Mt. Timpanogos

So my mom is town for the week to help my sister paint/move into their new house. We didn't have anything to do on Tuesday so we decided to go hike Mt. Timpanogos. Why not? There is a pretty good chance that we forgot sunscreen, which was very much an accident, and we definitely got some sun. The hike was so beautiful. We hit the flowers at prime time, except a little early for the upper meadow to be in bloom. Anyways, I am hiking Mt. Nebo on August 2nd and then I just need to do Lone Peak and Twin Peaks and then I'll be done with my hiking goal for the summer. Enjoy the pictures. As far as the mountain goats go, we saw a herd of about 50 and a couple of moose too. And remember, only 5 more weeks! I can't wait.

So Many Adventures

Remember how the first date we went on, you went with me to a gymnastics meet? Remember how rare it was that I didn't even watch the gymnastics going on because we were talking about the millions of things we had in common and the million other things that we couldn't stop talking about. And remember how I was going to leave earlyish because I had to work but then we talked for about an hour at my car before I actually left. My point is that I'm glad we have so many things in common and things to talk about and I'm so glad that we can add saving lives to that list. I think it makes us cooler, or more important, or something.

Anyways, I've finally downloaded pictures to document for you what I have been doing this last month. I've told you about most of them, but pictures are much better. I can't wait until we are doing things together again so that we can both actually experience them rather than sharing through pictures (John Mayer says that best in a song called 3x5. Check it out).

On June 14^th, Lindsey, Jace, and I hiked Mt. Olympus. It was a pretty strenuous hike but so worth it. The view of the valley, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Parley’s Canyon, and beyond was amazing.

On June 21^st, I went to the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days Rodeo. Naturally, this is what I would do because my mom was a rodeo queen in 1976. It’s in my genes.

On June 27^th-28^th, my roommates and I and a couple other friends went to Logan Canyon to camp and hike at Tony Grove Lake and White Pine Lake. I love sledding in snow in June in my Chacos. Another successful trip as you can see.

Finally, this past 4^th of July weekend we went to Boise. What a blessing. It was filled with lots of water, sun, and so much delicious food. We floated the Boise River, watched fireworks, went boating at my dad’s in McCall (which included tube wars on Big Bertha and Big Mable), played with my niece, and ate ate ate.

Blanchard Trip

This picture was taken at 12:30 at night in the Yukon

Your not the only one that can save lives.

This last weekend was amazing. My guides and I went on a five hour road trip into the yukon to run a 3 class pushing 4 class river. It was amazing and so fun. During the whole trip we were able to see 5 bears, more than I can count porcupines and two foxes. The drive was amazing as the pictures will show but the river was SWEET! 

It was a huge party as can always be expected when we Chilkat Guides and Alaskan Mountain guides get together in any group but this weekend we were 75 strong. It was insane how many boats and people there were. The amount of people were cool but the river was even better, it was an epic day on the water even though it had snowed on the mountains above us only the night before. 

It was a great day to raft and we had a long trip ahead of us. The stretch of river we did was 21 miles long and bumpy all the way through. It was awesome but my worry free day came to a sudden end half way through the trip after the biggest rapid in the river. We had just past through the  rapid and had pulled over to empty the boat of all the water that we had taken on during the big section of rapids when I looked up river a good 50 yards and saw a swimmer in the 36 degree water. I was holding the boat so I could not let go without loosing the boat so i could not throw her a throw bag but my buddies could but they thought she would just swim over but she was in to much shock at the moment to save herself. Se she passed us by with a boat at her heals trying to save her also. As the boat past we lost vision of her due to the boat and the sweeper boat than passed and we were than the last boat of the whole outfit left. We thought that mabey she swam over to the side of the river and on a whim we went looking for her. 

We found her face down in fetal position on the rocks about a foot away from the water. She did not respond until the forth time. After talking to her we literally picked her up put her in our boat to get a bigger hypo kit. When we got on the water again the boat she feel out of was gone unbeknown to us. She was in my arms then, we did not have a good place to pool over and she was drifting in and out of consciousness. She was freaking me out, but luckily the next place to get out safely there were already people stopped there. We then stopped and swapped all her clothes for dry clothes and started a fire. After an hour and a half with fire and our body heat she revived well enough to go down the rest of the river. The river was still class 3 pushing 4 rapids the rest of the way and myself was picked to row her down the river in such a way that she got down as fast as possible and with out getting wet. So I made an hour and a half float to a hour float with a stop to puck and use the restroom. It was crazy and exciting all in one. So I can also save lives.