Wilson Mountain

Having the entire week off for Thanksgiving, Jacqueline, Zyla and I went down to Sedona to have Thanksgiving with Jacqueline's aunt Kris. It is a close enough drive so as not to put the baby in the car for too long. We arrived on Tuesday and on Wednesday we went for our first hike. We took the Boynton Canyon trail that left from the end of the Dry Creek Road. The weather was not looking too hot, in fact it was looking cold. We bundled up the baby and ventured out. It followed a resort community for a while and then we got away from it. Along the way we talked to a couple on the trail. There were a lot of people out on the trail for such a chilly day. It began to hail or snow or sleet, we couldn't tell, so we high tailed it out of there to make sure the baby didn't get too cold. The big hike of the trip, though, was Wilson Mountain. I looked through the guidebooks for the most strenuous hike and found that one, which also happened to be the highest mountain in Sedona. I got up super early on Saturday to make the 30 minute drive from Jacqueline's aunt's house in Cornville to the trailhead, just across the bridge going up Oak Creek Canyon. There was one other car at the trailhead as I started up the trail. The weather was chilly. The trail climbed steadily above Wilson Canyon named after a man who was killed by a grizzly bear there in the late 1800s. The views were great and while I was going uphill, it was nowhere near difficult. This was definitely one that could be called a mountain hike instead of a mountain climb. I could see where the trail was going but sometimes in Arizona it seems there are too many options for where to put a trail. Eventually though I got to where the trail came up to a plateau. From there I could choose which way to go and I continued to climb up. The trail was in its worst condition here, a little muddy and grown over with a few trees down, but eventually I came up to where I was close to the top of the mountain. I saw some white tail deer running away to one summit, but the other one said Sedona view, so I took that one. As I was heading there, I saw another hiker, first of the day, coming back from the summit. He was running and looked a little younger than me. Good for him as I continued to the summit and got a few pictures before I started back down the way I came. I was hustling because we still had to drive all the way home to Norwood, because we were trying to beat a storm. It is a little funny to hike so far and still be able to see where you started as the bridge was always in my view on the hike. The hike was somewhere around eleven miles, but I was able to get to the top before ten and back to the car before noon. When I was leaving the trailhead, there was major competition for a parking spot. It made me glad that I did rise and shine so early, so we could get back and avoid the long drive through winter weather. I really enjoyed the hike as Sedona has puzzled me in the past for a spot for recreation, but this was a great choice for a Saturday in late November.

Cashin Mine

My wife and baby were in Michigan going to Jacqueline's high school reunion. They left me all alone in Norwood, so I talked to the music teacher at the school and he was down for a weekend hike. We both had Friday off of school, so I called him up early in the morning to see if he was game. He said he was and there was an area I had been wanting to check out. On the drive to Moab from Norwood, there is a canyon that cuts through the scenery and winds its way down to the Dolores River. This seemed like an excellent trip. After doing some research online, I learned that there were some old mines in that area. Seemed interesting, so we went for that. It was about an hour's drive from Norwood to where we parked the car at a big pulloff. We could see a road below us and the terrain did not look too crazy so I asked him if he wanted to just start from here. Jeff looked a little apprehensive, but we slowly picked our way down running into very few obstacles until we hit the road. You have heard the expression "Alpine Start" well this was a desert start. From that point we just followed the road. Almost immediately we ran into a waterfall. We never got a good picture of it though, as it was obscured by vegetation and we did not want to cross the little creek we were following. Jeff was very impressed by the canyon country and all the rock. It was not long before we began running into mines. We saw the first one up the hill, so we climbed up to it. I was amazed that it was actually big enough for us to stand up in. We were not able to go very far back because neither of us had a flashlight, but we went as far back using what we could muster for light. I did not have a camera either, so I relied on Jeff to take some pictures. We did not have to go far to run into our next prospect and we could start to see why this area was hit so hard. With all the multi-colored rocks, we knew there were copper like material coming out of it along with probably much more stuff that you would have to be a mineralogist to know about. We were just appreciating the history that was in this area knowing that it must have been a much more thriving area when the mines were active here. Continuing down the road we ran into the first of the big mines which was the Cliff Dweller Mine. But the big one was at the end of the road and that was the Cashin Mine. There were dozens of buildings to house miners, many prospects, and a large mill that was still standing. We walked through the middle of it which was a little creepy. I figured if it could stand up in a Norwood windstorm, it would make it through a beautiful sunny October day. We climbed up on the cliff side to explore another prospect and you could tell that this one was the mother lode. It still had tracks running through it and we walked over to where there was a big vertical shaft. We were only able to go so far, but were glad we made it that far. As we came out, we walked over to the mill. I was not going to walk the tracks over to it, though, as that would have been foolish. I climbed up a steeper slope to where there was another prospect. Jeff had started calling me Bear from that guy Bear Grills on the Discovery Channel. This last one was not very exciting, so we went back down to explore some of the old falling down buildings. From there we headed back enjoying the stream and the beautiful fall colors. I thought about taking Jacqueline and Zyla back to this area. It would be a good off season hike. The hike back proved to be a lot quicker without all of the stops along the way. The climb out was not too bad either and we were left with much time to enjoy the rest of a much needed day off from teaching.

