Shoe Twins

There's something about Boulder, or maybe its just our friends, but we all have really similar shoes.  Shoes are fun.  I have gobs of dress shoes, but here are the shoes I actually wear on a regular basis (I've taken up wearing sandals to school, then changing into my dress shoes there).  

His and Hers Barefoot Shoes

Merrell Barefoot shoes.  These have no pad in the bottom for cushion, so it feels like you're barefoot, without the risk of stepping on something sharp.  They're meant as a running shoe to build up muscles in your feet that should be there if we weren't so dependent on supportive shoes.  It makes you run more forward because it hurts to land on your heel with no cushion, so I usually land flat or towards the front of my feet.  I usually demand arch support and I have had no problems with these.  They will make you sore below your big calf muscle when you run, though!  They also make trail running quite interesting because you can feel every little pebble.  Dave and I both have a pair, but so do the majority of our friends (one of them actually runs barefoot for real!)

His and Hers Chacos

Chacos.  Everyone has chacos!  Why?  I couldn't tell you.  I feel like I could hike up a mountain in them, or wear them to work on a hot day, or get them wet in the garden.  They are super comfortable.  Last weekend I went fishing with them and walked right into the creek with them on.  One night I was at a bachelorette party and looked down and all of us were wearing them.  Who needs 4 inch heels when you can dance in comfort? 

His and Hers Crocs

Crocs.  Seriously, I've harped on about Crocs for years and how amazing the maryjanes are.  I stand by this.  They are super comfortable, and I think the gold maryjanes are cute.  I can't say the same thing about the giant green crocs, but he doesn't wear them in public.... often.

Merrell hiking shoes

Merrel hiking shoes.  I think Dave recently switched to Patagonia, but this is my second pair of Merrells and although I'm not sure these are sold as hiking shoes, they give me everything I need on a hike, although I've really given them some discoloration from Utah hiking.

Any types/brands of shoes you find you and your friends all seem to wear? 

Camera Purchasing Help!

Any suggestions on what direction to go when buying a new camera?  As you can tell from my regular food photos on this blog, my pictures are, well, poor.  I actually used to care about photography quite a bit, spending time in the dark room developing yearbook pictures back in high school.  Since loosing access to those amazing cameras, my photography skills are just awful!  I'll blame the camera, I'm sure there's something lacking on my end as well, but I want to improve, which is good enough for me.  My current camera is an old Sony.  It's my first digital camera since switching over from film ages ago.  My old Canon film camera was quite nice, but now useless. 

I originally thought I'd just upgrade my small hand-held digital camera since a lot of pictures that I take, I take while hiking, and I pay big bucks to have light gear.  I'm not going to hike in a huge camera everywhere I go.  Then I realized that I take tons of pictures that don't involve hiking!  Why not keep my current digital for the few times a year I go backpacking, then invest in a nice digital SLR for everything else? 

I guess my one limitation is price.  I wouldn't say I'm cheap, but I would say I have a fear of investing a large amount of money into any one thing.  I think this is because I've only been out of grad school for 2.5 years, I live with a grad student, and, well, I don't make much money, especially for the city I live in.  God forbid I ever need to buy a vehicle or a house! 

It's easy to take a cool picture with views like this and a good looking guy in the foreground, but when the view isn't so exciting, my camera is a failure.  This is Dave on Grays Peak (14,270 ft).  See more from this trip here:  http://lifeafterluckycharms.blogspot.com/2010/07/dave-and-i-had-little-freak-out-moment.html

Pretty things are easy to photograph, but I had to take 30 pictures to get two good ones with my current camera. 

Anyone have a camera that takes great pictures that I should know about?  Or any general camera advice?   I'm going to do my own investigation, but why not start with your suggestions?

Needles Lost Canyon and Squaw Canyon

We made it back to camp at Lost Canyon 1 in Needles where we pitched our tent, opening it only for seconds to throw stuff in over a fear of letting in bugs.  The camp was buzzing disgustingly with life. Dave fed a few mosquitoes while I fended off horse flies with my hat. 

The site had a nice dining room table and chairs set up for us. 

Super excited for freeze dried food.

Our means of boiling water for our freeze dried packs of Mexican Style Rice and Chicken.  Yum!  Dave fends off the bugs by sipping fireball. 

From our tent

Dinner hit the spot.  2.5 servings, my butt!  I ate the whole thing.  We went and watched the sun set, then decided the best way to avoid the flies and mosquitoes was by getting into the tent.  We played a few rounds of Dave's homemade version of Quarto.  I had hiked in my ipod touch for reasons I can't explain, but to avoid listening to the noises outside the tent, I threw on Ratatouille until I got sleepy.

