Monday, May 4, 2009

Spring Flings...Snow to Desert back to Snow

This spring has been a time of real adventure for me.  As athletes, we are "on" from the middle of November through the end of March and so when April rolls around, we are ready for a bit of a break.  This year, Noah Hoffman, Sarah MacCarthy, Zoe Roy, Mikey Sinnot and I set out for a 5 day backpacking trip in Escalante, a part of the southern Utah desert.   Here is a snapshot of our trip.



This is a gas station.  The store is actually inside a mountain, 
and they have awesome ice cream sandwiches!

As we got closer and closer to our camp site for the night the temperature kept dropping...

and dropping....

and dropping!

What is Mikey thinking about right now?  Arizona.


But, the snow disappeared for our sleeping, and though the temps were not 
what we had hoped for yet, we were still smiling in the morning.

But the weather warmed up and we found this guy sunbathing on the rocks.

Sarah and  Mikey psyched about the warm sand.

On one of our days we climbed up and over this arch (Jacob Hamblin Arch).  It required a bit of a repel, and conquering a few of my fears, but we made it.  Our campsite for the night was actually in those green trees that you can see through the arch.  Beautiful mornings!
The five of us (Noah, Sarah, me, Mikey and Zoe) standing at the edge of the Escalante river.

And back to the snow...Last tuesday and again this Saturday a few of us SLC/PC folks set off to find some powder at the end of April.  As you can see, we found some, and it was perfect.
Pete Vordenberg loving the day, as usual.

I have to admit, it's hard not to smile on days like these.









No comments: