A COMPROMISE

It has been nearly 2 months since I posted that I am done with the blog.  If you missed that post, you can click here to read it - 

HAPPINESS without Blogging

It has been a wonderful 2 months.  I had not realized what a burden this blog had become for me.  We have been on a few trips and I was actually unable to make myself take pictures or journal.  It was as if I was cleansing myself of all pressure that I had put on myself since starting the blog.  It felt SO GOOD!!!  Like a 20 pound weight was off my shoulders.

We just got back from an 8 day camping trip in the Kern Plateau (Southern Sierras) on the drive home I got 5 texts from friends asking when they got to see pictures from our trip, and during our trip Shane had mentioned that it was too bad I wasn't going to put pictures on the blog.......ok........point is taken.

I have to admit that I dont want to cut the cord completely.  Here is my compromise.....I will post a few of the highlight pictures but keep the writing to a minimum.  The stories just take me too long and I have so many things I enjoy more than sitting in front of the computer....So here it goes!!!

8 days of great weather.  Daytime temps were perfect, bright blue sky every day, clear moonless nights FULL of stars!

This hike was 4 miles and CRAZY elevation gain.  Nearly vertical is some places.  I complained more than the girls.  They are tougher kids than me as a 20 year old when I just started hiking.  The last mile back to camp they RAN all the way down.  CRAZY!!

AWESOME owl that followed us down a canyon and then landed right by us.

Night time temperatures were amazingly cold.  Our water was freezing before it even got dark.  We NEVER have campfires, but we found that on this trip it was impossible to not have a fire.  The minute the sun went down the temp dropped fast.  Two of the nights we were at high elevation and we had to share sleeping bags to conserve heat.  Alli and Shane could zip their bags together.  Jill had to sleep IN my bag.  Reminded me of when she was 9 months and we went camping for 3 weeks - I had to sleep in the CAR with her every night.  At least it was only 2 nights.

Jill signing the register she found.

One day we went on a 4 wheel drive road (I am NOT meant to 4 wheel drive - I thought I was going to have a heart attack!)  and found this random boulder area.  We wanted to climb to the top cuz the girls love to boulder hop.  It was a beautiful location with a gorgeous view and lots of places we could have gone up.  Can you believe we climbed to the very top of one peak and Jill found a summit register!!  The guy who left it had dated it June 2009.  We were the first to find it.  It was so exciting.

Thanksgiving day we went on a 4 mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail.  It is so fun to think that some day we could actually hike along the entire PCT....some day....we had a wonderful relaxing time.  A very special neighbor of ours gave the girls a book on drawing Zentangles.  I had brought it on the hike and was drawing one when Jill came over and wanted to do one.  Look at this precious little face.  She is growing up so fast. 


And Shane is loving his book - A Wise Man's Fear - he was reading standing up.  Jill thought that was entertaining so she took his picture!  That night we had eggs, bacon and ham for Thanksgiving dinner.  YUM!  Now it's Sunday the 30th, we are back home and we are having Thanksgiving with the Chico clan.  We appreciate so much that we had 3 extra days to stay in the mountains.  I have 30 minutes to get our house ready for our guests.  This post took me 40 minutes.....I think that is sustainable!!  

BACKPACKING to TOWER PEAK - KID FREE!!!

Celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary and 22 years together- May 29, 2014

Backpacked 30 miles and 3,400 ft elevation gain.

From Leavitt Meadows Campground to the ridgeline above Tower Lake

Shane is always really good about picking awesome places to hike in the Eastern Sierras.  For this anniversary, it was Tower Peak in the Hoover Wilderness, right off the Sonora Pass.  The Eastern Sierras are so incredibly beautiful, I never get used to the huge granite walls, beautiful snow caped peaks and thundering waterfalls and rivers.  We always go without the girls because the hikes are usually more of a vertical climb, but I look forward to the day when the girls are able to come here.  There is no where like the Eastern Sierras.

We did not get to the parking area until 7:45 pm so we loaded up and hiked in our first 2 miles just by the light from our headlamps.   As is our typical MO - we could not find the trailhead so we head off in the WRONG direction - 5 minutes later we get back to our car and realize that we had left our trekking poles just leaning up against the car!  I guess it was good that we went the wrong way! Finally we find the direction to go and head off into the darkness.

There was no moon and the sky was filled with stars. So many stars, the milky way was crystal clear.  How I miss the milky way back in city life.  After hiking for about 90 minutes Shane and I had one of the most awesome experiences ever.  I cannot believe in all the years of backpacking that we have never experienced this, but it was amazing.....I will try to describe it, but there are no words for how this felt at 10:15 at night off in the middle of the Hoover Wilderness....some things just must be experienced:

As we were approaching what we thought was going to be our camping spot for the night, we thought we saw really low stars, lying just about the level of the horizon.  Being that we were in a canyon of pretty tall mountains, this really did not make sense.  So we stopped and turned off our headlamps to figure it out.  

