The end is the beginning is the end

July 4^th, 2011. Day 56, and the last day of Snowbird’s longest, deepest season ever. We celebrated it with Matt and Liberty…and hundreds of other people.

We got word that Snowbird would open at 7:30 and made a vow to get there for the first tram. No such luck. We were hoping that 8:00 am would still beat the (hungover) 4^th of July crowds. Wrong again. We drove by an already full parking lot at 7:55am. For some perspective, we have never had to park in an alternative parking lot due to crowds. The tram and ticket lines were already incredibly long, but we still managed to get up to the top by 8:30 to meet up with Matt. The vibe was great. I didn’t even mind all the whooping.

It was a pleasant 58 degrees at the top, which meant most people who planned to do dumb things like ride in bikinis had found alternative clothing. The snow pack had deteriorated significantly, and we had to walk across some rocks before making it down to Mineral Basin. Still, the clouds kept things soft and generally unsaturated.

We took a few laps on each chair, but the crowds were significant so progress was slow. Still, it felt great to be out there riding. We headed to the plaza for the pancake breakfast to find the line in a 1/8 of a mile circle around the patio. We opted for the Forklift instead, but ended up waiting even longer for our food. This put us in a pinch to get Liberty to the airport, but he somehow made it back to Seattle.

It’s always sad to feel the season end. But it’s also hard to be too melancholy when we caught opening day, closing day, and everything in between. Frankly, my knees need a rest. The season was filled with so many awesome moments, and it was everything we hoped our first season as locals would be. Plus, we’ll be boarding again in only 4 ½ months! 

Snowbird Sunshine

June 25, 2011: Day 54

There was still plenty of snow up on Hidden Peak, so we had a great day riding in the mashed potato and corn goodness. It’s pretty special to be getting in quality runs this late in the year. Sadly, not everyone follows the common etiquette of Spring skiing. Allow me to explain.

Steph’s rules for Spring Skiing/Riding

1. Men should never, for any reason, wear tank tops or go shirtless. This applies to both muscular men and men with chest hair/beer guts. Regardless of your body type, you look like a tool.

2. Jerseys may be worn, but only if they are not too long. Unless it’s a U of M jersey - that’s not allowed. Guideline: Knee-length IS too long.

3. Jeans, as always, are discouraged on the slopes.

4. Do not ski/ride in shorts. You look like an amateur. When you wear shorts, waters sprays up from the ground and drips into your boots. Don’t worry, you’ll discover how uncomfortable this is in a few hours.

5. Neon, plaid, one-pieces, and other gaper-wear increase the entertainment factor for all, and are therefore encouraged. As long as you are not serious…

6. Do not, under any circumstances, ski/ride with a PBR in hand. (Yes, I saw this several times.) Riding down a hill with your body strapped to a wooden plank is arguable MORE dangerous than driving. You have nothing like a seatbelt or airbag to protect you  (and we all know idiots who do this are not wearing helmets). Beers on the patio AFTER riding are strongly encouraged, so just try to hold off until then.

7. No Whooping. Whooping is for epic powder days only. Have fun, but don’t act like a gaper.

8. Swimsuits should not be worn unless you are in a slush cup/pond skimming competition.

9. If you are breaking any of these rules AND wearing a fanny-pack, you deserve to be punched. (Real life example: A teenage boy who thought he was hot was skiing shirtless with a maroon fanny pack on. Not cool.)

10. Rapping while riding is encouraged. I recommend mining the vaults from the ‘90’s for favorites like “Whomp, There it is!” and “Baby Got Back.”

If you follow these rules, you will soon have the Snowbird Sunshine video playing through your head as you enjoy your epic Spring day without grossing other people out. 

Snowbird Sunshine video

CSAness

Despite my gardening ambitions, this is the first year I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The idea is that you buy a share in a farm early in the season, then you get produce weekly. The risk is that with floods or draught you may not get much of a return on your investment.

It's amazing how many CSA farms there are in Utah. In my area alone there were 10-12 farms to choose from. I chose Zoe's Garden for several reasons: they are natural/organic, they include fruit (many just have vegetables), and the shares are larger with more variety.

One month into the season, I've been thrilled with the whole thing. each Tuesday I go and pick up my box. I sort through it and make a weekly menu based on what needs to be used first and what will keep until the end of the week. Then, I go the the grocery story to buy grains and meats to go with the meals.

