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Utah
Thanksgiving 2003

One thing led to another and we decided to go to Utah for Thanksgiving. First of all, the first grandchild of Paige's generation was getting married the day after Thanksgiving. Second, we wanted to see Paige. Third, I sold Paige my RX-7 and we wanted to tow it out to her. My dad sold a car to each of us sons at a good deal and I did the same for Paige. The car came from Provo twenty years ago. 57,000 miles later, the car is going home to Provo. Our plan was to leave on Tuesday night after mutual. Shortly before we were about to leave, friends who had left earlier in the day called from Pendleton, OR to say that the highway ahead was closed because of a snowstorm in the mountains and a big multi-vehicle accident. I checked Oregon state's highway webpage and found that the highway was going to be closed for "2 to 24 hours." We decided there was no use leaving if we were going to be stuck in Pendleton so we went to bed. I woke up at 2 am and checked the website and found that the highway was now open. We woke everyone up and since the car was already packed, we were on the road by 2:30 am. Within an hour we hit whiteout conditions over Snoqualamie Pass. All the trucks had to chain up. Our Suburban in 4-wheel drive had no problems pulling the RX-7 through the snowstorm. Shortly before dawn, we pulled into a truckstop behind a gas station and I laid down in the middle bench for an hour's sleep. It felt good. A few hours later, we hit another terrific snowstorm crossing over the Blue Mountains in Oregon. After descending out of the mountains to Ontario on the Snake River, we stopped for gas and I took this picture of the car encased in grit, gravel, ice, and snow. We continued on and didn't arrive in Provo until 9:45 pm. It was the longest drive we've ever had driving to Utah. We stopped at a car wash in Provo to spray off the car before Paige saw it. Paige was waiting for us at Carolyn's parent's house. She was happy as always. As usual, Carolyn's parents had hot pizza and drinks waiting for us.
 

Looking down from Brighton into the clouded over Park City

On Thanksgiving morning, I reinstalled the driveshaft on the RX-7 (so it could easily be towed without racking up any miles on the car) and then we backed it off the tow dolly. Then we loaded up our ski gear, dropped off the dolly at U-Haul, and headed up to Brighton for the day. Only three months ago we were in Utah and it was nearly a hundred degrees. Now, all traces of summer were compressed beneath five feet of snow. The temperature was in the low teens. I forgot to bring the fleece pullover that I normally wear under my parka shell. After the first run with Eric, I had to go to the "pro shop" and buy something to wear. Before lunch, Carolyn skied with Allison and I skied with Eric. After lunch, I skied with Allison. Surprisingly, it seemed like only about one out of ten people were skiers; the other nine were snowboarders.
 

Allison snowboarding at Brighton

This is Allison's second year of snowboarding. Last year we rented a snowboard for her for the season. This year we bought Allison her own snowboard for Christmas. However, we let her take it to Utah to board with. It was fun to ski with Allison. Meanwhile, Carolyn and Eric would take the quad chair to the top and race back down. Eric and Allison hung out at the lodge for a few minutes so that Carolyn and I could make some runs together. After skiing all day, we went back to Carolyn's for turkey dinner. My parents were in Boston visiting my brother David.
 

John and Ashley Christiansen at the Manti Temple

The day after Thanksgiving we drove down to Manti to attend John and Ashley's wedding. John is Carolyn's oldest sister Katy's son. He's the first of the grandchildren to get married. It was really cold outside. I felt sorry for everyone trying to take pictures outside in the freezing weather.
 

The Manti Temple

While we were waiting in the temple, there were books to read on the history of the temple. When it was originally built, the grass area in the picture above were rock-walled terraces. It looked really neat. At one point, wide stone stairs were constructed from the front of the temple down to the street. The stairs and the terraces were later torn out and replaced with sloping grass. This was the second time I had been to Manti. In college, a bunch of friends and missionary companions came down for the pageant. My friend Surachai from Bangkok, Thailand came with us. We drove down in my red 1972 VW bus.
 

Mt. Nebo from the east

After the wedding breakfast (really lunch), we drove back to Provo. We passed by the backside of Mt. Nebo. About ten years ago, my brothers, a friend, and I decided to hike to the summit of Mt. Nebo. Looking at a map, we saw two trails. One trail climbed rather steeply up the front. David and I voted for that trail. The other trail started at one end of the mountain and made its way to the other end before ascending to the summit. John argued that while that route may be longer, it would be less steep. We went that way and it was one of the hardest hikes of my life. That trail wound around and up and down every fin of the mountain. Every foot of elevation gained was quickly lost. We made it to the top of the leftmost peak of the three peaks seen in the photo above. On the way back, we ran out of water and had to refill our water bottles from a spring. My friend Lonnie wore deck shoe sneakers and his feet were seriously hurting. I have never been so glad to see the car when we arrived back in the parking lot.

