Buckshin Gulch Hike

We hiked into Buckskin Gulch near the Paria on Saturday, Oct. 16-17. We had reserved these dates on line about 4 months ago. Dan turned 50 on Friday so we wanted to see if he was still young enough to make it throught he gulch, the longest slot canyon in the world.

We invited family on both sides but the only ones tough enough to make it were our neices, Heather and Jennifer Berger and their friends Chelsea, Shane and Tek from Provo. We had a permit for 10 people but only 9 came.

They drove down from Provo on Thursday night getting here about 11:00 pm. We were up the next morning by 6:00 am and got away at 7:30. We had to drive to Kanab and then 30 minutes beyond. The time we parked one car at the bottom at White house exit and then drove around to wire pass and went to the bathroom and got all of our packs loaded and on the trail it was 11:00 am.

The packs felt very heavy at first but then we got used to them as we kept hiking. The canyon is beautiful. We took lots of pictures and had fun along the way. It was very muddy in some areas but that kept it interesting.

We had a hard time walking in our shoes when they got so muddy so that slowed us down. It became 5:00 pm and we weren't even half way through to where we were supposed to camp and we were wet and it would be a cold night in the canyon. So Dan sent Dawson up one side of the canyon and Andrew up the other to see if there was a way to get out of the steep canyon. They both found a way out but Dan decided that Andrew's way out the right side would be easier for hiking out in the morning. So we very carefully made our way one by one up the side of the canyon wall. We had to be helped by the boys and then they had to use a rope to lift our 9 packs up the canyon behind us. It was very scary but I was glad that I had two Eagle Scout son's and an experienced scout master, Dan whom I trusted. Poor Shane had never even gone camping before and we took him on this major adventure. He was a trooper. We set up our tents, built a fire, and Dan cooked us yummy Chicken Alredo.

It got down to 35 degrees over night and it was pretty cold. We slept ok but were pretty tired from our long day of hiking. In the morning we made oatmeal and packed up and were on the trail by 10:00 am. The problem was that there was no trail. We had a GPS and could see our destination a long ways off. We had to hike across a huge desert of sand and cactus. We found a cow head skeleton that was very cool. Andrew packed it out. We had a nice lunch stop and even a short nap. We could see the gulch down to the right, but we had to hike clear to the end and then get around it.

It was in 90's as we hiked and were sunburnt as we neared what Dan knew was the trail to the Wave (Coyote Buttes). It ended up at the same trailhead as where we started, Wire Pass. Great day, great fun, Big Adventure!!

Follow this link for more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=danflake&target=ALBUM&id=5393954248793167921&authkey=Gv1sRgCNOvhI-g3-uARw&feat=email

Dawson Gets His Mission Call

Dawson's mission call came today! Oct. 7, 2009. He had submitted his papers the week before and the stake president had got them in on Sept. 29 so the call was made on Wednesday, Sept. 30, the week of General Conference. We thought that might set it back a week, but it came. Dawson got the letter on the way to his 3:00 Biology class. He ran it home and hid it in his room so we wouldn't try to open it. After his class he helped Davy move a desk and then went to his institute class. Meanwhile I went and watched Andrew run at SCHS for his cross country race. We made a few phone calls and had friends and neighbors here at 9:00 pm when he opened it. San Jose, California Spanish speaking! He leaves on December 30! That is the date that we put as his eligibility date. Sweet! We are all excited.

Johnsons, Hatches, Saaralainens, Suttners, Thompson's, and a bunch of Dawson's friends were there. We had brownies and ice cream and celebrated!

The Subway Hike in the Fall

We hiked the Subway hike in Zion's Canyon in the Kolab section on Saturday, October 10. We had been lucky enough to draw out the hike through the lottery system of Zion. We requested 12 slots and did a little recruiting to fill up our allotment. The hikers included: Dan, Shelly, Dawson, Andrew, cousins Darrell, Jeremiah, Monson, and Justin, Dawson's friends, Marcus Steed, TJ Empley and Davey Suttner. We also had Darrell's frend, Spencer from Tennessee. I was the only girl brave enought to take on the freezing cold water in the swims.

Follow the link to see some of our beautiful fall pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=danflake&target=ALBUM&id=5391531971197094337&authkey=Gv1sRgCKvS0Nr6pLz22AE&invite=CNaMxaIO&feat=email

St. George Marathon

Dawson woke up at 3:30 this morning to go board the Marathon buses to ride up to Central where the race was to begin at 6:45 am. He said it was very cold at the start but the city had bon fires in barrels and the racers wore sweats to try and keep warm until start time. The wheel chair racers started off first and then the athletes were started off by their anticipated finish time.

Dawson was running with several of his friends from high school including Josh Decker and Mason Van Orden. Josh had ordered them matching uniforms only in different colors. Dawson had trained to some degree running about three days a week but only hitting 13 miles as the farthest distance. But we all know that Dawson is a winner and a strong competitor and he was awarded Athlete of the Year at DHHS last year so we should have expected nothing less than a great performance.

Dawson ran a strong race for a first timer. He started about 12 minutes after the first runners. It was a cold start but he said that the scenery was magnificent as he watched the sun start to rise as he passed the volcano and when he went around the corner and saw Snow Canyon State Park that it was very beautiful. He took water or Gatorade at every station and had one gel boost. His stomach was a little upset and he had to stop at the porta john twice which slowed him down some.

With 7,200 runners this year, there was a lot of traffic on the course. We had to park clear down in Grandma's parking passed the temple. We got to about one block before the finish line and only watched for 15 minutes before Dawson crossed. We saw his Priest leader, Dace Goulding cross, Josh Decker, his friend, Matt Ferguson and of course many other triumphant racers. Several had to be helped across the finish line by the police who were riding the course on their bikes and many fell into the arms of the national guardsmen at the finish line.

Dawson looked happy and strong as he came running down the last few steps. He finished with a time of 3:33, which was pretty cool because it was the 33rd annual St. George Marathon! He came in 8th place out of his division ages 14-18 but was the first one from St. George in that division.

Congratulations Dawson! Well done!