Backpacking Robbers Roost

The Dirty Devil River country must be one of the most wild places in the contiguous U.S.

Detour to Panamint Dunes

Lisa and I had every good intention of hiking to the top of Telescope Peak in Death Valley Nat'l Park on the way home from Southern California.

Who's in charge around here?

Notch Peak

Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm a sucker for big views and big country.

Last Chance Trail

The Last Chance Trail crosses, what else, the Last Chance Benches. The trail runs beneath the dramatic red Roan cliffs at the portal of Desolation Canyon.

Ben Lomond Peak

Amazingly we had a summer day to kill in town, so we made a dash to go bag the most dominate peak around Ogden.

Heart Lake

I guess if your gonna get an urge to go walk yer guts out then Yellowstone Nat'l Park is a darn good place to go.

Lewis Peak

We had a half a day in town before flying to Seattle for a wedding.

Grande Ronde River

This trip has been on my list of things to do for years.

Highwater on the San Rafael River

Little Grand Canyon of the San Rafael River:

Historic Highwater

When a river swells with highwater in the spring it is usually due to snowmelt running out of the mountains. This melt water, hurried along by gravity, soon turns to a torrent gathering what ever is in it's way.
Trees, trash, cows, houses, everything, tearing downhill like a wild beast, "out of control" as the damn builders would say. This is the way it's supposed to happen, but all too often in our day and age this annual wildness of the rivers is tamed by the placement of dams.

Nicaragua to Panama

I'm excited to say I finally made a trip to Central America. I've been wanting to do this for at least 12 years and just never did for one reason or another.

will work for turns...

There's something about working for my turns that makes skiing down more enjoyable.

Campfire Sittin'

campfire sittin', it's about
5 degrees

Coyote the Trickster

  I have written about the mindset of a solo trip on numerous occasions. A solo trip is such a different way of experiencing the wilderness that I've never been able to relate the experience sufficiently, either in writing, or otherwise. What follows tries to speak to the same thing, but in as bazaar a way as I've ever experienced. I've never considered myself a superstitious person, but this is the closest brush with the supernatural that I've experienced. I would hope that my story doesn't quite carry the same meaning as coming off a solo trip claiming that Bigfoot is real. Arguably, the level of crazy is pretty close, but I assure you the following is a true story.

Ruby Mountains Wilderness

Ruby Mountains Wilderness in Nevada:

We originally planned to camp at Liberty Lake

High Uinta Wilderness; Kings Peak

The High Uintas Wilderness and Kings Peak (13,528')

We approached from the Henrys Fork trailhead

The List

At risk of great humiliation I post this story! What the hell, I'm unabashed.

Wheeler Peak

Great Basin Nat'l Park, Wheeler Peak (13,063'), and the ancient Bristlecone Pines in Nevada.

Nefertiti Rescue

Following is an excerpt of a report i wrote of a rescue we performed at Nefertiti at about 24,000cfs.

100 mph geology

Have you ever looked at the geology of southern Utah and wondered at the ages that have made the strange formations, canyons, and river rapids the way they are?

Mt. Ogden

Mt. Ogden (9570') from the Beus Cyn. trail:

A dayhike to the summit above Ogden. It was a hot day, nearly 100 degrees.

Station Solstice

This piece makes a lot more sense to someone that knows life at Sandwash ranger Station

Quotes

I've always had a good time collecting quotes from wherever I see them. I thought I'd share some of them here. I have found inspiration and perspective in quotes, hopefully you will too.

the big 4o in Alaska

Oh no, I'm gonna be forty, what do I do?
I wasn't really as hung up on it as it sounds, but that was the question that began rolling around my mind about a year ago.

Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks

Since my season in Escalante I have always heard that the best time of year to go to Bryce Canyon is during the winter, so a few friends and I loaded up and headed that way to check it out.

Celebrating October; 23 days afloat

October is my favorite time to be out and about for a few reasons. The fall colors are unbelievable, and the harsh summer sun is tilted to the south so the shadows are long; the light soft, even at mid-day. The two combined; color and light, make for beauty beyond compare. I've got other reasons that I'll keep to myself for now.

Trash Patrol

If I were to name one characteristic that brings people back to float through Desolation Canyon year after year, it's gotta be the immaculate cleanliness of the canyon. However, the river corridor naturally collects trash items that come downstream when the water is high with spring run-off. This is mostly the result of people upstream that aren't necessarily thinking about what the consequences may be of depositing trash near the river or just being careless with their trash.
When the level of the elevated river flow drops it leaves these items sitting high and dry on beaches, or more often, stuck in driftwood piles, or on a difficult rocky shore. Most of the time the trash is just empty plastic bottles and cans. Stuff that most of the rafters will willingly haul out of the canyon and deposit in the dumpster. Occasionally a large trash item, like a refrigerator, will appear. Understandably, most rafters aren't willing or equipped to pack out such items. Once a year I like to do a trip that is dedicated to the removal of such large trash items. This year it was quite a challenge, not only because of what we needed to get out of the canyon, but also because of the nature of one of the rapids. At higher river flows the rapid at Cow Swim is not safely navigable with a boat rigged the way we needed to rig the junk boat.

