If I had only known.....

The ego wants to compare. It wants to find reasons for you to feel good about yourself (“I’ve got a new bike!”). But by doing that it also becomes very hard to not compare yourself to others who have more than you (“Oh no, Bill has bought an even nicer bike!”). And so you don’t feel so good about yourself once again. If you compare yourself to others you let the world around control how you feel about yourself. It always becomes a rollercoaster of emotions.

A more useful way is to compare yourself to yourself. To look at how far you have come, what you have accomplished and how you have grown. It may not sound like that much fun but in the long run it brings a lot more inner stillness, personal power and positive feelings.

Hell's Half Acre Hike - April 25, 2010

Just to the west of Idaho Falls, between I-15 to the south, and 20 to the north lies the the Hell's Half Acre Lava Flows. Hell's Half Acre flows over about 222 square miles or 162,000 acres. Sixty-six thousand acres are within a Wilderness Study Area.



The Hell's Half Acre flows came from a vent that is located along a rift. This rift parallels the 62 mile long Great Rift that goes through Craters of the Moon National Monument. The main vent for the Hell's Half Acre flow is 95 to 200 feet wide and 730 feet long. The vent has 13 pit craters where lava flowed out and then receded. The last flow from the main vent occurred 2,000 years ago.

One of the "Pits"


This particular hike 9 miles round trip is fairly challenging. Rough terrain, combined with lack of any water sources make for a long day hike. Twisting it's way due south, one gets little sense of progress, not many landmarks to judge one's movement by. The distant mountains give little indication that one is indeed moving. It is a long way out to the rift, no doubt about it!

Baldy Hike - April 24, 2010

Just a short trip up to the snowline on Baldy, took the hounds...they loved it. The hike started at bees and flowers, through dense stands of mountain mahogany then ended with deep drifts of snow blocking further advance. Lots of deer foraging the lower slopes, counted at least 50 head.



Up high the snow is still very deep, even some still in the trees from a storm a few days ago....sat on a sub peak and listened to the silence...only the breeze in the trees and the raucous call of some ravens now and again...

Done with snowboarding for the season......

...for the most part. Targhee on Sunday was ok, some creamy goodness down low was awesome. The top stayed hard and ugly and was a bit of a disappointment really. It would have been nice had they groomed a little more. I like un-groomed powder, but this stuff was really hard, and choppy. The one run off the top that was groomed was a "shit-show' and not all that much fun.

(I don't want to get "burned out" either. Snowboarding should be something that I look forward to. A 6 or 7 month long break is good for keeping the interest high, and gives us something to look forward to.)




Called it a day fairly early and took a nice slow drive home....

I shouldn't complain, this season was awesome. The best season ever really. So have a look here...just a few shots I picked out.....enjoy.

Another Fantastic Day - April 7, 2010

Wednesday found Tate and I back up to Targhee, gotta get the most out of these season passes ya know. A bluebird day for sure, and as we found a place to park I was puzzled at the amount of cars pulling into the parking lot....'till I remembered that JHMR closed the previous weekend.

Still, no lift lines, plenty of deep powder, sometimes even too much. Incredible.

There were two firsts for me yesterday.

Number 1. Some air. Yes, this fat boy actually found some, and I was able to land one. Big smile on Tate's face to see his old man silhouetted against the sky.

Number 2. The more serious of the two. I went in headfirst and on my back into a treewell. Not a big one mind you, but still....it took me at least 20 minutes to free myself. I can now understand and appreciate the danger these "holes" present.

I had a hard time breathing, felt like I might suffocate for a minute. I was able to clear the snow from my face and after a minute I calmed down enough to assess my situation. I could not move while strapped in my snowboard, and had to make like a contortionist in order to get to one binding. Nearly suffocating myself again, I was able to get my right foot out.

After much wiggling about, I was able to right myself and slowly push my way to the downhill side of the tree, and after what seemed like an eternity I was finally able to make it to the surface.

Tate was trying to crawl back up to me to help, but he would have been faster had he gone to the bottom, rode the lift back up and then down to me. I did have a 20 ft piece of rope in my pack had he been able to get in position to drag me out.

Wow...

Still had a great day despite the near "drowning"....just one of those things...

Awesome Day at Targhee - April 3, 2010

One of the very best days snowboarding ever!