The Leaves They Are A Changin'

Today we hiked to the "Living Room" in the foothills above Salt Lake City. It has a great view overlooking the city and the Salt Lake Valley, but the changing leaves added a bonus to the day.

Here's a shot as we started up the trail...


The trail was somewhat rocky, but not too bad. Here's a picture of a rocky section of the hillside with some trees growing out from the face.

Mountains in the distance, while the colors change....

You can see some of the trees have already turned orange.

Another shot of the mountains in the distance.

We accidentally went off the main trail (again) and ended up taking a much more difficult path that included crawling / clinging / climbing over semi-steep rock faces like this one. Dave takes a breather...

This is one of the hills we had to climb OVER to get to the Living Room. It was a bit of a challenge.... we took the easy way down!

A view over Dave's shoulder at the Living Room. As you can see, people have taken long flat rocks and created a Flinstones like set-up with tables and chairs. It was actually pretty comfortable and the view was great.

Here's a couple shots of the rock recliners / sofas / tables.

Now you understand why they call it the Living Room!

A hazy shot of the city from the comfort of the Living Room.....

Kate lounges....

A shot of the valley over Kate's shoulder. This shot also gives you a better view of what we had to climb over to get here. These peaks are really two or three separate hills over which we climbed up and down and up and down, finally reaching our destination. It looks far less treacherous from this side though - the other side was much rockier!

Here we are!

And as we headed back down the trail, we took a quick picture of ourselves in front of this beautiful tree! Fall is here!

All in all it was a very fun hike, despite being more difficult than we intended. Thanks again to Mark and Tricia for the hiking book!

Adam's Canyon

Last weekend, we hiked into Adam's Canyon, outside of Ogden, UT. It was a difficult hike, since we are somewhat out of shape, but it was beautiful. We started at the bottom of a steep hillside, climbed up, and then down into the canyon. This is just outside the mouth of the canyon.


Here's a nice shot of the leaves changing colors up on the mountain side beyond the canyon.

Holmes Creek runs through the canyon, starting from the waterfall at the back (which was our ultimate destination). Filled with rocks, it is quite a peaceful sight. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of veering onto the Bonneville Shoreline Trail for a few miles. But we managed to get back on trail eventually.

Here's a nice one, definitely while we were looking back (since the trail was uphill most of the way to the waterfall).

Rocks jutting out from the mountainside, as viewed from the canyon.

And a view from within the canyon...

Finally, we came to the waterfall - a good reward for all of our hard work.

From the trailhead to the waterfall, we walked two miles (not including our sidetrack of at least another 2 miles on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail). The elevation climbed from 4,800 feet to 6,100 feet, meaning we walked mostly uphill rising about 1,300 feet in the process. So naturally, we took a picture in front of the waterfall.... but the kid we asked to help didn't get much of it for us!

Looking out from the waterfall..... we take a rest.

And now, back through the canyon another 1.8 miles to the car....

Thanks to Mark and Tricia Grebel for giving us "60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Salt Lake City," which is where we found out about this hike.

LOTOJA 2009: Utah to Idaho to Wyoming!

LOTOJA: A 206-mile bike race starting in Logan, UT which goes through southeastern Idaho and ultimately ends in Jackson Hole, WY. We accompanied our friends Clem and Joanna on another adventure, as THEY took on this monster race. They ride a tandem bike and are pretty amazing athletes. We provided support by meeting them at designated "feed zones" where we helped them replenish their water supply and handed off much needed nourishment (cheese sandwiches, organic cookies, organic fruit chews, sludge drinks).

Here are our biker pals getting ready for the big ride - starting at 6:28 a.m.


While Clem and Joanna worked their tails off, we drove through some amazing scenery. Starting with shots of Idaho....

We took photos with our new camera with the passenger window down. The camera is stellar - the car was constantly moving, but you wouldn't know it from these pictures.

Fog rolling through an Idaho field....

..... the cows don't seem to notice.

More beautiful Idaho scenery.

We were constantly driving up alongside (or into) mountains.

Here's Clem and Joanna on the tandem moving right along into Wyoming...

Kate made signs to cheer our team on as they roll by. The race was along the highways, so the bikers had to battle cars, in addition to each other.

At this point, we were moving into the Teton Mountains. Here's the Snake River meandering through.

One of the feed zones in Wyoming. We always met up at station 7. It got pretty crowded with all of the families and friends there to help their riders. When big groups of riders came in at once, it was especially confusing, but we did our job!

More of the Snake River...

.... and more still!

Riding alongside the bikers... just over the guard rail is a steep decline to the river. The scenery is pretty amazing along the route, but we wonder how much the bikers could really enjoy it after mile 100.

Not far outside Jackson Hole... these mountains looked very cool. It's difficult to tell from the photo (taken through the windshield) but the colors on the mountain transitioned from brown to yellow to red to green.

After just under 10 hours, Clem and Joanna ride through the finish line, winning second place amongst the licensed tandems!

Then, we were off to relax and enjoy some drinks. Exploring Jackson was quite fun - moreso since we weren't anywhere near as sore as our biking pals. Nice work "Team ClemJem"!

Sheepdog Day!

This weekend, we went to the Soldier Hollow Classic Sheepdog Championship in Midway, Utah. Their website has some very cool information (and videos),http://www.soldierhollowclassic.com/, but here are our pictures from the event.

First, we checked out this beautiful Australian Shepherd herding some ducks!

Guiding them through a tunnel - these dogs were so smart!




And guiding them into a crate!

Kate and Dave enjoying the main event - sheep herding competitions on the mountain!

.... joined by our friends Clem and Joanna, along with Don, Clem's "little brother."

A border collie guiding the sheep to the bottom of the mountain.

Facing down the sheep....

... and guiding them into their pen.

There was also a "splash dog" competition. Here's one of the pups attempting to jump beyond the 20 ft. mark. The farthest jump we saw was about 26 feet!

Later in they day, it started to rain, but we were prepared.

Keeping dry under the umbrella!

Another shot thrown in from the trip home - here's a little neighborhood with great mountain views!