Apple Mashing

My Uncle Brian and Aunt Deb had their annual cider pressing yesterday. We made lots and lots of fresh apple cide. There is nothing quite like fresh apple cider straight off the press. We had beautiful weather, very few bugs and lots of really good food. It was great to get together and spend the day squezzing apples. I took a bucket of crabapples to press for making jelly with. It came out the most beautiful red and had a cranberry tang to it, super yummy! My uncles press is one that he's restored that belonged to hsi great grandfather who got it new during the civil war era. My Uncle brought it over from Vermont along with a bunch of old stop go motors when he moved to Idaho. There was about six steam motors there. There was also old fashioned bikes, old cars, and a grain mill. It was fun to see all the resstored historic machines!

Sun, Surf, Sand, and Screams with my Mom

Ever since I came home from my internship last fall I have wanted to return to California and this past month I got that oppertunity! My Mom and I took off for nine days and went to California! We drove to Springville on friday Aug 27 and spent the night with Jenn and Ricardo. Saturday we drove to the SLC airport and at 12:25 we took off. We had a one hour layover in Vegas before flying on to the Orange County airport. At the airport we picked up our rental car, a bright blue Ford Focus, and set out for my friends house. We spent three nights with my friends Nacolynn, Natalie and Mandy in their super cute apartment. Saturday night we went to a great pizza place in Balboa called BJ's. Their food was amazing! Nacolynn and my friend Austin went with us to dinner and then we all went to the Great Park for a concert by a group called Te Vaka, they play a modernized version of island music, lots of Samoan and polynesian influences. They were really good! Sunday I was able to catch up with another friend, Brenda who spent most of the day with Nacolynn and I.

Monday my mom and I got up and going early and by 9:30 we were walking down the beach, picking up sea shells and enjoying the sand between our toes. We walked almost the whole distance between the Newport and Balboa piers. When we got to Balboa we were just in time to go out on a whale watching boat. It was alot of fun! We went out for two hours and got to see four blue whales, a minkee whale, which we were told are hard to find, and a pod of dolphins! My mom also saw a jelly fish. On the way back into the harbor we saw some sea lions hanging out on a bouy. We went out just over six miles from the coast. We spent the rest of the day shopping in Balboa and Newport. We also got Balboa bars and sat on the beach eating them, boy are they messy when they start melting! I left my mom laying on the beach under the umberella Naco let us borrow, thanks Naco!, while I went out into the water to look for shells. I found lots of little shells and one really big one. I was so excited becasue I've never found a shell so big but alas I wasn't able to keep it as it's owner was still living in it so I took a picture and threw him back out into the water as far as I could. He was pretty cool and it was still fun to find, even if I couldn't keep it.

 Tuesday we packed up our stuff and loaded it in the car, and drove back out to Balboa to do a little more shopping before driving down to Anaheim to check into our hotel. By three we were all checked in and dressed to head over to Disneyland! Our hotel was directly across the street from the main Disney entrance and it took us about five minutes to walk to the main gates of Disneyland or California Adventures. We had so much fun and dropped into bed each night with our feet aching from all the walking we had done that day! We rode almost wvery ride at least once and most of our favorites three or four times. We spent three and a half days at disneyland!

We couldn't have planned a better time to visit California as the tourist season was over and the kids were all back in school. The beaches and Disneyland were both fairly free of crowds. At Disneyland we rarly had to wait more than 10-15 minutes for even the most popular rides! Friday night we spent to night with my friends Rachel and Brant. Saturday we went to the airport and set backoff for first Vegas and then Salt Lake before driving home. We got home about 9:30pm and boy were we glad to be home. All in all it was a great vacation! I can't wait till I get to go again! Thanks to all my friends who let me stay with them!

Teton Creek to Jenny's Lake in Three Days

 few years ago as we were driving around as a family we stopped at the Teton Creek trailhead and my Dad mentioned that you could hike that trail clear to Jenny's Lake. At that moment I knew that was a trip I wanted to make and so earlier this week my Dad and I loaded up our gear and set out on a three trip up Teton Canyon into Alaska Basin, over Hurricane pass and down through Cascade Canyon to Jenny's Lake.

