Old Rag

Labor Day 2009: Old Rag
8.8 mile loop
2,510 ft elevation gain

My favorite part was standing towards the top looking over the horizon and having another lady tell me to be careful because people die every year from falling off. The problem was there wasn't really anything to fall off of, not where I was standing and certainly not compared to the Rockies. I smiled and told her I'd be careful but I considered this a large hill compared to home. I think that confused her a bit, but that is the case with Easterners, they just don't understand what hiking in the mountains really is like.

Old Rag was a lot of fun. It has a little bit of everything that makes playing in the outdoors fun. Beautiful landscapes, from one side you can see rolling hills filled with trees endlessly in the distance and from the other you get to enjoy the views of villages and farms. Additionally, there are parts that require climbing between rocks, over rocks, and even under rocks as you climb that last portion of the hill. All in all worth the trip, not as difficult as the guide makes it out to be, and a lot of fun. Highly recommended, although I would suggest an early start so as to beat the crowds, because not all hikers and climbers are created equal and parts of the hike require single file lines...can be slow if you don't watch for it.

Parental Pressure

I coach 6 year old soccer. Its a lot of fun because the kids are just starting to get excited about the game. However, they are also just starting to become self-conscious of how they perform. At that age kids can swing either way with their desire to play, their fear of failure, and the parental pressure that is placed upon them. You might think that at 6 there isn't a lot of parental pressure to perform. "That comes later," your might say. It's true that some parents I see just want their kid to learn to love the game and have fun. They want them to do well and feel good about getting involved. Other parents must push/bribe their kid to want to play and to do more than just stand on the field and not move. Finally, there are the "gun-ho" type of parents who are yelling for their kid-even at age 6-to perform, to be better, and to work harder. These things aren't bad, but I begin to question how much you should push for those when your kid is 6 and you are yelling at him for not doing everything perfect or not working hard enough, when it is clear to me that he has been playing his best. It leads me to wonder if these kids are the ones that perform the best or if other parental approaches are better. Maybe it is just a difference in style, or maybe it is a completely different life philosophy. I don't know what these types of parents think or expect from their kids. At that age I think a love of the sport (or whatever activity the child is involved in) should be key and let the expectation to succeed build, but not at the expense of pushing a kid so hard that perhaps he won't want to do it anymore, or worse will keep doing it but because its what his/her parents expect, not because they love it.

Cross Country Travels

3.5 Days/34 Hours -- or by Google Maps account 1 Day 10 Hours
2 Nights at Truck Stops: 1 Night in the mountains of West Virginia
10 States: 11 Gas Stations: 400 oz Dr. Pepper

Surprisingly, three and a half days in a car isn’t as bad as you might think. Driving through the Midwest and small-town America was spectacular and the closest thing I’ve come to a dream trip of spending 2-3 months taking back roads of American to see the variety of events, attractions, and places that America offers. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to take that trip. I originally wanted to take longer than I did but realized I had a deadline and wanted to get everything moved before I started work, so instead of meandering throughout Kansas and Nebraska some more I decided to stop as little as possible. Although, I did wander of the Interstate Highway system and took a number of old state roads that took me through dozens of small towns and load of countryside. It was beautiful, I thought I would get bored through the long stretch of flatlands, but somehow I just found it incredible and a number of towns I liked enough to think, “I could enjoy living here.” I even discovered that Mankato, KS is offering free land to people who are willing to build a home. So move to Mankato?