I love using vegetables that I have never cooked with before (Chinese snow broccoli, mustard greens, amaranth, and scrapes). The only downside - so far - has been the fact that you get what is in season...and sometimes a lot of it. After never eating sunchokes before I received a huge bag of them for three consecutive weeks. I've eaten sunchokes sauteed, mashed, roasted, shaved, and just about every other way you can eat them. It was a bit of an overload.

Pure MIchigan

Almost exactly one year after packing up and heading west, I went back to Michigan to visit some dear friends that I missed terribly.

The visiting madness included a dinner with Dirk’s brother and his family in Kalamazoo, Englishfest with all my former English colleagues, and a Quad party. Dirk also had many client meetings throughout Michigan.

Coming back was a ton of fun, but also eerie. Here’s a list of things I’ve missed and those I can live without.

Things I missed:

-       My friends: We have made some friends here in Utah, but the bonds I have with my Michigan peeps are still much stronger.

-       The MAC: The OAC just doesn’t compare. It was weird to see all the same people doing the same exercises.

-       Midwest sarcasm: Trust me, people outside of Michigan have practically no sense of humor

-       Detroit driving: In Utah, people are somehow timid, aggressive, and inept at the same time. Detroit drivers may be aggressive, but the know what they’re doing

-       Meijer: Nothing compares to it.

-       Racial diversity: I really cannot describe how great it was to walk through Detroit Metro and hear the “Detroit dialect” coming from all different types of people. It makes Utah look like The Stepford Wives.

-       MSU campus: I took a run by the Sparty statue for old times sake and felt an incredible need to tailgate.

Things I can live without:

-       Mountainlessness: I kept looking around for the Wasatch Range, but it was never there.

-       Constant grey skies: I think the sun came out once in four days. Yep, that’s how I remember it.

-       Walmart Wolverines: This type of person is native to Michigan, and was observed in abundance during the trip.

-       My old school: So many memories of being disrespected by both kids and administrators. Ugh.

-       Smokers: It was crazy to see people smoking all over the streets. (And throwing the cigarette butts everywhere except the trash can.) Few people smoke here in Utah – which is probably one reason why our health care is cheaper.

It was great to come back, but after 3 days I had my fill. It was nice to come HOME to good old Utah and the kitties. You never know, we may just have to go back to see a State game this fall. 

It was a very good year: 53/50

Today, Snowbird was on the front page of the New York Times. No big deal - they were also on the NBC evening news last night. Why? Let's just say it has been a very good year. It's been such a good year that even non-snow lovers are stopping to take notice.

Snowbird's average, yearly snowfall is 500 inches (but we've found it closer to 600 for the past 5 years). This year's snowfall? 776. 

Not only was the snowfall epic, but this year did not have a huge dry-spell or mid-winter warm-up. That means that November snow is still gracing the slopes, and there is a huge base of white stuff that's not going anywhere anytime soon. 

Even our local, Ogden hill (Snowbasin) opened up today - June 11th - for summer skiing and riding. This was a first for Snowbasin. Sadly, they were not honoring last season's pass. (I mean...come on! It's last season's snow!) We didn't have the money to drop on next year's Snowbasin pass, so it was Snowbird for us.

The mountain was smooth, with some mashed-potato piles building up as the day progressed. We had a few great runs just passed Old Ladies, where the creaminess was smooth but still fast. We also ventured through the knucklehead traverse, but found it a bit stop-and-go. 

We met up with one of the Utah Spartans and grabbed a beer on the patio to enjoy some greasy food and live music in the 60 degree sun. It was one of those days when I just sat there in awe. Life is pretty damn incredible sometimes. 

Sometimes I think about what would have happened if we didn't move to Utah. We would have been hanging out on the deck in Williamston. I probably would have been manically grading papers in preparation for the end of the year at Holt. No doubt, we would have seen the newspaper article and news broadcast through Facebook or Twitter, where we followed Snowbird diligently, even when living in Michigan. We would have sighed but reminded ourselves of all the reasons why we were still in Michigan: good jobs, family, friends, health care, etc. We would have viewed Utah as we always did: a pipe dream, one to be saved for later years. 

Most days, I don't know what really drove us to (finally) get the guts to move to Utah. Was it Dirk's injury? Restlessness? A premonition of how things would go downhill in Michigan? I'm still not sure. But I'm glad as hell that we did it. 

And, truly, we could not have picked a better year. 

View the New York Times article

Garden Envy: Year 2

I’ve eaten healthy for the past decade, but it wasn’t until I saw the Mormons in action that I realized just how much healthy food you can grow in your backyard. With a new house, I vowed to step up my garden again this year.

