Spontaneous Camping Trips

I decided to go on a spontaneous camping trip this weekend. It was rather enjoyable. I went rock climbing up at paramount and led a route soy buddy cade and his date could go climbing. Then I had Kenny and Gabe meet me up at paramount where we were climbing. Kenny hen climbed up the route and had a lot of fun. Then we saw that it was getting dark and that the rain was starting to come down.

I had wanted to go up Kelly canyon to camp, but as I looked up the canyon and saw how much it was raining there, we decided to go on a road that followed the river where it wasn't raining yet. We drove up there a ways and found a nice spot to camp. We even lucked out at finding some coals left in a fire pit so we had an easy time starting our fire. We also set up my tent really quickly and got everything ready. We were cooking our hot dogs over the fire when it started to rain. It passed over quickly though.

The next morning we woke up and had a delicious breakfast cooked over the fire that was starred from the same coals we had saved from he night before. After that we packed up and went climbing. Then I drove back to Idaho falls and met up with mom, dad, and David. Then david and I met linden at a park in ammon to go play a round of frisbee golf. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed myself this weekend.

Overall I rate going on spontaneous camping trips as a load of fun :)

Backpacking

I was a male chaperone for a backpacking trip that the girls ranch girls went on. We went on a hike to green lakes up northLeigh canyon on the border of wyoming and Idaho. It was a 5.5 mile hike. We started out on the wrong path thanks partly to my guiding the group up he wrong trail. Luckily it dead ended before we got too far up the trail. It also made for an excellent analogy on if you mess up that it doesn't matter. You can always turn around and get back on the right path. The same applies to our journey through life. If we ever find ourselves going down the wrong path we can always repent and make the change.

The rest of the hike went really well. The girls on the thick were quite fun to go backpacking with. They sing a lot more than guys do and are generally much more willing to pack up the group gear.
When we got up there there were quite a few mosquitoes to go along with the gorgeous lakes that were there. I also realized that I forgot to bring a tent for myself and since I didn't want to sleep in a tent with just girls I made a leanto shelter out of a fallen down pine tree and a groundcloth that was available as well as with some rocks to help weigh it down. It was just big enough for me to fit into it with about 8 inches above my head. I spent the night in this nice little shelter and weathered out a very windy and rainy night. It led to me not sleeping very much, but it was a lot of fun. Overall I reallyenjoyed myself on the trip. No one was hurt and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. On the way back from our hike we also stopped and drank some very refreshing huckleberry shakes.

Hiking the Middle Teton, oh and why not the South while we're there.

Well, I had been wanting to go on a good hike for a while, and had debated about going and Hiking Mt. Borah. I didn't want to go by myself so I asked a buddy and he suggested hiking the Middle Teton. So thats what we decided to go and do. After working all week landscaping, I stayed at the cabin in Victor and Dillon and hislittle brother came up and spent the night there as well. Then Fridaymorning we got up at 2:30 and left to go to Grand Teton National park. We parked at the Lupine Meadows trailhead and started up the trail at 4:30 am. The sky was perfectly clear and there was a mostly full moon to guide us up the trail until the sun roseabout 6:10 am. We made pretty good time getting to the meadows, where we stopped and ate breakfast, and saw a nice doe and her fawn grazing 30 feet from us. We thencontinued on up the trail and made it to the saddle where we could see iceflow lake below us. We stopped there and ate "lunch" at 9:00 am and took a little break. We then set out to summit the Middle Teton. It took us about two hours to get to the summit, where we took several pictures, and made some phone calls and just enjoyed the view. We then decided that since the weather was so nice, and because we weren't all that tired, that we would also summit the south teton as well. So after making it back to the saddle, we continued on hiking up to the summit of the south Teton. After another hour of hiking, we made it to the top. It gave some very nice views of the valley. We then hiked down, and slid down all of the snowfields that we could to make getting out as fast as we could. It was quite the hike, we went up about 7,000 vertical feet, and hiked about 16 miles round trip that day. We got back to the cabin at 9:30 that night, and by the time we went to sleep, we'd been awake for about 20 hours all together. It was quite the ordeal. It was well worth it though.

