Josh's EPIC Adventure Log

LOTOJA 1000

2011-09-09T20:28:00.001-07:00

Im off on my 5th Logan To Jackson race in the morning. I'll be riding with my spot satellite tracker. Take a virtual 206 mile ride with me.

Steinway finds a new home

2011-07-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

Of all my grandparents wonderful possessions, I've been fortunate to be the recipient of Grandma's cute Steinway upright. I spent many hours playing this piano on their patio since the day it was brand new. Grandma and I loved to play old jazz standards and of course hymns together. We never played this song together but I thought it was an appropriate choice for a "Steinway". I sure miss those 2 great people!

Monday Ride

2011-06-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite bike rides. We park in Kamas and ride to the top of Wolf Creek pass and back. 45 miles, 3300 feet of climb and 2.5 hrs. roundtrip. Not bad for a nice weekday evening ride in the Mountains. Weather lastnight was perfect!! Might make it a weekly ritual.

Total Miles for 2011: 417.66
Total Elevation for 2011: 32356

Grand Staircase Weekend

2011-06-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

I spent quite a bit of time here before Clinton designated it a national monument. It was much more peaceful back then. You could spend 3 days in a canyon and see no one. Now you have to get a permit to see most of it. If you know where your going, you can still find quiet peaceful places to camp, although it may require a car that can take a beating, like the FJ.

A good Springbar tent has a magical way of putting a smile on a kids face.

Hanging around the campfire at the secret Escalante "wall" camp.

Will "dropping out" of the slot

You know the slot canyon is narrow when Sasha boo barely fits

A nice little evening climb in the rock garden

A truly strange place indeed....

The power of wind is truly amazing!

The sun setting on 50 mile ridge

The kiddoes making their way to our next slot canyon of the trip

Sometimes the anticipation of getting in the slot canyon causes one to run like the wind

Canyoneering often requires you to trudge through bone chilling water. Definitely didn't bother the kids. They had fun throwing mud pies at the wall.

In all of my slot canyon travels, I've never quite encountered one quite like this. Definitely unique for the Colorado plateau. My rookie iPhone photographic skills don't do it justice. See my wife's blog for better photos.

The strange stripes in the canyon wall remind me of a horse-like African animal.

After a hot desert hike, there is nothing quite like a good suck on the camel back and a warm cuddle with a barbie doll.

Preparing for the departure from camp Escalante

Nothing but the finest 5 star amenities in our camp!

As we made our way out of the national monument, I suggested we take a quicker route to avoid getting home too late at night. My adventurous wife talked me into taking the longer route and stopping at another canyon I had never seen before. Needless to say, it was well worth it despite the fact we got home at midnight instead of 5. The scenery was outstanding!

Influence

2011-06-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

When I was in high school, I called a local radio station (97.9) and won tickets to a piano concert in a small recording style venue. I had never heard of the guy playing but thought what could be better than free tickets? I was mesmerized by the amazing sound and style and have tried to adopt it myself ever since. While listening to Pandora the other day, I was presented by one of his songs and decided to come home and learn it "my way". Here is my cover of Danny Wright's "Missing You".

(Note: This is played by ear. The music on the piano is a crazy Liszt piece I'm working on. I have to take breaks every now and again and play "ear" stuff)

Musical Thoughts

2011-05-18T21:13:00.001-07:00

Sometimes people ask me if I ever write music. I guess my response is "no, not really. But sometimes I like to sit down and make up music.". Here's an example of my recent musical thoughts. I'm a bit embarrassed at the delay difference in my video and audio but I was too lazy to fix it. Please forgive.

Change of Plans

2011-05-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

Original plan for today was to load the bikes in the truck and head for the east side of the old pioneer trail "Hole In The Rock". From there we would ride the bikes to the Glen Canyon park boundary and come back. I've traveled the west trail many times from Escalante, Utah. For some reason I've had the east side on my list for years. Probably because it's much more remote, less traveled and pretty much requires a Moab style 4x4 or equivalent. The west side out of Escalante is family van friendly but long and full of washboards.