By the way, I took this picture out the car window going 65 mph.

On Saturday night, we went up to the wedding reception in Salt Lake City at the Wolfe Crest Inn. Afterwards, we went up the hill and spent the night at Katy's house. I woke up at 4 am and we quietly left their house and drove home to Redmond. We stopped twice for gas and once for lunch. It took exactly thirteen hours to drive the 819 miles home. I drove the entire way. I started off feeling fine, but by the time I got home, I felt sick and achy all over. I ended up with the flu.

 

49'ers Monday Night Football Game, San Francisco, California
November 2003

I went down to San Francisco on a business trip on a Monday afternoon. I got off the plane at the SF airport and got in a taxi and went directly to 3Com Park. There I met several friends at the stadium. It was a very untypical night at the stadium. Normally, it's windy and cold, but on this evening, it was calm and pleasant. After the game, we headed up to Calistoga for meetings the next day. The 49'ers easily won the game.
 

Lake Tahoe, California
October 2003

Carolyn went with me on a business trip to Mountain View, CA. Meanwhile, my parents were staying in a condo in South Lake Tahoe for a week. After dinner with friends in Saratoga, we drove to Lake Tahoe. My brother John and his family drove up and stayed with us, too.
 

This is a picture of the only island in Lake Tahoe. While this picture looks like the whole lake, it is only a very small bay off of the huge lake. Lake Tahoe is located high in the mountains but it is so deep that the bottom of the lake is lower than Carson City, which is located at the foot of the mountains surrounding the lake.
 

We drove up to Donner Pass to explore portions of the transcontinental railroad that were built around 1860. I recently read a book on the building of the transcontinental railroad and viewing some of the workings firsthand was too tempting to pass up. This picture is looking into the west end of the Great Summit Tunnel. This 1,600+' tunnel took Chinese miners nearly two years to blast through solid granite with black powder and hand labor. They blasted a shaft down from above so they could work on four faces of the tunnel at once. The tunnel carried freight and passenger trains until just a few years ago when the rail line was rerouted. Today the tunnel and old railbed is used as an access road to the new rail line.

A plaque on the mountain above the tunnel

We started hiking on a portion of the Great Western trail when we found this plaque. We bushwhacked off the trail down the mountain until we found the tunnel itself. What we found was amazing.

Looking east into the Great Summit Tunnel

The snow shed snaking its way through Donner Pass

Besides the tunnels on Donner Pass, the railroad snaked its way inside miles of snow sheds. In this picture, the snow shed snakes along the mountain all the way out of view on the left. In the 1800's, wooden snow sheds were built to prevent tens of feet of snow from building up on the track and to prevent avalanches from wiping out trains and tracks. Eventually, the wooden sheds were replaced by concrete walls and roofs. There were enough slits in the panels (for ventilation, I'm sure) that let in light so we could walk through several miles of the tunnels.
 

On a platform in the snow shed

In one of the snow sheds, there was a rickety old ladder that climbed up on a platform. I couldn't resist climbing up. Of course, before the flash on the camera went off, it was pretty dark and we didn't have any flashlights.

Inside one of the snow sheds

It would have been an interesting experience to take a train through these tunnels and snow sheds. The immensity of these passages isn't apparent in the picture. Some of the walls were thirty or forty feet high.
 

Locomotive of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad

One day we went to Virginia City, the site of the Comstock "mother load" of silver and gold. At one point, Mark Twain was the editor of the city's paper. The deep silver mines were always inundated with steaming hot water. Miners could only work 15 minutes at a time before needing to take a break and suck on ice.

There's a tourist train that goes from Virginia City to Gold Hill. Normally the train is pulled by one of two steam locomotives. Unfortunately, both engines were undergoing repair. On the good side, I talked to the engineer at the halfway point and he invited Carolyn and me to ride in the locomotive's cab on the way back to Virginia City. It was really interesting. The engine's controls were very simple. Basically, a huge diesel engine turns a generator that generates electricity that power electric motors connected to the wheels. The throttle controls the diesel motor. Speeding up the motor simply generates more electricity which speeds up the electric motors. The engineer was a retired IBM engineer and he was excited to talk about trains, software, and Seattle (where he was born). This small switching engine spent its working life on a military base before it's retirement here.
 