Paul Bunyan's Potty

Jacqueline's dad Tom and her brother Paul came down to visit. We met them in Monticello to hang out for the weekend. They had already been doing a little bit of exploring of their own before we came. We went out to dinner on Friday night with the whole crew and had a good meal. The next day we were off to Canyonlands National Park for a trip I had wanted to take for quite some time to go see Paul Bunyan's Potty. We had about an hour drive to get to the trailhead. I was a little bit nervous about the road so we parked at the beginning of the road, but realized later that we could have driven it and saved ourselves 20 minutes.
Oh well. The hike was down an old road that was now no longer used for driving. So needless to say that even though it was a beautiful Saturday in October, we only saw one other group of people. The wash that the road followed and eventually would enter was either really sandy making walking difficult or wet. I got to carry Zyla and she was having so much fun. We had not heard her talk so much but she was so happy and making so many loud noises. We did not move incredibly fast because of the sand, the heavy baby, and the good company.
We were all enjoying it as we walked under the cliffs that soon became bigger until we felt like we were in a small canyon even though it was so open. We hiked for a couple of hours and then stopped for lunch. We knew we were close to the arch, but we did not know how close. Jacqueline did not want to stay out too long with Zyla, so after lunch her and Tom headed back while Paul and I went to Paul Bunyan's Potty. It turned out to be only about a half an hour away. When we got to it we knew what we had found as it did look like a giant toilet seat.
We spent a few minutes checking out the ruins beneath it, but the best part was finding a way to climb up on the cliffs to get closer to the arch. We had to take a long way around, but eventually found a way up to the cliffs right beneath the arch. I spent a little bit of time there and then Paul followed behind me. He was taking a lot more pictures as he was enjoying the different scenery in Southern Utah compared to where he lived up north in Salt Lake. I climbed on down and hung out in the shade waiting for Paul.
He took quite some time and I realized he was having trouble finding the way down, so I finally pointed out the way down. From there we hustled on back knowing that Jacqueline was wanting to get back by a certain time to keep Zyla on her schedule. It was fun hiking with Paul as it was good to spend some time with him. Jacqueline really does have a great family and I am lucky to have such good people to be related to. When Paul and I made it back to the car, the Tom, Jacqueline and Zyla were nowhere to be found. They left a note, though and we found them in the shade under a big rock. We headed out back to Monticello for some good food and to watch UW when a late night game over Oregon State before it was back to Norwood and the work week.

Anniversary Weekend in Ophir

Well two years has honestly flown by. In that two years we had a great honeymoon, a big move to Colorado, and a new edition to the family. In those years we also had many great hikes. So I thought we could return to the place where I hiked on my first trip out to Colorado near the tiny town of Ophir. The first issue was finding it. We were lucky to have a GPS because even though it was fairly close to Telluride, there were absolutely no road signs for it. Then once we got to the town, there were absolutely no signs for trailheads. We were lucky enough to park and find a trailhead. After feeding the little one, I strapped her on and we were ready for a hike. The trail took us first across a little creek and then up an old road. Zyla was so happy to be hiking and had a giant grin on her toothless face. She really loves to go hiking. There were quite a few people out considering there were no signs for this random trail. The trail took us uphill through some aspen forest which was very nice at this time of year. I wanted to take Jacqueline out here because how much she loved the fall color and I just knew that this place would be full of at least some yellows. We were almost a little bit too late as some of the leaves were gone on some of the trees. Eventually the trail popped us out above the trees, but it also popped us into some private land. There were no trespassing signs up, so we thought that we would obey them. There were quite a few junctions, so eventually we found the right one that took us up the hillside to the other side of the valley. 