John Day River

I have wanted to go for a float on the John Day River for about as long as I can remember. This past winter when my friends John and Rosalee suggested we give it a go I was in. We set some dates for early June and kept our fingers crossed since the river can become de-watered during summer. As it turned out we had an ideal flow.

Deschutes River

I had a good trip to Oregon. We even had sunny weather. Went out and did some messin around on the Deschutes River. It's neat to stand there and watch my dad on a bluff overlooking the river with the wind blowing his hair. I imagine all the things he's seen in his life messing around in the Deschutes and John Day river canyons. My dad had an adventerous life in his early days.

West Desert - Newfoundland Mountains

Trevor and I left everyone else behind and headed for the Newfoundlands where we figured a couple days would do. We headed out that night to spend the spring solstice in the desert. Drove until 10pm or so and biviouaced on a knoll at the north boundary of the Air Force Range. Trips like this are why I need a set of offroad lights so I don't have to freak out quite so bad when the antelope jump out of nowhere. We woke on the first day of spring to a real nice day. Cooked eggs in the dutch oven on the stove top, and drank generous portions of coffee. Me trying to get a head start on a trip by leaving the night before just doesn't work out. By the time I drink coffee, cook breakfast, lounge around and get things packed up it's nearly noon, especially if it's cold in the morning. I guess it's not really a newsflash that winters are known for being cold in the morning. Truth be known, I like to sleep outside and wake up in a big open piece of desert, cold or not. Anyway we finally got loaded up and headed for the railroad causeway where we promptly got our doors blown off by a west bound Union Pacific freight train.

 



We decided to go to the west side of the Newfys first. The road almost immediately turns in to a track through the Greasewood brush where I wouldn't want to be when it's muddy. It'd be miles of terribly slow gumbo mud. We got down to Miners Basin and explored a couple of the trails going up into the foothills to abandon mine sites.

 

I liked the view to the west; across the Newfoundland Evaporation Basin towards Nevada and Pilot Peak.



Miners Basin Pass would be the ideal place to start a hike to Desert Peak, the highest in the Newfoundlands. We went back to the valley floor and continued south. After driving the road south for a while I noticed there were no other tracks. It'd been weeks since anyone passed this way which added to the already remote feeling. Coming across the signs of somebodys bad luck from days gone by also ominously reminds a backcountry traveler of the remote nature of the country through which they pass.

 

parking brake set...

 

we decided to take two vehicles...just incase

 

outta gas, somewhere on the west slope of the Newfoundland Mountains.

 

The end of the road. Air Force landia beyond the sign. BS! It's probably the real Area 51.

 



Sign says to call some number for passage. Actually Trevor is calling his brother to cuss him out. His Verizon really did work!



Old Dodge pickup tailgate the airforce didn't want anymore carefully placed in the desert.

 

We turned around and headed back north instead of going a couple hundred yards east and driving around the fence. I figure the govt. could make us go away and wouldn't want to press my luck. We found a spot on the north end of the range, with a view of the causeway in the valley below, to set up the springbar so we could get out of the wind storm that'd blown in during the day. The air was full of dust and we were glad to have the tent. Set up the table and chairs and stove inside and lounged with Miso soup.

 

It rained most of the night and cleared the air nicely. We wanted to go on south down the east side of the range but neither of us had the fuel capacity so we had to surrender to civilization and hydrocarbons. I need a jerry can! Too lazy to drive the few miles back around to the crossing so we just crossed! Until next time...

 

taking the long way to Death Valley

It was again time to scram on a road trip. On the multiple trips, my friends and I did to the West Desert this winter, we talked often of extending the trip to Death Valley because the gas prices were lower than they'd been in years, and the season was right.

West Desert - Hogup Road

The very next weekend was sunny so we headed out for another trip. Doing almost the same Hogup route in reverse. With a side trip to the Newfoundland Mountains. Trevor and I went out that night in my 4runner and camped near Youngs Corral.

 



The next day Eric and Anja came out to meet us. We walked out onto the wide expanse of the dry lake bed.

 



From there we drove south and out onto The Fingerpoint. Looked like it'd be a good place to camp in the future.

 

We then went west along the transcon to the northern tip of the elusive Newfoundland Mountains. All that way just to have a look, and to sit there and plan another trip. I've sure gotten hooked on this West Desert country this winter.

 





 Then backtracked for miles along the railroad to Lakeside,

 

 ...and south to I-80.

 

West Desert - Kelton Road

Next set of nice days called for some West Desert wandering. Anja and I went west out of SLC to the Lakeside road and north through the Airforce bombing range. The Airforce had this sign posted saying not to leave the road surface for obvious reasons.

 

 Once we made it to Lakeside we followed the Transcontinental west,

 

to the southern end of the Hogups where we camped.

 

The next day we traveled north between the west shore of the Great Salt Lake and the Hogups.

Dolphin Island:



Then to Kelton and followed the historic transcon back to Promontory and Ogden.