Day 1: My Dad and I reached the trail head of Teton canyon at about noon, doned our packs which each weighing about 40lbs and set off up the trail. The trail was a fairly gentle climb, with one or two steeper stretches that didn't last too long.We traveled about 6 miles before setting up camp at the base of Alaska Basin. We ate dinner, did a little bit of exploring in the rocks around camp and got our food prpoerly hing for the night. We were in bed by about 8:30pm.

Day 2: We took our time getting up and going and didn't get camp broke and on the trail until after 10am. Neither of us slept very well despite bing tired and so we layed in bed for a while hoping to get just a few more minutes of sleep. The only sign of bears in this area that is supposedly very active with bears was some old scat that we noticed at the edge of our first campsite after we got set up, oh well. Once we got going we finished hiking into the main part of Alaska Basin and then quickly contined on the trail up to Sunset lake and the base of Hurricane Pass. We stopped and ate lunch at Sunset lake. It is a beatuiful lake and a very popluar place, there was alot of people also stopped there to eat lunch and take a break. We contemplated stopping there and setting up camp and then continuing on up Hurricane pass the next day but chose to contine on up the pass and try and find a campsite on top of hurricane pass. Hurricane pass was a steep climb and it was good to get it over with. Once we reached the top I understood why it was called Hurricane pass and the wind never seems to stop blowing up there. We hiked to the border of the Jedadiah Smith/ Targee wilderness and the Grand Teton National Park Boundary where we were treated to a great view of the Tetons! Here we had another choice to make as you have to have a permit to camp in the National Park(which was something we didn't have), hike back down to Sunset lake (yeah not going to happen), or try to find a sheltered place on top of Hurricane pass (difficult to find). We chose to look for a spot on top of the pass and after hiking about a mile off the trail we found a small patch of trees where the deer had cleared out a spot to sleep when they are up there. It was just the right size for our tent and sheltered us from the worst of the wind. We had planned for no water on the pass and had stocked up at the base but we were able to find a small spring and so was able to pump water for breakfast rather than using our supplies and hoping we had enough to see us to the next spring or stream. We had a great view of the Tetons, Alaska Basin and the upper part of the Teton Canyon from our camp site. We were in bed by 7pm.

Day 3: We were up at 7am and on the trail by 8:30, as we knew we had alot of ground, about 11 miles, to cover that day. At the top of Hurricane pass we were at an elevation of 10,372 ft and had covered about 10 miles already. The day started off pretty cold and it was noon before I warmed up enough to take off my jacket. As we dropped down into Cascade Canyon we were greeted by a spectacular view of the Tetons, high mountain meadows and Schoolhouse glacier and Lake. As we worked our way down this beautiful canyon we had continuous views of the Tetons, the many cascading streams for which the canyon gets its name and many other beautiful mountain views. The trail was almost completely downhill the entire way out. Both my Dad's and my feet started hurting ont he way out as the three days of travel began to fully kick in. The last few miles were almost the hardest as we got more tired and sore and knew the end was drawing near. That first glimps of Jenny's lake was a very welcome sight as it signled the end of our journey. We met my Mom at Hidden Falls and from there hiked the remaining distance to the Boat Launch ( boy was I glad I didn't have to hike the 2.5 miles around the lake to get back to the car!)

 

On the way home we stopped at Wendy's in Jackson and ate, I thought I was going to fall asleep on my cheesburger. After picking up the truck at the the trail head where we had left it on tuesday when we started up the trail we drove on to Green Canyon Hotsprings to soak and soothe our sore muscles before going home, showering and going to bed.
Today my lower legs are sore and have me hobbling like and old lady every time I sit down for very long. Despite the sore muslces it was totally worth the time adn effort to get to stand so close to the Tetons and to see the beautiful high mountian country.