Recently in Outdoors Category

What a night, after my team paintball practice, I had to run down to the American Fork pool to help my brothers' ward scout group learn basic kayak safety. They've decided that they are doing a kayak high adventure at lake Powell this year. So my brother and I brought down two of the kayaks, and started with the basics of entry, seating, control, and water escape. It's been a few years, so the demo of water re-entry was a little scary, but I did it.
It was great to get the boats back in some water (and quite warm at that), and we'll be getting quite a few more chances to take these guys out to practice this summer so they can get the feel for kayaking before their trip. And yes, these aren't tiny little whitewater kayaks. :) 19' Seda Glider, and a 17' Necky

Ooh, and as we move towards the "Gimmie" season, I always love seeing the new products companies come out with to vie for my attention.  Well Leatherman has a very interesting new tool that looks quite cool.  The Leatherman Skeletool.  I currently love the Leatherman Wave that I carry, but this one has some spiffiness that cannot be denied.  I really like the look, the increased blade width, and the dual purpose carabiner/bottle opener.  It doesn't offer quite as many  "tools" as my wave, but covers the important parts, in a sexy new look, and especially in the CF body, a very nice weight.

So my old GPS is finally beyond hope.  It has fallen into a state that can only be deemed useless, and I need a new one.  I'm hoping to get some recommendations from folks about what GPS models features you like the most.  Some of my requirements include:

• Screen - not just tracking
• Topographical Maps
• Mac Connectivity - Preferably bluetooth

Basic Usage for me:

• Plot waypoints before a hike
• Use During a hike to verify location/path
• Little geocaching
• Exporting hike details to Google Earth, etc..

So, what models do you prefer, and why?

I live in Utah.  I love camping.  With that said, some people find it strange that until this weekend, I'd never been to the Uintahs.  Of course, I didn't grow up here, and just now have had the chance to really get out a bit more.  So this weekend my neighbor and I headed out to the Uintah mountains to the Grandaddy Basin.

The hike out, over Hades Pass, was 4 miles, and I had been told quite difficult.  Well, not really.  Was a lot easier than expected, which let us spend a bit of extra time finding a great camping spot.  We had heard the area was a popular spot, so we were a bit worried about seeing too many people, especially on a holiday weekend.  Instead we were pleased to have only about 4 groups total in the area, which led to an overall very private weekend.

The Grandaddy basin is quite a nice area.  After leaving the oppressive Utah summer heat it felt great to be surrounded by trees, and numerous lakes and ponds.  Spending time wandering in the forests I couldn't help but keep finding nice water pools and meadows.  Nights were brisk, another enjoyable thing, but the fishing was extremely slow for various reasons.

As a geek, it's extremely nice to be able to completely just get away, to spend a weekend scrounging around in the dirt, and just having fun.  I'll definitely be heading back to this area, and hopefully bringing my family as the kids get a little older.  There are lots of fish (normally biting), lots of big and tiny lakes, short hikes, easy distance.  It's just a great location.

Grandaddy Lake Photos
Grandaddy Lake Picasa Gallery

Well, I received a sad call this morning from my grandmother this morning, a little bit of a call to the reality of the fire season.  See, we have a family cabin that my dad and grandfather built when he was a teenager.  I've blogged about going up there before, it's serious backcountry solace to my heart.  Well, a recent lightening strike started a fire just up the canyon from our cabin.  The benchmark road/canyon is filled with an old forest that is well past it's prime for a heavy fire, and due to years of mismanagement, the whole forest is a large tinderbox (lots of ladder-fuel, etc.).

Well, the fire is currently mostly headed a different direction, but it won't take much, especially with the current coverage to head down the canyon and include our cabin.

The one interesting note about this though, is that my grandmother is one of those people we all know that never got into computers.  After retiring from working for the state of Montana, she retired to living her summers at this primitive cabin, when she called she had some very useful information for me.

"I have an internet number about the fire for you to call..  it's 'H' as in home, 'T' as in toy, 'T' as in toy, 'P' as in..."

I think you can see where that is going.  Out of it though, I found a really interesting site called inciweb, that is a good mashup of several sources of information, if you want to track any fires.  Good maps.  As for the fire I'm concerned about:  Ahorn Wildland Fire


And links to some of our cabin pictures:
Hall Family Cabin Benchmark 1
Hall Family Cabin 2

Further Tales of the Weekend Warriors

Friday night my neighbor and I decided to head off for some camping. Our destination was just above the town of Ophir a small village that once was a booming mining town on the west side of the Oquirrh Mountains.

My house is at the north base of the lake mountains, with a great view of the Wasatch front and the Oquirrh Mountains. Many times have I sat in my yard, longing to climb these peaks that are so temptingly close. To this end my neighbor and I have begun to set up plans for how to best access this area.

Continued
Photos
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