2013 New Hampshire White Mountains 2/16 - 2/19/2013

Another successful year winter climbing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire! We summitted 6 of the New Hampshire 4,000 footers this year: Tom, Field, Willey, Jackson, Jefferson, and Washington. We had an awesome time doing some butt sledding after summitting Mt. Jackson and we ran into some crazy winds again getting up and down Washington but at least we could stand up this year!



Click Here for the Photo Album

Picture Rocks Yo-Yo Hike 9/22 - 9/23/2012

What do you do when hiking an almost 50 mile trail in one day just doesn't provide enough of a challenge? You do a yo-yo! As in, start at one end of the trail, hike the whole thing, turn around and do it again. All without sleeping! That was the challenge that Roy came up with for this year's monster hike and Pictured Rocks was the trail we would be tackling. Although not as technically difficult as the Coastal Trail, the sheer distance and the conditions provided plenty of challenge. Nine of us started and only two of us completed it. Check out the video.

Boy Scout Isle Royale Trip 8/4 - 8/12/2012

We took the Boy Scouts to Isle Royale for a high adventure activity in August. It was quite a challenge getting the whole troop ready to do a complete week of back packing in a remote location but it was well worth the effort. We started by driving to Copper Harbor and camping for a night at Ft. Wilkins State Park and then took the Queen III to the island which was a three hour trip that turned out to be probably the biggest challenge of the week. The boys learned all about sea sickness first hand! Other than that things went pretty smoothly and I think the boys had some experiences they will remember their entire lives.

Mt. Pierce Family Hike - 7/12/2012

I loved the White Mountains so much after our trip in February that I wanted to take the family back to have the experience of standing on top of one of the summits. We did not have a lot of vacation time available so we planned a quick trip over to New Hampshire. We made a few other stops along the way and packed a lot of fun into a short vacation but the hike up to the top of Mt. Pierce was one of my favorite family experiences of all time. Here is the video!

New Hampshire 2/17 - 2/22/2012

After successfully completing the LSPP Coastal Trail hike Roy invited me along on a winter climbing trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The goal is to climb all of the peaks over 4,000 feet of which there are 48 in New Hampshire. Some people do it in the summer but those who want a bit more of a challenge do it in the winter. I was excited to go but had never done any mountaineering and did not have any equipment. Fortunately Brian Rise who had gotten Roy involved in the winter climbing had equipment that I could borrow since he was not going on the trip this year. So again not knowing anything of what I was about to get myself into off I went. Most of it was fun and challenging but there was an hour or so of "oh crap I'm going to die" kind of stuff. But it was great! And here is Roy's video of the trip.

Lake Superior Provincial Park Coastal Trail. 9/16 - 9/17/2011

After my LBL hike in April I posted a link to my video on the Midland Hiking Club mailing list which I had been following for a year or so hoping for some kudos. I got a reply from Roy Kranz, the head of the club, saying it looked like his kind of hike and asked if I would like to join him on a hike some time. Little did I know what that would lead to! I joined Roy and his friend Ben on a Monster Hike of the Lake Superior Provincial Park Coastal Trail in September of 2011. The trail is advertised as being a "difficult 5 to 8 day backpacking trip" and we were attempting to hike it all in one shot with no sleep. And here is the result!


Lake Superior Provincial Park: Hiking the entire Coastal Trail in one day! from Roy Kranz on Vimeo.

Fossil Springs, AZ Day Hike. September 1, 2011

In August we dropped our little girl off at BYU for her first year of college. Big event for us! We had decided to make a family vacation out of the trip and had stopped along some of the sites on the way out such as the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, and of course, the Corn Palace. Can’t forget that place. We also planned to visit my brother Jared and his family in Mesa, AZ. I had been beside myself the whole trip, passing up some of the greatest hiking areas in the country, and not being able to stop for lack of time, so Jared planned a day hike for us while we were visiting him.
He found a web-site that had some local hikes, one of them being the Fossil Springs hike we ended up taking. It sounded pretty good, a few miles in and out with a destination (falls and a swimming hole) that the boys would be interested in. So we started in and on the way down we meet a guy who is a search and rescue volunteer who starts filling us in on what we have gotten ourselves into. Apparently they have to pull quite a few people out of this area who are not prepared for the extent of the hike. Turns out it is a 10 mile round trip instead of 5 or 6 and it is pretty steep with the only source of water being at the springs. Luckily we had packed sufficient food and I had my water pump so we contined on but it did end up taking us much longer than we had anticipated. But it was an absolutely beautiful place and I was extremely proud of my boys for hanging in there the whole way!

Here is a link to some photos from the hike. Fossil Springs Hike