Summer Trips!

Well this blog post is going to be somewhat long because I have two awesome trips that I need to report on. Let's get started:

Yellowstone:

After a speedy rocovery from the mumps, I called my cousin Trent and told him that I was going to be able to come on the Yellowstone trip that we had been planning after all. Since I already had the end of that week taken off for vacation time, my sick time went right into my vacation time and I packed my bags and took off! We drove up in a few different cars to Rexburg where we spent the first night walking around BYU Idaho and going to see the Wolverine move- bleh. The next morning we picked up the canoes and headed out to Lewis Lake in Yellowstone National park. We camped there for the first night and I caught a massive brown trout which I ate over the fire.

The next morning we loaded up the canoes and set out across Lewis Lake into the inlet river which we were able to row up most of, then forge the rest of the way. I had never rowed so much in my life and my shoulders were definitely feeling it. It was raining and the splashing from the paddles caused a lot of water to come into the canoe. We finally got to our destination, Shoshone lake, and saw a grizzly bear swimming across the lake's outlet and he passed right behind us! We kept trucking along till we got to our campsite. Man I was tired! As we were setting up camp and I was unpacking my camelback, I discovered that the water resistant pouch in my bag was actually filled with water and my ipod was toast. It gave me the most sick feeling in my stomach becaus it was a gift from Salinda and really special to me. Jumping ahead- I ended up getting it fixed when I got home, but let's just say it was a downer on the trip. Trent and I went out on the lake to catch some fish and weren't having much luck at all. Our anchor was going down almost 100 feet and I lost one of my best lures to a bad knot on like my third cast. It wasn't going so well. Some of the other guys however were hitting the jackpot and pulling out one 17 inch lake trout right after another.

The mosquitos were horrible. They were so thick that you would breath them into your throat. You could wave your arm in the air and feel yourself hitting tons of them. We set up a mosquito net tent where we could cook our food and chill while we were on shore. The only thing more annoying than the mosquitos were two of the guys who ended up coming out on the trip with us. They were in their thirties- one was an electrition and the other a used car salesman. They were so crude, vulgar, and offensive in their speach that they really near ruined the trip for me. One of them shot himself in the leg with a pellot gun which was illegal to bring. Idiots.

The next day we rowed down the entire length of the lake and back which took several hours. We went all the way down there to see a back country guyser basin which not many people ever get to see. I really didn't want to go because the shoulder joint in my left arm was still aching from the day before. It ended up not being so bad however because we were able to take our time and stot and fish a little bit on our way. It was cool to see and be able to get so close to the geysers. We saw some wolf tracks on the beach, and that was also pretty cool. That night a storm came up that sent everyone except for me and a few of the other guys into the tent for shelter. I had to stay out and wash dishes left from dinner because it was my turn. At the end of the storm the biggest and brightest rainbow appeared whcih took all of our breaths away. It was crazy. The coolest thing was that after the storm the lake calmed down a lot and we went out and caught the biggest fish of the trip!

I was glad we were levaing the next day. Trent and I lead the assault heading back and made it back to the dock at lewis lake about an hour ahead ove everyone else. We really got into a rhythm. Tren had been tracking our distance the whole time with his GPS and told me that through the whole trip we had rowed 45 miles. That's just nuts I think. Anyways, it was an ok trip, but probably not one that I will ever repeat in the future.

Jackson Hole:

Last Friday my buddy Benjamin and I got a group together and headed up to Jackson hole to run the snake river on Saturday. I drove my car up with three girls in it who I was able to get to know and become good friends with. Two of them were twins, one of which I have dated a little bit, and the other was a girl who I met at a bonfire. I felt like quite the ladies man becuase all the other cars pretty much other than Benjamin's were just full of dudes. Haha. We got up there really late but in time enough to roast marsh mallows and eat some hot dogs. I pitched a tent that I borrowed from my roommate David which was a five-man tent, and we were able to fit six people in! It was pretty awesome becuase I had a cute girl on both sides of me. We had a lot of fun trying to get a good group picture- Benjamin held the camera with his feet and shot it from above and it was really funny.

Saturday we got up, ate breakfast, threw around a football for a bit, and headed to the river while Benjamin went to rent the rafts. I dont' know why, but the group wanted me to lead us all to the pull-out dock and I had absolutely no idea where it was. I lead everyone in the wrong direction and eded up getting chewed out because everyone else had been there before and knew where we were going. I was like "why the heck did you tell me to lead I told you I didn't know where it was and was just guessing!" Anyways, that was a bit anonoying but at the end of the story we made it to the lauch site before the rafts did.

We pumped up the two separate rafts and all 19 of us piled in. We rode the river while playing pirate games and having water fights. There were some rapids which were pretty fun but not dangerous by any means. We stopped of for lunch and cliff jumping and just enjoyed each others company and the canyon's scenery. It was a blast. At the end of the rafting run Benjamin asked if I wouldn't mind styaing another night so that we could all go to Yellowstone the next day. I didn't really want to because all of my home teaching assignments had been scheduled for then, but since the girls really wanted to stay and I would feel bad, I was able to make some calls and get the visits covered by having Tyler go in my place.

That night we went into Jackson and saw the shoot-out show and eat some good hamburgers while hanging out in the city park. The people heading back home took off and many of us said our goodbyes while the rest of us went to find a campsite to stay in. We had a fire and told stories before bedding down for the night. We woke up and started driving towards yellowstone. We ran into a buffalo herd and saw old faithful and the lower falls. Time driving absolutely killed us and made the day pretty long for everyone. By the time 9:30 pm rolled around I had lost a lot of my patience. That was when we finally left old faithful. I was speeding through the park and was pulled over but luckily was let off with a warning. It rained really hard the whole drive home so I was white knuckling the steering wheel for most of the way. We got home at about 3:30 and I didnt' go to sleep until around 5:00 when I woke up moments later for work. What a long day Monday was!