Tory and Tegan on the Horizon

Fall means canyoneering around here, so we headed down to the North Wash area of Southern Utah. It’s located between Hanksville and Lake Powell – essentially BFE. Heather, Josh, and Sirisa, as well as Babbie, Brad, Tai, and Aspen showed up too – But the first morning was just us. We took the kids through a canyon called Lucky Charms – a perfect little slot for kids.

Tory got on rope and let me lower him down a 30ft rappel. He was a little nervous at first, but was determined to do it. And he liked it!

There aren’t more shots simply because lugging the camera through skinny, sandy, hands-on canyons is a pain. We need to get a little point and shoot for these kinds of things.

Chowin' in the Uintas - Ruth Lake campfire meal.

While we’ve done a lot of car camping this year, there’s always something a little different about packing it in. We did it once last year, and while it didn’t turn out to be the greatest of trips, we thought we’d try it again. The kids are another year older, and another year independent-er. This means, in outdoorsy terms, that Tory can walk on his own a lot farther.

It was a fun, spontaneous trip that the kids loved. I’m really glad they love the outdoors as much as mom and dad do.

Marcus, Kari, Tory, and Tegan look out over the Uintas.

Right after Grandma Pat and Grandpa Gary left Tracy and Marcus showed up. Literally. Same day. Again, not a whole lot of pictures were taken, but I did get a few of the day we spend hiking Bald Mountain in the Uintas. It was really fun having so much family around for a few weeks, and I hope they had fun too.

Tory collects rocks for chucking.

We make it up to the Uintas quite a bit every summer, this year a little later than usual due to our extended winter/lack of spring. We spent just one night and then hiked the next day. These hikes are still short, but I’m guessing in the next few years they’ll stretch out longer with some overnight hike ins.

Sometimes 'hiking' for Tory is more like 'riding.' Click Tory's head for more.

We’ve done quite a bit of camping with the kids, but up to now it’s been of the car-based variety. We decided to change that in August with an overnight in the Uintas.

Tory and I slept in bivy’s, and after waking to a drizzle and cold kids, we were forced out too early. It was a lot of work for what we got, but it was all worth it.

There aren’t a lot of great shots because of the rain, but click above for more

Tory's first night under the stars

I know I’ve posted this image already here: Yuba Reservoir Boat Trip, but I want to remember Tory’s first nights under the stars as an event on its own. This is only important because I’m eager to return to our backcountry ways, and this is a step closer.

Tory takes it off trail. Click the pic for more of this schtick.

We always go to the Uintas to camp, because it’s relatively close, and so very woodsy-mountainsy. But we like to explore new places too, so we treked on up near Powder Mountain to a place that looked pretty good on the map. The bummer part is that lots of other people had that same crazy idea, and there was no room at the inn. So we drove around for a while, detouring at a road that read “National Forrest access.” To me, that means there’s probably lots of little roads here and there that one could pull off on and find a little spot to camp. Neeuuop.

Long boring story short we ended up back in the Uintas 4 hours later, and vowed never to try a new place again. At least not until next time.

We camped and hiked for the weekend with Michelle, Sam, and Soph, and had quite a nice time chllin’ in the woods. We even had to swat at some mosquitos, which I thought were extinct here in Utah. What? What’s that I don’t hear from my Minnesota friends?

Tory and Soph are starting to become real troopers in the field, both hiking most of the way there and back. I think we made it all of 3 miles in! Actually, I carried Tory most of the way back on my shoulders after he fell into the drink and soaked himself from the belly down.

Sophia, Tory, and Monty on a trek (click above for more images)

We’d planned on heading down to Fruita for the weekend, but the forecast was dire. The prospect of spending the weekend ducking the rain with the kids was enough to keep us in closer range to home, so we headed up to the Mirror Lake area of the Uinta’s with Michelle, Sam and Sophia for an evening around a campfire.

The food, the fire, and the company was good – and the rain held off for the evening. The next morning it still hadn’t started raining, so we went out for a little hike, and then it started raining. It was a nice weekend in the woods.

The boy sleeps through the bumps in the trail.

I realize its been a while since the site has been updated, but I have a real, live excuse. Ever since I killed my camera, I’ve had a hard time finding a reason to post. Not that this is a photo blog, or that nothing interesting has happened in Tory’s life recently, but I’m a camera snob, and even though we have a decent point and shoot (I should say Kari has a decent point and shoot) I don’t use it. Out of principal. So until I get a camera I can call my own (soon, it’ll be a Nikon D300) you’ll have to suffer a few images with me along side the boy instead of my lovely wife.

Anyway, we went on a weekend camp trip up into the Uinta mountains on Labor Day, and had a couple of beautiful days hiking around and throwing rocks. I’m working on the boy’s overhand throwing abilities and they are coming along. I even let him throw stuff in the house.