Englestead Canyon -- Zion National Park

There is nothing I love more than getting out and enjoying nature. Utah is an amazing place for this because of the variety of terrain. If you have the right gear you get to some of the most incredible places, such as Englestead Canyon in Zion National Park. On Labor Day weekend we took drop just under 300' into Englestead Canyon. The pictures I have just don't do it justice. You can't grasp the distance we dropped to get into the canyon, nor the sheer height and beauty of it. It was without a doubt the longest rappel of my life. Thanks to Tom Jones, a renowned canyoneer who had just finished sending his own group through, we were able to get into the canyon by a single 300' rappel, rather than the three rope switch we were planning. After we dropped in there was no turning back so we headed down canyon through another dozen or so rappels and one of the best hikes I've ever done. Despite it being Labor Day we encountered very few people in this canyon (something about the difficulty of getting in kept most of the standard tourists out). This made the weekend perfect, since your regular hikes, like Angel's Landing, were packed with weekend tourists on a day where the park stopped letting in vehicle traffic because all the parking was gone. It just goes to show that with the right training and equipment you can still reach relatively untouched aspects of nature and enjoy the serenity of it. It was one of the best ways I could have spent my last weekend in Utah, enjoying everything Utah has to offer with my friends. Couldn't have wanted it any other way. Until next time.



Also, see my buddy Johnny's blog on our adventure.
http://jetchemendy.blogspot.com/2009/09/epic-weekend.html

NYC: A Functionally First Visit

Four days in New York City, not nearly enough. I just had my functionally first trip to the big apple, functionally because I went when I was about 12, all I remember is my brother ate Sbarros pizza for every meal and I climbed up Lady Liberty. This time around I managed to avoid most of the touristy stuff, and instead spent my time hanging out with friends in various parks: Bryant Park, Washington Park, and of course it goes without saying, Central Park.

Three highlights: 1) Biking through Central Park, Times Square, and all around the city. 2) Meandering across Brooklyn Bridge at 10:30 at night with a torrential downpour, blinding lightning, and intense thunder all around. And 3) Enjoying an afternoon nap in Central Park followed by an afternoon shower in Central Park.

I've always been fascinated with big cities, as long as I can remember. NY when I was 12, Chicago at 15, and then various European cities at 23. I still love them. I find it strange that I can sleep in a big city with sirens blaring outside just as easily as I can sleep in the desert or mountains of the West with the silence of crickets chirping. They both appeal to me and I love it, despite the dichotomy. I can't wait until my next NY adventure and for the first time am seriously considering looking for a job that takes me there....seriously.

Updates....

I'm lazy. It's a simple as that. I've gotten myself out of Provo, I've had the pictures, I've sat for hours on end in front of a computer and I'm just now updating my blog since I don't want to be writing a paper I should be. Enjoy.

Canyoneering in Southern Utah

I've been lazy and haven't been posting any of my travels during the last 4 months. Here is the first of what I hope is a series of updates.

Boltergeist & Yankee Doodle Canyon Combo

For Memorial Day weekend my plans were to spend it doing Baptist Draw and Upper Chute in the San Rafael Swell. I did it two months ago and was planning on leading a small group of relatiively new canyoneers through. At the last minute we decided weather conditions were looking bad enough to bag the swell and instead headed south to the St. George area where chances of rain were significantly less. It turned out to be a great choice for the group we had.

I had read about both Boltergeist and Yankee Doodle canyons as being relatively simple canyons with a number of rappels. The canyon was simple enough, although I was surprised by how frequent the drops/rappels were. Some of them could have been downclimbed by experienced climbers using basic bridging and stemming techniques although we broke out the rope for the first thirty footer on account of a few females who were intimidated by the drop. It turned out to be good practice for the other rappels which were far more technical than I anticipated.

Having only been through a few canyons with experienced canyoneers this was my first time leading a group. It was a little unnerving at times, especially for a few rather difficult rappel starts with drops from overhangs. Regardless the canyons were great, dry, beautiful, and relatively simple. With Boltergeist Canyon there is the chance of getting your rope stuck on the last 100' rappel, but if you set it up correctly and the last man watches where he drops over the edge then there's no problem. The total time for completing the canyon was said to be 2-2.5 hours. It took our group of 9 about 4 hours due partially to inexperience and being short two harnesses, but mostly because the exit is sufficiently vague, and we spent a good 1-1.5 hours attempting to find our way out of the canyon. In the end Boltergeist is a decent beginner canyon, by itself isn't worth the trip but when done in conjunction with Yankee Doodle its absolutely worth it and being only about 45 min drive outside of St. George.

