Our Epic Trip to Lake Powell

This is my Dad.

My dad and his boat. He let my brother and me come along!

Lake Powell was his happy place.  I remember many carefree vacations making memories. It takes one word or a picture to instantly take me back to cliff jumping by our camp, swimming by enormous cliffs that extend as far down as the eye can see and the imagination can dream, hiking to towering cliffs for the luxurious shade, taking long boat rides through the tour boat wakes, hiking to rainbow bridge, and countless more!  Thinking about Lake Powell conjures up images of my dad in his Hawaiian shirts with a larger than life smile as he guides Tiny Dancer through the waves. 

I will always have these memories, and last week I was able to bring some of these memories to life for my children. It has been my brother’s dream to take the family back to Lake Powell for a boating vacation. After many hours of work, and time spent lovingly caring for his boat that time finally arrived.

The time had arrived for me to experience Lake Powell from the eyes of a parent along with the memories I have as a child. I thoroughly enjoyed watching my children create these memories, and creating new ones with them.  As with most Epic vacations, the chronicled experience and the memories can be very separate things. Here is our Epic story.

Our Adventure

Any vacation that begins and ends with pie is a success! On our way to Wahweap marina we revisited our tradition of getting pie at The Thunderbird Restaurant, the home of “Ho-made pies!” Upon arrival we met Brandon at the dock and proceeded to load our belongings into his boat.  I must say that I am pretty proud of how lightly I can pack for a week long beach vacation. 

Classic

After a good dousing of sunscreen we headed into the boat and were off!  This was definitely the best boat ride of the trip. I was filled with awe and wonder as I took in some familiar, and some unfamiliar sights.  My memory is filled with sandstone wonders jutting out of bright blue water with hardly any land in sight. I was greeted with an unfamiliar cactus landscape that looked like, well, desert.  The water level is down about one hundred feet and the ‘desert’ area that used to be covered with water is now exposed.  Logan was quick to remind me that even back then it was still a desert. Yes. Technically that is correct, but Sandstone Fantasy Land sounds so much better.  My memories can be whatever I want, right?

We pulled into our quiet cove that would soon become an epic place of exploration. Our camp was perched on desert sand with a view of red cliffs wildly radiating from the water.  I could have the best of both worlds. I must say that whenever I set up a camp chair I had it angled perfectly for cliff and waterside viewing. I was all in to the idea of creating memories how I wanted to view them.

After a quick camp set up we were ready to swim! Our little cove had the perfect  inlet with an ‘island’ that was the first object of exploration.  I set off on an adventure with the kids to discover this new little bit of earth that we could call ours for the week.    Upon arrival we decided upon the names Pickle Island and Pickle beach for our new playground.  We quickly discovered Skull Rock which boasted a three foot tall cliff dive. Imagine the excitement! Thus began the many hours of excitement jumping off the back of the boat, swimming across to Pickle Island, and exploring up the inlet that was now ‘ours.’

Testing the waters

These stairs were a thing of pride. They took a bit to set up.

That notch in the rock is called Crossing of the Fathers. I remember driving through it in our boat because it was the entrance between the two bays. 

My mom's artistic photo of The Crossing as night fell

Bedtime arrived, and we were ready! We decided to keep the rain covers off of the tents so that we could stay cool and see the stars. The 72 degree evening had a slight breeze that felt perfect for bedtime.  An unforeseen hiccup occurred the very next morning when the early sunrise entered our tents unfiltered in the wee morning hours!  It took a few nights to get it right, but with the help of Adrian, Shannon’s boyfriend, we found a great happy medium that provided shade and a breeze!

Sunday suddenly appeared like an unwanted guest, but I gradually came to life and reveled in the stillness of the morning.  The kids woke early every morning and busied themselves hardly making a peep. Did I mention that I love the mature ages of our kids!

… Maybe I spoke too soon...

