Enjoy your weekend!

San Diego with the fam

I managed to only bring my phone down to San Diego last weekend for my cousin Clai's wedding, so, the pictures aren't all that awesome. But....., it was a good time, saw a bunch of fam, and hung out on the beach!

Mom, sister, and dad, all leaving me in the dust at Black's Beach, San Diego.

The wedding was up in the hills above Pacific Beach and Mission Bay. Pretty sweet view.

The wedding party.......Clai got hitched in cowboy boots, showing the fact he is a Nor Cal native transplanted to So. Cal!

Soloing

Trevor was gone for the weekend, so I took advantage of the beautiful summer sun and went adventuring...

Doesn't this kind of look like the beginning of a fairytale?

I took pictures of pretty trees.

I took not as cool pictures of myself with a layer of wildfire smoke in the background.

I reveled in my surroundings and practically skipped down the trail because it was just pretty out.

And more not very exciting pics of myself...I guess I had to prove I was there, right?

I was just seeing beauty everywhere.

Even under the chairlift.

And then I went kayaking. And beached up and read the afternoon away.

And in the early evening on my paddle back in, I hung out with beavers who were swimming all over the place and then...

Slap! They would make a big deal of themselves and do an underwater swim and pop up 5o yards away. It was fun and the best adventurous relaxing day ever. I love you September.

And there we were, just walking to get the mail...

With a phone...

Sometimes technology amazes me. I took this shot two nights ago with my cell phone while golfing. It was from the 18th tee at the Links GC over in Driggs, ID looking toward the setting sun over the Big Hole Mountains. Pretty rad way to end the day.

What state are we in?

Seems like the whole time you are hanging at Bear Lake you are always wondering if you are actually in Utah and or Idaho. The border literally runs right through the middle of the lake. Regardless, both sides kick much ass.

Rex and me, hanging on a sandy beach on the very far northern reaches of Bear Lake, Idaho.

Shannon and Chels, still in Idaho......

Me and Chels, yep, two feet from where the last picture was taken, still........in Idaho.

Wait, what happened? Shannon and Me, a few miles away from the last pictures, high up in the Cache Mountains, now.......in Utah!

Matt and Shannon, with Paris Peak in the background. We went on an epic 30 mile single track loop, where, the trailhead was in Idaho, but the riding was in Utah. Didn't matter, it was all the same....badass!

High up in the mountains, looking over the other side toward Logan, UT.

Just because something isn't safe doesn't mean it isn't fun.....Me, trying to keep the stereotype of moto fanatics alive, using blatant disregard for warming and authority!

Matt took all of these shots with his phone, so, they are a bit fuzzy, but the sweetness of this ride with variance of terrain (big, technical climbs, mud, stream crossings, big open 4th gear meadows, etc.) was crystal clear.

Meanwhile, while we rode dirtbikes and punished the environment in the name of fun, Chels, the far better steward of the world than us, soaked up the rays and gorgeous waters of Bear Lake.

Bear Lake Bonanza

Another fun weekend soaking up the Indian summer sun while we have it! We loaded up Rex and headed down to Bear Lake to meet the Happes which was a great almost-halfway point between us and Salt Lake. Good company, kayaking, motos, board games and rv's...what more could you ask of an awesome weekend?

Rex looking pretty styled out.

A little beach-front morning reading and brekkie...not bad, huh?

I think we could call this water-front.

A little kayak on the great Bear Lake.

The water levels were still so high that we were paddling through a deciduous jungle, it was a little crazy and pretty all at the same time.

Trev and Matt grabbed an afternoon moto sesh while Shannon and I had a wild time of it back at the campsite.

Umm, no complaints here.

Matt and Trev hanging in the red light district.

Four!

What? It has been four years since this day and as Trev loves to say, it feels like a week ago...haha. It just keeps getting better all the time, love you more than ever Trev!
Happy anniversary!

One for the books

It had been a couple of years since I rallied over to this spot for a mission, which is way, way too long given how freaking badass it is. Case and Bubba joined on Sunday for what ended up being one of the best days of fishing any of us had ever witnessed.

Case, at the top of the "slide" getting ready to rig the raft for it's hour long belay down into the canyon and the river below.

Bubba packing things up. I know the only peeps that actually read this blog are friends and fam, but just in case there are others, the name and location of this float are still being withheld!!!

The primary reason why you don't see anyone floating this section and why the fish are so unaccustomed to seeing big dry flys! It's a full on ordeal just getting your boat down to the river to float.

Case running the belay and Bubba guiding er.

Putting the raft warranty to the test! We took Case's 16 foot boat which was as big of a craft as you would ever want to try and navigate down this lil gem of a river.

Yep, it really is that steep! Case, in the shot two above, belaying it down the final pitch.

Bubba, trying to get a shot of the final slide down to the river.

And........., finally, Eureka.......pot at the end of the rainbow. A river all to ourselves with nothing but a ton of fish to keep you company.....And ohh yea, rattlesnakes too! I literally came within a few inches of stepping on a rattler that was shaking his tail like he meant business.

Gotta air it out whenever possible. Case, taking a break for fishing for a swim.

Oh yea, and then there was the epicness of the fishing. It was non stop good. Literally every single fly that we pulled out of the fly boxes worked. It was just one of those days.

The cutty's here look like no other cutty's I have seen elsewhere. All kinds of funky spotting to em.

Bubba, getting ready to release.

Hell yea Case.

We didn't catch any absolute monsters, but the sheer volume of fish made up for it.

Did I mention not only was the fishing off the charts, but as an added bonus, there are multiple entertaining runs of class III whitewater too!

The fishing was so hot we were catching fish literally in "dead" water that had no movement to it and was infested with weeds.

"Huh, that looks a little tight for the 16 footer."

Case, scouting the last rapid. Nope, that isn't a walking stick. It's a "watch the f-out for rattle snakes" stick.

I made a commitment to come over and do this more than once a year. It's just too good not to.

Umm yea, there isn't any sort of boat launch at the take out, just a 4wd road that is pretty gnarly that gets you about 50 yards from the river. So, you kinda have to get creative getting your boat back on the trailer. Using the climbing rope on the winch to make it happen.

Have moto, will shuttle.