49 6 F 45-54 38:56.1 7:47/M

158 Linda Bennett Post Falls ID 49 6 F 45-54 38:56.1 7:47/M

6 Linda Bennett Post Falls ID 49 158 38:56.1 7:47/M

1545

Results Posted

So what does this all mean? Linda ran in the Coeur d'Alene Spring Dash last Sunday and those hieroglyphics represent her time and the way she ranked in the race. Out of 1545 runners (a term used loosely) Linda placed 158th, and she was the sixth woman in her age group to finish. Her overall time was 38:56.1 and she ran 7:47 minute miles. I think you might be able to glean more information of the results site so if you are so inclined, visit it by following the above link.

I am very proud of Linda and what she has done with her running and riding. I still believe that she works out too much and eats way less then she needs, but who am I to coach. Did I say she was nominated for teacher of the year this year also? Yes I am just the doting husband don't you think.

Duathlon Fever

Linda did real well this weekend at the Spring Thaw. I didn't do to bad either! Here are Linda's offical results. I was able to get a tan, meet some new real nice people (including a blogger), make a video and support the greatest woman in the world.

Slots, The Colors Of The Canyons

This is what it is like to climb through the slot canyons of Spooky and Peek-a-boo. These two slots are located in the Escalante area about 24 miles out on the Hole In The Rock Road. What a blast! Sorry for taking so long to get the video up.

Whats it cost?

Traveling isn't cheap these days and if we weren't really into getting out and seeing various beautiful areas, we might do something else for our vacations. Below is a chart of our travel numbers to and from Escalante. It reflects the truck fuel costs only. I did the math and we actually saved some money having the diesel as apposed to our Dodge 2500 Hemi. On this trip using the cost of gas, miles traveled and 8 MPG (which is what we got pulling the Jeep with the camper) we would have saved, drum roll please, $16.00! Ok, diesel has to come down right? Not a problem, I would go again in a minute is given a chance.

The Lost Slide Show, Escalante?

Home and Wet

Since we got home we have had nothing but wet and snow. I took yesterday, Sunday, to install some speakers in the camper by the bed. I took my time and did a nice job.

The camper fix-it list continues to grow. So far the slide needs some parts, the switch for the heater by the bed is not working*, the DC plug by the sink does not work**, the switch for the halogen back up lights does nothing and the shower door doesn't close right. All these items are on my list for repair when we take the camper into R'nR to get the slide repair made. This should be on the 16th of the month.

* I followed this wire back and found that it goes no where.
** I looked at the plug from the back side and there are no wires attached. I did however find two wires that have not been attached to anything. I don't want to mess with this so I didn't test them to see if they were the ones for this plug. I'll let the experts handle this.

I posted a picture of the camper on the NATCO we site. Everyone does that, I fought whether I should or not, but pride got the best of me. Basically all I did was open myself up to criticism. "You need a dully under that thing", "you need to put Ricksons on that", all it did was give em all a chance to be the weight police. We will be putting Ricksons on the truck, but give me some time to get some cash together. Oh, Ricksons are wheels that allow you to Run Commercial-Duty Tires with Load Ranges F, G & H. The camper is heavy and the weak link is now the wheels and tires. I know this, guess I should have kept quiet.

Boy, I hope we didn't get a SnowRiver Camper built on Friday. Those Canadians probably started drinking about noon that day. We'll get the bugs out, sooner or later.

Just Past Egypt the Road Gets Worse!

When I worked on the farm, when I was in high school, I had to drive to a field on the prairie. A railroad spur ran next to the gravel road we would drive each time we came to work. On one occasion I drove one of the farm rigs onto the railroad grade and drove on the ties. It bounced and shook the truck so hard that we all started laughing as we jiggle jumped along the tracks.

Today Linda and I drove the Hole In The Rock Road, out to hike two slot canyons called Spooky and Peek-a-boo. I had mentioned before the road out that way was rough enough that we turned back with the camper and ended up a Calf Creek. To get out to these slot hikes, you had to drive 24 miles over very rough bumps. The last eight miles, beginning just after the road to Egypt, was like driving on those railroad ties. It brought back memories, but only for a bit because the bumps got real tiresome real soon!

We parked at the trail head for the hikes and tied on our wet boots. They hadn’t had a chance to dry completely from yesterday’s river crossings. It was no problem because it looked like we wouldn’t be crossing any water today.

The hike into the slots was about ¾ of a mile down into the dry fork of Coyote Gulch. The first on we entered was Peek-a-boo. To get into this slot you had to climb up a bit of a face. It had hand and foot holds but it was quite exposed. Linda paused at the bottom and looked up and said “Let’s get up there and git er done!” We launched into our climb with out hesitation.

Once up into the slot, it was amazing. I can’t explain how cool it was. The slot was anywhere from four feet wide to just wide enough to slip along. The walls were fifty to sixty feet high and it was like climbing around in a rock jungle gym. We scrambled up to the end of the slot and back down again. The exit took some butt sliding and white knuckling to get back down but we both made it. I was very proud of Linda the entire way.

About a half mile down the gulch, we hung a left and slogged up over a huge sand pile. Directly before us was the slot entrance to Spooky. We walked in and with in fifty yards the slot had narrowed down to about two feet. Spooky doesn’t climb up and down like Peek-a-boo did. Spooky serpentines along getting deeper and narrower as you shimmy along the sandstone faces. Before the slot got tight we met four folks coming down the other way. Three had made it to the end of the narrows, one was too big in the chest and he said he had to stop. That didn’t look good for me because we were about the same size.

