Month: July 2006

Continuations of My Lucky Streak

Notice I didn’t say what kind of luck streak I was on 😉
 
Anyways … where I left off with my last post.  I found out that my jeep has been totaled.  Now I am looking at getting a Subaru.  I would like the WRX but I have to decide if the insurance costs are worth it. 
 
I have been trying to get a hold of my stress levels and get my life in order.  I need to work on getting a vehicle back, all the insurance stuff taken care of, and getting caught up on my work.  It all seems a little daunting right now but hopefully if I take it bits at a time I can get it taken care of soon.
 
So I keep on hurting myself but don’t mean to do so.  I hurt myself in the sccident .. then a couple days later stubbed my toe and thought I had broke it.  Then today I was riding my mtn bike around town since I just got it back on thursday.  Well, I was at the park riding around waiting for my friends to get there when I jumped off a little hill.  When I landed on the sidewalk my tire blew out and I went tumbling over it and across the cement / dirt.  I got up and tried fixing my bike but the tire is ruined.  then I noticed all the blood on my shoulder and hand.  I went to Fred Myer to get some stuff to fix myself up then called the roomate to come get me.
 
I think its just time to lock myself in a padded room for a while.  Maybe if I talk to my roomate possibly he can get me in a room at the mental ward.  Anyways, here are some pics of my wounds.

A little slip and slide

I was on my way back home from Vernal and I decided to take a scenic route home this time instead of taking highway 40 once agian. 
 
I was going to head west out of Roosevelt and go up over Wolf Creek pass.  I have been once before with my sister and it is a pretty drive.  Well, I got lost on my way to hanna and took a couple wrong turns.  This is when I got out my laptop and was going to get directions with mappoint and my GPS.  At first it tried leading me down a road cloased to all but Tribal Members.  
 
After finding my way I needed to go to get back on route it started taking me on a dirt road up over a mountian.  On the other side of the mountian as I was going downhill I started running into some hard rain.  I had put it into four wheel drive.  But as I hit a bad patch of mud that didn’t matter.  I ended up sliding off the road and hitting into some trees head on.
 
Both of my airbags had deployed and the smoke was filling my car.  I sat there for a minute or two because I was a little confused about what had happened.  Then I crawled over and got out of the jeep through the passenger seat since my doore was being blocked by a tree.    So I got out and looked at what I had done.  I realized I didn’t have service with my phone,  So after taking a couple pictures and gathering up myself I put on some shoes and got some warm clothes and started heading down the road until I could get cell service. 
 
After onlywalking a hundred yards I got a text message from Jonathan, the guy I am dating, asking if I was gonna make it tonight to watch movies and have dinner, I tried calling him but my phone kept getting a lost call.  I finally got through and told him what happened and that I needed to call my siblings to see if someone could come get me.  I got a hold of my brother buy my phone kept dropping the calls and most the words wouldn’t come through.  I decided to try walking a while further to get better reception. 
 
After 7 miles of walking down the road I finallyg ot cell service and called my brother then called 911.  After they found out where abouts I was I hung up with the dispatch and paitently waited for the officers to come get me. 
 
After they got me we went back up to the accident and I gave my report and we waited for the tow truck to come get us.  while up there even the officers were sliding all over the road since it was soo muddy.  The tow truck finally got up there and while trying to get my jeep out of the trees he got stuck himself.  He tried to get himself out with his wench but only ended up screwing up his own truck.  Finally after my brother had shown up and all of us got behind the tow truck and pushed we got him unstuck. 
 
After this we all headed down off the mountian and made out way home.  We finally got to my brothers house at 1:30 AM .. only 6 hours after the accident happened.   I finally passed out from exhaustion then woke up the next day to deal with my mess.
 
I am still waiting to hear from the insurance company wether they are going to total my jeep or not.  I guess I just wait and see.

My Painful saturday.

So after my trip to the slot canyon I was pretty damn sore and beat up.  But I still got up saturday morning and went mtn biking with my friend Dave.  We rode up little cottonwood canyon and I actually made it to the top even though it almost killed me.  The ride down I was worth the pain I guess (maybe not though since I am having a har time walking at the moment)
After that I went to eat lunch with a friend then went and got me a Tattoo .. YaY.  It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would and still to this minute my legs are hurting  a hell of alot more then my tattoo is.  Anyways.  Enough of the fun and now time to get back to my work (which I got a raise at and I am soo excited.)

Trip down the Slot Canyons in Zions N.P.