Yankee Doodle Canyon is by far the better of the two. The initial rappel into Yankee Doodle is awesome. There is a short 20' rappel into a small grotto at which point you walk about 50' and then have a smooth drop into the canyon below about 100'. Neither of these rappels are complicated which makes this a great canyon for beginners. To simplify the rigging for the entrance, the beta I read suggested leaving your first rope and picking it up after you exit, this worked great and made it so we didn't have to haul a 150' rope through the canyon unnecessarily.

One aspect that made Yankee Doodle so great is it also includes some hiking through slot canyons which makes it more enjoyable than Boltergeist. After the first rappel most of the other drops through Yankee Doodle are about 6' with the occasional one a bit longer. We never broke out the shorter rope I carried instead using the stemming and bridging techniques against the canyon wall and once broke out a 25' strand of webbing to help some of our party down a particularly intimidating climb.

Once we started the canyon total time was just under 2 hours for 7 of us. Overall a great weekend spent in the canyons of Southern Utah. These two canyons gave me an additional taste for what canyoneering adventures hold and actually made me sad that I am going to DC this summer rather than spending it in Utah participating in additional adventures throughout the Southwestern United States.

Finding Justice in the American System

America touts itself as the epitome of democracy, human rights, freedoms, justice, and the American Dream. One thing in particular is the focus on finding justice in the court system. While this may be true in many circumstances involving crimes that involve serving a jail term this isn't often the case when it comes to minor infractions, traffic tickets, parking tickets, and other minor incidents. Those of us who have received tickets, whether or not we deserved them, and tried to fight them in court usually find the traffic court judges far less accommodating than we would like. Last week I found myself in one of these courts seeking justice and hoping, just hoping, that somehow I would get lucky.

A little over two months ago, during the middle of December, my buddy Rich and I decided that 12" of fresh powder was too much to pass up, even on a school day. So we packed our gear and drove up to the canyon. Those of you who have driven Little Cottonwood Canyon after a snowstorm know how crazy the roads can get and so as part of preventing people with two door Focuses and Civics from going up the canyon under these conditions the Salt Lake County Sheriffs deputies are often at the bottom screening cars to make sure they have all wheel drive, are 4x4s, or that you have chains and have put them on your vehicle. This was where Rich and I found ourselves on a somewhat snowy day in December. We saw the cops, we knew they were screening, but I had just had brand new studded snow tires put on exactly for these types of driving conditions. (While I recognize studded snow tires are not the same as chains, they are not far off from some of the cars with chains that were traveling that same canyon.) Rich and I thought we might as well give it a try and pulled up to ask the officer if the studded snow tires on my vehicle were sufficient to allow us up the canyon. After all, it never hurts to ask right? Wrong! The man glares at me then asks, "What did the sign say?" Being the smart intellectual that I am and having not read what the sign said since the weather conditions and the placement of the sign make it almost impossible to read coming from the south road I said hesitantly, "4 wheel drive or chains?" At which point he asked for my license, told me to turn my car around and then join him in the front of his vehicle.

Now this is the confusing part. I was baffled as to what he was going to say, why I we were even having this conversation, and what he would cite me for, since I knew I was being cited for something. You never have to sit inside of a police car unless you are going to be cited. They reserve the lectures for the side of the road, usually. As I sat down and watched him pull up my record, I asked why I was getting a ticket and he said it was for failing to abide by posted signs. Whatever. I pulled up to ASK if I could go up the canyon, I hadn't even entered the canyon yet and I'm getting a ticket for "failure to abide the posted signs?" To top it off, the car immediately behind me before I was told to turn around was a Porsche 911, it was allowed up because it was "all wheel drive." I'm sorry but in a snowstorm in a canyon an "all wheel drive" Porsche with only 3 inches of clearance is not going to do so hot, my car would handle just fine, but the officer didn't seem to think that mattered, the Porsche fit the parameters. Ten minutes later I've received my ticket, we've parked the car and just missed the last bus for the next hour up to the blissful powder waiting for us at the Bird. Luckily we were able to hitch a ride, on a vehicle sporting chains, and had an amazing day skiing.

