Canyoneering Robber's Roost: Maybe Mindbender and Chambers

Scott, David, and Everett went canyoneering in the Robber's Roost area the last few days. They drove down on Thursday night, camping by Robber's Roost Springs. They did a canyon called "Maybe Mindbender" on Friday morning. That canyon was a beautiful canyon but had a challenging exit, long and hot.

They saw and heard some wild burros, the white animals in the center right of the picture below:

Scott took this picture for me since I learned about the General Land Office Survey in my family history classes:

Slot section at the beginning:

The last rappel was into a spring-fed canyon:

The exit involved climbing and scrambling in a very exposed area in the middle of a very hot day--temps over 100 degrees.

They found a dead cow:

Since the other two canyons they planned had the same exit--which they did not want to do again--they decided to drive somewhere else and do a different canyon on Saturday morning called Chambers. This canyon didn't have rappelling but had a lot of down climbing. And if you have any tendency towards claustrophobia, this was not your canyon. Roadtrip Ryan put a weight limit of 180 lbs. on this canyon and that's probably too high depending on how tall you are.

Friday night they had chili for dinner but didn't have a pot so this was their creative solution for heating up the cans:

And here's the Milky Way:

Saturday morning, they started on the Chamber:

The reason for the weight limit:

At one point, they came to a spot that was completely dark. So they shined a light on the wall and there were spiders crawling everywhere:

At one point, Scott ripped his pants quite badly and they were history:

This is the end with an abrupt drop:

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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. ...

Nauvoo Pageant!

I have been a negligent blogger this last month. My reason is that we have been super busy. At the end of July, we went to the Nauvoo Pageant. We were able to participate once again in the Gold Cast like we did in 2007 and 2014. We picked up our daughter at the end of her cross country camp in Price, Utah on our way out of town. Then we drove to our friends' house in Golden, Colorado near Denver to stay the night. It was fun to reconnect if only briefly. The next night we were in Lawrence, Kansas, visiting my brother and sister-in-law and their family. That was also fun but short. We left the next morning, attending nearby church before taking off. We arrived in Nauvoo around 4pm with just enough time to have dinner at our cabin before going to our orientation at the pageant building. The next day we went to the pageant building to get our costumes and to learn how to do our hair in the 1840 styles. ...

Hansen Family Reunion 2026, Wednesday and Thursday

We had another Hansen Family Reunion at Bear Lake! In total, there were 93 of us there with 11 missing--our biggest yet! We enjoyed seeing everyone and catching up a little bit. Here are some pictures. My goal was to get a picture of everyone, so if you don't see a picture of yourself, keep scrolling. Also, more individuals coming on the post for Friday. Sorry for the weird angles on some of them. Michelle made dinner the first night, chicken and vegetables with Michelle's specialty--lots of sides and plenty of leftovers. After dinner and clean-up, we had a FHE lesson outside on the lawn with Melanie in charge of the lesson after a few raucous songs. The newest addition to the family, #103. On Thursday morning, Kent and Melanie chaired breakfast with eggs and sausage and plenty for everyone. The cook with his breakfast sandwich: After breakfast, some of the group went rock-climbing, courtesy of Everett, David, and Susanna while more people went on a hike--the Limber Pine Hike....

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