Lost in the Woods

There are some truly beautiful places in the world, and I personally think Utah kind of has a monopoly on scenery–the High Uintas, indeed, are no exception to this standard. I went to the Ashley National Forest with my backpacking class this past weekend, and had a marvelous time. I was, fortunately, able to finally field test my new hammock and mosquito net, as well as my new JetBoil Flash cooking system. All three performed wonderfully (just in case you were wondering).

(remember to click on any image for a larger view)

The Uintas aren't exactly what I'd call a "pristine" wilderness area, because there are fully established trails weaving all throughout over 450,000 acres of wilderness preserve, but the lush environment certainly establishes a real sense of wild wooded country. People do indeed get lost and die in the zone every season (most due to improper planning, and wilderness savvy), but all-in-all, it's a fabulous area to take your family, your pets, and loved ones. Or, in our case, your class.

Garth Tino was our instructor for the semester and shared a lot of insight with regard to gear and know-how when it comes to having an enjoyable time in the backcountry. One of the things that I thought was pretty awesome was Garth's dedication to the principles of Leave No Trace. It's something of a new experience for me, although a lot of the principles are not.

The Leave No Trace: Outdoor Ethics list is as follows:

Plan Ahead and Prepare

• Know the regulations and special concerns for the area you'll visit.
• Prepare for extreme weather, hazards, and emergencies.
• Schedule your trip to avoid times of high use.
• Visit in small groups. Split larger parties into groups of 4-6.
• Repackage food to minimize waste.
• Use a map and compass to eliminate the use of rock cairns, flagging or marking paint.

Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces

• Durable surfaces include established trails and campsies, rock, gravel, dry grasses or snow.
• Protect riparian areas by camping at least 200 feet from lakes, streams.
• Good campsites are found, not made. Altering a site is not necessary.

In popular areas

• Concentrate use on existing trails and campsites.
• Walk single file in the middle of the trail, even when we or muddy.
• Keep campsites small. Focus activity in areas where vegetation is absent.

In pristine areas

• Disperse use to prevent the creation of campsites and trails.
• Avoid places where impacts are just beginning.

Dispose of Waste Properly

• Pack it in, pack it out. Inspect your campsite and rest areas for trash or spilled foods. Pack out all trash, leftover food, and litter.
• Deposit solid human waste in catholes dug 6 to 8 inches deep at least 200 feet from water, camp, and trails. Cover and disguise the cathole when finished.
• Pack out toilet paper and hygiene products.
• To wash yourself or your dishes, carry water 200 feet away from streams or lakes and use small amounts of biodegradable soap. Scatter strained dishwater.

Leave What You Find

• Preserve the past: observe, but do not touch, cultural or historic structures and artifacts.
• Leave rocks, plants and other natural objects as you find them.
• Avoid introducing or transporting non-native species.
• Do not build structures, furniture, or dig trenches.

Minimize Campfire Impacts

• Campfires can cause lasting impacts to the backcountry. use a light-weight stove for cooking and enjoy a candle lantern for light.
• Where fires are permitted, use established fire rings, fire pans, or mound fires.
• Keep fires small. Only use sticks from the ground that can be broken by hand.
• Burn all wood and coals to ash, put out campfires completely, then scatter cool ashes.

Respect Wildlife

• Observe wildlife from a distance. Do no follow or approach them.
• never feed animals. Feeding wildlife damages their health, alters natural behaviors, and exposes them to predators and other dangers.
• Protect wildlife and your food by storing rations and trash securely.
• Control pets at all times, or leave them at home.
• Avoid wildlife during sensitive times: mating, nesting, raising young, or winter.

Be Considerate of Other Visitors

• Respect other visitors and protect the quality of their experience.
• Be courteous. Yield to other users on the trail.
• Step to the downhill side of the trail encountering pack stock.
• Take breaks and camp away from trails and other visitors.
• Let nature's sounds prevail. Avoid loud voices and noises.

If you're looking for some great cross-country backpacking, look no further than the High Uintas. Everything from forests, to lakes, to 13,000 ft summits. It's an outdoorsman's dream location, and it's right out our back door.

