Skip to main content

Canyoneering Birch Hollow

 At the beginning of March, Scott took Talmage, Everett, and Everett's roommate, Matt Allen, down to Birch Hollow near Orderville, UT to "do" Birch Hollow.  It's a popular canyon that is not too technical and you don't need a permit. Scott wanted to go early in the season before it got too hot or too busy.  They drove down Friday afternoon, camped by the trailhead overnight and then hiked it in the morning. It took about 5 hours to do the roundtrip car to car. They dropped off a bike near the exit so Scott could go get the car more quickly. They managed to stop at the favorite "Hot Spot" in Salina on the way home where you get those delicious (read not healthy) deep-fried tater tots. The hike-out was challenging and the mud was amazing. We still have mud on our driveway a few weeks later--it just keeps falling off the bottom of the van despite Scott's washing the van.










a Talmage picture


This is near the end of the hike.




This is a 60-foot rappel. The springs coming out of the rock face froze and made these cool ice formations. The trick was not to have one of them fall on you while you were rappeling.


This is the iconic Birch Hollow rappel--100 feet. Matt decided to go down face first and found it a little intimidating. Talmage took this picture.

Everett's doing his smolder pose.


Talmage took these pictures and edited them with his nicer camera. Pretty cool view.

Another Talmage picture.

Here's the Padre going down.






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Visiting Susquehanna: The Priesthood Restoration Site

On our way home from Palmyra, we decided to go a couple of hours out of our way to visit the recently opened Priesthood Restoration Site along the Susquehanna River.  This is where we believe that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist which gave them the authority to baptize.  This site also has the restored Isaac and Elizabeth Hale home where Joseph and Emma lived for a year as well as the home where Joseph and Emma lived on their own. We spent a couple of hours there and I wouldn't have minded a few more minutes but we had a long way to go that night.  It's a beautiful setting, very much in rural Pennsylvania.  However, on the day we were there, cars at a racetrack nearby were detracting from the peace and quiet.  I'm guessing that's not as big of a problem on weekdays. The Hale Family was quite well-off for their day so their home was probably nicely decorated with wallpaper and carpet. ...

Book Review: Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

This is a juvenile fiction book about a young girl named Melody with severe cerebral palsy.  Her body doesn't allow her to feed herself, speak, or do much at all.  She's very intelligent with a photographic memory but she can't really communicate.  Finally, in 5th grade, she gets a "Medi-Talker" which is a computer that speaks what she types in.  Finally she has a voice. This book explores what it is like to be severely physically disabled but not mentally disabled. It seems like one of the most frustrating of all scenarios.  She is completely aware of all the cruelty (subtle and otherwise) that her classmates inflict on her because they don't really want to include her in their activities.  One of the saddest moments in the book comes when she realizes that every one of her special ed classmates is kind, where the "normal" ones are not.  Who really has the worse disability? The book was a quick read and fairly enjoyable.  Wha...

Hansen Family Plot in the Provo Cemetery

On Memorial Day this year, our family went to the Provo Cemetery, as we do almost every year. We spent some time at the Hansen Family plot which contains the grave of my 2nd great-grandparents, Peter and Mary Hansen. They both emigrated from Denmark with their spouses to Utah. My grandfather lost his first wife Ane to cholera on the plains outside of St. Joseph, Missouri, along with three of his little boys within a very short time--about one month. It's a sad story but it's also one of admirable resilience. He brought his one surviving son, Jorgen, to Utah. He married his second wife Maren (Anglicized to Mary) some 9 years later in Utah  She had been married before but lost her first husband at an unknown date. I wish I knew more about her but she left very few records, although I could do more research! Peter and Maren had 6 more children together. The youngest two were twins, Enoch and Ephraim. Ephraim is my great-grandfather and is buried in California. He is the father of ...