On the way back from rock-hounding

We went "rockhounding" in the Nevada desert for agate and selena crystals. On the way back we drove on the old pioneer trail along the Carson River. From the picture, you can see that the only trees in the area are along the river's edge. Lake Tahoe is up and over the mountains in the far distance.

Flight from Monroe to Lake Wenatchee
September 2003

Carolyn and I went with a pilot friend in his 1959 Cessna 172 on a roundtrip flight from Monroe, WA to Lake Wenatchee, WA. The plane is in perfect condition and just passed its annual FAA inspection. The whole plane only weighs 1,500 pounds and we were surprised to see the pilot easily roll the plane out of the hanger by hand. The interior of the plane is very "automobile-like." I attribute this to the period the plane was manufactured. Back then, it was imagined that in the future everyone would have a small aircraft or jetpack parked in their garage and they'd fly to work. Airplane manufacturers made the interior as familiar as possible. The owner and pilot of this plane flies trans-Atlantic flights for American Airlines as a living. His preflight checkout of the aircraft and its controls was as precise as would be before taking off in a passenger airliner.
 

Heading toward the Cascade Mountain range

After taking off to the west from the rural Monroe airport (there's no tower or any manned support at the field) we banked around 180 degrees and headed toward the Cascade Mountains. We'd have to cross over this mountain range to reach Lake Wenatchee on the eastern slopes. Seconds after I took this picture, the pilot offered to let me take over the controls (both seats in front have matching controls -- Carolyn sat in the back and had great views out of both sides of the plane). Naturally, I gladly accepted. I've briefly flown this plane before and in the meantime have gone through the training course in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Believe it or not, but it was not much different than the simulator. While it was somewhat scary having control of the plane, the fact that I had an expert pilot next to me took the edge off the fear, but not the thrill. Following his instructions, I gradually climbed the airplane to about 5,500' and followed the gentle twisting canyon (and the much more twisting road below) up to the top of Stevens Pass and then down the other side of the range. The mountains on either side of us were higher in altitude than we were flying.
 

Mount Rainier to the south

While I had control of the plane, Carolyn took this photo of Mount Rainier to the south. The craggily mountains in the foreground are at Snoqualamie Pass; the place where we normally go skiing.
 

Glacier Peak to the North

Out the other window, Carolyn snapped a photo of the 10,541' Glacier Peak; another volcano like Mt. Rainier. This mountain is at the upper end of the same valley of Lake Wenatchee.
 

North end of Lake Wenatchee

This is a view of the north end of Lake Wenatchee at the base of Dirty Face Mountain. We're attempting to buy ten acres at the base of the mountain. In this photo, find the very highest point of the lake and the property we're looking at is between the lake and the slopes of the mountain.
 

View of the property

This is a flyover of the property. The white splotch in the trees in the lower middle of the picture on the north side of the road is the roof of the existing cabin on the property.

 

Lake Sammamish, Redmond, WA
September 2003

Earlier this summer, Eric got a Hyperlite wakeboard for his birthday. He searched all around the internet for the best price and we ordered the board from a shop in Indiana. A couple of weeks later, I went to a local store to buy a wakeboarding tow rope. I was very surprised to read on the package of a Hyperlite rope that the company was located in Redmond, WA. How ironic was it that the best price on a board could be found in Indiana, when the board was made here in Redmond, then shipped to Indiana, and then shipped back to Redmond?

As a scout leader involved with the 16-18 year old young men, the kids were very interested in taking a tour of the Hyperlite factory and seeing how wakeboards were made. This past week, we went on a private tour of the factory. After the tour, we were able to buy stuff directly off the racks in the factory extremely inexpensively. I bought Allison a 2004 girl's wakeboard (that's not even on the market yet). I bought myself an HO-Sports 2004 slalom ski. Allison was very excited to get the wakeboard. Until now, she's been wakeboarding on Eric's larger wakeboard, but this hasn't been optimal because her feet are so small compared to the size of his boots. In the picture above, Allison is skiing on her new wakeboard with the properly sized boots, but still wearing Eric's far-too-big-hand-me-down-shorty wetsuit.
 

Tom's very first time slalom skiing

I've never slalom skied before, but I was able to get up on the third try. I thought I had it "figured out" but after I wiped out, it took another three tries before I could get up on the ski again. Having learned to wakeboard earlier this summer and now just learning to slalom ski, I can say that it's much easier to get up out of the water on a wakeboard, but once up on the water, it's easier to control a ski. On a ski, both feet are facing forward and the ski cuts through the water more than a wakeboard. A wakeboard tends to float on top of the water. As a result, a ski is easier to cut through the boat's wake. Crossing over the wake on a wakeboard is much more difficult. On a slalom ski, crossing the wake isn't very hard.
 