Mentor Mentor Mentor

Well, I'm back from mentoring at the boys ranch for two weeks. It was a lot of fun, I'm going to miss the boys that I worked with during those two weeks. They were good boys and I learned a lot while I was working with them up there. I also took a lot of pictures and went on some pretty hikes. I returned to waterfall canyon. It was gorgeous and filled with wildflowers. More pictures are on the way next week after I get back from working landscaping again. So until next time, I'll catch ya later!

Updated!

Well, quite a bit has happened since the last time I wrote. Last week I had fun working at the ranch. We left wednesday night though, so friday and saturday I went and surveyed. Richard and I ended up going to grand teton national park and taking the grassy lake road home. Its 30 miles of dirt road and was pretty fun, we drove the element through several miles of closed roads and got some funny looks from people seeing someone drive an element through there. We made it safely though, and in less time than it took to go the other way, so it was worth it, plus it made some good memories. I also had two dates that weekend. They were fun. Went to the ice caves, and I also went geocaching. this last week I had fun at work again, mowed the lawns twice while I was up there, and also planted a herb garden at the girls ranch. We went climbing twice while there and had fun both times, it just so happened that both times we also ended after the sun had already gone down. This weekend I also had to give a talk in the singles branch. I was glad to have the opportunity to talk because it made me pick something out and study up on it. I was inspired by something Rohan did on friday when he was here. He got his hand covered in used oil in the garage and I helped him clean it off. It was really cute how he had me help him, and how he didn't want anyone else to find out but how willing he was to listen to me. It made me think of Mosiah 3:19 and gave me a good subject for my talk. I enjoyed giving it, and surprisingly spoke for about 20 minutes or so, and didn't even give my whole talk. Well thats enough rambling for today。 I'll post more after I get back from being a mentor on the boys ranch in mid july! 下次見！

Finished!

I finished running the dam half marathon! It was pretty fun this morning. I was a bit nervous for it, but managed to do really well. I ran it in 1:52:26 my first time ever so it was also my PR! I did really well until about 10 miles out, thats when my knee started to hurt, and my mile times were about 10 minutes for a bit. It was a fun race though. I wore my don't mess with texas shirt and everyone was cheering for texas while I was running. It was fun, and I was glad to finish. My knee hurt a bit after my run, but its feeling alright now.

Dam Marathon!

Well, its been a little while since I'veposted so I'll do a quick update. While working on the ranch I had an accident starting a chainsaw which resulted in a bruised knee. Which happened to throw a big monkey wrench into my training plans for the half marathon. I would run on it and after about two miles it would hurt too much to keep going. This week it finally has started to feel better which is good because its race day tomorrow! I'm excited/nervous for it because I haven't been able to run much for training. I picked up my packet for it today though and am looking forward to giving it my best tomorrow morning. This week I bought a knee brace to wear and wore it while running/hiking up a mountain on tuesday morning. It felt good going up, but hurt a little coming down. That day I then worked 12 hours digging post holes and putting up a rail fence and mowing all of the lawns on both the boys and girls ranch. Then after allof this we decided to go climbing that day as well, and still went climbing. It was great. I onsited a 5.7 route leading for the first time after my mission on my brand new quickdraws. It was a really fun day. I was real sore the next morning though. My knee didn't hurt though, so thats a good sign.

Thursday on the way home Matt and I also decided to stop and climb at paramount rock on the way home. It was fun and I lead a 5.8 that I had never climbed before. I also went to instit

ute and really enjoyed that.

Well, wish me luck on my race tomorrow. I hope that my knee lets me run the race alright. It will be pretty interesting running it. I'll update how it went some time soon

.