Snow Hike

Not the best day for hiking, but how bad could it be?
Two friends from Arizona, John and Gary (73 and 76 years of age) had invited me along on an early season hike across the high country. We discussed the route and the checked the weather before heading out from Providence Canyon to Spring Hollow. This hike would start out at 6695 feet and climbed up an icy stream. We hit the dirt trail at 8:30 on a cool clear morning. It had snowed the previous two days, but the forecast for today was only a 10% chance of precipitation, and morning skies looked promising. At around 7800 feet the trail disapperaed under the snow and the further we climbed, the deeper the snow pack became. After an hour and a half and 1500 feet later, we unknowling left the trail. We did realize our offset and looped around to intersect the trail again without having to backtrack - thank goodness for the premapping that was done by my two companions on their GPS units. There wasn't a trail to be found so we relied on waypoints to guide us on our route. We were done with the extreme climbing, but still had 4 miles across the upper ridges and through a saddle before we reached Spring Hollow canyon. By this time, the sun was long gone and the clouds hung just a hundred feet over our heads when at the apex of our route - 9130 feet. After six miles, we reached our canyon, however, it was a very steep slope. We were at 8800 feet and with 6 feet or more of snowpack on this north facing canyon, we were soon discouraged as we found no safe route down. It was dangerous and with over a 1200 feet before we thought we may be below the snow line, we decided to look for an alternate way out. Exploring our options, and viewing the terrain, it was decided we would head back the way we came. Already 8 miles into the hike, this was discouraging. We sucked it up and were blazing our way back to Providence Canyon. The afternoon brought on slush and the snow pack was slippery as we scrambled back across the mountain valleys. We made great time and were back at the car in less than 9 hours (12.1 miles). Gary was first (the 76 year old) and John and I came in a minute later. I don't know how they are so strong at that age. I was dead and was so sore the day after. All in all, it was a wonderful day in the mountains and we had beautiful views and only brief snow flurries. With warm weather now, it will be at least a month before we can go back up to altitude.

John

Jardine Juniper Hike

John and I went on a 10.2 mile hike today (5.1 miles each way) up to the oldest Juniper Tree in the country. It's called the Jardine Juniper after some guy named Jardine. We went with John Rendall and Gary Wilson who are retired Arizona residents but come to Logan to escape the heat and attend college courses. The weather was sunny and breezy; just beautiful for a hike! Perfect. John was actually sore from the hike but I wasn't. Hmmmm?? John R and Gary W are in their 70s and could hike both of us under the table. We can't wait to be their age : ) No animals on this hike but the scenery was beautiful. Snow capped the surrounding mountains and the melt water filled the streams. So pretty!

Archery

John and Josh from the Cache Archers (and me too) went to shoot at 3D targets in Card Canyon. The targets look like real animals (except the dinosaur one) and there is an insert section on the body with circles around the animal's vital organs with small circles identifying better kill shots. The archers aim for those little circles. In a competition, they would get more points for smaller circles.

John dry-fired Josh's bow (meaning he fired it without an arrow!) but it didn't break. That's the second time John has done such an oooops and he's getting a complex. The first time caused a costly repair to John's bow (his is still being repaired - that's why he was using Josh's today!) but today's ooops didn't damage Josh's equipment. Thank God!

The picture of the deer with 2 arrows in it has one arrow from John and one from Josh. I think they were taken from around 32 yards. So John is doing pretty well for a novice. Josh has 4 years experience, won the winter league, and has killed an animal the last 2 years.

Now if John can put one in the sweet spot of an elk this fall, we'll be golden! Go John!

Dedicated to Abby

It's fitting that our first blog ever is dedicated to the two most wonderful Doberman in the world, Abby & Freddie. Abby's AKC name was "AbracadAbby; The Magnificent Abby". She died in May 2008 at 8 1/2 years of age from Wobbler's Syndrome which is a degenerative disk disease. We loved every moment of Abby's time on earth and will cherish our memories of her forever. She is preceded in death by our 7 year old Doberman, Freddie, who died in April 1999 of a pancreatic tumor. They both gave Dobie's a great name and lived up to their reputation as silly, smart, protective, loyal, sweet and gorgeous dogs.

The purpose of our new blog is to document our travels (or not so many travels now that gas prices are so high) and have a place to publish our pictures and experiences. Even if nobody but us ever reads it, that's okay. We're really only doing it for us anyway. But if for some reason you're interested in what fun things we're up to, we're glad to have you!

Watch for pictures and our activity logs soon.