The next morning, over breakfast we debated how to get back to our car.  I just wanted to go home ASAP.  Dave thought we should take the scenic route.  I was scared of going back the way we came and seeing the ladder again, but I was also worried about the scenic route since the ranger mentioned a few things I wouldn't like.  Why go 2.6 miles when you can go 6.1?  We took the long way, up Lost Canyon, over a rock formation, then down Squaw Canyon with packs. 

We were able to pump water from this spring through Dave's fancy pump thingy and fill up his camelbak (haha, he gets the added weight!) to keep us satisfied for our long hike out.  We actually drank just about everything we brought in including this extra 3 liters. 

The hike started harmlessly along the bottom of the canyon, but things quickly got annoying.  Did I mention it was a wet year in Utah?  Well, Lost Canyon is usually the only canyon with water, but this year it was the canyon with a lot of water.  Standing water.  Yes, a mosquito haven!  I didn't vacation in Utah to hang out with mosquitoes!  In fact, as I was packing ample amounts of sun screen, I looked at the OFF and thought, "Nope, won't need that!"  I was very, very wrong.  These things were large and they swarmed around us as we hiked and pumped out CO2 like nobodies business.  The hat made a great swatting tool, but eventually I couldn't fend them off and got a total of 20 bites on my arms and legs and neck.  Dave was wearing long sleeves and pants, but they still got his face.  They even got me through my shirt!

Dave got bit while taking this picture. 

We were going up and over this thing off to the right to get out of Lost Canyon. 

Itchy

We just climbed up out of this valley.  The scary part was very minimal and Dave talked me through it like a pro.  The Ranger mentioned a crack you had to jump over, but I swear, we never had to.  I kept worrying it was coming up, though!

After the scary part, I was very happy to be on something semi-flat, so I took a seat by a cairn to catch my breath after the climb.  No tears today!  Take that, Needles!

We stopped here for lunch.  Cheetos, beef jerky, and dried fruit.  Quality.

Entering Squaw Canyon on our way out.

Success!  We're almost out!  Note the yellow flowers everywhere!  , 

6 miles with packs after 3 days of camping/hiking, this about sums it up.  Time to go home!  Our cars are near the butte on the right, I think.  (Hehe, I said butte!)

We made it back to our car, threw on the chacos, used the pit toilet, changed, Dave had an Avery beer, and we hit the road.  It was finally time to head home.  Good thing, too, it was getting hot out!  We left around 1:00 and didn't get home until 9:00pm.  Poor Dave drove most of the way while I held my eyes open.  I've never been so tired in my life!  It was a pretty drive back, following the Colorado River all the way to Vail.  The River has overflowed its banks due to high snow pack melting.  It was fun to watch it rage through Glenwood Canyon. 

It was a fun memorial day weekend trip! 

Needles Lost Canyon and Peekaboo Trails

The poor man working the back country pass office had no idea what he was getting himself into when he volunteered to help us.  I wanted to do the exact same route we had done in 2009, or at least to hit the same high points.  Dave wanted to check out the east side of the park, which we hadn't ever explored.  The guy behind the counter knew not to intervene.  Dave was right, we should do something new.  We decided on Lost Canyon 1 (LC1 on the map below). We'd start at Squaw Flat and hike directly to our site, drop our packs, and continue on to Peekaboo to see an arch before the day ended (it was 1:00 or 2:00 when we signed in).  I mentioned to both of the people helping us that I have a fear of heights and they both didn't seem to think it would be a problem, but pointed out two places that I might have issues, one on each leg of the yellow highlights below.  Anxiety kicks in. 

Red indicates 2009 trails we hiked.  Yellow was this year. 

 We finished up packing our packs for one night in the back country (a few miles from our car), including our tent, sleeping bags and pads, stove, food, and water for two days in the desert for drinking and cooking. Then we wandered off towards Lost Canyon.  The hike starts off over a mild rock formation, then through a very dry, very sun-exposed, very sandy length until we reached the next rock formation that we had to hike over.

I think this is the view from the top of the rock formation we crossed.

We now had to get down into that valley.

So we follow the cairns through a few switch backs down this thing that leads us to a ladder to get us off one of the mushroom tops.  I was not too happy about the ladder and this is one of the fear of heights things that the ranger warned me about.  I had a very heavy, very large pack on my back.  Okay, Dave's was heavier, but still, we each had 2 water bottles and a 3 Liter Camelbak of water weighing us down.  My sleeping bag was strapped under my pack, so even when I tried to sit down, I'd feel like I was going to fall forward.  (I remedied this anxiety on my way out put putting the sleeping bag in the pack so I could always sit down if needed, which is very necessary when fear of heights freak outs occur.)  I was not ready to climb down this ladder with my pack on.  I unstrapped and handed the pack down to Dave.  The thing was that the ladder lead to a ledge with maybe three feet before a 30 foot drop to the bottom of the canyon, so Dave was a little nervous that I'd just let my pack pound down into him, knocking him off.  I handed it to him slowly.  Looking down was not a good idea, but how could I get down the ladder without looking down?  I did it.  I stood near the short ledge and strapped my pack back on, the tears now starting to come, and continued along the edge of this ledge, trying to hug the wall and duck under a mushroom top, but my pack kept hitting the top and throwing me off balance.  I made it, obviously.  I was pretty upset, but happy to be on solid ground in Lost Canyon. 

