May 24th, 2014 (Memorial Day weekend at North Fork Park)

Memorial day is always a fun and special day for us! We left Friday after work and car-pooled with Joe and Emily back to the ogden are to go camping near home at North Fork park. I grew up in the Ogden Valley and North Fork is vary familiar to me so it was like being home again. We had quite the crew with us as we joined Rachelle's family the Stoker's, as well as Emily's family the Johnson's Emily's friend Kaitlyn also came with us. It was nice to be able to talk and relax around the camp fire and then during the day to relax around the camp. Emily started feeling sick on saturday and so it was nice that her parent's home was so close. They stayed home through Monday. That Saturday we were joined by my Brothers David and Jason and his boys then on Sunday and Monday The rest of my Family came to join the camp. We did the Bicentennial Trail on Monday which is a short 4 mile scenic loop through the scrub oak and woods of the area. There is one river crossing which as always been my favorite part of the trail. This year the river was pretty swift do to mountain run off but we did make the cross safely even with kids and dogs.

Indian Joe asleep in the tent. It rained that first night (on Friday) but we were all dry! Thank you Sierra Designs! 

Kiana and Abby! We will miss you Abby! She will be heading to live with her mom in Maryland.

Rachelle and Kaitlyn

A morning climb up the side of the waterfall with Joe

I love my little sisters!

We spent a few hours back at my house in Eden working on a service project for our up coming trip to Guatemala. I will for sure post about that adventure when it comes!

Me Rachelle, and Mom and Dad Stoker on the trail

I love the Ogden Valley! You can just make out Pineview reservoir peaking out at center right of the photo.   

The River was pretty cold but fun to cross!

Kiana, Abby, Tiffany, Rachelle and my nephews Mason and Porter 

My Brother David and his daughter Charley 

 

May 17th, 2014 (Ding and Dang)

We made it back to Goblin Valley again with our friends Joe and Emily Johnson along with Taylor and Meckenzie Dietz. We also had Christian Sawyer and Hilario Mendoza, and Jamie Slade from the UVU telefund along with us. This time around we made a successful assault on Ding and Dang! It was a thrilling experience and a hike that I would do again in a heartbeat. There was a fair bit of scrambling involved, and given that it had previously rained within the week the standing water at the bottom of the canyon in areas reached mid thigh. most cases allowed us to traverse above the water by bracing yourself above and taking small steps. Going down Dang was more difficult than ascending Ding. There were some areas where ledges dropped 15 feet or so and the only way down was to either use the bracing technique or to back climb down. We didn't have rope which would have been useful in some areas but was not completely necessary. Anyways this was a great 5 miler very similar in how the hike flows to the nearby Little Wild Horse/ Bell Canyon, but offering more excitement with a shorter distance. This was a great adventure! May I also mention that we are getting pretty good a Dutch oven out-door cooking as well! At the Adventure gear expo we found a neat treasure which is a handy lid lifter that work quite well.

This was one spot where we had to use the rope that was already there. It was just a 20 ft webbing tow cable which helped in lowing yourself down over a small four ft ledge. 

I think we all became pretty good at playing spider man in this canyon!

Chacos from left to right: Emily, Joe, Rachelle, Me! 

May 10th (Mothers Day Weekend)

I have some catching up to do here. I will write quickly about each week and post them separately. To Start off with Rachelle and I had the opportunity to visit the Adventure Gear Expo in Sandy on May 10th. We Arrived close to noon and needed to be at Tiffany's soccer game at 4 PM so we only got to spent a couple of hours but it was still fun. I got to talk to to some good people about prospective internship opportunities. That is what occupied our day on that weekend but still worth it.

I learned how to start a fire using a bow drill! Didn't succeed, but got the methodology down.

Rachelle had fun learning to balance on a slack line. 

Crazy Arms!

Rachelle and her sisters went to Zumba with their ant Britney in Brigham City for mothers day:)