Hiking through the remnants of the forest fire.

 

Mill Flat trail...redone by forest fire...contrasts.

Paul and I hiked up to Anderson Valley on Saturday to see if we could get an old rusted crosscut saw blade he had seen up there to make a sign for the scout troop. We didn't know if it would still be there or if the whole area had been burned in the recent fires. We found out. Anderson Valley is still intact, cabin and all. You can see some fairly distant burns from there, but nothing close on the trail over to it from Mill Flat. The Mill flat trail is another story. It was a great day for hiking. Starting out from the trail head it had rained quite hard the night before and it was really nice and cool and not dusty like it usually is in that section. As we moved up, things looked really good with a few oak and aspen leaves starting to turn. There was actually still some water after you got up a ways. We noticed that the mud in the stream areas was very black from ash washed down from further up. About a quarter of a mile from the old mill site is where we began to see the burns. As we were crossing a little meadow we could see lots of mud washed across it and when we looked up the hill there was a big burn. The erosion problems are starting already. As we hiked further along the trail the burn areas increased with them coming down one side and going up the other in random places. Kind of strange how random it is. There were still lots of green spots. Lots of logs would have the centers burned out and just have a shell left. We even found one big aspen still burning. There were trees with sap just weeping all down them from getting so hot and kind of boiling over. In some ways, the fire seemed to have done what they want as in clearing out lots of underbrush and dead wood. The very worst place is just before you get to Mill Flat. It's totally burned up with even the foliage and weeds in the stream bed just gone. It's like a forest cemetery, totally black. We thought we might find the whole meadow and the big campsite at the top gone. It was so great to come out on the meadow and find it still there. Some of the grass had been burned off and a tree here and there, but thankfully nothing more. The electric fences are gone and some cattle were there eating things up. They will have to get that taken care of or they will over graze it. Hiking over to Anderson Valley was a green paradise after the other. We lunched on a summit and could see some of the burns over the New Harmony way. Coming back down was good with lots of clouds rolling in on the breeze and keeping it cool and thunder claps in the distance. We thought we might get rained on, but didn't. We were glad we hiked back down to the green and not the other way around. It was good leaving the blackness behind and coming back down to the green. We speculate that the trail up there will have some real erosion problems next year with the coming of the snow melt and rain washing off the denuded hillsides. Just glad that so much of it survived.

PS - I did my first tree carving. Can you believe I have never done it before? Another PS - We found the remains of an old dam on the way down. It's rocks all stacked up double sided across the stream. You can see where the stream broke through. We'd like to find out the history behind it.

Bean and Genghis moved downstairs.

I sure wanted to get out into the hills on Saturday, but instead pop and I did a job that needed to be done...we moved Bean and Genghis in downstairs. It's a much more comfortable room as far as staying warm or cool goes so they were all for it, but not here to help. That's not all bad. Too many opinions about how to get that dang bed out the door can be irritating. This job also included moving all of Supe's boxes up to Bean's old room...a very heavy task with all of his books. Why, I ask myself every time I move them, did I work so hard to instill a love of reading into my kids. Books are soooo heavy to move. Then we got Bean's old room set up so Paul can have a place to paint and leave things out until he has time to get back to them. It's also an extra sleeping place for company. It was a hard day's work, but we got it done by noon and then Paul went over to his mom's to watch BYU cream that other team and do home repairs for her. I was happy to have a catch up day to clean the house after being out of town so much. Bean had "the best date of his life" on Saturday afternoon (he worked all morning). A girl took him clothes shopping and he insisted she shop too so it was great because they just spent all afternoon trying things on and "checking each other out". She's one of his friend's sisters and volunteered to drive him and help him pick out some new, non grease stained clothes. What an angel! So, even though we didn't get to hike or camp, we had a great Saturday! (The room looks rather bland, but we didn't get any pictures hung. Bean will have to finish the decorating himself.)