Linda led on and we slithered along. In one spot it was so tight I popped three buttons off my shirt. I backed up and picked the buttons up, placing them in my shorts pockets. When I hit the spot that I believe the fellow was stopped, I got down on my knees and crawled about eight feet to where Linda was standing. This technique worked twice during the squeeze, and we were able to make it all the way to the exit boulders. Once again Linda was a champ. On this slot she led the way all the time and never hesitated while moving forward. Now I am not saying she was not scared, we both were a bit nervous about this slot, it was thin and claustrophobic.

When we got to the end we turned around and worked our way back out. We were so glad we drove the road to get out to these slots. We hiked back to the original trail that descends into the river bed. We hiked up river a bit and looked at the coll cut walls of the upper canyon and then returned for the hike up and out. I highly recommend this adventure.

We returned to Calf Creek and in the parking lot sat Tom and Sarah. They had done the Lower Calf Creek hike and were sitting having a beer. I guess we just missed them this morning. It's too bad it would have been fun to do the slots together. They visited our new camper and then were off to Escalante. They planned to do the slots hike the next day, we plan to hit the road home.

On Thursday we managed to get out of camp early and drove to Pocatello Idaho where we stayed in a KOA. We watched the movie"Into the Wild" and the went to bed. The next morning we got up and drove the rest of the way home arriving about 2 PM. We hated to be home to the snow and rain. Our weather was cool but sunny, the weather at home was wet, cold and snowy. We'll be heading back down next year. There are so many hikes we want to do.

Arches and Cliff Dwellings

It got down to 17 degrees last night. The water we left on the table was frozen solid and I think all the tent campers were too. Most of the camps around us got up real early and broke camp. They must have wanted to get into the warm sun that was drenching the upper flats.

We packed our lunch, had breakfast and got our gear ready for our hike. The Escalante River Hike starts less then a mile and a half south on highway 12. We drove down to the parking lot in less then eight minutes. As we got our gear on for the hike a cute little dog ran up to us. He was wearing a life jacket and was very excited to see us. Within a minute a lady emerged from the trail head. She explained that the stream was pretty muddy and swift and that because she was alone and had to handle her dog, Kona, she didn’t want to risk a crossing. We said we would be glad to let her cross with us if we decided that it was safe to attempt.

We got to the stream and it wasn’t really that bad. Fly fishing has put me in much worse wadding positions then we see here, so I picked up a walking stick and sloshed on in. The water was cold, but by cold standards up north, it was not that bad. We all crossed successfully and decided that if the streams were worse then this we would wait for each other and cross together. We exchanged names, hers was Nieva, and she was from Missoula Montana. She has been solo hiking over the break with only Kona as her companion. Once we had our introductions we split up and continued our hike.

Yesterday we thought the hike into Upper Calf Creek Falls was spectacular, and of course this one matched that hike. The trail works its way up the draw crossing the Escalante five times total. Each crossing was very easily made and once across we found yet another wonderful panorama. Hiking through tamarisk, Russian olive trees and sage brush we came to a split in the trail and the left one directed us to the Escalante Natural Bridge, one of our destinations for the day. I hiked up and under the bridge as Linda sat in the sun, change out of her warm close and enjoyed the area. This area is about 1.6 miles up from the trail head, well worth the short hike.

We continued up the river for another half mile to a rock climb next to a cliff. It was a short scramble and I stopped on at the mid point to take a picture of the valley. When I turned back, up to my left, on the cliff fact was an Anasazi granary. It looked to be impossible to get to, a great fortification.

I climbed a bit higher and on the cliff face were petroglyphs! I called to Linda and she climbed up next to me. It was amazing! The people who climbed up and created the granary must have been something else. It made me nervous just thinking about getting up there. We took a bunch of pictures and the climbed down for our final stream crossing.

From the area across the water we could view the final skyline arch on a huge cliff face. We ate our lunch looking at the granary, the arch and the designs on the wall.
Our hike back down was quick and easy. The four stream crossings kept our boots full of water but that didn’t slow us down. We got to our Jeep and both agreed that this was our best hike yet of this springs adventure.

Upper Calf Creek Hike

Monday we sort of took the day off. We drove into town and went to the visitor’s center to leave a note for Tom and Sarah Husby. They said the might be in on Tuesday and we had agreed to let them know where we were via the bulletin board. After we talked to the Ranger about some hikes, we drove back to the little gift store that had internet connection and had lunch. We both had chicken salads and let me tell you they were not cheep. I connected to the blog and uploaded the first few days of our adventure, and then we bought a few items as souvenirs. Linda saw a metal sun that she loved and I felt it would go great in our new camper, so we bought it. Then we both got T-shirts and a guide book of the area. We broke the bank on this stop, oh well, we are on vacation.

We gassed the Jeep and then decided to drive out to the Upper Calf Creek water falls hike. The hike is down hill into the falls over slick rock and sand trail. It gets a little confusing at one point, due to people setting up various rock cairns to guide wandering souls back on track. We never really lost trail, but we entered via a different route then we exited.

The falls was beautiful and we were the only ones there! In spectacular-ness, I made that one up, this trip was at least an 8. It was short, had vast vistas and finished at a beautiful waterfall. We sat in the sun and relaxed just glad to be out of the snow and rain that we left in Idaho.

The hike out was all up hill of course but that didn’t diminish the rating of this hike. We drove back to camp and had a great dinner of turkey noodle soup and salad. I worked on the photos and the blog, Linda read her book and slept. Tomorrow we hike the Escalante River Hike.