July 29 to July 31, 2010 Parris and Lisel Climbing Mt. Rainier

On July 29, 2010 our son Parris and his daughter Lisel began their climb of Mt. Rainier in Washington state. They had been training and practicing for about 6 months including winter climbs of Mt. Timpanogos and Spanish Fork Peak. The Mt. Rainier is a volcano whose summit is at 14,411 ft and is glaciated all year.

Mt Rainier (14,411 ft)

Parris and Lisel at White River Campground

The climb began at the White River Campground at 4,400 ft elevation.

This is the group from the Utah Valley Climbing Club that Parris and Lisel climbed with.

After they began their climb to base camp, Jan and I drove to the Sunrise Lodge located at 6400 ft elevation. There was still plenty of snow at this altitude. We enjoyed hiking some of the trails and taking a lot of photos. On this day the weather was clear and warm, this is exceptional for Mt. Rainier which is usually coverd with clouds.

                          

Mt Rainier from the Sunrise Parking lot.

Notice the snow bank in back of us, this is at just 6400 ft.

We were staying with Cam and Erin and their family in Bellevue, Washington. Parris and Lisel climbed on the 29th, 30th and then summited on July 31. The weather on Mt. Rainier turned for the worse, with a lightening storm and 5 inches of snow on the night of the 30th. On the 30th, they practiced their crevasse training and left for the summit at 11:30 pm. Their entire party of 15 made it to the summit. They then turned around and hiked out the 10,000 ft descent to the White River Campground, arriving at about 9:30 pm on the 31st.

Stormy weather on Mt. Rainier

Cam and Erin with their children Malachi and Cole went with us to pickup Parris and Lisel. We had beautiful views and really had a good time.

Cam, Larre, Jan, Erin

Cole and Malachi

Malachi and Cole

When Parris and Lisel made it to the White Campground, they were beat!! They had climbed 10,000 feet in elevation and then made their descent.

Lisel and Parris after the climb

We all had a great time and Parris and Lisel had completed a great accomplishment. I am very envious. We drove home the next day.

Empty Nesters at Dave and Terrell Lunts Cabin

On August 2, 2010, The Empty Nesters of the our ward, Mt. Loafer Ward, took some time out of our "busy" schedules and took flight from the heat to Dave and Terrell Lunts cabin up near Skyline Drive. On the way up there were some absolutely beautiful huge clouds that are typical of the mountains during our monsoon season.

Clouds over Skyline Drive

When we arrived at the cabin, we were welcomed by the sight of a beautiful cabin nestled in a cool and seclued forest in the mountains. There was even a bubbling stream flowing by.

Lunt's Cabin

We sat around and talked and talked and then as usual we ate, some had little steaks, some had big steaks and some had fish. There must have been nearly 10 different desserts.

After we had finished the marvelous desserts, some decided to go on a short hike.

We all had a wonderful time. Thank you so much to Dave and Terrell.

Logan High School Class of 1954 55th Reunion August 29 2009

This will really be a short note. On August 29, 2009, our high school class held our 55th class reunion. We had a great time. It was good to see our friends from long ago. From our photo, I think you will agree that we are a pretty good looking bunch for being over 70. We met at the new (from our viewpoint) Logan High school, toured the school, (inparticular, I wish we had had a library like the one at Logan High now, I would have spent much of my time there.) In the evening, we went to dinner where the old DI used to be.
Here is our photo.

We had a great time, we missed those who could not attend and hope you will come to our next reunion, WOW that will be our 60th.

Backpacking in the Wind River Mountains August 2009

Sorry that I have not gotten back to updating our blog since last July. In September 2009, Jan and I were called as group leaders in the Guest Services Missionary program at Temple Square and the Conference Center. We are thus Group Leaders of Group S. We have about 200 missionaries that we keep track of. Our group is responsible for security at the Conference Center, so when you first come into the Conference Center our group is responsibile for the metal detectors and purse searches. In any event along with the new responsibilities, came a lot of work that took a lot of time and I had a hard time getting back on track with my personal history, our blog and other stuff. Nuff said.

In August, 2009, we went backpacking into the Green River Lakes enterance of the Wind River Mountains. This is the area we have backpacked in for the last 40 years. We take canoes across the lake.

                                          View across lower Green River Lake from the Beach
                                            We set up a base camp on the south end of this lake.

                                   Our campsite at the south end of the lower Green River Lake.
From left to right we have Sam, Jan, Janet, Dean, Adam, Kyle, Jessie, Ryan, Erica and Francis.

This shows how we spend some of our time backpacking:

From our base camp, we can look east and see Clear Creek which comes from the glaciers on the Contential Divide.

Here is another view without the mist.

This is Clear Creek Canyon, it leads up to Slide lake, Clear lake, Faler lake and Bear lake. There is also a way to get from Faler lake to Native lake and Crescent lake and then down the Roaring Fork Creek.

We fish the lower streams some, here is Kyle trying to catch something on the Green River between the upper and lower Green River Lakes.

Kyle and Frannie along the trail.

Jan, Janet and Jessica resting along the trail.

Here is Jan on the bridge that is over the Green River between the two lakes.

The canyon that we usually go up to get to the upper lakes, Twin lakes, Shirley lake and the rest, is just between the pine tree above Jan and the left border.

Here are our two nearly weds in the kayaks.

We did put up a rain fly, here are Jessica, Dean and Erica putting up the rain fly.

And last but not least, we have a great time around the campfire.

From left to right, Ryan and Jessie, Frannie and Kyle, Adam and Erica.

This is just our base camp, primarily for Larre and Jan. Most of the rest hike up to the upper lakes, Twin lakes, Shirley Lake and others for the good fishing. We were content to stay in camp and loaf.

We have a great time in the Wind Rivers. From about 1970 until 1999, we went backpacking here almost every year and sometimes two or three times a year.

Hey did we ever have fun over the 24th of July Holiday. We stayed at the cabin and then 4 wheeled up Fish Creek to Skyline Drive with Janet, Sam and Erica, on the 24th. The Fish Creek trail had been washed out near the beginning so the Forest Service had made a new trail up the side of the mountain. It was very narrow but fun to 4 wheel on. When we approached Skyline Drive, there were large fields of Larkspur.

Jan decided to sit in the flowers to see if I could tell the difference. She is certainly a flower among the larkspur.

We even found a Scarlet Gilia.

There were also lots of these little puffballs.


If you can identify them, let me know.

The following day, the 25th, we went 4 wheeling again, this time up the Right Fork of Hobble Creek with Tarre and Michelle and Parris and Lori. We drove to the end of the pavement and used the 4 wheelers after that. We stayed on the main trail (road) for a few miles and then took a side trail to try to get where we could see more. It was a great trail, but made by 4X4 trucks. The 4 wheelers didn't fit into the rut very well.

Tarre & Michelle, Jan & Larre, Lori & Parris

There some really large mud bogs. We finally came to one that we didn't really want to go across so we turned around and had just started back when a 4X4 truck with a trailer on back came up to the bog. We didn't think he could make it across, but he gunned it and with the trailer sliding down into the bog he made it across. Good luck to whoever it was. They could only go a few hundred more feet because the road was blocked with downed timber.

That night we watched the Spanish Fork fireworks from our deck.

After thinking that we were not going to do much for the Holiday, we really had a blast.

Deer July 16, 2009

Just thought you might like to see a couple of visitors that we had yesterday in our front yard. This Mr. 4* point and Mr. 3 point. Notice that Mr. 4* point has an irregular tine hanging down on his left antler.

Mister 4*point

Mister 3 point

Mister 4* point and Mister 3 point