Good times at Camp Zarahemla

 

Our Visit to Camp Zarahemla & Juge's B-day

It felt good to sleep in my own bed last night! We have covered many miles of road lately. It has all been good and the beds have been good, but, as they say, there's no place like home. Our latest miles were covered going up to visit my mom, Janet & Tony at their mission abode near Naches, Washington...Camp Zarahemla. What a beautiful place. It's in the middle of the forest near the foot of Mt. Rainier. The trees are huge, and rivers, lakes and streams are abundant. The lake at the camp, Clear Lake, is beautiful. We left Thursday morning and spent the night at Juge and Lance's in Bountiful. The next day we headed up to the camp. It was about a 12 hour drive. We got there in time for some dinner and visiting. All of Janet and Tony's kids and grand kids were there except Evan, Jenny and their new baby - Ella (I think). She just arrived a few days before and they weren't ready for a trip yet. There were 28 of us in all. We had a great time yakking, playing games, shooting guns and bows, canoing on the lake, walking in the forest and doing a little sight seeing. Paul and I had the lodge as our quarters. It was good to see mom doing her mission thing. She really seems to enjoy it and like always, she is very knowledgeable about the whole thing. She amazes me forever. We left very early Monday morning and drove to Juge's and got to help celebrate her birthday, a day early, with Jay and Brynn and Supe. Lance made a delicious birthday dinner. Then we left very early on Tuesday to come home in time for me to get to work. It was a great trip! The only thing that could made it better was more time. (Check way down below to see Juge & her birthday cake!)

Tavin, we are so proud of you!

Tavin was baptized on Saturday, September 5th.

Some drive-by camera shooting of the scenic drive home

 

Paul and I took a very quick trip over to Farmington, NM on Friday/Saturday. We took the Peterbilt over to Ross to see if they want to buy it or if they can sell it over there. They use a lot of trucks over there in the oilfield. We left after school and arrived there about 10:30 pm. We had some good visiting and met Brett and Savanah's little guy, Ethan. He's a cute one. We also got to drive out to see Ross and Lerlyn's property where they are going to build their new house. It is a really beautiful place. We left Farmington about 11:00 am on Saturday and took the long route home via Durango, Silverton, Ouray,Moab etc. It was so pretty up on the mountains and going through all that area over that way. What a scenic drive. We didn't really have much time to stop...just for lunch in Durango and dinner in Moab. We never seem to have enough time to see all that we want to see. The only bad thing about the trip was driving by New Harmony on the way home and seeing the fire glowing in the dark. I'm so glad we hiked all the area that now seems to be on fire earlier this year. (Click the picture and read the quote.)

Bean & Tavin B-day Collage 8/22/09

 

The Bean #21 - The Tavinator #8 - lighting the candles on the trifle

It was really amazing how the birthday celebration worked out. We went up to Oak Grove to do the deed. When we got there it clouded up and the wind started to howl. Dust was flying everywhere when we pulled up. Someone was in our favorite spot, so while the wind kept howling around we drove around looking for a replacement spot. Just as we found it, Moss and Christie pulled up. The wind stopped and we got out to get things going and the rain started...just a gentle rain, but you could get pretty wet. We wondered if we should just pack it back up and head over to the Borrowman's instead. We called Ryan and he checked Dopler and said it looked like it would pass pretty soon. We opted to stay and trust his meteorologist skills. I'd say they are pretty good! We cooked the dinner, ate the dinner, opened the presents and ate the cake. Everything was nice. Then it started back up with the sprinkling, so we hurried and packed it up. We got on our way and it was perfect timing. We also had a few other fun things along with the birthday celebration. On the way up,we rode with the Randall's in the 'Dilverado,'we stopped at the Children's Forest. Brady was conked out, so Lou, Ellie, Paul and I did the trail and the kiln. Ellie decided the kiln was a nice castle and she wanted to live in it. She wasn't too happy about having to leave her castle. On the way home from the celebration we saw a tarantula in the road and had to stop and examine and photograph it. All in all, it ended up being a really nice evening with great cooperation from the weather! Good weathermanning Ryan! Happy Birthday Bean and Tavin!