Winter Solstice in the Snowy Woods

A warm little cabin deep in the snowy woods on the winter solstice.... almost sounds too good to be true, but it certainly is, and here is the story.

High Uintas Wilderness: The Highline Trail

Oweep Basin 

The Highline Trail has been on our list of things to do for a long time. Recently we completed a 70 mile traverse of the High Uintas Wilderness from Chepeta lake to Mirror Lake Trailhead. 

Cap’n Shed Diggs aka Gunny Navy

On a recent 9-day hitch at Sandwash Ranger Station I met an interesting guy.  It didn’t really occur to me to write about the encounter until I told the story to some co-workers who suggested I do so.

Jarbidge Wilderness

Lisa and I had a mid-summer chunk of time off which was prime for a high country backpacking trip.

beaten silly by the East Fork of the Jarbidge

Lower Salmon River

Since the boss lady quit letting me take Cody down Deso it's been all I've needed to get around and see more river sections. This year we did the Lower Salmon. 

Lower Deschutes River

Finally made it to boat the Deschutes from Shears Falls to the mouth. It was good to be on a Northwest river, back in my home stompin' grounds. I always love to get back to the columnar basalt and the deep canyons of central Oregon.

Columnar Basalt: A NW original

Oregon backroads

On a recent trip to the NW we decided to take the scenic route, so we took five days, winding through the Oregon backroads.

An Old Oregon Pine

Upper Desolation Canyon...solo

It's been three years since my last solo trip so I was jones'n in a big way by the time I got to the put-in.

Sat on my ass to read a book all day

Snow at Sandwash

I've only ever seen snow on the ground at Sandwash once before and that was in 2002.

Happy Canyon Overlook

Poison Spring Cyn; background / Happy Cyn; foreground 

Our trip into Sams Mesa Box Canyon settled the question of a possible future backpacking trip. The next morning I sat in the sun looking at maps and drinking coffee. We didn't want to spend a bunch of time driving around so we settled on driving about 20 minutes further out onto Sams Mesa. The contour lines on the quad begged exploration along the north rim of Happy Canyon out to a point that forms between Happy Canyon and the Dirty Devil River. Long story short: We walked 11 miles for a picnic!

Sams Mesa Box Canyon

For a good while now I've been eyeing the map with the hopes of making a non-technical 5 day backpacking loop trip, out of two canyons that are popular among canyoneers for technical challenge. We lucked out by having a spell of days in the upper 60's during spring break so we gassed up and rolled south where we had 4 days of sunny solitude.

The Jug

Recently, I received another comment, from my sister, about the jug that has has a way of appearing in our photos. I wrote her a response about the jug as it appears in this photo. After I sent it I thought I would put it up as part of the story.

The Jug as it's become affectionately known

On getting engaged

Here is a photo essay of the two and a half years leading up to Lisa and I getting engaged.