Hobbies of the Older and the More Worn Out

Our 2012 takers.....

hahahahahah.......

Curiosity may have killed the cat,

 but my curiosity to see what is on top of the mountains 

may have been killed on this trip.

We planned to hike across the top of Pine Valley Mountain!

The mountain had other ideas.

It

was not kind to us.

It
chewed us up and spit us out!

Who knew?

Who knew it would take us 5 hours to go 5 miles.

Straight up!

More to come.

PS. My backpack weighed in at 30 lbs.

Curiosity Killed The Cat....

let's just hope that cat is NOT me....

Hobbies of The Old and The Worn-Out (previously posted on Aug 2008)

This was my first experience going backpacking. My boys/men are planning a trip soon, so I referred back to this post to remember what to pack for them. Seeing this post makes me all excited and makes me want to do it again....


Sean's wife dropped us off, wished us luck, and drove away. It was sooo cold and windy, and I didn't know whether to pray, cry, or run after her. I put on every piece of clothing I had in my pack. Still cold, but doable.

We are just off I-15, Near MM 40, Taylor Creek Trailhead.

This was the cool river we came to about 4 miles in. (La Verkin Creek)

We crossed the river several times.

Kolob Arch. It was 7.5 miles from the road (a half mile one-way off the trail.) I'm sure glad we left our backpacks behind a rock. There was "scrambling" involved getting here.

Mile 8. Our designated camp spot 1st night. It was only about 3 p.m. so we decided to go on. Behind Koby is the stream we will cross like 27 times in the next few hours and the mountain we crossed to get to this point.

Mile 10ish. Hop Valley. The easiest part of the hike.

Approx. mile 11. Hop Valley Trail. Over his left shoulder is where we have just been...way back there. We are almost to Kolob. Fifteen miles on day 1.

Camp spot night 1. We didn't mean to go all the way to the Trail Head in one day, but there was no place to put up a tent in the last 5 miles. This TH happened to have a "perma- potty", an outhouse made of bricks, and HAND SANITIZER! Our socks are hanging to dry cause: a. we crossed the river so many times. b. Koby's water bladder's lid wasn't on tight and leaked all over inside his backpack. Steve and Charlie joined us on day 2. West Rim Trailhead. This is on Kolob near Lava Point Lookout.

Mile 17 day 2.

The views were amazing! A close-up of what you can only imagine from Lava Point Lookout.

Camp spot 2nd night. Mile 22. The wind is blowing so hard up the canyons, it almost holds us up. Twenty feet away from the edge, though, and the wind was hardly blowing. It blew hard all night-sounded cool. The bottom of the canyon is 1700 feet down from here. West Rim Trail. Day 3- mile 23.I think the peaks in the distance are called "Castle Dome". Jared and Charlie, Day 3, mile 23ish. This is the only water for miles and we filled up every bottle. The water was nice and cold and felt good in the water bladders in our backpacks next to our backs.

Filtering water was a four-man job: 1 holds the filtering straw in the stream, 1 pumps the water, 1 holds the bladder, while 1 fills it up.

Mile 26. The brown trail marker was the only way to follow the trail on this ledge, otherwise hikers might go over the edge looking for it. (just above Angel's Landing)

We are almost to Angel's Landing. (Zion Nat. Park). We can see the finish line. This is about 26.5 miles and 50 hours into our hike. We have 2.5 miles to go. Hence, the smiles.

Mile 28ish. Angels Landing Trail. I was glad we were coming down this trail, instead of going up. Two miles of constant downhill to the "Grotto" (where we finished.) (Some of the people going up that hill didn't even have water bottles. ???)

My 10 tips: 1.Take way more band-aids than you think you'll need-you'll use them (blisters.) 2.Take a clean set of underwear for each day, wet wipes, and deodorant-takes up minimal space and the next best thing to a shower. 3.Two pr. of clean socks for each day. (In case you need to borrow some to your son who's socks are wet.) 4.Pack sandwiches in Gladware-they don't get smashed. 5.Chewing gum kept my mouth from getting dry. 6.Lots of Exedrine. Easier than carrying Pepsi's and your brother-in-law may develop a serious case of tendonitis in both knees by mile 20. 7.Extra padding for the straps of your 27 lb. backpack. Your shoulders will be bruised by mile 3. 8.Sunscreen and hat. 9.Invite me. 10.Enjoy!

