Happenings of our lives

Well I finally got someone to go backpacking with me other than Emily.  The Budd’s are our friends in the ward and I convinced Ryan to go with me on Dec 18-19.  It was pretty darn cold but we stayed warm enough.  We left after work so it was already dark.  We went to Hercules Glade Wilderness area and started our hike on the Long Creek Trail, taking the second right.  Halfway to the pilots trail, we set up our tent.  The next morning, we finished the loop.  It was fun but pretty darn cold.

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If Jordan had his way, we’d be hiking and camping every night, but that’s not really very reasonable, so we don’t. One Friday, I packed everything up during the day and we left when he got home that night. The sad thing is that after the time change, it’s been getting dark by 5:30, ugh. We drove to the Hercules Glade Wilderness area and started hiking.

The other thing that we didn’t know about was that it was hunting season, so we heard lots of gunshots. I thought I heard an animal off the trail, and got scared. We took some awesome pictures and we remembered to bring our tripod and take pictures with it.

Jordan and I went hiking Saturday (Sept. 12)  in the Hercules Glade portion of the Mark Twain National Forest. It was so beautiful. We were so excited to go to some of the national forests/parks in Missouri because they are so different from the ones that were in Utah. The first major difference is that there are a TON of bugs. Jordan called the ranger on Friday and they told him that there are a ton of ticks (yuck!). So, before we left we went to the store and bought some bug spray (40% DEET) and bought a bandanna for me so.

So we drove down to the national forest on highway 125. We are also really excited because the forest is only a little over an hour from our new house (that’s another post). So we drove down there on the scenic route. It was so pretty and everything was so green. The way the landscape varied was amazing. On one side of the road there would be flat fields of grass and then on the other there would be rolling hills.

Once we got there we decided that it would probably be best to just camp in the campsite because we hadn’t been there before and didn’t know of any specific spots to camp in the trail. So we started by spraying profuse amounts of bug spray and emptying out Jordan’s backpack (we didn’t really need to hike with the gear because we were planning on staying at the campsite) except for some granola bars, water, flashlights, all the essentials. Jordan registered and we went on the Long Trail.

The first big difference between Utah and Missouri (aside from the general landscape) is the amount of bugs. There are so many bugs here, and not just normal bugs like ants and spiders, there are so many weird bugs. We saw a bug that looked like the stick bug on A Bug’s Life, except it was really big. So, before we left I went into the pit toilet and there was a daddy long-leg spider that was huge (like the size of my fist including its legs) that crawled out of the toilet.

There are also a lot of mushrooms. I took pictures of the red mushroom and the blue/purple mushroom because it reminded me of Mario and the colored mushrooms on it. There were some trees that started to turn fall colors. I’m so excited to go back when more of the trees are fall colors. There were all these really cute lizards that kept scurrying around the path and climbing on trees and we even saw a frog. There were a lot of spiders (ugh) and there were a couple of snakes that slithered across the path. Needless to say we were not that calm when the snake went across the path.

There were a lot of dry creek beds and we even saw a really cool rock overhang where a creek usually runs. So we hiked about 7 miles, got back to the car and even set up the tent. Then we decided that we should probably go to church so we ate dinner then packed everything back up and came home.

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On May 16-17, we went to Capitol Reef with our friends Reed and Amber.  Reed is another graduate student in food science here at BYU.  We had a ton of fun.  We hiked along a little river the whole time and had a blast.  It was really hot so the water mostly felt good on our feet (with the exception of in the morning when the water got cold and the sun hadn’t gotten hot yet).  We used our new tent again which we loved.  We found a fun little cave as the pictures show.  Capitol Reef has got to be one of the best national parks.  Not very many people (I think we saw 3 small groups of people, none of which were actually backpacking), the backcountry permits are free, and everything is beautiful.  We also hiked the chimney rock trail which was pretty as well and found some viewpoints that we took pictures at.  We were all wearing chacos so we couldn’t pass up the moment taking some fun pictures of our feet.  Overall, it was an incredible weekend.

Emily and I went up Big Springs Hollow on May 8th to the 9th. We took our new tent and instantly fell in love with it, especially compared to our old tent.  We brought cards and played some games and were able to sit up in our tent!  Amazing!  We didn’t see too many people.  We only hiked probably less than a mile up the trail, just far enough to get into the national forest as opposed to the city park.  It’s up provo canyon.  We had fun.  It got way cold at night though; fortunately we brought clothing but we ended up putting on every bit of clothing we brought.

A couple of weeks ago, during REI’s anniversary sale, we bought a new tent.  We are really excited about it.  We’ve already taken it with us on a few trips (posts coming) so be sure to look for pictures of it. We got it for 260$ during the sale which was a good deal.  We like it because you can see the whole sky while laying in it and… you can sit up in it!!!  Our  old sierra designs tent was closer to the ground.  Plus our new tent is 55 square feet which is enormous and it even feels bigger because you can sit up in it.  In fact, we’ve already had four people playing games in it fairly comfortable (post coming).  The link to the tent is below.

http://www.rei.com/product/748588

We went backpacking and hiking with Reed and Amber this past weekend and it was a ton of fun. We all really wanted to wear chacos because we wanted to walk in the creek. You can take really fun pictures like this:

However, the first night after backpacking through Pleasant Creek, Jordan’s beloved chaco broke. He was so sad. We took this picture after the second strap in the back broke. Then,right after this picture was taken the main strap broke, and started to come out of the footbed. Needless to say walking back was interesting…

Look how sad Jordan was, looks like someone needs a new pair .

Nathan (Emily’s brother in law) and I went on a little backpacking up rock canyon. We didn’t go very far because we started late and needed to be back in time for church the next day. As you can see, it snowed on us during the night but we stayed dry and warm the whole night.

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Nate with the scary clouds behind him

Chase and I went backpacking up Rock Canyon. We reached Lightning ridge (we think). We were at an elevation of something like 10000 feet. The trail was only about 6 miles but we gained about a mile in elevation change. That means on average it’s about a 15% grade. It was pretty intense at the end. Near the end, we started having snakes lying across the trail. Chase was a good buddy and got a stick and threw them off the trail for me. Everything was so pretty, I want to go again next year.

Emily and I went backpacking in Capital Reef. It was very hot but a lot of fun. The area is really pretty. This is a fun national park because not very many people are there. It’s a little harder to get to than say Zions is. The trail we went on is Chimney Rock trail. Once you’re in the rock canyons though, you can pretty much go anywhere. We also went before this with Justin and Julie but this time we just wanted to go by ourselves.