Matt's Life

Monday, August 13, 2012

Long Lake August 2012

An hour and a half drive from Provo followed by a two mile hike into the high Uintas awaits a first for me: fishing for food. Accompanying me on this adventure are my friends Ellie and Mike.

Sadly I was unsuccessful as Mike was the only one who managed to catch anything. Ellie was close but her fish slipped the hook right before she got it to shore. The only thing I managed was a single tug on my line. Thanks to Youtube, I came prepared as an expert fish gutter.

It's a good thing we brought back up food supplies.

Sunday, November 06, 2011

Little Sahara October 2011

My friend Mike took me 4-wheeling, a first for me. We hit up a place called Little Sahara, about an hour and a half southwest of Provo. I had a ton of fun learning to ride the thing and cruising around the large sand dunes.

Below are some clips of some pro jumping, haha. In one clip I risked going end over end. I learned the scary way to make sure you keep the throttle on through the jump.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Lake Blanche June 2011

Stela, Rebecca, and I join up with Mike, Chas, and Sam at a cabin up in the Cottonwood Canyons. It's a pretty cool place but we were the first to use the summer cabin which is buried in snow during the winter. This means there were plenty of spiderwebs, dead bugs, and mouse droppings to be found. We paid our dues by helping to clean up the place and we camped in the living room with a wood fire going in the fireplace. The neighbors had a zip line that we took advantage of as well. The next day some of us hit the Lake Blanche trail and after a few hours and a vertical climb of 2500 feet we got to the iced over lake. Due to sudden warm weather the rivers and waterfalls were gushing but it got snowy the higher we went. Poor Rebecca was only wearing flip flops and the snow and elevation change didn't sit too well with that. She's all smiles while on the zip line but I'm not sure if we are friends anymore because I chose the hike. However, it was certainly very beautiful up there.

Bridal Veil Falls June 2011

In all the time I've been in Provo, I've never done any exploring by the famous Bridal Veil falls in Provo Canyon. So, Ellie, Stela, Rebecca, and I set out on an adventure. It was a gorgeous day and there were plenty of people hiking up. We got to where the official trail ends and promptly ignored the sign in the picture. We got pretty high before we were satisfied with the day's work. One more sight in Utah to check off my list I guess.

Phoenix April 2011

Nadine and I decided to pay Jeremy a quick visit in Phoenix which included a nice hike up Camelback mountain, a D-Backs game, and Downton Abbey. His lordship Jeremy took us to a cool vegetarian Indian restaurant where we ate what I would describe as General Tso's cauliflower. Flat Stanley made the trip too, thanks to our nephew Sawyer.

San Diego January 2011

What better time than January to get out of Utah and head to San Diego to spend time with family. Jeremy, Nadine, and Melanie joined me for the weekend with our Aunt Celia. We spent some nice moments together including Tarot, piano, hiking, sunshine on the beach, and the farmer's market. While at the market I got a memorable exposure to Kale when Nadine bought a green drink with Kale as a dominant ingredient. I've been eating Kale pretty regularly since.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Yosemite Aug 2010

The Mission: Survive three days in bear country, 6 miles from any sign of civilization. This means no toilets, no drinkable water, and no complaints.

The Players: Me, Collin, Ellie, Mary, Rebecca, Jen, and Micah.

Collin and I chose to hike to an area known as "Ten Lakes", named for obvious reasons. The Yosemite website wasn't much help in figuring how long of a hike it would be so we guessed it would be about 4 miles from the satellite images. As we prepared for the hike we kept hearing different distances from different people, some as many as ten miles. So we started the hike not knowing exactly how long it would be. But what we really underestimated was the vertical climb that was involved. So at an elevation of 7300 feet, we happily start packing our things into portable bear canisters and set off on the hike.

5 miles later and at an elevation of 9400 feet, we finally hit the summit and can see four of the ten lakes down in a valley. This was a tiring hike since we were carrying about 30 pounds each on our backs.