We were surrounded by the pitch black of the night, but when we looked down we saw the entire night sky reflected back at us.  There was absolutely no wind, and we were elevated about 20 feel above this perfectly still lake that contained the reflection of every star in the sky.  It was a moment of amazement for me, sometimes I am stilled to the core by the beauty that is in this world.  We stared at this lake for quite a while before we continued on to set up camp.

The next morning we had a huge day ahead of us so we got up early, packed up and headed off to get as close to Tower Lake as possible.  We had about 8 miles to hike.  It took us 6 hours.  There is no way to eat enough food to keep up with what we are burning. We are just in a constant state of hunger.  (We both lost 4 POUNDS on this trip!!) 

It feels good to be hungry.  So often we just eat to eat.....it is something entirely different to eat so you don't collapse on a trail!! We never really collapsed, but we did need to take some breaks.

Shane fell in a river too....poor guy.  Not the river above, either....that would have been LOTS better.  He had to carry the bear canister with all the food and it seemed to throw off the balance in his backpack.  Unbalanced backpack and a tiny log crossing a rushing river is not a good combination.  He fell in up to his WAIST! We had to stop for a while in this meadow so his sleeping bag could dry out.

After things dried, we continued on to our destination.  This is Hawksbeak Peak, we think.....you will see though, that we have absolutely no map reading skills so that is just our best guess.

We got to our camp spot at about 4:45, after 7 hours of hiking and did not know how we were going to stay up until a decent bedtime.  We both could have gone to sleep right then.  But instead, we ate and played cribbage and read our books.  We made it until 8:00!  Our tent was full of sun, but we were exhausted....we slept until 7:45.  CRAZY!

Our view when we got up of what we thought was Tower Peak.  This amazing spire ended up being just two tiny insignificant dots on the topo map.  If you want to feel how insignificant we are in this world, go to the eastern sierras.  These peaks are just indescribably beautiful and breathtaking.  

Shane told me that we would be hiking up to the top of this.  I said, "Um...NO!" but we can get close.  So we set off to climb up about 500 ft elevation gain (1 mile) to Tower Lake and have lunch.  You know us, nothing can ever be that simple, so after eating lunch and observing a pretty cool ridgeline that went up to Tower Peak, we decided to climb another 1000 feet elevation gain (and about 1 mile). Doesnt that sound awesome!  Look at how beautiful it is:

But, it is crazy steep.  Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually you get there, though!!

Once we made it to the top of the first ridgeline we decided to keep going to the next ridgeline.  That was when we realized that Tower Peak was actually BEHIND this huge spire that we had been heading towards.  The real Tower Peak is in the background of the picture at the top of this post.  We debated crossing a third ridgeline to get there, but the clouds were coming in and lighting on a ridgeline is really not that safe so we headed back down....

Getting back down is actually really fast....

The next day we had to hike out the 8 miles, but going downhill is at least less strenuous.  The problem with downhill is that is it so much harder on my feet and knees.  We were totally running out of food, our feet hurt, our shoulders ached, but there is nothing that stops us from enjoying being outside.  

There is nothing better than being outdoors relying on on our own power, the joy of seeing beautiful things and spending time with each other.  

This is what life is for.  Countdown to our 1000 mile bike trip - 10 days!!!

Spring Break - 2000 miles to Colorado

After driving all night from Chico to Great Basin, Nevada, we set up our tents at 1 am.  That is how our trip starts.  But, this is us we are talking about here....we never do anything the normal way.  We get up and drive the remaining 6 hours to Capital Reef, Utah. 

We love this campground.  The girls can ride their bikes around and there is a huge area for playing frisbee and the scenery is just incredible.   We hike up Fremont River Trail as the sun sets.

The next day we drive a crazy road to Upper Muley Canyon.  The canyons back here are supposed to be phenominal.  Our poor subaru, however, is not a 4 wheel road vehicle....this is probably the beginning of our suspension problems.....It is a beautiful place, though.

We end up climbing up this huge rock above Jill.  Sandstone is so wonderful.

Then, because ONE hike is not enough for these girls anymore, we also hike up COHAB CANYON before bed.   Jill wakes up SCREAMING at about 11pm....her first night terror.  Alli never had them, it is AWFUL.  Then, as quick as it started she is back to sleep.  I am wide awake for a LONG time.  I think maybe these girls need to get some more sleep and less hiking.  They dont agree.  The next day we go on two more hikes.