From there we had some good views and we also had to take some time out of our day to feed the baby again since we had been hiking for a while and she was getting hungry again. We found a nice place to sit and enjoy the perfect weather outside. We knew it would not be too long before t-shirts would be exchanged for the down jacket. We kept running into the same couple who were trying to make a full day out of this hike. They talked to another group that said the trail we were on headed toward the post office. Almost immediately we said that we did not want to go down that way, but after thinking about it, I figured we could make a loop out of it. When I realized later that the post office was a long way down the road, I was happy we chose to turn around. We still had excellent views down towards the mountains of Ophir. We could see the road coming down from Ophir Pass, the crazy road that scared me when my dad drove it 13 years ago. Once back to the car, we headed down the road to the town of Rico. We stayed at the Rico Hotel, which I would not recommend because the place was rickety and you could hear everything that was going on in the place. We had a good dinner, the baby was awesome, but I did not get great sleep. Still I had a fun weekend with the wife who I know I could not do it here without. She has been an amazing mother and wife, I could not ask for more. I know there will be many more anniversary trips to look forward to in the coming years.

Navajo Lake

Jacqueline and Zyla were planning to come for a hike with me, but the night before they decided it might be a little too much for Zyla. So I had to go by myself instead. I had wanted to return to the Navajo Lake area since we went up there a year earlier. It was a beautiful fall day out, so this seemed like the perfect time for the undertaking. I left early in the morning and drove up to the Woods Lake Trailhead. I saw my best fall colors of the day at the trailhead because where I was going hiking was going to be above the aspens. I knew Jacqueline would be missing the colors, but not the cold as it was a chilly 34 degrees out. I had to wear my fleece for most of the morning as I would be hiking uphill through the trees in the shade. There were a lot more switchbacks then I remembered as the trail just kept climbing and climbing. As I was getting to near treeline, there was an old cabin. I refused to take a picture of it because there is nothing like a picture of an old cabin coming up on your computer to say boring, but it was very neat to see when I was there. Popping out above treeline, I finally got one of those great views that make living through the windy cold winter worthwhile. There was a great view of the mountains we could see from our house in Norwood, just on the other side. Dolores, Middle, Dunn, Flattop, and Little Cone still remained free of snow, though we had a little dusting earlier in the week on the peaks. I could see the remnants of it as I continued on the ridge that would take me to Navajo Lake. It had been a quiet day thus far as I think my early morning had kept the trail to myself. Finally I made it to the spot where Jacqueline and I had turned around a year previous because of impending weather moving in. It was probably the best view of the whole hike as I could see the peaks that rose above El Diente and Mt. Wilson, both gnarly looking 14ers. I could also see the valley that held my final destination Navajo Lake. I started my descent to the lake, which was a little different then the constant climb. I did not want to go too far downhill because I knew I would have to come back up. It did not go down for long before I hit the trail junction with the trail that came in from Dolores. Even though that trail is in the 100 Classic Hikes in Colorado, I was still glad I took the one I did because of the views along the way. After the junction, the trail climbed slowly back up until I was at the lake. I went to the far shore where I found a nice rock to sit on and have some lunch. I wanted to keep going as the trail was not done, but we did not have very much food in the house when I left so I would not have had enough calories to keep me going. So I turned around. On the way back, I ran into a few groups who were friendly and all seemed to be enjoying themselves. One was a couple overnighting at the lake, while another was some mid-40s ladies debating whether they could make it to the lake. I tried to encourage them as one was all for it and the other was a little hesitant. All and all it was a good day with a finish just a bit after noon. I would love to come back to that spot someday with Jacqueline and Z to do a little backpacking of our own.