After holding a brief round-table, we decided that the skies looked a bit unsettled and decided to lock the bikes up and go to plan "B". Here's the view of my back patio from base camp. Notice Navajo mountain far in the distance.

We locked the bikes to a tree and climbed in the truck and headed for Butler Wash road which is essentially the east side of Comb Ridge. I've never spent any quality time on this side of Comb so I was feeling good about plan "B". First hike for the day, Fishmouth Cave.

After being eaten alive by the bugs, we arrived at the first of two decent sites. Very large and quite trashed. You really have to let your mind wander and imagine as restored and pristine as Mesa Verde.

What do you think your home will look like in 800 years?

After checking out the ruins, we climbed up to the cave. Any guesses why they might call this "Fishmouth Cave?" I'm still wondering.....

The back wall of the huge cave was covered with faded pictographs overtaken by the graffiti of modern man. It's always fun to find "negative handprint" images. Luckily no one had destroyed these.

Should we PARTY before or after we destroy the ancient history of our beautiful state?

A once beautiful Anasazi clan symbol riddled with bullet holes. Sure makes me proud of our fellow modern day people. Sheesh.

Next stop further down Comb ridge. I've been wanting to see this one for quite sometime. The hike was less than 30 minutes from the car. I'm sure I've stood in line longer for a ride at Disneyland.

It's quite rare to find multi-colored hand prints. Both negative and positive.

The rub marks in the rock are where the ancients ground corn. Because their pots had round bottoms, the would chip concave holes in the rock to hold them steady.

Anyone for a wild guess as to how they started a fire?

On our way back up the comb, we had just a few hours of daylight left. I decided to go back to a little canyon right off the main highway and look for a ruin that skunked me last year with the kids. After searching high and low, I found it and was quite amazed. Many people have come looking for it and never found it. It's really quite easy to miss.

After scouting all aspects of this ruin, it was pretty obvious we wouldn't be climbing inside this one without the canyoneering equipment. Because of the location of the door, it's obvious they had a big tall ladder to climb in and out.

As we drove the highway back to base camp, I spotted a pretty good site i've never seen from the highway. We parked the truck and scurried to the bottom of the wash. The site was pretty badly destroyed. As I was climbing out of the wash, I noticed a nice site panel full of petroglyphs. Definitely a bonus for a stones throw from the highway.

There is really something about this place that captivates me. Must be the magic of the ancient ones.

Found

2011-05-13T21:04:00.001-07:00

After the Maze adventure, we cooked some potatoes and ravioli and loaded the bikes. We then headed east on 95 to the Cedar Mesa. We started up the dirt road in the Manti LaSal national forest around 10 and found a nice little base camp.

Next morning we loaded the bikes and made our way to a little ruin i've been trying to find for over a year. There are many photos of this on the web but no one is willing to reveal it's location. Long story short, I found it. After the long and arduous journey, it became clear while it's a rare find. According to the logbook, It hasn't seen visitors since November of 2010.

The roof is fully intact and the place hasn't been trashed like most ruins in the cedar mesa. Yet another testament to the fact that it's rarely visited.

Here's a photo looking back as we climbed out of the canyon. Truly magical. Can't wait to take the kids back. Located literally 5 minutes from the parking.

After the 50 mile ride to the "secret" ruin, we had a quick bagel sandwich and made our way south to the "Citadel" ruin. While obtaining a permit, I just had to show the ranger a photo from my iPhone of our secret ruin. They had never seen or heard of it and offered to reveal some other ruins in exchange for it's location. I politely declined. It sure was fun to taunt the ranger with some "eye candy".

The citadel was truly cool. Located at the end of that rock peninsula, it must have been a lookout or defense location.

I felt like I was stuck inside a rock version of Mario. There were huge rock mushrooms everywhere.

I love to mix cactus and anasazi homes. Even the cactus looked like a mushroom.

Definitely not a place I would have let my little anasazi kids play.

Just a quick photo of the blog station. Talk about a geek fest.