This brings me to last Thursday. I had my court date. I felt the ticket was simply wrong. I understand if the officer doesn't feel that my vehicle is safe to travel the snow covered canyon roads. I can accept that. I can even accept him requiring me to turn around, find a place to park, and find some other way to get up the canyon--even if it takes an extra hour. What I can't accept is receiving a ticket for something that I'm not even sure is illegal. So there I was in court amidst a bunch of other people, most of who were there because they were caught driving on the left side of the road, didn't have a license at all while driving, or didn't have insurance. Also, a majority of these were old, 5-10 years. As I stood in front of the judge she told me my options and suggested that the best option I had was basically a form of pleading "guilty" without actually pleading "guilty." I paused for a moment, asked if there was any way we could talk about having it dismissed altogether or else I would just plead "not guilty" and take my chances at a real trial. Wrong is wrong. Even though the ticket was only $80 and this would take time and effort, I couldn't sit back and let injustice be served. She recommended I talk to a prosecutor and see what we could work out. Short story: I talked to the prosecutor representing the county, he was a third-year law student, he looked at my file and said, "failure to abide posted signs, huh? That usually means running a red light." "Ah, ha" I thought, "that's what that jargon meant." I told that in this circumstance I hadn't run any red lights and wasn't even sure I had done anything illegal. I told him everything I told you and he looked at me quizzically and said, "I'm not even sure that qualifies under that statute." At which point he picked up the 3 inch thick Utah traffic code book--3 inches really, for traffic codes? The one they give you in drivers school is only about 1/4 of an inch thick, at the most. I don't know whether he actually found the section he was looking for or just realized it wasn't worth it, because he closed the book and said, "Yeah, we'll go ahead and dismiss this." I think he realized that if I took it to court there really wouldn't be a legal case.

Back to the Judge. I told her we had decided to dismiss it. She seemed somewhat surprised, the bailiff, also a Salt Lake County Sheriff deputy, voiced some surprise, "what? really." Thankfully, the prosecutor came in, validated what I said. The forms were signed and the two hours I had spent listening to dozens of others voice their concerns and hope for mercy paid off. I walked away free from the ticket, free from any further time commitment, and free from any fines that would have been levied at me. I found justice right where I wanted it to be and in a way it made me believe a little more in our system of government, in our courts, in our judges, and in America. And why shouldn't I? In the end I didn't have to pay for the ticket I never should have received. It all worked.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem

The city that is often called the center of the world has been on my mind a lot recently. The idea of Jerusalem, the ideal which it represents has finally become clear to me. I was there only 6 months ago and while I was there it was just another city filled with history. To me it was simply another piece of land like any other that exists in this world. It was no different than Paris, Seoul, Tokyo, Moscow, New York, or Cairo. Each has its history; each has its inhabitants, and each has seen its share of violence and conflict. What I couldn’t understand is how so much violence, so much death, and so much conflict has resulted from Jerusalem and from this area of the world. In many ways I still don’t understand but now I at least understand why it happens because now I understand what Jerusalem is suppose to represent. I don’t know why I couldn’t understand it before I traveled to the Middle East, nor understand it while living there and traveling to Jerusalem. However, in the months since being there I have read more about the history of Jerusalem, I’ve talked with others about the conflict that exists, and I’m thought about everything that entails this conflict and this idea of Jerusalem. As I’ve gained a clearer picture of what it represents to each group that has invested itself in Jerusalem it saddens me because it has the possibility of being everything to every group at the same time. It doesn’t have to be a give and take relationship that people view it as. Jerusalem is supposed to be the city of peace. It is suppose to be a holy city. It is suppose to be an example that all people can look to for inspiration. It needs to be all of these again. It can be, if all those invested in it would realize that Jerusalem is nothing without its ideals and when nobody is abiding or living by those ideal then it is meaningless, it is just another piece of land. It is this ideal of Jerusalem that has made it what it is today, a measure of hope for people around the world, but through contorting those ideals to fit specific ideologies it has also become a source of violence and conflict. Jerusalem has the potential to be everything we all want it to be. It has the potential to represent the core values of all people, regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation. It can once again be the center of the world if all of humanity will work to make it such. I pray that we do.