First, we stop at HOG SPRINGS on our drive to NATURAL BRIDGES.  The girls play in the spring for a little while, we have lunch and then we take a little 2 mile hike up the canyon.  That is Jill and I way up in the hole that wind has created in the sandstone wall.  She wanted to scale all the way up there so we did.  Getting down is always way scarier than going up, but she did great.  

Below is a picture of the girls off the road in  NATURAL BRIDGES NATIONAL MONUMENT.  It is beautiful here.  They have one of the darkest night skies in the World.  

We wanted to take the girls on a hike down to SIPAPU Natural Bridge.  We knew the girls would love it...there were ladders to climb and stairs to climb, they love obstacles on a hike.    At the trailhead there was a family getting into their car.  

The dad says to us, "Oh, you aren't going to hike this trail are you?"  We say, "Yes!"  He says, "Oh, it is way too treacherous for small children (he is looking at Jill and probably thinks she is 3!)  There are ladders to climb and very steep stairs.  Plus it is going to be getting dark soon."  We say, "Oh, wow, thank you!"  then we wait for them to drive away and go on our hike!!

One of the TREACHEROUS ladders

The beautiful SIPAPU Bridge from above.

A TREACHEROUS railing!!

The moon from underneath the bridge.  It was so beautiful, the girls did not want to leave.  But it was getting dark and even though we had our headlamps, we started the hike back up to the car.

Our trip was right in the middle of a cold snap....the next morning we woke up and it was 22 degrees out.  The girls NEVER complain of being cold though so that is fantastic.  Shane was awesome and went out into the crazy cold to make us breakfast.  First, he found our 7 gallon water container FROZEN SOLID.   After her got some not frozen water (from the visitor center I think) he washed the strawberries and they STUCK to the picnic table.  He had a crazy time trying to get oatmeal made!  But he is a great guy after all.  

We hung out in the tent until 10am and even then it had warmed up to only 30 degrees.  We drove to the visitor center to enjoy their heater for a bit.  

We wanted to hike a loop by leaving our car at one end and biking to the other end and the day wasnt getting any warmer so by 1:00 we drove to the hike.  It is now a steamy 32 degrees outside!!

These girls are up for anything though.  We park the car and get ready to ride to the start of the hike - maybe 1.5 miles....

Jill rides on the back of my bike

  but Alli has to ride her own bike. Shane says, I think it is all downhill from here....

There were 3 HUGE hills and Alli's bike does not have gears.  Shane got a lot of extra workout this day!!  The OWACHOMO Bridge was worth it...We parked our bikes here and then hiked back to our car.

The day never warmed up.  The hike was crazy windy and FREEZING!!!  We started the hike at 1:40 and got to our car at 5:30.  These girls are AMAZING.  

The low that night was going to be 13 degrees so even though we know the girls are awesome....we decided to rent a teeny little cabin outside of Mesa Verde National Park.    It is one little room with a double bed and a bunk bed AND a heater!!!

Wouldn't you know, it is 35 degrees out and instead of being in the cabin next to the heater (like Shane and I) they are on the mini golf course...playing some game called, "babies under the bridge"

(with their jackets OFF!!)

notice BEAUTIFUL Mesa Verde in the background....the FROZEN ice found in the BBQ and Alli's BARE FEET....what is wrong with these kids!!!

You would think that because we are staying in a nice warm cabin that we would have had a wonderful night of sleep and you would be INCREDIBLY wrong.  Our whole family sleeps so much better cold.  Jill spent most of the night keeping all of us awake.  She kept saying, "Mommy, is it morning yet?" - "Mommy, are you awake?" - "Mommy, I feel like my legs want to run around!!"  It was a long and HOT night, and it made the next day SO AWFUL for Jill.  She was crazy grouchy all day!!

I wish we had known this before we traveled all the way to MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, but....the cliff dwellings are not all open in the shoulder seasons....in the off season you can do a self tour of  some ruins along the rim loop that you can drive and also, you can self tour the Spruce Tree cliff dwellings.  This was really, really amazing to be able to see and walk through. Above is one of the kivas along the drive and below is the Spruce Tree cliff dwelling from the opposite ridge.

That night we did not use the heater and everyone slept MUCH better.   In the morning we knew we were going to head to Telluride, but beyond that we did not have a plan.  This ends up being a BIG mistake.  (Actually quite a few mistakes, and ultimately, the cause of major suspension damage to our car - $1700 to fix!)

Telluride is amazingly beautiful.  The best thing about it was that they have a FREE gondola.  We love anything that is free, so we tell the girls about it.  Jill begins to freak out that minute.  She does not want to go on it at all, she is TERRIFIED!!   Sweet sister Alli convinces her to at least try and moments later Jill is having the time of her life!!

Telluride was a great city, but there were no campgrounds so we planned to camp in OARAY, just a little drive into the Rockies. It was a beautiful city with the famous ice cliffs created for climbers.

