We vowed to make this summer, the summer of camping.
We packed the car and headed out on another trip to Deer Creek Campground (BLM site) 6 miles down the Burr Trail Road just outside of tiny Boulder, Utah. We had big plans...This trip turned out to be a lesson in patience, going with the flow and who is responsible for what...
At about 10:30pm, we are 3/4 of the way to our site, Josh says he forgot our camp stove, but luckily we have our NEW Jet Boil (a little backpacking stove). However, we then both realized we had no fuel for the Jet Boil either. We tried stopping in the last little Ma and Pa shop that night but, no luck. We decided to go set up camp and eat out for breakfast and find some fuel in the morning. We had a lovely breakfast and headed back to Torrey, UT (about 45 min from our campsite one way). We got the fuel and gassed up in Boulder when we got back only to find they had the fuel we were looking for at the shop in Boulder, ahhhhhhh!
 |
| The spot |
 |
| Home Sweet Home |
 |
| Heaven on Earth, Water, Beer Cooler, Camp Chairs |
 |
| The Creek at the end of the road at campground |
We had BIG hiking plans. We were going to hike Lower Mulley Twist. We pulled up to the trailhead along the Burr Trail Road and a sign with no dogs allowed awaited us. We decided we were so close to Bullfrog Marina that we would just head to Lake Powell, cool off, and swim. It turned out to be LOVELY!
 |
| Burr Trail, highly recommend driving this in your lifetime, AMAZING |
 |
| You can see the "switchback" ahead to get us down the road |
 |
| Finally, some relief from the heat |
 |
| Ebony showing off her jumping skills |
 |
| Dirty lil bug |
 |
| Happy Ebony |
 |
| Southern Utah never disappoints |
When we got back to camp we were greeted by some fun loving hippie neighbors traveling for a week in their VW van. There was a father (ex-brewery owner in SanFrancisco, you can imagine he and Josh had a few things to talk about) with his 8 year old son (Jake), 6 year old daughter (Taylor), his father in-law, Cappy, who teaches psychology at Long Beach State, and the father's 83 year old mother who was camping for only the second year of her lifetime. This woman was tough as nails. She slept outside under the stars, ran around after the kids, hiked, cleaned and cooked...I aspire to be like her at 83! Our last night there they had been aging some spectacular beers (Tribute and a Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Ale) Needless to say, we had a great time with them!
 |
| The new neighbors, Jake LOVED Josh |
The next day we had more BIG hiking plans. We were going to tackle Coyote Gulch a 10 miler. However, after yesterday's experience I decided to double check that dogs were allowed before we got to the trail-head. Of course it was one of 2 hikes that pups aren't allowed. Cappy had suggested we do Phipp's Arch. So, we decided to give that one a try. It was getting close to 95 degrees at this time. The hike was mostly on sand and the dogs started acting strange so we thought maybe the sand was too hot. Josh took his shoes off and could barely last 90 seconds on the sand, so we improvised and hiked up the Escalante River with the pups. Turned out to be really fun! We didn't quite make it to the arch, but we found a great lunch spot, the girls got to swim and stay cool and everyone was happy. We took a little detour along Hell's Backbone Road to a spectacular bridge that was built during the FDR CCC era. It was the first road from Boulder to Escalante. Again, we didn't have an atlas and weren't really sure where the road would take us so we turned around once we got the the bridge.
 |
| Too hot to go anywhere |
 |
| Hiking the Escalante "river" |
 |
| Josh's slice of peace |
 |
| The view from Hell's backbone Bridge |
 |
| The bridge |
 |
| Tree Pose peace |
 |
| Ebony passed out after one Coor's light ;) |
Finally, the next morning we decided to try a hike across the street from our campground before we headed out. We got a 45 minute hike in before we saw a gigantic snake (I screamed my lungs out). Again, the sand was getting too hot for the girls, so we headed back. We attempted to stop at Hell's Backbone Grill for lunch which we heard was spectacular, but they were between breakfast and lunch. (Next time) So we ended up having a great lunch at Cafe Diablo in Torrey. Highly recommend stopping here.
I got a NEW bike! It's a TREK 7.5fx. It's a hybrid/cross bike. Half road bike half comfort bike. I commuted to work (5miles one way) 4 days last week. I'm in LOVE! It's the perfect way to start your day!
The next weekend, Ashley had a housewarming party for her NEW house! It was great to catch up with good friends. Also, our neighbors mother, Sabine was getting married and we joined their family for the rehearsal dinner. Robyn is an amazing cook, thanks for having us! You have such an amazing, beautiful, generous family!
 |
| Josh and Andy, the beautiful spread of food |
 |
| Double fisting Robyn <3 |
 |
| Wrenny |
 |
| The Happy Couple |
 |
| Wren and Josh |
 |
| Summer Lovin' |
The next day Josh and I tackled a killer hike straight up the Wasatch Mountains. It's called Neff's Canyon, we have done the first part of this hike and thought it would be great to do the rest. We didn't know what we were getting into. It ended up being about 1,000 feet of elevation gain per mile (ouch!) for about 3-4 miles I think. We aren't really sure how far we hiked, but we made it to the "top" where there was a beautiful meadow. Again, we were not prepared. We had one water bottle with 32oz's and that was for me, Josh, and the pups. Luckily there was a sporadic creek for them to drink from.
 |
| How I really felt about the hike.... |
 |
| The Meadow |
 |
| Tired Girl |
 |
| Happy Happy Pups |
 |
| Happy to be heading down |
 |
| The Reward at the Top, beautiful SLC! |
This last week has been very busy and very social for us. We took Collin and LeeAnn and their new 12 day old baby Clara dinner on Tuesday. It was so fun to visit with them and hold the tiny babe! We visited our friends Better Burger truck. All grass-fed beef, local from Moab, UT, Delish! Go to betterburgertruck.com to find where he will be parked. Celebrated Touna's birthday (one of Josh's co-workers), had Howard and Terry over for dinner. (our gracious Hawaii host's) and Josh is currently riding the Crest Trail with our friend/co-worker Randy and friend Collin. I'll update you again SOON!
 |
| Collin with his baby girl Clara |
We have such an amazing life and are so grateful to those far and near! Thanks for adventuring with us!
