Friday, January 30, 2009

“Uncle.”

Hazy Sun I once worked with a guy who used to say, “Never make a decision about moving in Utah in February.” I think that’s the best living-in-Utah advice I ever heard. Because by February I’m always starting to think about moving.

Winter1Yeah, yeah, snow is pretty and skiing is fun. But it’s cold and icy and gloomy, and nothing’s growing or green and I’m sick of it. I’m ready to say, “Uncle.”

I know it’s temporary. I know that in 60 days it’ll be over, and I’ll be in love with Northern Utah all over again. But right now I just want to feel the sun on my bare arms, catch a breeze that doesn’t sting, hear birds sing and go camping again. So here’s what I’m doing about it:

View E from C Pinacate Tonight after work I’m flying down to Phoenix. My best friend, Arizona Steve, will pick me up at the terminal, and we’ll drive straight out into the Sonoran desert for 2 days & nights of scrambling up and down peaks, and sleeping under the stars.

Then in 2 weeks we- the whole family this time- are headed back down to St. George for a long weekend.

And then in March, we- again, the whole family- are doing something super-cool; we’re going to Central America. And when we get back, it’ll be time for the World to Wake Up again.

The last one- the Central America thing- of course is the Big Adventure, and I’ll blog more about it when we get a little closer. But today, right now, I’m going South, I’m getting warm, and I’m gonna see the sun.

And maybe I’ll see something worth blogging about.

6 comments:

UtRider said...

I'll be in Scottsdale for a week in Feb and am a little concerned about the possibility of missing any powder days.

Are you going to do any riding or just hiking?

KanyonKris said...

I'll be with UTRider. Can't wait to ride in short sleeves!

Watcher said...

Just hiking this trip. But the hiking focus gets us out in remoter country, which is the point of this weekend anyway.

For the SG family weekend I'll bring the bike of course. I usually ride early, while the kids are still asleep.

You guys are doing a whole week in Scottsdale? I'm way envious. Are you driving down via Vegas? Do you know about the Bootleg Canyon trail network in Boulder City?

KanyonKris said...

UTRider is driving down then I will fly in on Thursday and we'll drive back Sunday.

I've heard good things about Bootleg Canyon, maybe we can leave AZ early Sunday and stop by to ride a few trails. Is Bootleg just burly technical stuff or would XC guys like us have fun? (I do like some technical, just not a steady diet of difficult stunts.)

Blue Diamond / Cottonwood also sound interesting:
http://utahsuperfly.blogspot.com/2009/01/vegas-is-new-st-george.html

Watcher said...

There's real nice XC in bootleg too. Hard to describe, but you start at the main T/H, work your way North via trail on W side of dirt road, into big open valley with rolling XC trails. Still fairly tech, but not crazy. Crazy DH stuff is mostly on the big mtn on the E side.

I've ridden BD/Cottonwood many times, that's great too (mentioned it in this post). BD/Cottonwood = more scenic, less tech. Bootleg = less scenic (pic here), but more interesting trails. Both are great, and a nice break on that mother-of-all-drives...

Andrea said...

Luck-E! I'm languishing here in the frozen tundra. I think I read it's the most snowfall we've had in recorded history and it's been ridiculously cold. I got outside for a ride yesterday for the first time in a while. It was high 30s and felt like a heat wave! Have fun on all your adventures.