Maze Mesa and Motos

2011-05-13T20:18:00.001-07:00

A little summer welcoming activity. The Maze (Maze district Canyonlands) The Mesa (Cedar Mesa) and The Motos (the filthy orange beasts).

Meeting Van after work and performing the gear transfer before heading for destination Hite Marina, Lake Powell. This is where we will launch north on a jeep road into the Maze district of Canyonlands National Park. The Maze is considered the most remote part of the park. I must agree. Price of admission is 50 miles of rocky nasty road.

This is Van waking up in Hotel Hite. I think it dropped to 30 degrees during the night. Seriously.

Cruising the good section of road out of Hite. It teases you a bit.

Our first real glance of the Maze and we climbed a big mesa north. This would be the souther end of the Maze. Our destination was Maze overlook.

From the overlook, we parked the bikes, changed into hike gear and made our way down into the canyon bottom 600 feet below. I was fascinated by these formations which later served as the ultimate landmark to find our way back out.

Once in the bottom, we hiked the "Harvest Scene" pictograph panel. The lighting was terrible, but sometimes you don't have much control when you have a schedule to keep. I think Van counted 16 of these "people" painted on the wall by the ancient ones.

This was my favorite. Notice the cool googles and claws.

To give you an idea of size, here's Van posing by the "morphs".

7 miles of hiking later, we arrived at the top of the overlook. Notice the famous "chocolate drops" in the distance. The Harvest scene is located on the other side of these.

On our way out of the Maze, we snapped a photo by the fee station, minus the ranger and the fee. If you want a National Park to yourself, this is a good choice for a destination. I'm certain it will be a few years before they see a shuttle system here.

A good ride is never complete without a few maintenance problems. This is called operation "pierced hole in rear tank and transfer leaking fuel to front tank". My deepest apologies to the good folks of SUWA for leaking some fuel on your precious road. Allison take note for gift ideas?

I think this was my favorite formation I saw the entire day. "The fins" were located just a few miles north of Hite.

Adventure In The Works

2011-05-07T12:08:00.001-07:00

Prepping the bike for a little spring adventure. Notice the fuel bottles mounted on the front fork. Amazing what $6 in home depot parts can do. If your bored you can track our progress on the SPOT map at the bottom of the page. I will most likely turn it off on occasion to conceal the location of some Indian ruins that I've been seeking for several years. Stay tuned.

Getting Old

2011-05-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

This weather is killing me! I feel like I have truly experienced Siberian living. Here is a recent bike ride up Big Mountain. My favorite training ride. This photo is a good 1/2 mile from the 1st major switchback. Guess I'll have to wait a few more weeks to hit the pass. Sheesh.

Weekend Warrior in Wild Utah

2011-04-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

The new title photo of my blog is compliments of my wife who happened to capture this killer shot of me riding my bike along a knife-edge ridge at Caineville Utah. Caineville is normally the home turf to some of the world's craziest motorcycle riders as well as environmentalists trying to shut the place down. I decided to give my kids a taste of bike riding in a world famous moto-mania mecca. In case you were wondering, those are the Henry mountains in the background.

My kids must think I'm nutz. Will during his 127 minutes in a deep slot canyon.

I tried to tell Jo the shades really weren't necessary down here.

Sasha Boo playing peak-a-boo in a Utah slot.

Gazing out over Bryce Point this morning, it occurred to me that our Utah moto adventures had never taken us to Aquarius Plateau (the big one in the far distant). We'll have to fix that.

The FJ resting under the magical sunset with the moon coming alive. Sometimes we choose some pretty lonely trailheads.

Surprise Canyon

2011-04-16T18:40:00.001-07:00

Passed by this trailhead while on a Utah motorcycle adventure. Decided I would bring the kids back. Surprise is the canyon directly above Will's noggin. Easy 1.5 mile hike. And even better pretty much deserted due to it's distance from the local Applebees and Marriott hotel.

Sasha boo trucking up the wash in her keen sandles.

The many shades of brown deep in Capital Reef.

Allison in the narrows.