From the summit, we descended 600 feet or so to the first of the lakes and due to exhaustion, promptly set up camp in the first acceptable spot. We were not completely isolated as there were a few other campers in the area, but it was isolated enough.

The weather was much colder than we anticipated and all I had on me were a pair of shorts, 2 t-shirts, and some long johns. Everyone else had pants, sweaters, and jackets. So the name of the game was survival. We kept a constant fire going whenever we weren't exploring. If we had to do our "business", it had to be done in a hole in the ground with toilet paper packed out. Three of us
managed to hold out the entire time.

In order to pull off this type of camping, you absolutely need a water filter, which Ellie provided for us. The water was nice and cold and tasted great.

The other challenge was wildlife, bears in particular. By the way, don't ever type in "bear attacks" when doing a Google image search. In Yosemite you are required to keep all food and toiletries in portable bear canisters which are kept at a safe distance from camp at night. We had air horns and Mary kept a whistle constantly around her neck. Unfortunately, only one bear was sighted, a juvenile on the hike in. And only 4 of us saw it, myself excluded. A weak picture was taken of it. Can you spot the bear in the picture below? However, we did see plenty of squirrels, deer, and marmots.

At one point we thought we found bear tracks but I think it was a pair of side by side deer tracks. What do you think?

When we weren't eating or staying by the warm fire, we were exploring. We hiked to and explored all four lakes that we could see from the summit and that involved plenty of rock climbing, tree climbing, and very scenic shots.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Cruising to Mexico June 2010

The cast of this entry are myself, David L, Jake B, Eric L, Julane W, Meghan D, and Amanda S and her family. A few words come to mind when describing this trip. In no particular order, they are:

1. GLUTTONY: We were fed, fed, and then fed some more and I was shocked to see I had gained 8 pounds on the trip. All meals were buffet style except dinner which was in a the Gold Pearl Restaurant each night and in case that wasn't enough, room service was free 24 hours a day. My biggest vice was the all you can eat soft serve station which was conveniently placed in a high traffic area. The food was amazing and plentiful and all included. Those who wanted soda had to pay and I was surprised that they charged $1.50 for a bag of popcorn when they showed movies on the big screen outside. So forget that and go with the free filet mignon. One of the conditions for getting me on this trip was that Amanda had to feed me lobster, literally.

RELAXATION: While at sea, we had some time to kill and playing cards was one option. But the favorite time killer for the group was laying out and catching some rays. Well, the sun and I don't exactly get along so once I had my fill I spent plenty of time reading and I was perfectly content with that.

PAIN: Everyone experienced some sort of pain on this trip but then, without pain we would not know pleasure. David was throwing up when the sea finally got to him. Penny (Amanda's mom) sprained her knee on a mule and was in a wheel chair for half the cruise. Sam (Amanda's brother) twisted his ankle jumping around like a wild animal. And we all got burned to the point where it was a nightly ritual to lather up in aloe.

MEXICANS: We had three days at port in three different cities in Mexico: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. What was common to each port was the persistent nature of the Mexican people to solicit for your business and I have never felt like such a tourist. They were persistent to the point where I could have filed assault charges. And there are some things that can only be seen in Mexico.

FUN: We had a great time on and off the boat. There was karaoke, comedy acts, musical performances, the dating game, and movies and the NBA playoffs on the big screen top side. I even danced, albeit just a couple of times and no more than a few seconds each time. Two of our sit down dinners were formal nights where we dressed our best. I discovered this after we put to sea and so did the best I could with what I brought, which didn't include a tie.

6. ADVENTURE: There's something exciting about getting on a boat and leaving port to head for the open ocean. The boat was massive and had about 5000 people on it. We were able to see dolphins swimming along side us as we cruised slowly but steadily through the Pacific Ocean. Off the boat I enjoying clambering around the rocks and among the crabs. And probably the best part was the snorkeling in Cabo which put to shame all the snorkeling I've done thus far in my life including places such as San Diego, Fiji, and the Mediterranean. The water was cold but clear and you could swim among thousands of fish of many varieties. We even managed to find a place to do some cliff jumping into the fish infested ocean.