Utah Engagement Party

Our engagement party this past weekend was a blast. It was such a wise idea for us to have an event in Utah because we both have a lot of friends and family that are in that area. The venue was in a very spacious ballroom in the old Provo library. Angela's extended family did most of the cooking and even brought food with out being asked. We had fried rice, roasted quail, egg rolls, macaroons and a few other things. In all it was way too much food, but it was all appreciated.

 Both of my sisters were able to come. Ashlee is nice and plump with a baby girl due in September and Hannah brought a long some guy that likes to go by the name "Dick" who she is marrying next month. Unfortunately Ashlee and her husband Smith will not be at our wedding in September because it is so close to her due date, but we got our fill of them anyways.

What we brought the gifts in

We had a Vietnamese engagement ceremony with most of our immediate families dressed in ao dai (long dress) that were made in Vietnam for us. The ceremony consisted of my family presenting gifts for fruit, nuts, jewelry and a few other things and I was formally introduced to Angela. Her dad also modernized the ceremony by giving me a high-five. It was a lot of fun to see all whom we did and interacting with everyone.

 This was just one step closer for Angela and I and we are excited for September 1st when we are actually getting married.

The Long Road to Oklahoma

After fending off the crazy western Washington snow storm, Angela and I hit the road with hopes that we would be able to drive from Seattle to Kimberly, ID with out any road closures.  On Thursday night (19 Jan 12) before we left I was checking the DOT sites for the different states we would be driving though, and Oregon was the only one with any road closures.  After seeing the closures I got a little concerned, but we still planned on leaving in the morning regardless of the weather.  Later we found out that the roads were only closed after dark because of the poor conditions but we still had to deal with Snoqualmie Pass.

The Pass had be closed on and off all week because of the storm but with my truck bed weighed down and snow chains ready to go nothing was stopping us.

Snoqualmie Pass by "stump lake"

It was slow going until we got over the pass, we only drove about 40mph because the roads were so slick and the highway was basically cut down to one lane each direction, but we made it just the same.

It was great having Angela by my side for most of the drive, she's a great co-pilot and we were able to see all the fun sites with each other. It was beautiful driving up into the Blues in Oregon.  As you can see in the pictures bellow, there was a thick layer of fog covering the entire area bellow.  As always the pictures never do it justice.

Looking west towards Pendleton, OR

Angela enjoying the cold view

We spent the weekend in Utah see Angela's family on Saturday then after a Southwest flight on Sunday tore us apart I went and spent Sunday with my grandparent before hitting the road again.

I was very lucky to have Angela as my guardian angel for the drive because she arranged for me to stay with he friend's parents in Ft. Collins Colorado.  This was a perfect resting spot and allowed me to push on for ten hours the next day till I arrived at Vance AFB in good old Enid, OK.  It was a fun adventure getting out here but it won't compare to the training experience I'm about to go through. 

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Snow Days!!

All Week long schools and business have been closed.  Angela was able to spend the entire week over at my parents house as we filled out days with lounging around the house watching movies with the occasional trip out to brave the weather.  On one of the first days of the storm I decided to park my truck in the driveway with the fear that it might get damaged being parked in the street.  Well it turns out that my truck was the one that wanted to do some damage because when I came out to check on the weather an hour later it had slid all the way down the driveway and was parked half way in the street.  Just a little scary. There was just enough snow on the driveway (maybe 1/8 in.) to help it slide down.

Just after one day of snow fall...

How I found my truck after is slid down the drive way

Don't worry, we also made time to do a little sledding as well.

Goldmyer Hot Springs

We finally made it and we don't really want to go back again.  As a scout I had my first opportunity to venture out to Goldmyer.  It was a great adventure, our scout leaders drove fast on an unimproved road and we had to ford a river with snow on the banks.  What more could you ask for in a camping experience when your young.

Well after some flooding in 2006 or 2007 some of the road out to the site washed out and now the fun drive has been cut short and you have to hike for four miles just to get to the trail head.  Four miles isn't a lot but its not worth going to a hot springs that was packed with a bunch of nudies.

At the Goldmyer Trailhead

I had the great Idea to bring bikes to help make the trip shorter.  Well, there were four of us and only two bikes, well more like 1.5.  My mom's bike has seen better days and both Angela and Hannah gave up on it a little fast.  So to counter that I had Hannah and Angela take turns riding on my handel bars.  It didn't work out as well for them as I had hoped but it still made for a fun experience.

Angela and me near the Dingford Creek Trailhead

Angela had never been there before so I wanted her to see what it was like.  Now we can check that off our list of things to do.  It would have been better if we had chosen to go on a non holiday weekend and we all had bikes.  So if you want to go, bring bikes.

Mount Adams, WA

Info: Mt Adams, WA

We started the adventure with a leisurely morning of waking up eating a big breakfast and hitting the road around 10am.  It's just over a two hour drive to the ranger station where we each had to buy our $10 wilderness hiking passes with blue bag equivalents.  We thought it would be a nice easy hike to camp that night but the rangers quickly bursted our bubble.   We were told that it was a three mile hike just to the trail head because of the late winter and the low snow level.

