So proud of him for making it to the top.

Some shots of the summit.

I was also very impressed with Karl and Amy.  They flew in Friday afternoon from sea level, drove down to Pueblo, we left for the trailhead at 10:30pm, started hiking at 2:30am and were at the highest point of Colorado by 9am.  That's impressive.  

Around 930am we started our decent back to the car.  This is usually the longest part of the day because you are tired and just want to sit and relax.  We stayed together for most of the descent, until one point when Finn was in the zone again and didn't want to stop, towards the end of the hike.

Finn, Karl, and Amy working their way down the mountain.

One reason I like early morning starts is to avoid the traffic going up.  These hikers were all on their way up as we were going down.

It's hard to see really how steep it is but some parts of the climb are quite steep.

Descending below tree line.  You can't tell from this picture but we were pretty exhausted and pretty miserable at this point.

My hiking buddy finishing strong.

Finn and I made it back to the car at 1pm after 10.5 hours of hiking.  Karl and Amy were not far behind.  We were spent!  The drive back was pretty quiet but we did have to make our traditional stop at K's Dairy Delite.  Any time we are in Buena Vista this is a must stop.  Some of the best burgers in the state and the shakes are pretty fantastic as well.

All in all it was a fantastic hike.  We made it back to the car safely, exhausted but feeling happy of our accomplishment.  Karl and Amy experienced a portion of what their Rainier hike will be like in July.  They both did very well and I'm sure they will crush their Rainier ascent in July!