Halloween

On Saturday my son came home from Provo for a visit. He and his younger sister spent the afternoon making Halloween costumes.

I personally don't know who these characters are, but they claim that a lot of people their age will understand.

My son is a Legends Of The Hidden Temple contestant.

My daughter is a Survivor Of The Zombie Apocalypse (relates to a video game).

The costume seems a bit creepy to me, but she really is a sweet girl:

Halloween is a weird holiday. These two are prepared for a party this weekend down in Provo.

All I like about Halloween is the small children coming to my door.

Columbus Day Picnic

Today is Columbus day and Joe had the day off from work. I packed a picnic and we went up to Redman Campground in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's closed to campers which just means we had our pick of tables and lots of quiet mountain road to walk on.

Can you see the two deer peeking out at us from the trees? Enlarge the picture to see them better. There were actually three deer, but one ran away.

While exploring the area we found this Yurt. It's part of the Solitude ski resort. We looked in the window and saw tables, chairs, shelves full of dishes and a huge 1800's style, metal cook stove (wood burning). Joe said that you can make reservations for dinners here (neat):

While in the campground we found a few excellent pieces of firewood which we brought home. There was a huge amount of it laying on the ground, so I doubt it will be missed.

Sunset Peak

It's October and we are running out of hiking days, so Joe and I went up the Catherine Pass trail to Sunset Peak. The trail begins in the Albion Basin area.

This is Sunset Peak. It was 10,655 feet high at the summit. It looked like the trail was going around the face of the mountain, but the real trail goes over a saddle and around the back:

Looking down into Catherine Lake from the trail. We went to this lake last week, but we got to it from Brighton.

Joe on the trail to the Peak:

We are on the summit here. It was 25 degrees and the wind gusts were strong. I found it hard to stand up straight. The top of the hill was small and dropped off on every side. I was seriously scared and just wanted to get off of there. Joe took my camera from me and got a picture of the moment.

We made it all the way to the top; now get me off of here!:

The view of the lake from the summit:

Looking down on mountain tops:

There were a couple of spots in the trail that I really hated. For example, I was hanging onto Joe as we went down this narrow and slippery place:

At last we are down where it is very safe. It was still cold at this point and we did this hike without our gloves. I put my hands into my pockets a lot.

Joe thought I looked like Darth Vader in my hood so I took it down for another photo. I took all of the scenery pictures and Joe snapped the ones of me:

Driving out of the canyon we enjoyed the color of changing leaves on the Aspen trees:

We made it home safely and were a little amazed at how pleasant and warm it is in the valley.

On Monday Joe is off work so we will do another mountain walk, but it will be less adventurous than todays trail.

Fall Hike

It's already October 2nd which means our hiking season will be wrapping up soon. Joe and I went on a hike that started at Brighton, in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We climbed to three different lakes.

Lake Mary was a real surprise. Most of it had been drained! It was a really strange sight.

Remember to click on the pictures to make them bigger.

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Lake Martha was the next lake:

There were lots of yellow leaves near Lake Catherine:

We sat on some rocks near Lake Catherine for about a half hour while we rested and ate apples, carrots, granola bars and beef jerky:

Scenery going back down the trail:

I collected some big pine cones at this spot. When I got home I put them into a glass punch bowl. They'll be part of our Holiday decor this year:

Going down the trail:

We think that very soon we will go up Catherine Pass from Albion basin to Sunset Peak. That sounds like a good view spot. My goodness, before we know it we will be snow shoeing again.

29th Anniversary

Today we celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary. My goodness, that seems like a long time.

I got a really big bouquet of flowers:

Later we climbed the steep hill to our favorite picnic table in Solitude. With all of our picnic stuff in tow it takes at least 20 minutes to walk up the hill. This is our third year to come to this exact spot. It seems we are creating a tradition here. In keeping with the tradition, we decorated the table.

Our special table requires cloth napkins and a white table cloth. We bring heavy dishes. The final touch is to fill a mason jar with wild flowers. We also piled on some pine boughs and branches of quaking Aspen leaves.

After eating our picnic and taking in the view, we took our supplies back to the car. This included all of the foliage which now graces my fireplace hearth.

We went a little further up the canyon and found a place to go walking.

Here are some sights from our afternoon walk:

Happy Anniversary to us.

We have three great kids; Susan is 28 years old. She is married to a really good guy (Ben Dangerfield) and they have three kids. Emma, age 5, Becca, age 3, and Jacob, age 1 1/2.

Our son is Aaron, age 25 and our youngest daughter is Sarah, age 21.

White Pine Lake

This is the Saturday that comes just before Labor Day. Joe and I hiked to White Pine Lake. We were out on the trail for about 9 hours! We're crazy. It's probably appropriate that the first picture is of the boulder field we went through. It's just below the Lake and we spent about two hours in this stuff; one hour each way. It was hot and rugged.



This is White Pine Lake at the top of the world . It was our hard earned reward:

This guy is turning into a pretty darn good hiker:

This is just me posing for my posterity:

Flowers surviving even in the toughest terrain (Arnica?):

Click on these pictures. When they are enlarged it's easier to see what we were in:

It was a relief to get back down into the shade of the woods:

There were several little streams that spilled over the trail:

I think all of those streams merged into this roaring waterfall near the bottom of the trail:

By the time we got to our car, we were so sore and tired. We were running on will power at that point. We got home where our youngest daughter (lives at home) and son (visiting from Provo) were waiting for us. Joe was exhausted, but he drove them to In N' Out burger for big combo meals. They brought a nice big meal home to me. It was delicious.

Believe it or not, we were discussing the next hike while driving home. I told you we're crazy!