Timpanogos 7/18/2010

This is one of the most memorable adventures I've had in recent years, and I think the video speaks completely for itself. I hope you enjoy it. For an additional writeup you can check out Andy Earl's blog.

Happy Birthday, Chelsea!

Chelsea and I have known each other since 2006, and dated for a large portion of the time period, and she has become, by far, my best friend in the time since our last break-up (yes, there were several). We always go all-out for each other's birthdays, and this year I thought it would be fun to go up to Park City and do some hiking. We had initially planned on going up Guardsman Pass from the BCC side, then hiking up to Scott's Bowl and then down to Shadow Lake, which sits by the bottom of the Jupiter chairlift at PCMR. That didn't work out, because Guardsman Pass is still closed to through traffic, which I thought was weird, because I was under the assumption that all the gates opened at about Memorial Day. I was wrong. Instead we drove to the top ridge of the Park City Ridgeline that separates Deer Valley from Wasatch State Park, and the above photo is an HDR Panorama looking toward point 10,420 above Great Western at Brighton, but from the northeast.

We joked that if I had told her four years ago that she'd spend her 26th (ahem, I mean 21st?) birthday climbing mountains, she probably would have laughed in my face. But it was cool because we ended up parking in a Deer Valley parking lot, then hiked all the way over to McKonkey's Bowl, just east of Jupiter Peak inside Park City Mountain Resort. We thought about doing the peak, which only would have been another 25 minutes, but our timing was poor, and the sun had set, and we were improperly dressed, so the temperature was starting to dive. So we headed back to the car, she opened her presents (two seasons of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a Star Wars poster, Muppet Wizard of Oz, a stretchy dragon, and a Big Hissy Fit). The best present is probably the Star Wars poster, and I told her that it's a celebration that she can finally admit that the geek lifestyle is superior to that of other media consumers. 

Provo Peak and Mount Cascade from the north.

The Timber Lakes area east of Heber City, UT.

After hiking and presents, we had dinner at Maxwell's Fat Kid Pizza in Kimball Junction. I think the rest of the world should take a lesson from these guys with regard to portions. We started with an appetizer of french fries. The plate of fries was bigger than most of New Jersey, and the pizza was probably five times the size of the french fries. Approved.

Home Sweet Home

Home has varying definitions for different people. For some, it is where they were raised, for others it's where they settle. For others beyond that, it's wherever they rest their head. "Home is where the heart is," being the common idiom. The lovely above picture was taken in Easton, Pennsylvania while I was serving my mission. If memory serves, it was taken from the Smith Street bridge over the Lehigh River near its confluence into the Delaware, on the border of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I lived in Easton for nearly six months, and can't, for the life of me, figure out why someone would choose to live there, over living where I call home. Now I have to take one step backward and state that everyone has a different value system as to why their choice for "home" is great, so I can only measure based on my personal value system. But let's compare two pictures:

First, this one from Easton.

This picture was taken about 20 minutes from my apartment on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River looking back at the downtown area of Easton, and you can see the Lehigh River flowing into the Delaware. It's beautiful, and I can definitely appreciate how green and amazing the scenery is there. But when you stack it next to a picture like this:

This picture was taken about 20 minutes from my home in Utah. And about 5 minutes from where I lived when I was in high school, and the home that my family lived in while I was on my mission. Why anyone on earth would choose the east coast over the majesty of the mountains escapes my understanding. Granted, everyone has their preferences, and I'm not saying those preferences are wrong or bad in anyway, I just don't understand it. It doesn't makes the remotest sense in my simple mind.

Here's another fun contrast; while I lived in Easton, I baptized Jenni Fehr. This was six years ago. She'll probably hate me for posting this, but it's entertaining for me. Well, she came to visit last week so here's a few more pics, plus a rad foggy/cloudy shot of the western cliffs of Mount Cascade from approximately the Hope Campground region.

Jenni Fehr, Me, and Erin McMullin Wojcicki

Jenni six years later with a radical backdrop.

Epic shot of Mount Cascade.