I encouraged the kids to go and explore the area behind our camp. As I was reveling in the stillness of the morning, there was a sharp cry that burst my calm.  I had noticed previously that the kids were exploring a large rock that they had found.  I saw them scamper up and sit at the top.  Now, let me back up here for a minute. One big rule that we have in our family is that you are NOT permitted to climb up something if you cannot climb back down. A few of our kids have learned this the hard way as we have had to make them climb back down from difficult perches (of course while providing a spotter to keep it safe). Ev was about to get a tough life lesson here.  All of the kids were about to learn that climbing up friction is much easier than climbing down.  After a tear filled ordeal, Evelyn finally had to let go of her fear and slide down.  She made it, but not without some emotional scarring. She can do hard things…

On to breakfast! After an excellent breakfast we headed to the boat to do some sightseeing and to visit some old familiar places.  After settling into the boat we made the discovery that the battery was dead.  This did not make sense as we had taken all of the precautions, but it was dead nonetheless.  After a bit of discussion we decided on a beach day! We had a fabulous day filled with sunscreen and extra water! Water drinking contest anyone???

Every trip to Lake Powell includes a memory of ending the vacation looking like a tomato and feeling like my skin was made of lava! This did not diminish the other memories, but my goal was to avoid this fate for my kids. I learned that sunscreen every 2.5 hours was absolutely not enough especially considering the temp was going to be between 102-106 degrees for the whole week. So after multiple baths in aloe vera for a few kids we started with a clean slate the next day. I am happy to announce that we finished without one tomato!  Shout out for sunscreen every 1.5 hours, and a shout out to spray sunscreen. This feat would not have been made possible without both of those factors.

The beach day turned out to be a great success. 

Monday we planned to go and pick up Shannon at the dock.  This meant that we needed to find some friendly boaters to give us a hand. After trying our battery jump start box with no success, it was time to flag down another boat.  We found a friendly jet skier that happily went and brought his boat. After a quick set up Brandon attempted to start his engine, and before we could blink the other boat battery had instantly died.  I didn’t even know how that could happen! Good thing there were other campers nearby. We were able to find another group that came over and used a battery jumper to fix the second boat. These guys were also pretty well versed in the art of boat mechanics and were able to diagnose Brandon’s boat as having a bad connection between the battery and the starter. After some finagling they were able to start the boat, but without the promise that it would be able to get started again. We all decided to go to shore to pick up Shannon, and to hopefully find a mechanic who was available to help us out.

It was our lucky day! As soon as we were in cell phone range we got in contact with Larry the boat mechanic. He explained a quick fix for a bad battery connection. It took two seconds and it worked! Success!

We spent the day at the dock, running errands for ice and other supplies, and eating ice cream! There was a lot of run around, but we made it.  We packed up Shannon, Adrian, Nathan, and all of their camping gear and headed back to camp.

As we pulled into the bay the boat gave a final effort and died in the water unexpectedly. No cause was forthcoming and as we looked we floated further and further from our destination.  I hopped in the water and with the help of a tow rope was able to direct the boat within inches of its docking spot. Now came the diagnosis time. The boat would start, but had a heavy clunking sound in the engine. It was time for more diagnostics on Brandon’s part. Upon closer inspection he discovered that is oil tank was dry, and thanks to a houseboat neighbor we were able to get some oil to remedy the problem.  It looks like the next day was slated to be another beach day!

Shannon to the rescue on this one! She brought ALL of the toys! We had an SUP, an overload of beach toys, and even a gigantic white Unicorn inflatable. What more could you need??? 

My favorite part of the day was definitely using the stand up paddleboard.  I had a relaxing paddle out to the cliffs, and was able to go out one-on-one with some of the kids.  They loved the SUP as well. The best story of the day was when I overheard Evelyn talking to Jack, “Did you do it? Did you paddle up the winding stream, stop, and be completely silent? Wasn’t it amazing.”

That. That, Evelyn, is what this is all about.

Hours of fun!

Besties!

Looking fabulous!

On Wednesday it was time to head to the dock to resupply. We were almost out of water, and our food supply needed more ice to stay fresh.  After a lot of work on the boat we were able to start it and not have too bad of a rumble.  We weighed the pros and cons and decided to bring everyone along to the dock on our quest to get the boat fixed. That was probably the best decision of the whole trip!

