The Solstice

So to celebrate the summer solstice, my buddy Trav and I took off for to Wendover, then turned north and went 40 miles on a dirt road to the middle of nowhere. Our destination: The sun tunnels.



There we met some friends, including this sweet hippie dude named Jim (that's Jim with his shirt off in this pic with some of our new friends)



So the idea is that you wait around and watch the sun set through these tubes that are perfectly aligned with the summer and winter solstici. While waiting, more and more people showed up - eventually about 35 people came - it was a pretty good crowd for the middle of nowhere.


So we all watched it set

















and hit the road back to Provo.



Well, after I got a picture with Jim that is...

Eco Challenge 2007

So I did the Eco Challenge with the football team again this year. I did a lot better this year - still finished about half-way through the pack, but cut an hour off my time from last year to finish at 6 1/2 hours.
The Eco Challenge consisted of:
1 mile swim in the Richards building
An obstacle course - shuttle run, bear crawl, 600 pd tire flipping, sled pulling, pushups, sled pushing, farmer's walk, parallel beam walking on hands thingy, and 20 rope pullups. Lots o'fun.
35 miles of biking uphill on a mountain bike - up to Squaw Peak, then Southfork canyon, then up to Sundance.
Hiking/running up to Stewart Falls, then on to Arrowhead summit.

Overall I enjoyed the event a whole lot more this year, in part because it was warmer making the bike ride more enjoyable, and because I just hiked quickly instead of running, saving my strength and moving faster the entire way along.

Preparation

The Eco-Challenge is this weekend. Hopefully I'm prepared. I did it last year in 7 1/2 hours - this year they've apparently removed the whole 'running up and down every stair in LaVell Edwards Stadium' thing, to replaced by an obstacle course of Bronco's design. I was told 'I hope you've been working on your bench and squat.' Umm... I'll report back when I know more.

Texas and Strawberry

So two weekends ago (Memorial weekend) marked 1 year since my return from Iraq. It's amazing how quickly a year can come and go...

I spent that weekend on a sweet camping trip with some friends up near Daniels summit, right by Strawberry Reservoir. We found a sweet spot to camp, had some drunk dude with 1 leg stop by our camp for awhile, then went hiking the next day while taking all dirt roads back to Provo. Here's a pic of us hiking near Poison Ridge.


Then last weekend I went to Texas for my buddy Daniel's wedding. It was a very nice wedding at a nature preserve down near Austin. It was crazy hot down there - the humidity was killing me, and being in the sun on a 95 degree day in a tux: not cool.