Date Night

Last night Audrey and I had a date night and decided to drive the Scenic Back way from Kemmerer to Cokeville. It's at least 45-50 miles on dirt roads through national forest north of Kemmerer. We took our off-roading vehicle (1996 Grand Marquis) and headed out. The roads for the most part were decent, but we were about 5 miles from Cokeville when there was a sign on the side of the road that said road closed. At this point we had driven about 2 hours because of the slow going, and we stopped along the way at a place called "Big Spring" which is a fresh water spring that comes flowing out of the side of a mountain. So turning back was our last choice, and we thought maybe the sign was old. Well it turns out that it wasn't old and we came upon this huge hole in the middle of the road. Off to the left side it was probably 4 or 5 feet deep and on the right side people had gone around, but there were HUGE dips where they had off-roaded. Definetely not a place for a Grand Marquis to go! We decided to try and go for it, and Audrey got out and guided me in the best possible place, and we only bottomed out once and almost got stuck... but we made it through! Then we were going to eat supper at the ONLY restaurant in Cokeville, and when we got there we found out that it had closed for good! So we got a few things at the Flying J Rest Stop and headed home to watch a movie that we rented. It was a total adventure and lots of fun, especially since we made it through the closed road and didn't have to turn around and go all the way back to Kemmerer on the dirt roads!

Got My Elk License!!!!

I got my first elk hunting license yesterday!!!!
Now all I have to do is shoot one!

Backpacking Trip

Audrey and I had a great time in the Wind River Mountains last weekend. We left early Friday morning about 6:00 a.m. and made it up to the trail head, and left there about 9:30 a.m. We hiked in 6 miles to a lake called Dad's Lake. This is a pretty popular lake on this section of trail because of the great view and it is the closest "Big" lake. We took Mountie and Maya with us and they did pretty well on the trip in, the trip out was a different story, but I'll get to that later. We set up our tent, made a fire ring, got fire wood, made sure the dogs had everything they needed, got lunch, and settled into our place.
We fished for a while, Audrey caught three and I didn't catch anything. So we decided to try and hike to another lake that neither one of us had ever been to before about a mile away. We started down the trail and the mosquitos were horrendous! They were really bad all day but it seemed like they just got worse. So we turned around and went back to get some supper and hang out by the fire where they were a little bit less.
We had a good hot supper, then relaxed by the fire until it was dark. I think Audrey slept better than I did, but I got some good sleep in the morning hours after 5 a.m.
We hung out in the morning. I tried fishing again and caught one, woo hoo... We had oatmeal for breakfast, broke down camp and headed out.
This is when the dogs became retarded. They decided that they wanted to pull like crazy the entire time back... and there were lots of horses and llamas on the trail that we had to go around. It wasn't the funnest hike out that I've ever had. The car never looked so good.
All in all the good completely outweighed the bad, and we are going again with a few other people the 2nd weekend in August!

Going Backpacking!

Tomorrow Audrey and I get to go backpacking. This is the first time that I have had the opportunity to go twice in a summer! Before we always had to take at least a weeks vacation to come to Wyoming to go backpacking, now I can do it in a weekend! I love it!

I'll put up some updates when we return!

"Worship In The Wilderness" Pictures

Updates

This past Monday and Tuesday I got to go backpacking in the Wind River Mountains with my dog Mountie. It was a kind of Spiritual Retreat/ Getaway that I have been wanting to do for a while now. Going by myself was a good experience, and the only horrible parts were some strong wind, millions of mosquitos, and freaking myself out at night when I was trying to go to sleep.

The good things were that I got to go into the mountains, fish, hike, sleep, eat, spend time with God, talk to myself, laugh at the stupid things Mountie did, and be refreshed!

This weekend we are "Worshipping In The Wilderness" as a Church. The entire congregation is invited to come about 45 minutes north of Kemmerer into the National Forest and campout Saturday night, and then we are going to have Church up there on Sunday morning with a cookout afterwards. Should be a total blast!

Diamond X Triathlon

After the race, showing off our muscles and team number

Just finished running. We got 3rd place overall!


Coming up the hill on the final stretch. We were in 6th place when I started.

Kevin coming in on his bike, he was the first guy with a mountain bike to finish.

Audrey was the first woman out of the water and 4th overall.

The Diamond X Triathlon was this past Saturday. We did a team with Audrey swimming, Kevin biking, and me running. It was a blast! Audrey rented a wetsuit from a scuba place in Rock Springs because the water was going to be so cold. The race took place on a Guest Ranch south of Evanston, WY and she had to swim in a resevoir! We finished 3rd overall, and 2nd in the team division. The first place winners were part of the family that put it on so we got the main prize: a two night stay at the guest ranch for free! We all had a lot of fun, and went out to eat with Heather, Kevin, Andrew, Caleb, Matthias, Micah, and Noah after the race. We want to do another one!

Fossil Fest & Weekend Activities

This weekend, actually today marks the 1 year mark that Audrey and I have been in Kemmerer. Last year we made the drive from Rock Springs up to Kemmerer with only a few of our items to unload. We ran the Fossil Fest 5k Fun Run, and I almost died from the altitude. Needless to say a lot of things have changed along with my acclimation to the altitude.

Tonight I am helping out with a Family Fun Night for all the kids of the community. Booths and games galore with prizes and candy! Then Friday and Saturday afternoon the Church is going to hand out free bottles of water as an outreach. It should be pretty good, I hope.

Saturday morning Audrey, myself, and Kevin Kneeland are doing a team triathlon in Evanston. Audrey is swimming, Kevin biking, and I will be running. 600 meter swim, 12 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. We are looking forward to having fun with that as well!

Official Results From Lander Half Marathon

Audrey Ross - 1 Hour 54 Minutes 24 Seconds - 64 out of 216 total runners - 23rd woman to cross the finish line.

Jadon Ross - 1 Hour 54 Minutes 43 Seconds - 65 out of 216 total runners - 42nd man to cross the finish line.

Done with the Lander Half Marathon

Well we made it to Lander and did the half marathon this morning. It started at 6:30 a.m. and both Audrey and I finished in 1 hour and 54 minutes. It was the best time that I've done for a half marathon. So that feels really good. The soreness doesn't feel so good as of right now, but I know that will go away soon! Hopefully I can find some pictures online that photographers took, and our official time and place.

We are leaving at 3:30 in the morning to do a half marathon in lander wy! Wish us luck and hopefully we get some good sleep tonight.

Cold Hands, Warm Heart Book Review

11. Cold Hands, Warm Heart by Jeff King

This is a good book about the adventures and perils of Alaskan Sled Dog Racing. A really easy read with intriguing stories pertaining to racing and life in Alaska. If you have any interest in dogs, racing, or Alaska then you should read this book.