Ultimately, the definition of home will come down to what the Lord has said, and there's a passage in 3 Nephi 21:28 that I really like, and I'll leave you with that:

Yea, and then shall the work commence, with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance.

May the 4th Be With You

Here we are. The 4th is with us on Star Wars Day in Newport Beach, and Mick is found in his usual position, sleeping in, despite the noise and commotion four men can make in the same hotel room. I thought that for $46 a night we'd be staying in a dive, but it was actually pretty nice. The beds weren't the most comfortable, but it wasn't really that bad. Travelodge Newport Beach. Stay there. If you dare.

The mini-fridge took a typical look as well, filled with all the essentials of life when you're on a road trip. We spent Monday at Magic Mountain and managed to ride each of the roller coasters in the park, and many of them we rode several times. I had a really good time. I got sick part-way through the day and had to sit out a couple, but my brothers rode about 25 different times. Tuesday was spent at Huntington Beach doing some body boarding and throwing frisbees. But the highlight of the day was Roscoe's House of Chicken'n Waffles.

The syrup and the gravy both finer than wine. We went to Long Beach and made the magic happen. Then we went to the beach and took some sunset photos on Long Beach. It was lovely.

Mission Viejo

About a month ago I was hanging out in Springville, UT with my buddy Ryan Hong. At the time, he was living with his sister Lisa who was engaged to be married. We somehow got on the subject of photography and I peeked at their engagement photos, which were done by Jonathan Canlas, one of the most highly sought after film photographers in the western states. I commented on them, and it came out in the course of the conversation that I am a photographer, and they asked me what I charge to do just a reception, since they had all their Utah stuff planned out, they were still on the prowl for a photog to cover the California reception, because Lisa and Ryan are both from Mission Viejo, in Orange County. I sent them a bid, and was hired. Crashing at the Hong home and eating delicious food, and visiting interesting places with the grandparents has been really fun. Here's a few photos that I took while we were at the Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary in Modjeska Canyon.

Spring Is Here

As the snow retreats further and further toward the sky, I am sadly resigned to the fact that the winter is over. Granted, there is still some excellent riding to be done in the mountains, and every little rain storm in the valley means good solid snow at 10,000 ft, but most of the resorts are closed (Snowbird being, to my knowledge, the only Utah resort still operating), and a lot of my friends that I normally film with have fled the state, or are in summer-mode, pulling out their longboards and their slack-lines and chomping at the bit to go backpacking and rock climbing in their Chacos.

When I was growing up, I did a ton of backpacking and bouldering with my family, and spent a lot of time in Southern Utah and the Wasatch exploring trails and ravines and various aspects of the wilderness lifestyle. I learned early on how to efficiently pack, how to set up a tent, how to choose non-perishable foods that are high in protein for camping, etc. When Jr. High and High School rolled around, however, my family kind of stopped doing these things together, and none of my friends were interested in doing things other than jumping on the trampoline and going to the public pool (which is rad, by the way. That's not meant to be derogatory).

My major regret is just that my social circle moved away from the mountains if it wasn't snowboarding, and I just didn't spend that much time doing outdoor activities in the summer, and busied myself with working and attempting to save money so my winters could be more enjoyable. I remember waiting for the 50% off sales at Milosport so I could buy all my gear for the next season.

With that rather long preface, you can understand why the diminishment of Spring, and the approach of Summer has always been something of anathema to me, and I usually spend my summers counting down the days until the snow starts to fly again. I hope to make an emotional transition this summer, though. I'd really like to have the same passion for the mountains in the Summer and Fall that I do in the Winter and Spring, and I've been taking steps in the appropriate direction to reignite that love I used to have.

Last Sunday I went for a walk with my friend Erin McMullin down by Utah Lake. She's been my friend for about a year and a half and she's always keen for a good adventure, so we went and watched and listened to the images and sounds of Spring pushing its way into summer. I've never taken pictures of the reeds down by the lake, and I'm super stoked with how these ones turned out. Enjoy, and get stoked because I hope to have my blog filled with impressive images of God's handiwork all Summer long.