BLOG updates!

Seven new blog posts! I felt like it needed to be updated. It's kind of my way of keeping a journal or whatnot. So, you don't have to read it all, but I had to write it down. ;-)

Temple Square and a trip HOME

I love Temple Sqaure in Salt Lake at Christmas time. Bryce and Landon hadn't been there in awhile, so I made them come with me for an evening to see the lights. We went with my roommate, and we met one of our friends from Forks there for dinner at Crown Burgers. It was fun, even though it was freezing. There were tons of people there, though. It was way annoying to have to navigate through the crowd. I guess that's what we get for going on a Saturday.

The next Tuesday we started our road trip home for the holidays. It was a long day, but we made it home to Forks in one day -- we actually made pretty good time. We actually suprised Mom and Dad and Kelsie. We had told them that we would be there on Wednesday. Mom's reaction was priceless. So, that was fun. :)

I had to work some while I was home, but just simply being there was quite nice for me. I needed a break from Logan, and I had been rather homesick. I missed my family, my trees, my ocean....

So, I got to see all of that while I was home. We had a good Christmas with the family, and it was nice and relaxing.

Mom, Kelsie, and I went out to La Push, where I almost took a tumble into the ocean. haha. Never turn your back on the waves! One big one is bound to suprise you. We had lunch at River's Edge. I must say, I really miss fresh yummy fish.

On New Years Eve we went up to Hurricane Ridge to go snowshoeing. I'd been snowshoeing once before. Can't say I was anymore impressed with it anymore the second time. It was fun, but not something that I plan on taking up. The boys then headed to Seattle for a YSA dance and to see the lights at the Space Needle. I prefer to spend time at home, no matter how lame other people say that might be.

We spent a good two weeks at home. I wish that I could have stayed longer. There was even more snow there than there has been in Logan. I mean, really, what's winter without at least some snow in the mountains.

A time of Thanks

November brought the first snows of the year. Not much, but some. It was enough to roll around some snowballs in the leaves and make a snowman. Landon named him pumpkin head. They kind of look alike don't they? ;-)

Thanksgiving was also good this year. I wasn't nearly as lonely as I was the last few years. My brothers were here, and Heather came over. We played some games. I cooked the turkey and made some pie. Landon and Bryce helped cook, too, and Grandma and Grandpa didn't have to lift a finger. It was our treat to them.

Fall colors in Logan

October in Logan is usually a pretty fun time. The corn mazes are all mapped out. The pumpkins are ready for craving. It's the time for bonfires and the first hot chocolate of the year. There's lots of fun activities going on.

I think our pumpkins turned out well this year. :)

Since there was still no snow in October, we also took an afternoon to head up the Crimson Trail. I love this hike in the fall. It's relatively cool and the leaves are changing colors, and since the hike is only four miles or so it can be done in a couple hours.

We also took my camera out to test it in the fall colors. I love the changing colors here in Utah, since it's something that never really happened at home. Isn't it pretty?

I didn't do anything for Halloween, but I'm kind of a bum that way, lol.

Finally! The Wellsvilles

This mountain has been on my list ever since I moved to Logan six years ago. I see it looming over Cache Valley every day, and I just wanted to be on the top of it. I kept telling my friends every summer that we should do the hike, and no one was very receptive to the idea. Once, a few years ago, I even managed to get two of my friends to decide to go on the hike with me. We got in the car and even found the trailhead on a bumpy dirt road thirty minutes from town, and then the driver decided he didn't want to go anymore. So, we turned around. Huh?! Weird.

So, now that the boys are in Logan I can finally bug someone to hike with me. :)

We (Landon, Bryce, my cousin Michelle, Heather, and I) decided to hike up the Wellsvilles on Saturday, starting at eight in the morning, or so. There are several trails up to the highest peak, a couple near Mendon I think and one starting from Sardine Canyon. We decided to start in Sardine, since that road would be easiest on my car. Plus someone had told me it was the easiest/shortest way up. They lied.

The trail starts the first mile or so following a jeep road. Really easy grade. Very deceptive. Then the trail just takes off the main road and into the forest. We actually had some difficulty finding the turn off point. It was so well hidden that we continued up the road for a while and then had to backtrack to find the right trail. It followed up a stream bed, and the trail got very steep very quickly. And, I mean, like really steep.

The steepness of the trail wasn't so bad until the tree cover thinned out. It was late Septmber, early in the morning. Why in the world was it so dang hot?! Hiking in the heat makes me move pretty slow. Luckily, I'm not the only one the sun effects that way. The trail kept meandering up and around the mountain, still just as steep.

It was about here that Bryce caught up with rest of us. He hadn't really been planning on coming, since he'd had a big wipe out on his mountain bike a few days earlier.

We'd already been hiking for a couple hours, and the trail was becoming more and more overgrown. Bryce's wounds were being stabbed, so he stopped to take a nap. Heather stopped, too, since it was getting hotter by the minute.

I was determined to keep on going. I was not going to make it that far just to quit. I could see the ridge above us, where I knew that you could look out over Cache Valley. I had to make it to that ridge. By then, we had completely lost the trail, so we just bushwacked our way up to the top. I had tons of little burrs attached all over my legs.

We didn't quite make it to the top of the peak. But, it was already 12:30 and just getting hotter, so we decided that the ridge line was a good place to stop. We saw the view that we went to see. The peak was another half hour or so along the ridge. We'll just save that for another day.... :)

We made it back to the cars around 2:30, which made for a much longer day than planned. But, I am also convinced that the hike was longer than the trail maps lead me to believe -- just in case you ever want to try that trail. ;-)

I also got the worse sunburn of my life on this hike. Note to self: always, always, always bring sunscreen, even if the weather calls for cloud cover.