Utah
August 2003

On the morning we left for Utah with the car packed with Paige's possessions for her dorm room, we passed by Mt. Si in North Bend. The fog in the valley was so interesting that I stopped the car and snapped a photo.
 

Paige and Eric at Little Sahara sand dunes

We rented two 2003 Yamaha 660cc Raptors and took them down the Little Sahara sand dunes near Delta, Utah. We've rented 4-wheelers before, but they've all had clutch-less transmissions. Before hitting the dunes, we unloaded at Cherry Creek and taught everyone how to drive these powerful machines. These water-cooled machines were fully manual and required the use of the hand-operated clutch to start off and shift gears. I was the only one experienced with this setup, but everyone else quickly caught on and got the hang of it.

After riding the trails at Cherry Creek, we loaded the machines back on the trailer and went to the Little Sahara off-road vehicle park. There was a big sign that said that off-road flags on each vehicle were mandatory. Neither of the ATV's came with a flag. I was worried about getting an expensive ticket and kicked out of the area. However, on a ride far out into the dunes, I found a complete flag and pole (as seen in this picture). Later on I found another pole and a separate flag and then we were "legal."
 

View of our car from on top of Sand Mountain

The 660cc Raptor ATV's we rented were the first ATV's I've ridden that could power their way straight up Sand Mountain to the top. We were at the sand dunes on a Tuesday and it was completely deserted. You can see that our car (with the blue tarp) is the only vehicle in the parking lot. We tied a tarp onto the Suburban's luggage rack and supported the other side with two poles and guy ropes. Underneath the shade of the tarp we had a table, cars, and cooler full of cold drinks. The temperature was in the high 90's. While two members of the family were riding, the other three would take a break under the shade of the tarp. We had an absolute blast and no one got hurt nor did we damage the equipment. Surprisingly, the ATV's were incredibly fuel efficient. We took two extra 5 gallon containers of premium gas, but never had to dip into them. We rode all day on a single tank of gas. We ended up pouring the extra gas into the car's tank before heading home.
 

View coming down Mt. Olympus

One early morning in Utah, Carolyn and I drove to Salt Lake City to hike up Mt. Olympus. Since I was a child, I've always admired the steep face of that mountain. The trail head is off of Foothill Blvd. on the southern side of the mountain. The trail starts off steep and continues to get steeper. With our luck, it rained that morning. Hiking in the rain, especially coming from the Northwest, has never bothered me. However, we saw a flash of lightening and a huge clap of thunder that reverberated from the clouds only hundreds of feet above our heads. Later in the day we found out that a hiker on Mt. Timpanogos had been struck by lighting about the same time and had to be helicoptered off the mountain (fortunately he survived). When we got to the saddle near the top of Mt. Olympus, we decided not to climb the slick rock cliffs to the very top in the pouring rain. By the time we hiked back to the bottom, the clouds had blown away and we were greeted with a blue sky. We topped off the hike with lunch at the always delicious Cafe Rio in Sandy.

Mountain Biking, Whistler, British Columbia
July 2003

Glacier on Rainbow Mountain

After several thousand feet of climbing on a mountain bike, we made it to this point where we were rewarded with fantastic views in every direction. The sheer wall of ice near the top of this mountain was truly spectacular.
 

Close-up of the Rainbow Mountain's glacier

My Canon PowerShot S400 camera is compact enough that I can easily carry it in the rear pocket of my bike jersey. Like most digital cameras, it has a 3x optical zoom and an additional digital zoom for a total of 11x. I took this picture of the wall of the glacier using the maximum of the combined zooms. As I mentioned in the previous picture, the sheer blue wall of ice was unlike anything I've ever seen in person.
 

Dave, Arn, Deborah, Tom

In this picture, we are all staring at the mountain in the previous picture. In the background on the right is Wedge Mountain.
 

Deborah, Canucks Team Doctor, Tom, Dave

Snoqualamie/Skykomish Rivers
July 2003

Allison and Tori tending the SeaDoo, July 2003

We jetted down the Snoqualamie until it merged into the Skykomish River. We continued down the river, wondering if we could navigate to the town of Snohomish, or Everett, or even to the Puget Sound. Unfortunately, the river level was very low and at this wide spot in the river, we grounded our boats in a riffle. The shallow riffle is located just to the right of the two piles of brush in the middle of the river. Carolyn, Eric, and I pushed each SeaDoo back up river until the water was deep enough to safely start the motors again. We returned to deep water and played around and then relaxed and swam from a deserted beach only accessible from the river. According to the SeaDoo's lake-water-temperature-meter, the river was 71 degrees.
 