About ten minutes into the trip there was a horrendous shudder, then the boat stilled.  After some tinkering it was pretty apparent that the boat was done for the day.  At this moment we drifted into an immense cloud of tiny bugs. In a matter of seconds the bugs coated everything in sight, including us. We tried to ingnore the bugs as we resorted to trying to wave down other boats.. This particular bay is mainly used for commuting from one part of the lake to another. There is a very distinct line that the boats drive through, and we were drifting pretty far from that area. No one was looking our way, so it was time to paddle.  Picture 106 degree weather, paddling while covered in bugs, and alternately waving your paddle at anything you see moving in the distance. Finally we were able to cover some distance and be seen by another boat. Success! An hour later we pulled up to the dock with a hope and a prayer that we could get the boat seaworthy ASAP. Out of the whole vacation this is the only experience that I really could have done without! I think poor Brandon and Kendra felt the same way.

Yes. Those are bugs. Everywhere.

It is at this point in the story that I want to give a well deserved shout out to Kendra. She was amazing during this trip! She knew how much this meant to Brandon and she was there supporting him in every way despite having morning sickness much of the time and coping with the extreme temps. Kendra, you are amazing.

These two were rock stars!

The next few hours were filled with phone calls to try and get a nearby boat rental. HA! That is a funny trick! All of the boat rentals were booked out until August. It was time to implement our back up plan and begin the second phase of our vacation. We found a hotel  with a pool and began our air conditioned adventure.  

Can I just say that there is some kind of magic in hotel swimming pools.  We have mentioned this previously on the blog, and it deserves mentioning again. The kids were in heaven as the adults figured out the next steps considering our campsite and everything in it was a 30 minute boat ride from shore and we had no boat.

Welcome to the hotel pool!

Enter Amar.

The front desk attendant of the hotel was sympathetic to our case and told us that she had a friend that might be able to help. Fifteen minutes later this saint of a man showed up at the hotel with his boat ready to go!

Four adults and Jackson came along to tear down camp and take loads to shore.  Jackson was amazing on this trip. He constantly offered to help, and would often jump in without being asked. He was an invaluable helper for the entire vacation. Thanks, Jack!

I think we set a speed record and some kind of boat packing record as well.  From leaving the dock to being in the boat completely packed with our ENTIRE camp took 2 hours.  We settled in and got cozy! About 50 yards from camp Amar hit an underwater rock and destroyed his prop! Of course! Apparently we are the bad luck. The good news was that every blade was bent out of shape in the exact same way, so we were still able to drive the boat, at a little bit faster than wakeless, to get back to the dock.  We bulldozed through the waves and Brandon and I, sitting in the front, had a constant refreshing shower from the wind and wake.  

Amar had some kind of magic to pack his boat this well!

The kids and I decided to stay for an extra day of kayaking fun. We had a crazy, busy morning, and were ready to launch around 2. Those kayaks got a lot of great use! I think it turned out to be a mostly positive experience for all minus two cases of food poisoning, and one person who will probably never touch a kayak again in her life. Other than that, it was fabulous!

We made an impromptu stop at the bridge overlooking the dam. 

We finished the day with celebratory pie in honor of Brandon’s birthday! It was wonderful to sit around the table, share old and new Lake Powell stories, and enjoy time with each other.

Swapping old Lake Powell stories and reminiscing about new ones!

Lake Powell will forever be in my heart as a place full of memories of family, boating, sun, and good times. I now have a glimpse into the adulating side of Lake Powell, and the magic remains! Hooray for amazing memories and fun families! Thank you Brandon and Kendra for working so hard to make these memories into a reality.  We sure love you!

Until next time, Lake Powell.

There isn't really much to say this week in terms of stories. Rachel and the kids were gone at Lake Powell for her family's reunion. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it. But I've been talking to Rach and it sounds like she will have a lot to write about when she gets home.

As for me, I worked, and I climbed. That's really about it. In between work days I have traveled about 20 hours, and have climbed in Index, Leavenworth, and Vantage, as well as at many more local crags. I have done close to 50 pitches this week, almost all of which were moderately difficult cracks or friction slabs. These are relatively weak areas for me, and it's been fun learning some new techniques to add to my bag of tricks. Even compared with just a few months ago, I have come a long way. Having come to a sort of plateau in other disciplines of climbing, I have to say that it is a bit intoxicating to be improving at something. The movement is unique and new, and it seems to "flow" better than the burly face climbing I am used to. I find that I spend a lot more time thinking about moves- like a puzzle- and a lot less time shaking out my pumped forearms or catching my breath. It is something I could really get into. My fingers feel neglected though for lack of pulling on tiny holds.