Eyes of Sinbad

2011-04-15T20:48:00.001-07:00

A fine little hike with the kids today in the San Rafael Swell.

The larger cave has a huge opening in the ceiling.

View of west canyonlands from Sinbads right eyeball.

Allisons favorite sign at Stans Burger shack.

Making Good

2011-04-09T20:38:00.001-07:00

Anyone who appreciates Stephen Schwartz's musical "Wicked" might find this tune interesting. This is a brilliant song he wrote and later cut from the show. It was ultimately replaced by the song "Wizard and I" which is also quite good. I became fascinated when I heard a recording of Mr. Schwartz himself playing it on the piano. It's an extremely fast song and to make matters worse, it's in the miserable key of E, which many of his songs are. I decided I had to learn it when I heard him play it. I know pretty much nothing about singing, but in my non-expert opinion, this girl sounds like she does. Hopefully my mistakes aren't too obvious :)

Hear My Song

2011-03-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

I've made a shift lately in my piano practicing from show tunes to classical music. It's like a passionate love affair with many different sports, focusing on each one for a period of time, then moving onto the next and back again full circle. I pretty much don't dare post anything classical as the internet is more than loaded with 200+ year old piano greats played much better than I will ever be able to. I may post some snippets if I build up the courage. Here is a great tune I learned and uploaded a while back. It is normally sung by 4 people. This guy has covered a few already and has an amazing voice. It's a bit long, so press the mute button on your phone and sit back and listen while on a boring conference call as I often do.

Graduation

2011-01-30T11:00:00.001-08:00

"The Canyons" ski resort has pretty much become our "home" resort. That is where the kids have all learned to ski for the most part. Since the young age of 2 or 3, they have all decided that graduation from the Watkins family ski school means you are ready to take on the terrain of the famous and gnarly "9990 chairlift". There is truly no easy way off this part of the mountain.

Jonas At Graduation

94 Turns, A+
Fright Gully, A+
Lower East Fast, A+

Getting ready to tear it up with Dad

A little hike to our secret powder stash 7 days after the storm

My Favorite Christmas Gift

2011-01-17T12:41:00.001-08:00

Christmas 2010 was of course over the top. The kids were spoiled (as usual) with more things than they could ever need (1/2 of which they've already forgotten about). My wife surprised me with a few piano books. My favorite was the Bruce Hornsby Book "Spirit Trail". The photo is supposedly an old picture of his uncle. I always thought Hornsby was quite a pianist, but after learning a few of his piano solos, I have a new respect for his rich chord voicings and unique style. Here is my best attempt to cover his "Song C".

Orange Bubble Express

2010-12-11T21:20:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrated our first day back at "The Canyons", our preferred local ski resort where we graciously partook of the worlds finest powder. They delayed their opening this year due to some major renovations (to the tune of $40 mil). We normally kick off the season on thanksgiving but had to wait an extra 2 weeks. (We actually snuck a day at snowbird because we couldn't wait any longer :)) They just installed North America's first heated bubble chairlift so we of course had to check it out. It's like riding in a giant pair of orange ski goggles and delivers you a good 2/3 of the way up the entire resort. Looking forward to yet another epic season skiing with the family.

Willster preparing to shred some serious "pow"

My Jo bug getting ready to ski "pin ball alley", his first black diamond

Looking back towards our favorite town!

The Violinists Backed Out

2010-11-30T22:05:00.000-08:00

I have always loved Christmas music since I was a kid. I was enthralled with Manheim Steamroller Christmas music when I was a kid. I even made up my own arrangement of "Silent Night" that I played by ear based on their version. I think I've since learned about 5 different versions of Silent Night. I learned this arrangement by James Koerts for our church program over the weekend because the violinists backed out at the last minute. It has quickly become one of my favorite Christmas song books.

Spry Canyon

2010-11-16T20:12:00.001-08:00

Today was the first ever canyoneering experience where I lost track of the number of rappels in a single canyon. Spry canyon is famous for this. The morning began with a brisk walk up the upper section of pine creek to the spry canyon pass. It was a bit challenging with the soreness from the misery canyon hike a day earlier. Today we were carrying a much thicker rope as well and so the added weight wasn't welcome.