Rope swing platform

As we were returning to the place where we launched our boats, we found an abandoned rope swing on the opposite bank of the river. Surprisingly, Allison and her friend Tori were the first to try the swing. There were three levels to launch from. In this picture, Allison is walking on the first level. I'm about to take off from the highest, or third, level.
 

Tom on the rope swing

I'm just about to let go and drop into a "can-opener" in the river. Eric swam across the river and has just climbed out on the opposite side.

Eric flying through the air

Allison at the bottom of the arc before heading up for her release

New York - Washington D.C.
June 2003

Click on the picture to see more pictures of the trip

Trip to New York and Washington D.C., June 2003

In June, 2003, we took a family vacation to Niagara Falls, New York City, Washington D.C., and many other points in between.

 

Lake Wenatchee
July 2003

Sunset on Lake Wenatchee, WA, July 2003

I took sixteen young men, 14 - 19 years old, on a three day high adventure trip to Lake Wenatchee in July, 2003. We spent three days Seadooing, wakeboarding, tubing, biking, hiking, and eating great meals.
 

Sunrise on Lake Wenatchee, WA, July 2003

When we crawled out of our tents after the first night, we found the lake as smooth as glass. We got out on the cold lake as soon as we could.
 

Tom wakeboarding on Lake Wenatchee

Eric wakeboarding on Lake Wenatchee

Snoqualamie River SeaDoo Trip
June 2003

Snoqualamie River, Carnation, WA, June 2003

This is the start of a 32 mile roundtrip down the Snoqualamie River from Carnation to Monroe past the confluence of the larger Skykomish River. Because of the hot weather and snowmelt, the river was fairly high, making our trip safer than normal because there were fewer places where we'd hit submerged rocks and trees. However, there were still a number of different rapids we had to navigate and avoid snags and boulders. The river meanders mostly through farmland and wooded areas. It was fun taking the curves and bends of the river at high speed. This particular SeaDoo has a 951cc two-stroke engine rated at 130 hp. It has enough power to shoot itself completely out of the water at a standing start and hit 60+ mph in just a few seconds. No comments on the bike tan; it's just the beginning of summer around here.

On a flight back from Washington DC, we flew directly over the Snoqualamie River where we launched from. The launching point was just above the junction of the Tolt River. That junction is slightly above the exact middle of the picture below. We headed downstream, which is toward the bottom of the photo. The lake on the right side of the picture is Ames Lake, and only a few miles downhill from our house. The forest between the lake and the river is chock full of twisty and turny mountain bike trails.

The last time I SeaDoo'd on this river in September, 1999, my daughter and I hit a submerged log at high speed and broke this same machine. Here is the story I wrote shortly after the accident:

We've had a lot of fun with the SeaDoos at the end of the summer. A few weeks ago, we took them on a Saturday afternoon to the Snoqualamie River. Because it's the end of the summer, the river was on the low side. With all five of us on the SeaDoos, we carefully went up the river four or five miles. It was scary because there were lots of snags (trees and branches) sticking out of the water. It was impossible to see submerged boulders and logs until you were practically on top of them. A Seadoo really doesn't work very well going slow. At a slow speed, the hull just plows through the water. It takes a lot of power to go slow because so much water is having to be pushed out of the way. At a certain speed, the hull will pop out of the water and the boat will plane on top of the water. When that occurs, handling and power is completely different. At the faster planing speed, it was impossible to see logs and rocks until it was too late. We had several close calls, but no strikes. We found a smooth beach that we used as a home base and we all took turns riding on the absolutely perfectly flat and calm water of the river. It was a blast, only tempered by the fear of hitting something under water. Everything was fine until Paige and I went out for one last ride. We were riding fast down the middle of the river when all of a sudden there was a big clunk and the physical and mental shock of hitting something under the surface of the river. Along with the hit was a terrible noise from the boat and a sudden loss of power. We limped back to the beach. All of us rolled the SeaDoo on its side to see what damage we had done to the bottom. The bottom looked ok except for the intake grate. The intake grate is a cast aluminum grate (like prison bars) that keeps sticks and stuff from getting sucked up into the propulsion pump. I guess we hit a log squarely on the grate. The grate exploded and pieces of aluminum were sucked into the turbine. The big pieces of aluminum (which are now sitting here on my desk) went through the stainless steel impeller (the equivalent of a meat grinder) and got jammed inside the venturi. The pieces of aluminum going through the impeller explained the terrible sound we heard. The pieces of aluminum jammed in the venturi blocking the flow of water explained the loss of power.