All-star coach?

Hahahaha!

The league "voted" on the all-star coach.
Yeah, I know, right?

My assistant coach coached in this league 2 years ago, and back then, whoever coached the winning team got to automatically coach the all-stars.

I have been told that this is the same as the boys. First place coach gets to coach all-stars.

I have no idea how the all-star coach was picked last year, because I think the assistant coach of the winning team coached the girls. Some of the other coaches were coaching the younger girls' all-star team. They may have voted, or they may have just picked whoever could do it.

I went to the "all-star draft". It was held at a pizza parlor. That was weird for me. I was glad my assistant had been invited, or I would have had no friends (allies) there. He was invited also because he was the coach of an older team, which he would then be the allstar coach, since there were only two coaches, and they would both do it.

We each put names up to vote and I could tell by the end of the night which two coaches were not going to vote for my daughter to be on the team. One coach was not going to vote for her, because he was being loyal to his own player (who is decent, but NOT all-star material), and the other coach was not going to vote for her, because he was mad at her for telling his daughter about the cheated win, and he was mad at me for everything else.

(Apparently, the girls on the team had no idea that their coach cheated and lied to win that game. We thought for sure that the girls knew. We found out when Kinzie mentioned the game to the daughter of the coach that cheated us. The girl went home and told her dad Kinzie said he cheated. The cheating coach and his wife were furious and felt like it was a "bullying situation" and the President of our girls little league calls me up to have Kinzie apologize to the girl. And to tell me that stuff like this needs to stay on the field and stay between the coaches.
He cheated my 12 girls and their families out of a fair game, and he thinks it needs to stay between coaches.
Yeah, bullying situations at the intermediate school are now being handled by the little league! not the school principal!
I was furious at this phone call. The guy on the phone was a class-mate of mine. I used to respect him a ton! I yelled at him for calling me. I asked him if he had called Jerico and talked to him about swearing in front of little girls at  that one game. He hadn't. He asked me if I thought he needed to. He asked me if I had been offended by the other coach swearing and taking God's name in vain. I told him "heck yeah, and so were my players and their parents that heard him swearing.")

So, of course Kinzie didn't get those two votes for sure.

Then, "the powers" told us to vote for a coach to be the all-star coach.....

Of the 4 coaches and 4 assistant coaches, only 2 coaches and 1 assistant were available to coach the all-stars: one was me, one was the assistant that coached it last year, and the other was the coach that took 3rd place. The cheater coach could only help during the week.

There could be no announcement until June 15, so on that day we found out what I ALREADY KNEW!
Kinzie didn't get voted on and should have been and I didn't get voted on the team either.......SHOCKER!!!

So, 3rd place coach it is!

I have no idea who his assistant is.

BTW, the 3rd place coach is the one that coached Kinzie last year. the one that taught her NOTHING.
I showed him at the 3rd game last year where it says in the rule book that they can steal 1st base on a dropped third strike. He wouldn't even have them steal 2nd on a passed ball.

Put up or shut up, so I signed up to coach.

I was sitting at the registration table when 4 of his returning players came in to sign up. When they found out he was going to still be their coach, they rolled their eyes in disappointment. Another girl did not sign up altogether when she found out he was still her coach.

This is the same coach that several of us tried to get kicked out of the job, cause he was so lame about it and wouldn't teach them anything. The same coach that told me to expect a losing season since I am the new team. The same coach that had his 3rd practice of the season on the night of their first game. My team had had 8 pre-season practices.


So, my summer just freed up! It is such a relief! Kinzie really wanted to be on the team; if she was, I really wanted to coach her. But, now that we're not, WHEW!!!


Big Sigh Of Relief! Little League stresses me out! It always has!

Happy Father's Day Off Day......NOT!

Now get in here and help me battle these wars and rumors of wars!