The soil here is complete crap: hard clay with no drainage. Luckily, the former owners left behind two Square-Foot Box Gardens with rich soil. I capitalize that term because it’s a brand, and a theory of gardening. I bought the book (the guy who created the system lives about 30 minutes from my house) and went to work.

Two, 4x4 gardens were not quite enough for what I wanted to do, so I also planted some tomatoes and peppers in “permanent pots” (dug into the ground).

Based on the book, I really branched out from what I grew last year. Here are a few things I’ve learned so far.

-       Broccoli: It’s cute, but I’m growing 6 plants and each head (what you eat) is about as big as a wine cork. That means if I get one from each plant, then I have enough for a salad garnish. They take up a square foot each, so this is a veggie better saved for the grocery store.

-       Strawberries: I planted three squares of strawberries. The fruit is out, but not ripe yet. So far, each plant has a ton of flowers. I can tell the fruits themselves will be a bit small, but I’m happy with them so far. According to the book, strawberry plants are a perennial that will live for several years….we’ll see about that.

-       Greens - Kale, Swiss Chard, Spinach: We love greens, so I’m growing some of each. I bought transplants, but I can tell the plants were shocked when I transplanted them because they just sat there, stunted, for about two weeks. Next year, I will definitely plant from seed. These plants are all growing well. It’s getting warm for the kale and spinach, so those will be done in a few weeks (but more can be planted in the fall). I’ve heard spinach is harder to grow, but I have not experienced that yet. I have a lot planted, but I still have to mix and match varieties to get enough to sauté as a side dish.

-       Tomatoes and Peppers: Last year, both of these did not do well growing in pots at the Uintah house. I have a few theories about why. First, it’s very windy there; I’m amazed the plants even survived. Also, Dirk was in charge of watering them for 3 weeks before I moved. I am hoping that in our new house with no wind and my own diligent watering, they will be fine. Heat could also play a big factor, but that’s something that just won’t change this year. 

-    Beets & carrots: I can see the little tops, but Im still not convinced there will be anything down there when I dig them up...

The Great Perhaps that Was

Almost nine months between posts is a long silence, but I finally had the time and energy to break it. The blog will be back, but for now I’ll just stick to a general update. I hope the few people who do follow this will continue to enjoy it, and I promise not to let another 9 months pass.

The fall and winter proved trying. Both of our jobs were time consuming, and we were both working 7 days a week (but only getting paid for 5).  We love our new jobs, but every major change has a break-in period and this one left more than a few blisters on our sanity.

In October, we found out that the owner of our rental home was short selling it – leaving us in a crunch to find a new home and fight the complete invasion of privacy that came with showing a home that was not ours. It was a complete pain, but in the end we did find a home and moved in December – right in the middle of the season.

Speaking of the season, it was Epic. I could not even recount how many powder days we had because most of our days were powder days – including yesterday, May 21, 2011. A few weeks ago, Snowbird broke its record for yearly snowfall, and the resort is still going strong. So far, we have 51 days in the ticker, and that will only increase. Every day was a day of big mountain riding. We even learned to use beacons and probes along the way.

The summer will bring a huge list of do-it-yourself renovations, gardening, hiking, and visiting with friends; it will be a welcome respite to a very long year. I thought that when I moved to the mountains, I would mourn winter – like I did in Michigan. But I’m excited. There is so much to do here, and the beauty still strikes me on my simple drive to work as the sun rises over Ogden’s mountains.

The other day, we were sitting around, drinking wine and making dinner after a great day on the slopes. The kitties were nestled on their respective perches and the sun was setting, casting an amazing purple glow on the mountains off our back porch. This quote from the film American Beauty kept running through my head:

“I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life...”

and that’s what the Great Perhaps feels like to me. 

White Pine Lake Hike

This was one of my last true weekends of the summer before going back to school, so we decided to make a long drive North of Logan to hike White Pine Lake in the Bear River Range.

The drive was almost two hours, so we woke up as early as we could. There was a minor cat attack in our household the night before, so we ended up sleeping in a little more than we wanted to; we planned to leave by 6:30am, and we were out the door about 20 minutes after that.

The drive to the trailhead wound through several canyons and was gorgeous. It was almost 9:00am by the time we started out on the trail.