Knowing that the cost of motorcycle parts is beyond the ridiculous, we all made guesses as to how much a new intake grate would cost. I was predicting around a hundred dollars. When we got home, I looked on the internet (you can buy original SeaDoo parts online cheaper than going to the dealer) and was pleasantly surprised to find the new part only cost $35. However, in order to fix the problem, Eric and I had to disassemble the jet pump. In order to do this, I ordered the service manual on CD. Once this arrived, Eric and I were able to take the pump apart and fish out the broken aluminum pieces. The impeller had a couple of nicks that we smoothed out with a file. Then I ordered the parts we needed over the internet. In the meantime, we found the five different type of "loctite" that were called for in the service manual. From some reason, it took ten days for the UPS package to get from wherever to here. Once the package arrived, I took off the broken intake grate. Two of the four stainless steel bolts broke off. I guess the loctite was too strong. I tried drilling out one of the bolts and using a bolt extractor to remove the sheared off bolt. This didn't work and bolt wouldn't budge. I tried using heat from a high wattage soldering iron but that didn't help, either. Finally, I was able to go through the inside of the hull and remove the bolts that way. I called the local SeaDoo dealer to see if I could get replacement bolts. Nope. I went to Eagle Hardware and with little hope, found that they did have the metric stainless steel bolts that I needed. So by 9pm last night, I had all the parts, adhesives, sealers, and tools to finally make the repair. The first thing I had to do was spray some liquid gasket out of can (like cheese whiz) onto the new intake grate. As my luck would have it, the brand new can of liquid gasket was a dud. Nothing came out. I had to go get a new can of liquid gasket. Eventually, with all the parts and sealers and chemicals on hand, I was able to get everything back together and working as new.
 

Confluence of the Snoqualamie and Skykomish Rivers

This is looking upriver on the way back. At this point, it looks like there are three channels of the river, but actually, the two left channels are the Skykomish River and the rightmost channel is the Snoqualamie River merging into the others. A few years ago on Labor Day, my son and I canoed 20 miles down the Skykomish, starting in the foothills of the Sierras (where the rapids were intense) and paddled all the way down to Monroe. Here's the story that I wrote shortly after that canoe trip on Labor Day, 1997:

On Labor Day, Lonnie and his son Taylor and Eric and I went on a twenty mile canoe trip down the Skykomish River. We started in the Cascade foothills above the little town of Goldbar and canoed all the way down to the town of Monroe. We paddled through many sections of rapids. We were fortunate that we never spilled the canoe. In some places, the river was wide or steep and either of these conditions resulted in shallow water. My canoe often clunked and dragged over rocks while we were traveling at a high rate of speed. In one rapid, the canoe was lifted up and then slammed down right on a sharp rock. The impact occurred right underneath the canoe where I was sitting.  The force of the impact split the fiberglass in a small section on both the inside and outside of the canoe, but it didn't leak.  Halfway through the ride, we pulled over to a secluded spot on the bank of the river and unpacked and ate our lunch. Just as we launched again after lunch, another canoe with a young couple paddled by.  We eventually passed them and saw them get dunked in some rapids.  We paddled back to rescue them, but they had saved themselves.  After lunch we had a headwind the last ten miles.  Because I'm heavy sitting in the back of the canoe compared to Eric, the front end with Eric is partially lifted out of the water.  The front of the canoe is like a huge weather vane. Unless the canoe is pointed directly into the wind, the wind catches the side of the canoe and turns the canoe like a huge weather vane.  Once the canoe started turning from the wind, it was practically impossible to get it turned into the wind again.  I had to use every muscle of power to turn the canoe.  Paddling down the river was like pushing a shopping cart with a bad wheel.  I had to keep the canoe pointed into the wind, yet still follow the course of the river as it meandered through the valley.  I was still having fun.  The view on either side of the river was beautiful.  The view behind as we wound out of the mountains was spectacular. River transportation must be pretty efficient (at least in the downstream direction). We paddled twenty miles with just our arms. It was much easier than walking twenty miles. It was a very adventurous and rewarding trip. Eric has done a lot of fun stuff with me.
 

The Skykomish River just as it exits the Cascade foothills

On the same flight I mentioned above, I was able to take pictures of the Skykomish River. Eric and I started canoeing upstream just a few hundred yards to the left of this picture.

