Friday, May 29, 2009

HOOTER CAMP: Zion National Park

Zion National Park, what an experience! A Climbers PARADISE,


























Thursday, May 28, 2009

Hooter Camp: Zion Training Week

Our HOOTERS training week began in Zion National Park. We've hiked all over the incredible red rock canyons, learning important skills like night hiking (w/out headlamps AHHH), using a GPS, poo smears (don't ask),and orienteering...

Actually its hard to get lost in a canyon, you only have two directions that you could go. Grand Canyon on the other hand is a whole different story...

It's been an intense couple of weeks in training. We've been learning to HOOT, identify numerous birds and calls, and important plants such as Poison Ivy:


Here is CB (Charlie Brown), hanging out on a trail, we're listening for owl hoots.
HOO OOO OOO OOoOoOooooo, the four note hoot



Nothing like a good Chicken Curry in the outdoors. MMM MMM good, Gill cooked for the entire Hooter Crew, best curry I've had in a long time!!

Hooter Camp: The Hotel Sweet


Early in the game, David Willey got us a 4 room sweet at the nicest hotel in town. There were 3 king size beds, a pool, full kitchen, leather couches, and an enormous deck. (e not to be confused with an i). Most of the crew wanted to sleep back at camp, but I definitely said KING ME!! What's funny though, is with all those amenities, there we were each on the internet, with our backs to a 50 inch TV (and hundreds of channels). Sometimes internet is just a necessity.


Here I am.... I found the stash of robes in the closet, HOW COOL IS THAT!! and I'm relaxin' by the pool. SWEET!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Highway 89

Everything I every wanted, I found on Highway 89 : ) My travel route on the way to Zion National Park, my mini adventure before the summer "job" begins...


Great Camp sight in Caribou National Forrest, there is a huge river off to my right there in that pic, as well as a huge camp fire.



This is a reservoir I drove upon... I think I stopped every 5 to 10 miles along that road. It was simply spectacular!

This is an overflowing creek by the second camp spot that I stayed at. This was in Logan Canyon. There was a herd of deer that were ripping grass around my tent that night. It was so cool to listen to.


This is the Snake river that the Spring Creek flowed into. It was Fabulous fishing, there were numerous outfitters in boats that morning. You could see the fish in spring river, enormous. : ) Wish you were here with me Ryan, we'd do some fly fishing : )

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Cultural Festival- Salt Lake CIty


They are making lace by hand, 2 inches takes her about 6 hours. Moving those wooden pegs around in groups is how she does it. So if you find your grandmas hand made lace, it's worth somthin!!

Food Not Bombs

When I arrived in Salt Lake, I took the first exit to "downtown" area (well actually I missed it, and had to drive back, ahh crazy city driving). Anywho, as I continued down main street I came across a huge festival in the park, I Had to Go!! There was NOWHERE to park, but it must have been fate, cuz I took my next right and the spot was waiting just for me.

The festival is Salt Lakes Annual Cultural Festival, with arts, crafts, dancing, music, and food from countries all around the world. Better yet, it was free!!


.....


After an Amazing day listening to Indian music, watching Brazilian Dancers, and learning to make paper flowers, I finally decided that I had to find a place to stay. Camping is always a cheap option, but Couch Surfing would be pretty damn sweet too. I hoped over to the library just across the street (coincidence ?), where they let me bypass the library card rule for the Internet, and sent a shout out to as many interesting people as I could find. It wasn't an hour later that I got a call, and was hooked up at a place called the BOING house. Just down the street : )

This place was amazing. Initially I thought it was just a sweet hang out, where A LOT of people 'lived'. But the place is actually quite famous, and well involved in the community. Some time ago they got together and joined a group called Food not Bombs. This organization is basically a group who collects donated food from the grocery store and redistributes it to the community. Four times a week they receive donations where volunteers will bring a car full of food boxes to the house, which then go to the local parks where people can have free food. Fruits, veggies, chicken salad... practically anything.



There was this sweet old lady who would come to the door in her wheel chair and the BOING house group would load her up with food. How cool is that? I came down one morning after a charity concert, and there was yet another woman from the community helping them clean up the house afterwards. Sweet? Heck yeah!

I was highly impressed with the crazy lifestyle of the vegan musicians of that house.
So if you ever need a place to stay in Salt Lake they have an open door policy :)

Zion National Park- A Summer Padice

Here I am in the Grand Canyon, HELLO EVERYONE!!!


I'll be back in those little canyon crevasses looking for owls all summer, both here in Zion, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and mostly the Grand Canyon- my main home base.





Check out that hooters shirt, had to start out the first day right- today was administration day!!
We met all the big wigs : )


CB on his motorcycle, he rode over 1,000 miles on his NEW BIKE- He is hurting.