We picked this hike because we read that it was filled with wildflowers this time of year. The first mile or so was just blanketed with all sorts of red, yellow, blue, white and purple flowers. The first part of the hike was mostly through meadows at about 8,000 feet. The views were incredible and the temperatures were at least 20 degrees cooler than in Ogden (this is a good thing).

About halfway to White Pine Lake, the hike dipped into a forest area on the way to the White Pine Basin. We saw two huge deer and a lot of other wildlife.

With a half a mile left to the lake, the storm clouds we had been watching all hike started to roll in. There were only a few rumbles of thunder that seemed far away and no lightening. Still, two hikers were just in the news because they took a romantic hike and one was killed by lightening, so we were pretty concerned.  We debated back and forth about what to do and decided our best bet was to take shelter in some trees and wait it out. Heading back would be almost as dangerous as continuing on since we would be exposed to lightening either way.

It poured for about 20 minutes, but we stayed dry and comfy under a few huge pine trees. After the storm things cleared right up and it was blue sky and sun for the rest of the day.

When we got to White Pine Lake, we were glad we waited out the rain. The basin and lake were breathtaking. We explored the area a lot, including the campsites for backpackers. We picked out a few campsites in case we backpack in sometime in the future.

Because the lake is in a basin, the hike back was mostly uphill. By the time we got the car, it was almost 1pm and we were starving. In the grand tradition of Utah, all the restaurants we had looked up as potential lunch spots were closed.

In a twist of luck, Dirk spotted The Beehive Grill on our way out of town. It looked brand new and was miraculously open. They had homebrewed root beer and awesome food. (Actually, they had great microbrews too…but we were too beat to drink any alcohol.) The Beehive Grill was the find of the summer and the perfect ending to a great day outside. 

Lake Blanche Hike

In honor of Pioneer Day we decided to hike Lake Blanche and explore the wonderful country Brigham Young led his people to so many years ago. Actually, we just wanted to get the hell out of Salt Lake City and the parade chaos.

Lake Blanche is in Big Cottonwood Canyon, which I’d actually never been through. We spend so much time at Snowbird in Little Cottonwood that we’ve never made it over to big brother. We wanted to get to the trailhead early because it’s a State holiday today; Unfortunately, Dirk’s car had some unexpected engine issues and we ended up making a quick stop in Kaysville to buy oil.

Even with the delays, we were on the trail by 8:30am. The parking lot was packed and overflowing onto the Canyon road on both ends. One thing about Utah, you are never the first person to any outdoor destination. Whether it’s the lift line or the trailhead, someone is more diehard than you are.

Covering 5.6 miles and three lakes, the trail gains 2580 vertical feet on it’s way to the glacial basin that holds Lake Blanche. It was one of the better trails we’ve been on in terms of signs and trail condition.

We started along a rushing stream and hiked up through some beautiful Aspen groves. It’s been so dry in Uintah that it was great to get into a lush green area; it was also about 15 degrees cooler up in the Canyon.

The trail got pretty steep at some points, but it was much easier than the Malans Basin waterfall-climb-of-doom. Just before the lake is a huge area of glacial rock formations from thousands of years ago. The lake was cool and very pretty, but a little crowded. We hiked down to the more secluded Lake Florence to have a snack before heading back.

The whole hike took 4 hours, which was pretty fast considering the distance. Then we went to REI where we spent an obscene amount of money on equipment. We were hoping to go to the state liquor store while we were in the area, but it was closed in honor of Pioneer Day. 

Adam's Canyon Hike

Adams Canyon is a 3.4 mile hike along a beautiful river that ends in a 40 foot waterfall. We’ve come to the conclusion that Sunday is the day to hike because most people are at church. We got started early and were on the trail before 8:30am. We had the trail to ourselves except for a few early-morning runners.

The trail was pretty steep – it went up 500 feet in the first half mile of sandy switchbacks. The trail turned into Adam’s Canyon and followed a stream for the remaining mile and a half or so. The temperature along the shady stream was much cooler than the 80+ degree sun.

The trail got a bit strenuous along some rocks and steeps, but after the Malans Basin hike it seemed pretty tame. We were amazed how many people run and hike with dogs on such a steep trail.

The trail ended at a gorgeous waterfall that sprayed cool water over the entire area. We played around in the mist for a while before heading out. The trail is out and back, so it was just a downhill trek back the way we came. On the way back, the trail became significantly more crowded with families.

All told, the hike took about 2 hours, which was a nice because it was already 95 degrees out by the time we finished at 10:30. We headed home with pretty much the whole day ahead of us.