Little Rock Canyon
May 2003

On Memorial Day, May, 2003, my brothers and I hiked up Little Rock Canyon in Provo, Utah. The canyon is not very well known. The trail begins between two houses in a neighborhood up on the mountain's bench, north of Rock Canyon. The meager trail mostly follows the steep stream bed coming down the canyon. We were surprised to find a couple of developed campsites in the steep canyon. According to the GPS around my neck, we hiked about 2.5 miles before we ran out of time and had to climb back down. We found a trail to the top of a knoll that gave us a great view of Mt. Timpanogos and of the Provo valley. Years ago, I hiked this trail with my son and my younger brother and we ended up on Squaw Peak and then came down into Rock Canyon via another trail.

In the top left background you can make out the distant snow covered peak of Mt. Nebo. My brothers and I climbed to the top of that one a number of years ago. We didn't take enough water and we all wore sneakers. We refer to that hike as the "death hike."

In the right center of the picture is West Mountain that appears to jut out into Utah Lake. One spring day several years ago, my brother David and I rode road bikes around that mountain. We were feeling so good that we called our dad and ask him if he'd pick us up in Eureka, UT. He was willing to make the drive. David and I continued on our bikes to the old mining town of Eureka (a rather long climb) in the Tintic Mountains. My dad arrived in the car. We decided to ride the many miles back down from the mountains to the valley below. At that point, we loaded our bikes in the car and drove back to Provo.
 

Mt. Si Hike
May 2003

I took some scouts hiking to the top of Mt. Si in North Bend in May, 2003. It's a climb of 4 miles with an elevation gain of 4,000'. We made the steep climb in about an hour and a half. From the top, the view was quite spectacular. In this photo, you can simultaneously see Lake Sammamish (the glint of water slightly up and right of the center of the picture). Higher up the picture is the long Lake Washington separating the Bellevue from Seattle. Then you can see the skyline of Seattle. The next body of water is the Puget Sound (sea water). Beyond that are the Olympic Mountains on the Olympic penninsula.
 

Looking south from the top of Mt. Si gave us a great peek at the 14,411' Mt. Rainier.

Nauticat Rendevouz
Port Ludlow, WA
May 2002

I went with two friends on a sailboat trip to Port Ludlow for a rendezvous of Nauticat boat owners. My friend Dan is at the very front (on the right) of the boat. Our parents have been friends since before we were born. Dan and I have been friends since BYU. He was instrumental in getting me a job at Apple. Right behind Dan is Mike. Dan and Mike have been friends since high school. Mike owns the sailboat that we "crewed" on. I took this picture of all the owners by climbing the mast of Mike's boat the "High Hopes." Later in the day, we raced the High Hopes against all the other Nauticats. We didn't do too well this time, but it was really fun. The year before, we went on a four day sailing trip around the Puget Sound. It was probably the most relaxing vacation I've ever been on. On Dan's website, he describes that trip like this:

August 9th-August 12th, 2001 — Guy's Weekend Away

Who: Mike Holm, Paul Finlayson, Tom Taylor, and I.

What: Sailed High Hopes — Mike's Nauticat 44 — not very far but with intense relaxation as the major goal. We succeeded!

Where: Seattle → Blake Island → Bremerton → Poulsbo → Seattle.

Stats: 51 nm, 7 hours motoring, 2 hours sailing; quesadillas, hamburgers & salad, steak & potato; lowered Paul's CCExpedition flashlight 24 feet; Mike installed 2 new winches; Tom contacted Hawaii, Alaska, and other places on Elecraft K2 SW radio, heard Cook Islands.

Sights: Paddling ashore to an island & harbor seal up very close; bald eagle & U.S.S. Midway aircraft carrier; rendezvous with Randy & Nancy Hamblin's "Saga", Poulsbo bakery, jumping into the ocean.

Looking down from the mizzentop of High Hopes

In order to climb the smooth aluminum mast to take a picture of everyone, Mike ran a nylon ladder up the pulley that normally raises the main sail and I climbed to the top. I took this photo looking straight down the mast.

Chaunigan Lake - British Columbia
July 2002

In July of 2002, I took twelve 16-17 year old scouts 500 miles into British Columbia for a week. They had a great time, but I had a hard time getting them to do stuff besides "hanging out." Meanwhile, I hiked to the top of this nearby mountain to get a good view of the lake.

I brought a canoe that I had handmade in 1995 and paddled all over the lake, from one end to the other. Unfortunately, as the day went on, it would get more windy. I could really only paddle around by myself in the early morning.