Timp: a spur of the moment adventure

Sometimes, things done on the spur of the moment can be the best kind of adventures.

On Saturday we (Landon, Bryce, my cousin Jake, and I) hiked up Mount Timpanogos, which is the second highest mountain in the Wasatch Range, down by Provo. It's one that I wanted to climb before the snows came. I don't think we even really decided to do the hike until Thursday, maybe even Friday morning. I had to be convinced, and then I had to make sure the weather was good because I had heard that Timp was quite the climb.

We headed down to Orem on Friday night to stay at my cousins Melissa and Jake's apartment for the night. It was then that I convinced the boys that we should start hiking up the mountain at midnight or so. Honestly, this could have been in part because a cute boy and his party of friends just coincidently were planning on hiking up then. ;-) But, I also really don't like hiking in the heat, especially if the hike is going to be strenuous. I just get hot way too easily.

We were able to get a few hours of napping in, well the boys did anyways but I don't really nap, before we headed out from Orem a little past midnight. We left the trailhead at about 1:30 in the morning. Totally crazy. I know. But, look how chipper we are. haha. :)

We decided to take the Timpooneke Trail up, which is on the back side of the mountain. This is the trail that my friend said that he was planning on heading up, but apparently they changed their plans and didn't tell me. The turd. lol. The trail actually started out fairly easy. It was nice grade up, on a nice trail. I'm glad that my cousin Jake came along on the hike with us, however, because in the dark there was one particular turn off that I think we would have been lost on.

This part of the hike was really interesting -- because of the dark. It was insane just how many other people were hiking up in the middle of the night. Pretty much everyone had headlights on, and there was this string of little glowing lights all over the mountain. We could see where the trail above us was because of all the other people on the switchbacks. It was like someone had laid out a string of white Christmas lights to mark our path. I wish that I had taken a picture of it, but I don't think it would have turned out.

I also discovered that I really liked hiking at night. I couldn't see how high the mountain was, so I couldn't psych myself out about the distance left to go. Plus, it was nice and cool. I was still hot, hiking in just my t-shirt. Bryce on the other hand was freezing. I guess it was probably 40 degrees or so.

I had to keep reminding the boys to slow down and go my pace. If I go too fast, I wear myself out. But, if I go slightly slower, I can keep going at a fairly steady pace. I know that they just wanted to move faster, but they knew what they were getting into by bringing me. ;-)

About half way up, the trail started to leave the trees, and we started up a rocky slope towards the ridge. I was never really sure where the actual trail was here. There were lights and little paths everywhere. So, we just headed up whatever course was closest and looked like it headed in the right direction. It was quite the scramble in some places, though. We also managed to lose Bryce once. But, that's his own fault for leaving us for a "rest" and then not coming back directly to where we were. He left us standing around getting cold waiting for him.

We made it to the saddle at a little before six in the morning. Check out how cool "Happy" valley looks in the dark from up high.

The last little section of the trek to the top was pretty fun really. There were a lot of switchbacks and a lot of big rocks to scramble around. I think there were also some steep drops along the trail, but being in the dark, I hardly noticed. We did have to speed our pace up a little so that we could reach the top by sunrise.

And, let me tell you what, that was totally worth it. The sun came up around 7:00, and we were there at the top to watch it crest over the mountains.

We sat at the top and ate some breakfast, along with the herd of other people that were up there. My friend and his group had even packed up a stove, pancake mix, eggs, bacon, and hot chocolate. I guess it was somebody's birthday. Then we started the trek back down.

This was the ridge line looking down from the top. To the right of the saddle you can make out some of the paths that lead back down.

It was almost a completely different trip going down. Since it was dark going up, we hadn't seen much of the scenery. We saw little waterfalls, lots of pretty alpine flowers, and even some moose.

A couple hours into the descent and I was already baking in the sun. I was so glad that we had went up in the cool hours before dawn.

We reached the trailhead at the bottom around 11:30 -- ten hours and what we figured was fifteen miles after we started.

We had some lunch with Jake and Melissa and then headed back to Logan for Michelle's birthday party. I think that I went over 40 hours straight without sleep that weekend. But, all in all, I think that it was a worthwhile adventure, and it's one more mountain checked off my list. :)

Spring Hollow

I've been determined to get out and hiking up and around Logan. Having my brothers here is the perfect excuse to do so, as they don't like sitting around the house all day either.

I wanted to start out on something small, say the Wind Caves or the Crimson Trail, but Landon wanted to do something new. So, we looked at some maps of Logan Canyon and decided to try out Spring Hollow. It's a trail that cuts off from the Crimson before it climbs up into the mountains. It's supposed to lead up to a ridge and the dirt road that goes up Mt. Logan. Well, actually I guess this was Dad's idea. He had told us there was a peak not far past the point where the trail met the road.

I always seem to forget that Dad's "not far" usually is and that his "easy" usually isn't. Oh, well. You live and you learn. lol.

So, Landon, Bryce, Michelle, and I started hiking Monday morning. (It was Labor Day, so we had the day off.) The trail started off fairly easy, lulling us into a false sense of security. It quickly turned into a steep grade. It was steeper even than the Crimson.

Needless to say, we didn't make it all the way to the peak. We made it to the ridge right below the Mt Logan road, where we stopped and ate some lunch, about two hours after we started. Landon ran up to the road and ran back, so obviously it wasn't very far away. But, it was at this point that I discovered my shoes -- ones that I've had for well over ten years -- finally gave out. So, we headed back down.

Of course, no Johnson hike is complete without an adventure. Bryce decided it would be fun to throw rocks at a giant beehive hanging in the trees. And, of course, he hit it. We heard a humming and started running down the trail, chased by a giant swarm of bees.

We made it down without injury, however.

Silly boy.