We found a campground COMPLETELY covered in snow and decided to have dinner right off the road (very deserted road) and just camp there.  After eating and looking for a spot for the tent Shane just had a funny feeling about camping there and I ALWAYS go with gut feelings, so we packed up and drove on, even though we had no idea where we were going to end up.

This was the biggest bummer of the trip.  Not only did we have no idea where to camp, but we were driving through the AMAZING rocky mountains in the dark, so we could not even see them!  I dont know what was wrong with us, but we just kept driving all the way to NEW MEXICO.  UGH!!!  

One in the morning (after getting lost and taking a 30 minute detour) we pulled into Angel's Peak Scenic Area and in 60 mph gusts of wind we hunkered down - under some type of picnic shelter, with what sounded like 747 engines running all night long.  We had no idea what this place was, but it was 1am.   I can guarantee we were not allowed to camp here!!!   Jill had another night terror this night, BIG SURPRISE!!! We woke up and looked around.  The 747 sound going on all night turned out to be natural gas pumps. They were EVERYWHERE.  It was an UGLY, UGLY place!!

At 6am Alli wakes up and says, "I wanna hike to see those tufas!"

It was prettier that direction, but even down in this canyon were 15 natural gas pumps....

We drove all the way down to New Mexico to visit Chaco Canyon National Park.  Chaco Canyon is 20 miles out on a dirt road.  This dirt road makes the dirt road we drove out to THE RACETRACK in Death Valley seem peaceful.  This was the road that broke our car.  Shane would be driving 40mph on a pretty decent dirt section and then out of nowhere would come washboard that we should have been going 10mph on.  Our car was never the same after this road, but Chaco Canyon was unbelievable!!!

This culture build MASSIVE structures.  I cannot even comprehend the manpower it took to build their cities.  At one "city" they moved dirt enough to lift the land 15 feet.  They didnt have wheelbarrows, how did they do this!!!

After the fiascos of the last 24 hours -  car damage, driving through the Rockies in the pitch dark, sleeping where they pump natural gas, night terrors, WAY TOO MUCH TIME IN THE CAR....we head back to Colorado.  That is the first and last time we will be going to New Mexico!!

We plan to stay at an RV park in Durango...it is closed....we go back to the place with the cabins by Mesa Verde and just camp since the cold spell is broke and it is 80% cheaper!   I have been cooped up  in the car way too long and need to move around so I ride my bike up to the Mesa Verde Peak. 

I am a disaster emotionally.  The last 24 hours were NOT fun, I am majorly sleep deprived, I am worried about our car, I am worried about what is going to happen with Alli and if Vision Therapy is going to "fix" her.  I wonder if I am doing everything RIGHT in life......but then I get on my bike and start climbing 2000 feet.  

It is amazing how exercise, clean air, and peace and quiet just works like magic.  I forget about everything except getting over the next hill and around the next bend.  There are signs every half mile.  DO NOT STOP - ROCK SLIDE AREA!!!   

At the top (4 miles - takes me 50 minutes - yes, it was uphill the entire way - and yes again, I LOVE this!!)  I look out at the Rockies and wish I had seen them in the daytime, then I get over it...It is what it is, right?  Now, the reason why I love riding up mountains  -  All the way back down in 10 minutes!!  So exhilarating!

The next day we have a lazy day.  Shane rides Phil's World, a pretty awesome mountain bike trail.  The girls and I hang out at a park until Shane is done and then we drive back to CAPITAL REEF.  I am so sick of driving!!!

I had biked back on this road out of Capital Reef and I thought maybe Alli would enjoy to do some of it with me so Shane dropped us off at the top and we road down.  Then he would wait at the bottom to pick Alli up and take her to the next downhill.  She doesnt have gears, so the hills are just impossible for her.  She had a BLAST going downhill.

Then we made it to the canyons and Jill said she wanted to try.  The hills were much less steep and all downhill from this point so Shane drove behind us and we got to ride through the BREATHTAKING canyons.  I really think Utah is one of my favorite places.  The reds and the canyons, they are just amazing!

After we get to the end (about 3 miles of biking for the girls) we went on a 2 mile hike.    After our hike Shane mountain biked a gorge and the girls and I watched a couple rock climbing up one of the cliff faces.  After the couple was finished they were packing up next to us and I struck up a conversation with them about climbing.  It didnt take long to find out he was from Sandpoint, Idaho and then OF COURSE he knows my family from there.  He went to high school with my cousins, Scot, Mat and Wendy.  Small world!!

This was our last night.  Jill had another night terror, in the morning I tell Shane I am ready to get home.   I am ready to start the next chapter in our lives, trying to figure out why Alli still cant read.  From one adventure to another.....ON WE GO!!!!