The Middle Fork of the Cimarron River

I debated whether going on this hike for many days. Eric Lassance, a good friend from Zion, was going to be in the area for a couple of days to do a trip with a friend that lived in Wisconsin and another who lived near Gunnison. He invited me along on the trip, but since they were finishing their trip after I was supposed to teach, I knew I would not get to go on the whole thing. I did figure that I could go for the day with them since it was Labor Day weekend and still have enough time to make it back to prepare for the week. I finally decided to go even though I knew it was going to be mostly driving.
So up at 6:30am, I was on the road and down to meet them in Ridgway by 8. We got a little food and then took a convoy of 4 cars for 4 people up to the trailhead. This seemed a bit ridiculous, but whatever. The dust we created was amazing as we drove up the road to Owl Creek Pass. We left three cars at the East Fork trailhead and then I drove them the rest of the way to the Middle Fork trailhead. We finally hit the trail around 10:30am. I knew that I was not going to get in much of a day since the drive back to Norwood would be close to two and a half hours, but I figured I could hit the trail for about 3 hours before I had to turn around.
The trail started out gradually climbing by the river. It took us mainly through forested areas. It was nice to be the only one without a heavy backpack on. The valley we were walking in was not particularly wide and we could see the massive peaks rising up above us. There were such peaks to look at as Dunsinane Mountain and Precipice Peak. The rock on these peaks was very crumbly which made for some impressive summits. My hiking partners were all good guys and it was good to get out with some people other than just me or the wife and baby for something different. We had not met many people in Norwood that enjoyed getting out at all, so this was nice to hike with some others. As we got further up the valley, we could tell that Eric's friend Josh from Wisconsin was starting to have issues with the altitude. He was struggling to make it up the valley even though the gradient was nothing incredibly steep. Adam, who had planned the trip, was hanging back with Josh, as I hiked ahead with Eric. We ran into a few other people including a huge group that must have been from Chicago area because they asked if the White Sox won yesterday. Well, we were soon approaching the Cinderella hour and I was bargaining to save some extra time. I hiked all the way up to the trail junction where I could see such peaks as Redcliff, Coxcomb, and the ridge leading up to a 14er, Wetterhorn Peak. The group was off to find a good camping spot for the night and then would continue with an ascent of the Matterhorn the next day. I was very jealous as climbing the Matterhorn had been something that I wanted to do since before I first visited Colorado. There is just something in the name that makes it worthwhile climbing. The hike down went swiftly as it was easy to go downhill with a light pack. Since near the end we were not moving particularly fast, I made it back to the car in under 2 hours, close to an hour and a half. I saw a cop at the trailhead with a flat tire and thought about offering him help, but what could I really do that he couldn't. I made the long drive home, but knew I would have to return to that area with all the recreational opportunities that waited.

Blue Lakes

I wanted to take Jacqueline to the Blue Lakes ever since I went and climbed Mt. Sneffels while passing them by. We finally found the time to do it, though it was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We figured that the trail would be busy. It was a bit of a drive taking over an hour to get to the trailhead. The roads were good and we made sure to fill up the tires before we went. The trailhead was rather crowded with lots of vehicles there, such that we had to park a little away from it. We got little Z fed and then were on the trail. I got the duty of carrying her. I did not realize how much uphill was on the hike until I was carrying a 12 pound baby on my front side.

 I still did not quite know how to put the Baby Bjorn on properly so that it would fit more comfortably, so that was also an issue. She seemed happy, though and was just looking around at everything. Jacqueline was a little nervous about the hike since she had not been hiking much and was stuck with the duty of carrying the heavy pack loaded down with Zyla's accessories, almost all of which we knew that she was not going to need. Still we would rather be more prepared then less prepared. The trail started out in the trees by a river, but after a couple of good uphill miles it started to open up. We could see the mountains across the valley including Mt. Sneffels that I had climbed almost exactly a year ago. On this day we were not as ambitious and actually had to stop and take a break a little over halfway through to give Zyla a break outside of the Baby Bjorn. 

We got a lot of positive comments from passing hikers about getting our baby out when she was so young. We even saw another couple with a baby, but I don't think they made it to the lake because we passed them and never saw them on the way down. I knew that we were getting close as the views opened up a little bit. I was happy to be back here because the last time I did it in the dawn's early light, so my pictures were less than stellar. I even was able to get a picture of the waterfall that poured down the rocky cliffs near exit from the lake. Getting that picture was great because I knew we were very close and around the next bend was the junction for the upper lakes and the campsites. I was none too happy to see the lake because carrying a baby in the Bjorn was more work than carrying a 30 pound pack on your back. The water looked amazingly blue on this day and Jacqueline was also happy that she went through the effort of hiking to the lakes. I was stoked because Zyla had done such a good job. We had already hiked 3.3 miles and she was still in good spirits, though you could tell it was about eating time. The hard part was that once we found a nice private spot for her to feed, she just was not having it. She would eat for a little bit, but did not want to eat much. We even tried to give her the instant formula also and all we could get her to eat was an ounce or two. That was a little concerning because she had been so regular, but we figured no use arguing with the happy baby as she seemed just fine when we put her back in the Bjorn to hike back down the hill. We considered going to the Upper Blue Lakes until she did not want to feed and then thought we should get down. Plus we were both feeling good with this. We got to enjoy the way down with Zyla not having to do as much work and soaking in the awesome views. We still were getting lots of comments on the awesome little baby from all the late day hikers. The way down was definitely faster, but we were still spending a full day with all the effort it takes to just get out the door in the morning with the little one. We were happy that we made it to the lake and would just have to make another trip someday so that Jacqueline could see the upper two. I know they are not going anywhere, so they will always be there for us to explore.