Sucking back snot and holding back tears after a major freak out.

 We made it to our camp, which was located in this oddly green portion of the desert in an oak tree stand.  And guess what greeted us?  Horse flies and black bumble bees the size of small birds.  Oh joy.  We dropped our packs and took a smaller pack to do a hike to an arch at the Peekaboo camp up the way.

Dave generously carried my water in his day pack and I was free to hike with nothing but my favorite rag and my trekking poles (which double as ski poles and reduce down to an 18 inch pole for packing), a birthday present from Dave. 

This hike looks like a straight line on the map from the ranger, but upon closer investigation, the hike weaves in and out of these large rock formations above the valleys.  (Note to remember to borrow topo map from friend next time.)

 After a mile+ where every little hill seemed like a cliff, my nerves, still frayed from the ladder incident, got the best of me and I broke down again.  I was done with this hike.  I wasn't going to make it to Peekaboo.  It was a repeat of last year's Island in the Sky Lathrop Trail where I freaked out half way and we had to turn around.  Dave explored ahead and even though I had quit prematurely, he was very sure that I wouldn't make it past a portion just ahead anyways.  He explored the area while I relaxed and collected myself for the hike back and enjoyed this epic view.

Snot rag comes in handy post freak-out.

Me--"I'm done with this hike."  Dave--"Check out the formation behind you!"

One of the many "cliffs" I don't care to tumble down.

Starting to feel better.  Sitting is good. 

Through the sun glasses.

Conveniently optimistic, despite me.

 We made it safely back to camp.

Goblin Valley

Even though Dave really wanted to hike to an arch on top of on of the canyons (skylight arch in Wild Horse), I talked him into paying $7 to spend our last hours of daylight checking out Goblin Valley.  It's a state park with a fancy camp site (toilets?  plumbing?  what's that?) and a mini-sized hiking area that seems really accessible for families.  We walked around within the goblins and enjoyed the soft ground in our chacos after a long day of hiking.

Exiting Little Wild Horse Canyon, near the intersection to Goblin Valley.  It was sprinkling on and off all day. 

Wait a minute, that goblin is Dave!

Unlike the national parks, where you can't walk off path for fear of hurting the cryptobacteria in the soil, in Goblin, we were free to range where we pleased.  In fact, I couldn't even find the path even though I honestly tried. **I just wanted to note after the Goblin being pushed over on purpose controversy, that this image is Dave just pretending to push the Goblin.  We are very careful park explorers and leave everything as we found it! 

Dave insisted on climbing this thing after he saw some little kid do it.  He tried it from two other sides before realizing you could do it pretty easily this way. 

Dave's view down to me from above. 

After not showering and hiking all day, I kind of resemble a goblin myself!

We're just about ready to leave and discover a really neat part of the park.  I guess that leaves room for exploring if we go back in the future.

 We drove through the campground and I noted that #11 looked mighty fine.  If you are in need of a fancy camping spot in Goblin Valley, you can make reservations online, which is probably why the place was booked solid. 

Dave, happy to be letting the heat out of the grill again so I can take a picture.  Burgers, red onion skewers, potatoes, and red peppers. 

We had a campfire Monday night since the winds had died down and the campgrounds were nearly empty.  Of course I was chastised for not bringing marshmallows.  Oops!  After the fire died down, we checked out the constellations and even saw a few shooting stars.

The next morning we broke down camp and drove to Moab, where for the second year in a row, I paid $6 for a shower.  It was well worth it to refresh myself and de-sand while Dave gassed up the car and packed for a night in the back country!

We headed southwest to Needles.  Needles is part of Canyonlands National Park.  The park has three entrances, Island in the Sky, Needles, and The Maze, each of which are separated by the Colorado or Green Rivers, with their confluence in the middle of all three areas of the park.  We did Needles in 2009, Island in the Sky in 2010 during a wind storm last year, and the Maze only seems accessible by people with intense, jacked up Jeeps (please, correct me if I'm wrong!).  Island in the Sky is very close to Moab, so is very popular, but not as popular as the drive-through national park, Arches.  Yes, Arches has some back country stuff, but any schmo with a car can see the majority of the park, which somehow ruins it for me.  We did it in a day in 2009.

We drove up to the Needles visitors' center and asked for a back country pass for the night...