I had a friend ask me last wednsday if I was interested in going to Zions NP and go down a couple slot canyons.  After clearing it with my Boss I Said sure and started getting ready for a good adventure.  It seems all my best adventures are last minute ones.
We got down to Hurricane, UT later in the evening and had some dinner and watched the Travel channel.  In the morning after we got some coffee we set out for the park.  We went and got our back country permits required to hike down the canyons.
The First slot and also the shorter one we parked the vehicle and walked up the road about a block.  Then we hiked up a short hike until we reached a gully.  At the bottom of the gully was the start of our slot canyon.  We had to rappel down into the entrance and landed right in a pool of water.  Despite the 108 degree tempatures above, the pool was actually really quite cold and I was freezing my balls off in no time.  It was a blast hiking down this slot canyon.  At the end was a couple of pools and some of them had some frogs in them.
The second hike we started out on the East end of the long tunnel that goes through Zions park and ended up on the other end at the bottom of the mountian.  We unloaded our gear then brian drove down to the other end and parked the truck and hitched a ride back in.  Just as the one before we started rapelling right off the bat.  This second was a much more technical slot where you often time had to use your body as a wedge to keep from falling too far.  It had numerous rappels and a couple swims across even colder pools then the shorter canyon.  Al of this made it more fun and was also worrth the veiws that I saw.  I am no good at writing and describing the places I go so hopefully the pictures will be enough to entice you.  I know that both of these slots got me hooked and I can’t wait until I get another chance to go down a different one or even those ones agian.  I had a great time and made a good friend on the trip.

 

River Trip

I finally got the oportunity to go down the Gates of Lodore with my company last weekend.  I went out there thursday night and went to dinner with them for a pre-rafting trip dinner.  The next morning we met down to Hatch River Expeditions and loaded up our gear then headed out for the Gates.  It was about a 3 hour drive to the destination I think ( I put on my headphones and slept when some of the members of the group started making gay comments).  Once we got there they asked if anyone wanted to take a ducky out instead of sitting in the raft (They are inflatiable kyaks).  I volunteered and we set off.  On the first rapid the other guy that was in a ducky flipped it and had to swim for a bit to get back in it.  Over the whole trip I managed to stay in my ducky and I was using it about 3/4 of the trip total (I fell in love with it)
In the ducky’s it seemed to amplify all the waves by at least 5 times.  Small rapids seemed larger and the big ones were one hell of a blast.  I ended up staying completely soked at least half the trip.  It was also a good time to have some quiet time to myself and enjoy the scenery since I didn’t have to listen to the gay comments or politics.  Neither of those should be brought on a river trip if you ask me.  I wasn’t the only one offended by them.  But anyways I was having a great time.
The first couple of days were overcast and partly rainy.  Perfect weather for rafting seeing how I didn’t get toasted while out there.
The Food was great and the entertainment from the guides was awsome.  The River trip lasted 3 days and two nights.  The Second night things got a little Crazy as Marshall (one of the guides) brought out his costume bag.  They told us we all had to dress up before we could eat.  Some of the guys went straight for the dresses such as Lutinenant Workman from the Air Force.  It made it for a good and interesitng night.  Anyways,  I had a great time but it took alot out of me.  I am still exhausted and sore from it all.  I may post some more about it or edit this post once my brain starts working agian.  But in the mean time I will leave you with some of the photos from the trip.

Trip to the Beach

After a stressful, god awful monday, I decided to go out to the Beach by Stansbury Island and join them on their camping excursions.  It was an awsome sunset and after the sun set we enjoyed fireworks then stayed up till around 3 AM drinking a little.  I was a great time up there and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.  Here are some of the pics I took up there.

Hiking with Lambda

I went hiking on Saturday with the Lambda hiking group.  They have a website at: http://www.gayhike.org/
It was a great hike and I enjoyed the company.  I brought my camera equipment but didn’t really get any good pictures do to the harsh daylight.  I guess I will post the one picture that was alright.  I don’t really like it but maybe someone will

Bikers and Rollerbladers

I went out to the parks for for a few hours sunday to kill some time and get used to my camera some more.  I went to Liberty park and took a few pictures of the Drum Circle and some of the kids playing in the water.  After that I made my way over to fairmont to take some pictures of the skaters.  I had a good time watching them and getting a little used to my Camera and lenses.  I have found that I don’t really like the cheaper lenses that I bought when I first got my camera.  My large telephoto takes forever to focus on subjects.  I ended up using my telephoto lense to take most the pictures even though I did not get up as close as I would have liked to.  anyways I will post a few of the pictures I took from it.