Anyway, that's my week. Rachel gets home tomorrow and we will have a semi-normal week leading into some home projects we have in mind. It will be nice to have them back.

Have a good week!

These are the only two pictures I took...

Breakfast spot

Lunch Spot

I know I promised two posts last week and that didn't happen. Let me sum things up. 

Rachel and the kids went to Utah and to Rexburg and had fun while I stayed home and worked.

Here are some picture. I can't really tell you what they are of, but it looks like they had a good time.

When Rach was done with her trip, we had a few days at home and then Wendy flew in to spend the week with us. Again, I was at work most of the time, but we did get out on the weekend on a quick camping trip. We went to Vantage. I know, it seems like we go there pretty much every week. The thing is, it has been super wet and rainy around here, and Vantage is the only place that consistently has good weather. It also has lots of stuff to do. So yeah, we go there a lot. And I like it.

Here are photos of our camping trip.

I love that our kids can climb together and that I can just watch. It's also kind of fun to keep track of the comments we get from other climbers when we jump on their "projects" with the whole family and fire up the send train.

I'm in a picture!

Camping in the desert. It makes me feel like a character in a Louis L'amour book, but with an RV instead of a horse. It's almost the same thing. Burning sagebrush smells just as good either way. 

Girl hike with Grandma

Wendy did an awesome job on the ropes. Now let's see if we can get the other grandma to climb :)

As for this next week, Rachel and the kids are headed down to Lake Powell. Me...I am staying home and working. But also playing. To be sure, I will miss them and if it worked for me to go then I would, but I'm not feeling too sorry for myself either. I kind of like the peace and quiet. And free time. It should be a good week.

I can already tell this is going to be another two-blog-post kind of weeks. If you remember from last time, we had driven down to Rexburg to surprise my parents with a retirement party organized covertly by my siblings. We had a blast, and it was great to see everyone, but before we knew it we were waving goodbye and going our separate ways. In our case, I headed back home while Rach and the kids extended their vacation by driving to Utah. They were gone for most of the week, and from all accounts it was a great time. Later this week I'll have Rachel get on here and share about it. Meanwhile, I'll go over the weekend that we just got off of.

Friday evening, Rach rolled in with the kids. It had been a long trip, and everyone was tired. Our original plan was to take it easy and let the kids recover over the next few days. But we are us, and sitting around was never really our style. We lasted until about Saturday late-morningish, and then decided that the weekend would be a great time for us to test our our new trailer. A quick trip to the store for food, and an hour later we were on the road.

I love us.

We started our drive heading North in order to check out a little-known climbing area that is being developed. It was too wet to actually get on the ropes, but we all had tons of fun exploring and the kids are all excited to go back. I am too, as the granite up there, although sparse, is of better quality than what we are used to closer to home. Time to hone that crack tecnique!

Addy exploring a hole in the rock

From there, we drove to our campsite in Montana near Kootenai Falls. About the camping itself...it was camping. But it also wasn't. It was comfortable. It was easy. It was warm. We ate real food- like, the kind that has to be refrigerated or cooked. We had chairs and tables and lights and toilets. In other words, it was the opposite of everything that "camping" has meant to me for the past 37 years of my life. I don't even know if I can justify what we did as actual camping. But it was fun, and because it was easy and warm and all those other things, perhaps something I could get used to.

Perhaps.

We stayed up way past all of our bed times playing games

Not even tired, even though it's like 11:00 (to our credit, we did get a time change going into Montana)

We did make a fire and roast hot dogs to make it feel a little bit more like real camping

Jackson was our tireless fire-wood-chopper-guy.

The next morning we all slept in, enjoyed a good breakfast, and then the kids explored near the river while Rachel and I leisurely prepared to leave. Our next stop was Kootenai Falls and the swinging bridge of doom. We had actually been there before, but this time the kids were older which made for a better experience all around. Also, this time the river was hauling like a freight train. Oh man. 25,000 cfs funneled over that falls is an impressive sight. The eddy lines are boiling and the waves are churning. It has been over a decade since I ran rivers, and I don't even own a boat any more. That said, the familiar feeling of tingling neck-hairs, dry mouth, and increased alertness still comes back to me with just the sound of big rapids.