So two things killed us the first day, the snow and a wrong turn.  As we started driving up the road there was a little confusion to which road we needed to take.  Right after leaving the ranger station we took a wrong turn.  We kept on driving because we were told that people would be parked on the road.  Because we were looking for all the cars we kept on driving until one snow drift stopped us in our tracks.

Digging out the truck

We spent about two hours digging our selves out mostly because when I would gain a little ground I would get a little excited and keep on driving to the point where I would just get it stuck again.

After finally getting to the trail we had the long grueling hike up to camp.  We didn't gain as much ground as we thought we would had but the unexpected snow set us back quite a bit.  We couldn't have asked for better weather, I spent most of the time hiking in only basketball shorts and a t-shirt.  The weather also gave us some amazing views.

Tyler just gettin' it

Sam and Dane with Mt Hood in the background

We started the next day leaving our tents and large packs behing and started up the mountain with our day packs.  Hiking is hard work and Tyler had spent the past month getting in shape for this were Sam and I spent the last month doing nothing and it showed.  Unfortunately we were not able to reach the summit, some bad weather was rolling in near the top and we were loosing sun light, so just below the false summit we turned back.  It was a smart and safe choice. 

So close to the false summit

The best part of the trip down was glissading.  It was a blast and in a way made all the work worth it.  After receiving the suggestion to slide down on a Frisbee we decided to go cheap and bought some thin plastic plates at a gas station on the way up.  They didn't work out and we all just ended up riding down the mountain on our butts.  It was a lot of fun while the steep slopes lasted, but when we had to get back on foot the work began again.

Some parts of the hike down where just as hard as the way up, partially because we had to hike back up due to overshooting our camp.  This is what really made the hike hard on our bodies, it was killer.  When we finally got back down to the truck we determined that we had been hiking for a total of 12 hours that day. 

Each of us still want to summit Adams, but we all have learned that we should do it later in the season. 

Cape Alava Hike

Annie and I took a pleasant little hike out on the peninsula for the first trip after graduation.  If you ever want to find out info about the hike or go on it your self, just look up info about Lake Ozette in WA.  There is the basic 9 mile loop that is an awesome day hike with the two main hi lights being 6 miles of board walk through the rain forest and the tide pools at low tide.

Hike on the board walk

 

baby seal just chillin'

The two of us wanted more of a over night thing so we hiked a little further south to Yellow Banks where we stayed for the night.  After about the first mile of hiking on the sand I quickly remembered how miserable it was and we both looked forward to getting to camp which was a nice surprise.  Over the years people have decorated the camp sites with beach trash, it was fun to see some of the things people found.  So we posted up in one site that had an area for an illegal fire pit (fires have to be bellow the tide line) a drift wood fort and a homemade hammock.

Camp

The highlight of the trip was probably the ginormous beach fire we had.  We got caught by a little rain while we were building up the beach fire with drift wood so we were a little discouraged thinking that it would never light.  Then Annie found a giant plastic stake that we put in our little fire, it was determined to burn until it was all melted away so we transferred it to the the big fire.  The pictures will explain the rest, but the fire kept us occupied for the rest of the night. 

We had some amazing views the entire trip but the sunset was great.  There was a little weather in the area so parts of the sky were crystal clear.  

From camp looking North West

Moab, UT

Heres the new game plan.  When ever I forget to make the time to actually write out a post I'll just list all the thinks I did to make the trip memorable. 

-On zero hours of sleep boarded the plane

-free upgrade from a Yaris to a Rav4, $10 a day, uninsured proven 4x4 capable 

-ate at one of four cracker barrels state wide, we made sure to ask about that one

-had to turn around twice before we got on the right road 

-survived Wellington aka: drove through it without getting a ticket 

-discovered that Memorial Day weekend is the busies weekend in Moab

-ate at the Moab Brewery

-hunted for camp sites, found one on the side of the highway

-went to sleep with the line of: "bro, they're chopping fire wood." While talking about our neighbors camping next to us. 

- explored Arches natl. park

-hiked to the waterfall as suggested by Tyler, great choice!

-missed the turn to the falls and hiked 8 miles in the wrong direction but discovered petroglyphs on the walls

-then directed to the falls (beautiful)

-jumped off the 30 ft cliff there

-continued the hunt for a camp site by driving up a scenic byway and found a spot to camp by castle rock's trail head

-attempted to camp at the base of castle rock

-after coming close to heat exhaustion from 2 hours of hiking we failed to find a camp site at the top due to 80 mph+ winds (Sam still thinks his tent could have withstood it)

-humbled ourselves and hiked back down to camp next to the car

-decided to sleep with no rain fly so that we could see the stats at night and sleep cooler 

-instead we spent most of the night awake being pelted by sand from the on going dust storm

-Rocked slick rock on mountain bikes.

-I (Dane) blew by the warning sign telling riders to beware of the trail for advanced riders only

-Only went over the handel bars once

-Drive up to Layton to stay with G&G Stevenson

-Wished Vic a happy birthday and meet his beautiful new fiancee Imara

-Went to the cemetery where Sam learned all about the Stevenson family, Thanks Grandpa