The scenery in British Columbia is gorgeous.

Black Box Canyon
August, 2000

My brother and I and a couple of his friends hiked/floated down the San Rafael River in a portion of Black Box Canyon. Here's a story I wrote shortly after the trip:

The San Rafael Swell is a huge volcanic uplift in central eastern Utah. Gazillions of years ago, magma must have been forced up under the crust of the earth, uplifting a huge area into a large dome fifty or a hundred miles across. Eventually, the dome was eroded until the center was carved out and the rim punctured by sharp deep canyons. Interstate 70 goes smack through the center of the swell. It's an amazing drive by itself. We drove up into the swell and pulled off at a ranch exit. I love 4-wheeling so I pushed David out of the seat and took over the controls. We had maps and books and it all looked so simple on paper. Yet, we still managed to not be sure where we were. Before the trip, I almost went out and bought a GPS, but I talked myself out of it. Once in the Swell, I was angry at myself for not getting one. Eventually, after about 45 minutes, we had been on the correct path and arrived at our destination. The Swell encompasses some of the most desolate land I've ever seen. The land was settled in the 1870's but I can't figure out why. Who'd ranch this land when they could go to Nebraska? The land was so dry that it could support one scrawny plant about every 100 square feet. I'll bet those 1870's ranchers would think we were insane to come down here, dressed in sandals and swimming suits, for a day of fun. I can just picture some old dusty cowboys sitting on their horses, spitting, and laughing at us tourists. Our destination, the Lower Black Box Canyon, is now part of a wilderness study area. Hence, we weren't able to drive the Montero closer than about 2.5 miles from our target. We used 4-wheel drive getting there and the Montero did a fine job crawling up over rocks and down ledges. With everything built as cheaply as possible in the world, I'm amazed that tires don't instantly shred themselves on all the sharp rocks. Fortunately, we had zero car problems on the trip. We had a big 5 gallon jug of water in the back of the car in case we did. We hiked to the canyon and climbed down into the warm water. The water was very turbid and I imagine it filled with nasty alkali. We couldn't see more than six inches in the water and this made the trip difficult because there were often boulders and holes in the river bottom. I thought for sure that one of us would sprain an ankle or injure a leg. Fortunately, nothing happened. I can guarantee, though, that it would be a disaster in the making to take a scout troop down there. We were able to enter the canyon at a low spot. It was almost the equivalent of the city Green River on the river Green River. Between Flaming Gorge and the Colorado River, only Green River and Moab offer easy access to the river. We were hiking the narrows of the San Rafael River. In the desert, this desperate stream of water garnered the "river" title. Here in the northwest, that pitiful line of water would be lucky to get a name. If it did, it'd be something like "Patterson's Creek." Of course, we were hiking the canyon in the hottest and driest part of the year in a very dry year. I'll bet in the Spring, with snow melt, the San Rafael River is a raging and dangerous torrent. We made our way down the canyon, sometimes swimming through serpentine passages. Other times we slogged our way through the slipperiest gooiest mud I've ever seen. The temperature down in the canyon in the water was just perfect. According to our trail map, we should have found a trail up out of the canyon and hiked along the rim back to the beginning. When we reached some sulfur springs, we knew we had gone too far. Yet, we never saw any trail. David scrambled up out of the riverbed and reconnoitered to the top of a hill and spotted a faint cow track on a distant hill. We bushwhacked our way out of the dense vegetation by the river to the desolation beyond and hiked along a animal path. Eventually, that led to a trail that took us back to the beginning of the canyon. We were one notch away from heat stroke and all jumped in the river again. As David said, it was one of those moments that made you feel alive, floating face down in the water on a boiling hot day. The hike back to the car was the longest and hottest 2.5 miles that I've ever hiked. We 4-wheeled back to the highway. The guys in the back fell asleep. Their heads were bobbing all over the place as the car waddled its way among the rocks. On the way back to Price, we stopped in Wellington at my usual spot for a hamburger and peach shake. We arrived home around 9 pm and I immediately started packing for the drive home the next morning.

During that hike, I had a book with me on hiking the San Rafael Swell. I thought I had the book in a ziplock bag, but somehow it got dunked in the water. On the drive back to Washington, I put the soggy book on the dashboard, opened to page 1 and 2. When those two open pages dried, I turned the page and let the next one dry. By the time I arrived home, I had dried every page in the book. Of course, the wrinkled pages make the book six times thicker than before it got wet.

My feet - it was muddy in parts of the river