Timpanooeke Hike

Joe and I made a one hour drive to the Timpanooeke trail head. We got on the trail at 9:00 a.m. and came off of the trail at 6:30 p.m. That's 9 1/2 hours. We spent an hour at the top. We could have gone further up if we had left earlier this morning. We'll do this again sometime. Further up there's a glacier that some people were sliding down.
I've posted some pictures of the trail.

This is as far as we went. At least we felt rewarded for our hard work.

A shot of me on the way up:

We ran into Larry Nuttal and his daughter up there. He hadn't done this trail in two years and happened to pick the same day that we did. They actually got started earlier than us and got to slide down the glacier. We have got to do that someday.

Because of the way the trail switch backs up the mountain, we crossed different sections of this stream about 6 times. It flowed over the trail.


Near the top there was a landscape of greenery and wild flowers.



More trail scenery:

Wild flowers:

A Friday Night

This evening we went to the home of some people that we really didn't know before tonight.
My husband works with the father of this family in his office. We have children close in age. Our families seem to be similar in many ways and we had an enjoyable Friday night with them.
I like this first picture for the simple reason that my camera shy daughter couldn't hide this time. She had to 'freeze' in a position that others had placed her in. It was part of a silly game that we played after dinner.



Here Sarah is attempting to hide behind her brother, but I caught her this time.

I was so glad to see my son. He lives in an apartment near his school, and conveniently not too far from the home we were visiting. He came over to join us for the evening.

We had a nice meal and an enjoyable time:

Gardens

Today my husband and I strolled around at Thanksgiving Point Gardens for a couple of hours. It's our little escape. It's very hot today and the flowers are in full bloom. You'll notice that there are three video's. I don't think that the pictures require commentary; just enjoy the scenery.

Birthday party

Every July our family gets together to visit and celebrate some birthdays; Dad, myself, and my brother, Brian, have date's that are close. Dad and I are just one day apart.
This year was pretty special. Dad wrote a portion of his life history and read it to us. There were things that we had not known before. He's led a very interesting life and is so successful and smart.

This first picture is of my sister in law (Stacey) and her 2 month old baby girl.
Dad is there behind her, and that's Bradly (my brother/Stacey's husband) by the wall.


This next one is my sister Debera's husband and daughter.


That's mom in the red shirt, Bradly, Dad and the back of Debera's head (Sorry Deb).



This one is almost the same, but it has my son in the foreground.



This one shows my son and daughter. She's being a teenager and turning her back on my camera. I've got lot's of great pictures of the back of her head. At the round table is my brother (Brian) and my husband, but he's in shadow. In the foreground is mom.
Our family is large and spread out around the country. We're always missing someone at these gatherings, but we always think of them.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July. Those of you that know us won't be surprised to hear that we spent some time this afternoon on the trails near our house. Today we were easier on ourselves and only hiked for three hours. That's so much better than the eight hours we did recently. As usual the trails were a popular place to go for many people. We even ran into a couple that we know and had a nice little trail side visit.
It's been a very warm day, although a bit overcast at times. Between the slight overcast and just being under a lot of trees the pictures below are just a little bit dark.


<


Happy trails to you.

Solo Hike

People that don't care for rivers and trails, may as well skip over my blogs in the summer. That's a lot of what we do in the summer. Our children are grown. We have mountains in our backyard and we're not afraid to use them.
Today I went out alone. It's wasn't as much fun, but my husband already had a physically active day and didn't need anymore.
He had already 1) Weeded in the church garden, (2) Helped a neighbor move and (3) worked on the sprinklers.
My list for the day wasn't nearly as ambitious, but it did include getting out for a walk.
This trail is a 15 minute drive from the house. It's easy, familiar and it's a busy one.
My only fears are: (1) Seeing a rattlesnake (2) being run down by a mountain bike or (3) being approached by a large unleashed dog.
The unleashed dog thing has happened a couple of times. So far I haven't had to see a rattlesnake.
Things that I like to see on the trail are (1) friendly couples (2) Scrawny dudes in B.Y.U. T-shirts; actually the nerdier the better. (3) Boy scouts (4) girl scouts.
This blog has both pictures and video. I hope you enjoy the virtual stroll in the woods.
The first picture is one of our favorite places to start on this trail. It goes right into shady woods and it's a fairly smooth trail that follows the river pretty closely.

The river:
A Mountain:
The trail:
Video:

More Blanche Lake Pictures

I was looking through the pictures that I took on our Blanche Lake hike and found so many more that may be of interest to people. I also have a video of the lake itself, but for some reason that particular video won't upload to my blog. I don't know why, it makes no sense to me either.
So, at the risk of boring you all to death; here are some more pictures. Be sure to view the Blogs before this one. THOSE HAVE VIDEO.
This first picture is looking back down from where we came. It's the back side of the lake basin.

Looking into the lake.


The last few steps before you see the lake. No it wasn't cold up there: it was very very hot.


Again, I must comment: these boulders are part of the trail.


This is not to far below the lake. You can see the water falls that come out of the lake here.


I hope you liked the pictures. It's our modern version of the old family slide show.