Dead Horse State Park

Well, we made the long drive back down to Norwood in time for school to get going once again. Time for the summer tan and the days of spending time with wife and baby to diminish to instead spend the time drilling mathematics into the minds of those who would rather talk about the Hangover. But we were lucky enough to have my mom and Carl come down to visit us during that first week. They were able to hang out with Jacqueline and Zyla during the day and then me in the evening. We got the fine idea to take a trip to Moab on the weekend. Carl wanted to go check out Dead Horse State Park. They drove their trailer out to our house and this would cut off part of their drive. 

It was a 2-3 hour drive for us, which was not much of a big deal after the long trip we had just been through. Mom and Carl left early, but they only beat us by just a bit. Once we had settled into our campsite, we decided to go for a walk. Carl drove out to Dead Horse Point, while Mom, Jacqueline, Zyla and I decided to take the trail that would take us past Shafer Overlook and Meander Overlook. The trail took off right from the campground which made it easy. The trail bounced back and forth from viewpoints, to desert, to slickrock. It was not too bad of a trail being mostly flat since it was on the edge of a huge abyss. 

We skipped over going out to Big Horn Overlook because the ladies were not feeling it. Zyla was doing great and was awake for much of the hike looking around. She was really fitting into the Bjorn a lot better now so that she could look around and drool all over it. The best view of the whole hike was Meander Overlook where we could see the Colorado down below taking a big trip around a butte with a nice fin of rock on top of it. We continued the rest of the hike which took us out to the point. The view there was awesome with cliffs and you could see the entire La Sal Range. We hung out there for a bit, but honestly it was rather windy out there and we headed back to camp. We had some good food and played some games together. Mainly we looked at the cute baby and enjoyed the time together. Once the sun was getting ready to go down, we decided to drive to the point and see the sunset.

 Unfortunately, Jacqueline and Zyla were not able to go with us because it was getting too close to the little ones bedtime. This was going to be a brand new experience for Zyla as it was the first time camping out. We figured this would be a good place because the temperature would be warm at night. We decided to put her in her changing box with pillows around it in the front seat of the Xterra and see how it goes. The sunset by the way was great. It was almost like we got there a little late because it was tough to get a good picture. We left there and Mom and I walked back to hang out with Jacqueline. Carl went to the interpretive program which was less then exciting. We slept great that night and Zyla did better than even at home. It left us with promise that we would have a hiker/camper/backpacker on our hands. We ate breakfast with everyone, then went our seperate ways preparing for the long school year ahead in Norwood.

Zyla's First Mountain

We were feeling a bit tired and the goal of going for a good hike did not come to fruition. Instead we chose a casual drive up to Deer Park, which was right up the road that my dad lived on. I wanted to take a drive up there for a while and it was the first time I had been up there since my cousin Ian and I camped up there when I moved back to Washington state in 2000. I remembered the drive as being narrow and scary. I remembered correctly as Jacqueline was a bit nervous of us driving the Subaru up there. We made it fine and it was a beautiful day. The afternoon clouds were slowly lifting and we were able to enjoy the view. We drove all the way up to the Blue Mountain trailhead. We went on a short 1/2 mile walk that took us to the top of the mountain. It was Zyla's first mountain ascent so I made sure to let her stand on the summit even if she was held tightly in the Baby Bjorn. The hike was short but packed a lot of vistas in a short walk. We even got a bonus with some jeweled dew collected on the plants that were near the mountain top. A good survival weapon in the summertime when Washington does actually dry out quite a bit.

 I wished we had gotten up the energy to do a descently long hike on this day, but as a consolation prize, it was still nice to take the easy way out and get the benefits without the cause for too hard of work.