Hurrah Pass, Moab, Utah

After leaving Salt Lake City and helping Joseph get moved in we started towards Texas and our winter job.  First stop was Moab, we are beginning to think that we really like this place, plenty of motorcycle riding and rock climbing, not to mention white water rafting the Colorado River. 

Today's little adventure was a motorcycle ride through Chicken Corners to Hurrah Pass. It is chilly and threating rain. 

At this junction I nearly took Barbara down the Kane Creek trail.  It is rated very difficult, would not have been a pretty picture, fortunately we looked again at the signs and headed up the correct way.

We just love the vistas of this area.

We finally make the pass.

And then of course we have to take a group picture.

Joseph moves to Seattle

Joseph got a huge promotion with Microsoft, so he moved from Orlando, Florida to Seattle, Washington.  He asked that I give him a hand in setting up his new apartment.  So we met up in Salt Lake City, Utah and then drove from there.  Mocha and Bandit helped plan the trip.

He chose an apartment in the Riverpark community.  Kind of a neat place, has lots of restaurants nearby and a grocery store within a block.

It's a pretty building.

It is a one bedroom apartment, split level design with a huge loft.  The bedroom was small, so he turned the loft into a bedroom (great view out the big windows) and turned the bedroom into a cave for guests.  Here is Joseph in the kitchen, taken from the loft.

There is a pretty little park on the back side of the property that connects to hundreds of miles of bike trails in the area.

We arrived right as the fall leaves were changing.

His move money had enough in it so he could purchase a 3-D TV, so we just had to give it a try.

He is 95% settled in so we rode over to his new workplace.  Microsoft, Joseph has arrived.

Rock Canyon - Provo, UT

While in the Salt Lake City/Provo area we did a little climbing.  We had been in this area last time we came through here so very comfortable going back. 

After doing a couple of short routes we decided to do an all day 3 pitch climb.  5.3, 5.5, 5.7. 

The fist pitch was a traditional climb, no anchors, but it is an easy 5.3 climb.  Barbara led this route and managed to set two Camelot's as protection.  At the top she found a nice anchor to set a top rope belay for me to climb it.

The second pitch was a bit trickier at 5.5, however it was a sport route with bolts set pretty close together.  This route was designed as a lead climber instruction route. 

Barbara led. She again set up a belay from the anchors on top.  Something we are fairly new at. She sets a really nice anchor and looks pretty pleased with herself.  We do need to work on our rope management.

The third pitch was a 5.7 sport, however there was an easy 5.3 up the side so you set a top rope anchor.  Barbara feeling pretty good about todays climbing started up.

When she got to the top she found "Open Cold Shut" anchors.  We are pretty nervous about these things.  We have a couple of quick draws with small ends that fit well over the anchors, this alleviates the problem of the rope slipping/flipping off while on the climb or rappelling.

Barbara was having trouble getting the quick draws set, so I scrambled up and completed the set.  We rapped down, Barbara made the climb I wasn't feeling it. 

To get home we rapped down the second pitch and then chose a better set of rappel anchors on a different route.  The question of the days was: "Is the rope long enough to reach the bottom?"  Didn't know for sure because we didn't climb up the route we were descending.  So Barbara simply leans over the edge and asks the climbers on the route next to us if our rope was down, it was.  So down we went.

We had so much fun doing this that when Joseph (our son) came through we dragged him up it also.

Kids and there phones....

I was feeling pretty good about the routes from the other day so led. I had the camera on my belt so here is a shot from an anchor.

Already knowing the way makes the route back pretty easy.  Joseph heading home.

Squaw Valley Road, aka FR27

We are in the valley, just to the east of us is a huge mountain range, the Wasatch Mountain Range, much of which falls under the stewardship of the Uintah Ranger District.  Year round they maintain a forest road that traverses the Squaw Valley and provides snowmobile trails and jeep trails.  So we grabbed the motorcycles and went.

The road started off pretty benignly unlit we passed the last campground and a sign that said: "Road not suitable for passenger vehicles."

The road twisted and turned, climbed and descended and always had either huge chuck holes or many, many rocks.  Fortunately the traction was good and the rocks did not move around, therefore Barbara gave this trail the following rating:

As you traverse the top of the mountain you get several views of the valley below.