Here's a shot of spry pass looking across Zion at the west temple.

As the canyon rapidly narrowed, we were greeted by our first rappel of the day measuring 165 feet. We threw on the wetsuits and made our way down.

This was my favorite of the day. A nice 70 footer into a very dark chasm. It was right out of an episode of discovery channels "planet earth".

The day wouldn't be complete without some november bone chilling water. I honestly don't even remember which rappel this was but the water greeted us at stage two of the 100 footer.

John B descending. (notice the rope bag below)

We were finally able to take off our wetsuits and get dry clothes on before this 100 foot dramatic finish to a great day.

The evening hike out to mt. Carmel highway was magical and the Thai food in town was equally as good.

Misery Canyon

2010-11-15T20:39:00.001-08:00

Given the title of my post I'm sure you are thinking something bad happened to me on a canyoneering adventure. As it turns out this is the name of the deep slot canyon we explored today just outside the boundary of Zion national park. The only miserable part of the day was the hike out from the river bottom of the magical Parunawheap canyon.

With a wetsuit and neoprene socks the water was much warmer than you would expect this time of year.

My fellow adventure seeker father in law "on rappel".

The end of "west fork misery canyon" meets the parunawheap river which is essentially the east fork of the virgin river. The better known Zion narrows are considered the north fork of the virgin. The scenery down here easily rivals the famous Zion narrows. The park service no longer permits people to hike this canyon inside the park boundary. This photo shot is still outside the park boundary. Our miserable steep 1400 ft hike out was just around the corner.

Piano Fish

2010-10-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I had a cool fish tank in my bedroom that was my pride and joy. Like most kids, I really hated practicing the piano. My mom created an incentive system where she would buy me 1 fish for my tank for every 7 hours of practicing I did. I thought it was a great system. Too bad that system is no longer in place for my adult years. She would owe me an entire pet store by now.

Here's a great song titled "Run Away With Me" I posted a couple of days ago that someone posted a response to. Written by a lesser known couple Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk they are taking New York by storm with their "new" musicals. They recently wrote a musical based on the children's book series "Henry and Mudge". My wife and kids have read the entire series many times.

Business Trip

2010-09-28T20:15:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you have to make the most out of your boring lonely evenings when traveling on business. It just so happens that my business travels have brought me to Moab for a couple of days to implement a system for the State of Utah at Dead Horse State Park. I haven't been to that place since I was last there with my friend GRC many years ago. My only memory is GRC wrapping his video camera in a pillow then fastening a rope and throwing it over the edge of the cliff while the camera was rolling. He can tell the rest.

I've been to Moab a million times in my life and never really ventured into the La Sal mountains to the east. This range is huge (and very tall) and is perhaps the most prominent landmark on the Colorado plateau. With the autumn leaves rapidly changing, the mountains were a red cape and I was a bull. The roads are rough but who cares when you have a rental car :) I actually started up La Sal pass road but chickened out when it got too steep. I then headed for Geyser pass road, drove up to Burro pass trailhead and then took the little spur road to the appropriately named "Gold Basin" which was definitely the highlight. (I used my SPOT satellite tracker which you can see at the bottom of this page).

The rental car and Mt. Tomasaki (12096 ft) in the background

The burro pass trail and Manns Peak (12152 ft) in the background

Gold Basin with Mt Mellenthin (12592 ft) peering it's head

Too bad the iPhone doesn't do justice, but you get the idea

I've driven the Alpine Loop in autumn many times, but due to size, quantity and the fact that I saw a total of 4 other people the entire evening makes this a new favorite. Pretty shocking considering Disney Euro Moab is only a 30 minute drive away.

I Wish I Could Go Back To College

2010-09-08T07:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a song from Avenue Q which I learned a few months back. I never thought anyone would find any use for it but I guess these guys did. I learned it from the actual score (which I prefer). The arrangements are usually more interesting to play. If only I could just go back to college..ha ha....