Archive for June, 2006
It was my wife’s birthday last week and so we decided to go camping in Maple Canyon. It is a beautiful canyon–full of great hiking and killer climbing. We mostly just relaxed but I did have the chance to teach my wife how to lead climb on an easy 5.4 that lead to the Trash Compactor Wall. She did a great job. Next time we will come back and do some of the routes inside the Trash Compactor. They looked really fun but we ran out of time.
While we were there we did have a chance to hike up Box Canyon (.7 miles up the canyon) and see some of the routes that have been set there. It is an impressive looking area; however, there are access issues. So, definitely visit the canyon sometime, but be sure to not visit too often and be a courteous guest while you are there.
June 26th, 2006
June 23 and 24 I ran in the Wasatch Back Relay with my wife’s family. The main sponsor for the even was XanGo. They are a company that sells a fruit drink made from mangosteen. You cant buy directly from them but you have to go through a XanGo Distributor.
Anyway, the race was really fun and even though no one on the team (twelve total) are super-star athletes, I think that we all did pretty well. I was only able to complete two of my assigned three legs because my knee was hurt. I guess that is what comes from training just two weeks before the even. Oh well. The Xango Wasatch Back Relay was really fun and I would recommend anyone doing it.
June 25th, 2006
Here’s a game with M&Ms that my wife and I played during our Maple Canyon trip today. I doubt that it will ever get televised and I don’t think that anyone who is a professional at this game will get paid very much. It is a great game to play when you’re in the company of good friends.
Here’s how you play the M&M game:
- Get a pack of M&Ms. We used Peanut M&Ms, but I bet you could use any kind. Just be sure to not get those seasonal kind that only have two colors.
- Show another person the color of the M&M without looking at it.
- Insert M&M into mouth (your mouth.)
- Now the fun part….guess what color it is!
Maybe those instructions were unnecisarily complicated. Basically, you’re just trying to guess what color the M&M is by just tasting it. It is pretty tough because they taste so similar. I must say, however, that I am pretty good at guessing the blue ones or if it is a warm color. I’m lost when it comes to anything beyond that.
What do you think? Do M&Ms of different color have different tastes? I think they do, but then my chances of guessing a color right is one in ten if I were to guess according to how I though it tasted. That is kind of funny when you think about how there are only six colors. If I just stuck with one color and guessed it all the time, I am likely to have a one in six chance of getting it right. Interesting.
June 17th, 2006
So, I’m a Google Earth fan. I think that it is great tool that I could waist countless hours of my life on. Aside from that, though, I have found a very useful application for Google Earth–tracking the miles that I run.
On Sunday I talked to my father-in-law who has organized a group to run the Wasatch Back Relay. It turns out that they have had a few people drop out of the originally full team and he offered one of the open spots to me. I haven’t ran seriously for years, so, I was reluctant to accept the challenge of running three five-mile legs in the relay. I have also been known for having said about organized runs “why would I want to pay to suffer?”
Well, I had a change of heart. I agreed on Sunday that I would wake up on Monday, run five miles, and then run another five miles in the evening. i figure that if I could do this with out too much of a problem then I should be good to go for the race.
Now this is where Google earth comes in. I wanted to make route for the two five-mile legs that I was going to do on Monday. I pulled up Google Earth and used the measuring tool to find the appropriate distance. You can do the same thing by downloading Google Earth here. Once you have it you can go to “Tools” in the menu bar and then scroll down to “Measures.” That will pull up a screen that lets you select one tab that allows you to place line segments on your map and see the distance covered in the metric of your choice. Or, you can choose the other tab to make a chain of line segments and to view the total distance that the entire chain covers.
With this tool I was able to select my two five-mile legs without difficulty and today I plotted out a seven-mile route. Works like a charm, really.
Oh, and just so you know, I will be running the Wasatch Back Relay in a week and a half. True, that means that I will have trained for a total of two weeks for this thing, but, I figure that, had I committed earlier, I would have procrastinated and been in the same situation. I’ll do fine though…I hope.
June 14th, 2006
I love one-move wonders. Yesterday I went climbing with a friend up Rock Canyon at The Black Rose Wall. It is the very first Wall you come to in Rock Canyon and is to the left of Red Slab. The left most portion of the wall as two climbs that you can top-rope. They are in the neighborhood of 5.9/5.10 and are pretty fun. To the right of this slab, however, are some bolted climbs that are 10a (Pink Canoe) and 12a (Fat Hippos.) They both go to the same chains so if you just want to lean the 10 and try the 12 I would recommend it.
The 10 is tricky with the crux between the second and third bolt. It’s not very hard if you do it right but it is tricky getting the right footing so that you don’t swing off.
The 12 is very fun. It is a crimp fest and will likely put the most strain on your feet as you edge on little, quarter-inch holds. This climb is a total one move wonder. Once you get up to the crux, which comes after clipping the second bolt, you have to stick your left foot in a tinny hold that you would swear would never hold you. Then, while pulling hard on the crimper with you right hand, you reach up and left to hit the bottom of a very thin crack. Then you have to hurry and match your right foot to your right hand. once you hit this it is all pretty strait forward from there, yet strenuous.
The reason i like this one move wonder is because it it just my style. I have power, but only for a short amount of time. I’m one of those guys who boulders way harder then he climbs sport.
June 9th, 2006