All the way to New Mexico for a Concert

Collective Soul is one of Mike's all time favorite bands. And they came to Salt Lake City.... on a night that he already committed to go mountain biking with me and some other friends. If we weren't going with the other friends then he would have changed our plans on the fly and bought tickets for the two of us to see them in concert even though he didn't find out about the concert until the day of. So he was a good little loyal friend and we went mountain biking. That's when I suggested we see where they were playing next and maybe we could make a road trip of it. So the next place they were performing was Albuquerque, New Mexico. We stewed over whether we wanted to drive all that way for a concert and finally decided to do it three days before we left. We made a trip of it, so it wasn't just for the the concert. And Mike's friend Lane joined us for the fun and it was nice to have the extra help with the gas bill.

So we stopped at Mesa Verde National Park for a quick tour. Then we went on to Durango, Colorado where Mike and Lane floated the Animas River in their pack rafts while I shuttled them. Then we stopped over in Santa Fe for some yummy Mexican food and a pretty awesome downhill mountain bike ride. Lane shuttled us to the top of their local ski resort where we started at an elevation of 10,500 feet above sea level and then we descended 3,000 feet over 10 miles to where we met up with Lane again. We had seventeen (17!) stream crossings on the trail - and I loved every one of them.

Then we wandered through downtown Santa Fe where we bought some yummy fajitas from a food cart in the middle of their town square where a big gay/lesbian/transvestite festival was in full swing. We got a good chuckle from the sight of the 15-minute HIV testing truck - something you would never see on the streets of where we are from. I loved the architecture! It was so fun and quaint.

Then we drove on to Albuquerque where we took the tram up to Sandia Peak, and went to the concert that night. The concert was pretty good! Kind of a bummer venue (it was in a smokey casino's bingo room), but fun nevertheless. From now on, I'll be much better at guessing Collective Soul's songs from among Mike's collection of music when we play guess the artist! :)

Then Sunday we headed home with a few stops: one to Chaco Culture National Historic Park (it's like Mesa Verde on steroids) and another to Shiprock. Beware the "quick" stop at Chaco... it's like 25 miles down a very wash-boardy dirt road, and it's very hot out there. In fact, New Mexico is very hot in general. But I'm glad I can now say I've been to New Mexico! :)

Backpacking Great Basin National Park

Mike and I joined some new friends he met through backcountrypost.com (Steve, Tessa, Yvonne, and Chet) for a one-nighter backpacking trip. We originally wanted to do the Under-the-Rim trail in Bryce Canyon National Park, but they had some bear attacks and closed the trail. :( So we looked for a plan B and scored pretty well! We drove out to Great Basin National Park in Nevada. I was impressed with the park: it was not busy at all, and it wasn't all sagebrush I thought it was going to be - it was actually quite beautiful back in the canyons! Our backpacking trip was a loop up to Baker Lake, over a pass into Johnson Lake, and then back to our cars. Baker Lake was at some elevation like 10,500 feet above sea level! The hike wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be either, but then again I was on some serious steroids for my poison ivy rash - that, yes, I dealt with while doing this backpacking trip! One night the itching was so bad, I hopped out of the tent and yanked my pants down right out in the open and smothered my rashes (on the back of my thighs) with anti-itch cream! But I survived.

Sterilizing some water with his steri-pen.

As we hiked over the pass to Johnson Lake, we also peaked Pyramid Peak (11,926 feet above sea level). Johnson Lake had some pretty cool run down cabins and mining structures and equipment. It was fun to explore those old places and to think people lived up there in the early 1900s!

Then we stayed at the Wheeler Peak campground that was absolutely beautiful, especially when we got to see some alpenglow on Wheeler Peak. The next day my steroids were really kicking in, so I rocked the day hike we did up to the Bristlecone pine grove (those trees are thousands of years old!) - I even kicked Mike's trash! And then Mike and I tried some random mountain biking trail along the highway and it was a total bust. It was a six-mile trail that should have only taken us about an hour to complete, but because the trail was almost returned to natural landscape it was hard to follow and quite sandy, and even technical at times, it took us over two hours to ride it. Boo.

I Did Not Escape the Ivy

This pretty little plant, poison ivy, is currently the bane of my existence. Yep. I got a pretty good rash on the back of my left thigh and I suspect I'm getting another one on the back of my right thigh. Lovely. No matter how careful I was! There was one point where we had to ugly choices: 1) swim in the river with our packs because it was so deep, or 2) wade through the poison ivy. We opted for the latter. I was wearing long pants and sleeves, but I must have gotten some on my hands and then transferred it to my legs. I was so careful too! I decontaminated everything in the washer with hot water and lots of detergent. And even rubbed all my non-washables and my very own body with rubbing alcohol. All to no avail. So the blistery rash will be my companion for the next 3 weeks. Ugh.

Death Hollow

Mike and I and two of Mike's friends, Lane and Dave, backpacked through the main section of Death Hollow near Escalante, Utah. We spent two nights in the canyon. The three main adventures of the weekend were 1) the thunderstorm that dumped on us for the first couple of hours of our hike, 2) avoiding the poison ivy, and 3) avoiding the unwanted swimming holes in the river. Other than that, it went as planned, the canyon was beautiful (poison ivy is very pretty and lush...), and Mike surprised me with an ultra-lightweight 2-person backpacking tent. Not for me to keep, but for he and I to enjoy together! I think he could see the writing on the wall that there is no way I am ever going to pack in my own tent when we could easily share the weight of one 2-person tent together. In order to mesh that with his desire to become an ultra-lightweight backpacker, he forked out the big bucks for this awesome tent..... and .... I didn't even have to carry any part of it. That's how much of a gentleman he is. :)

From here on out, I'll let the pics do the talking .... with maybe a few captions.

Hiking in the rain

One of the many extra waterfalls we saw due to the rain

With a view down into Death Hollow

Hiking down into Death Hollow - that's me on the right

One of the many "Ivy Islands" - yes that is all poison ivy

And me trying to wash the poison ivy off my face after I swear it made contact

The pool where we stopped for Lane and Dave to play in

The alcove under which we camped - the darker green is poison ivy