The colored leaves make it a wonderland of color.

It was growing late and getting colder.  The GPS said we still have 12 miles of mountain road to travel.  So when we broke out on the south side of the route we were very happy to see the valley just below us.

One of our better motorcycle trips through the national forest. 

Stewart Falls, outside of Salt Lake City

Our son Joseph got a promotion with his job, now he gets to move from Orlando, FL to Redmond, WA.  I got talked into helping.  So we have stopped in Salt Lake City to await his arrival.  
While waiting we went hiking on a nice little trail called Stewart Falls.  Only 4 miles.  But an early snow storm has dumped a little snow in the high country. 

The puppies weren't real sure about the snow on the trail, but it was light and didn't muck things up to badly.

They eventually settled down and had some fun with it.

It makes us feel good to walk amongst these giant mountains.  Cool crisp air, pretty vistas. 

Off in the background you could see the nearby ski resort nestled in fall colors.

It was a pleasant surprise to find water running off the water fall this late in the year. Doesn't always happen.

Great Basin National Park

From South Lake Tahoe we bopped on over to Reno where we attended a Neil Diamond Tribute Concert at Harrah's.  We tried motorcycle riding but the rocks were too plentiful and too loose so that didn't work out.  We looked at running the Truckee river, but the water was too low.  So we left and headed on to Ely, NV. Here we did some motorcycle riding and visited the Ely Ward Charcoal furnaces. 

They would stack wood into these hives then light it up.  Using vents at the bottom they would control how hot it got.  After several days they you plug it up, let the fire die, then open it up and pull the charcoal out.  They sold the charcoal to the railroads.

 

There was a lot of OHV trails and forest roads in the area so we did a little riding.  Had a great time until we encountered "the hill".  It was short but very steep and had lots of loose rock on it.  Barbara was quite uncomfortable with it.  So we spend a lot of time here and eventually had to turn around and head home.

It was a short drive from Ely to the Great Basin National Park.  We stayed at the Border Inn.  The weather was turning cold and iffy so we took the truck into Great Basin.  As we climbed the temperature dropped.  We were glad to have the protection of the truck after our hike. 

Like most national parks Great Basin has two faces, tourist access and back country.  We did not have enough time to get into the back country.  Our destination was Mt. Wheeler.

The road up was steep and twisty, making us doubt our non-motorcycle decision. The Aspens along the way had just started to turn to their fall colors.

The main attraction for us was the hike into the Bristlecone Pine tree grove.  Hardy little pine trees that live in this high altitude snow laden area, and thrive. The trail into the area was a little rocky.

At first the trees themselves are somewhat unassuming. 

Then you start reading the information about them.  Over 3000 years old, growth rate very small.  Quite a contrast from the giant Redwood National Park so recently visited.

Gives a bit of different perspective to these little tough trees.

The pinnacle on the mountain draws the climbers eye, but too far, too high and too cold.

So we visited this little alpine lake on the way down, Theresa Lake, 10,230 feet. 

From desert floor to above timberline.  There are many unique and diverse ecosystems.  A person with a naturalists heart could spend a great deal of time here.

South Lake Tahoe

Coming out of the Redwood National Park the temperatures soared.  At one point the little temperature gauge in the truck said it was 113 degrees.  We re-evaluated our game plan and decided to head east at the latitude we were at as opposed to the original plan of going through southern California on our way to Texas.

Since we have purchased season ski passes for our Feb/Mar skiing at Heavenly Valley we decided to head over to South Lake Tahoe to check out the RV accommodations.  While there we did quite a bit of hiking around mountains above the lake.

The lake is very pretty.

There are some other alpine lakes near the big lake.

Great views of the lake from atop the mountains.

When you get down on the lake you will find the water clear and cold.

We did a little rock climbing in the area. Ran into my first Open Cold Shut anchor.  I thought them quite dangerous until I talked to a more experienced climber who taught me how to set them up properly.  Most of the climbing in this area is traditional mountaineering.  Barbara says she is ready with her "injectors", the rest of the world calls them Camelot's.