Snowshoeing Shenanigans
Sunday, February 03, 2013
Ok family, this is David here, you better enjoy it because it may be the only time I write the blog post. Laura's a little swamped in homework and other things so I'm filling in. A couple weeks ago for MLK Day, Laura and I decided to stop making and eating yummy food with all of our new fun kitchen appliances, thank you all, and go have an adventure and burn some calories.
For any who live in Utah, you will know that of late there has been much cold weather and thick snow. So, instead of spending our day under the inversion layer in Utah Valley, we decided to head to a higher altitude and enjoy the wonderful blessing (that any snow sport enthusiast would enjoy), that is fresh powder.
Laura and I's first date was snowboarding, but that involved a lot of learning, so for this chilly aquatic outing we decided to try snowshoeing. We started off by picking up our rentals from Outdoors Unlimited, headed up the canyon, took a left at the Sundance turn off, then continued on Stewart Road where we promptly put the Jeep into 4-wheel drive and navigated the narrow, windy, snow-packed road until we came to a widening in the trail where we parked the car and strapped on our gear to start our trek to the icy Stewart Falls.
Laura and I at the start of our adventure
As we stepped off the snow packed road and started our escapade, we quickly realized that we could encounter some very deep snow. Below you will find me up to my hips in wonderful fresh powder. However, in this situation I felt very awkward without a snowboard strapped to my felt to guide me through the luscious cloud of powder that I now labored through below.
A creative detour through a snowy glen
Ok, don't let that picture fool you. We actually quickly found a path that led all the way to Stewart Falls that anyone without snowshoes could safely navigate. But we preferred going off the beaten track and make the fullest use of our rentals.
Laura looking chill amongst the trees
Here we are nearing the frozen falls
Laura right near the falls
The falls were an amazing thing to see, in the picture above with Laura, you can barely see that on the ground about two feet in front of her, there is an icy berm. That ice is created from all the tiny droplets falling and freezing together in such away that it almost looks like blue glacial ice. That is, ice that has very low levels of oxygen in it. You can also see in the photo directly above how all of the falling water creates so much humidity in the air that it freezes onto parts of the waterfall. On the right, it looks like fuzzy ice, like you might find in an old freezer.
Laura's closeup shot of me
I continued to hike up around the falls to the second level and I got this close up picture of the frozen icicles. Here the water doesn't run along the ice but instead runs behind the icicles. I also got a chance to take a picture of Laura from above.
Isn't she a cutie?
Us heading on our way home
Laura wanted to make sure she got a full body shot of me
And of course, the token shoe picture
All in all, our adventures proved a success, we had fun, got to see some amazing stuff and Laura discovered a snow sport that she actually enjoyed. We highly recommend this as a date idea for any of our cousins living in the area. If you have any questions about the details or logistics we would be happy to supply you the requisite information.
All is well with the Hatch's and just know, married peeps still know how to have fun!
4 comments
Lolli is a lot more brave than I could ever be. But then I see her face in the photos and see she is head over heels in love and trusts you implicitly. Good job on the writing and adventure, David.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures!
ReplyDeleteLove the pics! Very clever and informative!
ReplyDeleteBahahaha the shift in styles between you and laura's writing is fantastic. I love you both so much :)
ReplyDelete