From the falls, the original plan was to just head back home, but the campground host had mentioned another destination to us that was not too far off our path. The Ross Creek Cedars. We have been to a number of these old Cedar forests, and every time I am struck with a sense of reverence as I walk among trees that are a thousand years old. Being with these trees, still majestic and strong and huge after all this time, makes me feel very small and fills me with wonder and a quiet sense of resolve. These groves, I am convinced, are nature's churches, and they put our own man-made structures to shame.

I thought this was pretty cool. Our whole family fit "comfortably" inside this tree.

Here's Addy crawling out of it

Looking up from the inside

It really was a place from a fantasy world. Huge trees. Sooo much green. A babbling brook. A soft path that muffled our footsteps. It seemed magical. 

After spending a couple of hours in this hallowed space, we reluctantly got back in the car and drove home. It had been a good trip. 

One funny thing: On the way home I offered to take the kids out to eat that night at any restaurant they wanted, as long as they could come to a unanimous agreement. I specifically mentioned many of the nicer establishments in the area that Rachel and I frequented, as well as some of their favorite places they had already been. The next hour was a perfect social experiment. It was fascinating. There were a lot of ideas thrown around. There was arguing, and tears, and some people willing to compromise, and some people drawing hard lines. Time was running out, and in the end, they finally decided on...

...wait for it...

...An ice cream shop.

Yep. We offered them anything they wanted. I was mentally prepared to spend hundreds of dollars as a kind of "school-is-out-and-vacation-has-started" celebration. But they couldn't agree on anything except for only very basic food. I don't think anyone was actually satisfied. But we went and got our burgers and fries and milk shakes, and then went home and watched a movie. It was still a good night, but in the end very underwhelming. 

Kids are funny.

Have a good week!

In the last post I alluded to some weekend plans, but I couldn't say anything specific. That is because it was a surprise, the planning of which started several months ago. My parents had announced that they would retire this year, and my siblings and I wanted to do something special to celebrate their careers. 

My mom was a kindergarten teacher. She was an aide for a long time, and this is what I mostly remember from my own childhood. After I was out of the house she went back to school though, and then went to work in her own classroom, establishing herself as a core member of the teaching faculty. I also know that she is maybe the most popular person in her small town, and it is rare for us to go anywhere without some small child coming up and giving her hugs. 

My dad started out teaching high school science, and I have lots of memories of visiting his classroom and getting roadside geology lessons on family trips. From there he moved to teaching college classes, but my knowledge of his career is embarrassingly fuzzy at that point. I know he did stuff with international students, which makes sense because he was heavily involved in the ESL program at the high school...I think. He also taught some English classes? I don't really know how a geology degree qualifies you to teach English at the university level though, so I could be wrong there. I do know that eventually he moved more into administration, and that he spearheaded a peer-peer tutoring program at the school that is pretty unique and effective. He also played lots of racquetball, so that was a thing. He is probably reading this right now and just shaking his head. 

The main point is that both of them had long and successful careers where they definitely had a positive influence on the world and on the people around them. The whole coronavirus thing was kind of a bummer also, because it meant that their last year was cut short and a lot of the goodbye's and "last time's" didn't really get to happen. 

Anyway, months in the works, all my siblings and I got together and rented a large home on a beautiful property near their house. We all secretly made the trip down and prepared for the party. There was a ruse, the details of which I am still a little unsure of, wherein we convinced my parents to arrive at the property thinking it was for another, more mundane purpose. The door was opened, and there we were- all 27 (I think?) of us, screaming in their faces, congratulating them, and ushering them into the party atmosphere we had created. It was fun.

The "party," of course, only lasted for a little while. We had good food and gave gifts. We celebrated. But then we just relaxed. It was like a family reunion, and it was cool seeing the cousins playing together and catching up with siblings.

Matt made a great lunch for us

So, we don't have many (any) pictures from the actual party, but I think this image shows the aftermath well. In the background, you can see kids who are still excited and energetic. Balloons are up. Arms in the air. Party! And then their is Jack. Looking a little tired. And yes, that is an Oreo on his face.

S'mores at the campfire

Hanging out in the yard

Inner-tubing in the frigid canal

Jack and Izzy (My brother's dog). I had to post this because it is the closest Jack will ever come to having his own dog. These two have had a fraught relationship through the years, but they get along well now.

It was so good to see everyone.

Good times. Have a good week!