Back to School

Off to 12th and 8th grades

 Finding the right shoes can be a daunting, and expensive task.

Our shoe budget was offset by Joel winning these sweet cleats in an on-line contest. Joel's team also won the Storm Cup.

Catalpa pods

Meanwhile, Hermana Emmett is now serving in Kaysville. Many of the members of the Spanish ward are from Venezuela. Here is Sarah learning how to make arepas.

 Folks are always taking care of the missionaries with drinks (on a hot summer day), treats and home grown food.

Meanwhile Dad took a back roads road trip (via Francis, Tabiona and Altamont) to Flaming Gorge. Last time I was at the dam was on a boy scout float trip down the Green River right below the dam when I was about 14.

 Moose Pond

Mollies Nipple

I don't know who Mollie was, but apparently she got around Utah. Wikipedia lists seven such named promontories in Utah. One of those peaks (above) is at the top of Hobble Creek Canyon. It's shape certainty fits the description. An even better named peak is found in southern Utah in what may or may not still be part of the amputated Grand Staircase-Escalate National Monument. see a photo here: https://www.visitutah.com/places-to-go/most-visited-parks/grand-staircase-escalante/grand-staircase-section/adventure/mollies-nipple/

This past weekend I decided to go for a drive.  I have biked, camped, hiked and been photographed (engagement and family) along the length of Hobble Creek Canyon, directly east of Springville and I have hiked, camped, saunaed and hot-tubbed in Diamond Fork Canyon up Spanish Fork Canyon, but I have never driven the whole loop. I set out with no plan other than to drive the loop.

For more about being photographed see this post: http://beitemmett.blogspot.com/2015/07/family-photos.html

For more about the sweat lodge see this post: http://beitemmett.blogspot.com/2012/11/second-annual-sweat-lodge.html

For more about hot tubbing in hot springs see this post: http://beitemmett.blogspot.com/2014/10/sand-dunes-and-hot-springs.html

Looking west down Hobble Creek Canyon with the distant back side of the front range of the Wasatch Mountains enshrouded with haze and smoke blown in from the California wild fires.

Near the top of Hobble Creek Canyon I noticed a side road heading southward along Pumphouse Hill.  I decided to see where it went. My Utah Atlas indicated that the road eventually ended near Mollies Nipple, which I had never heard of or seen. Sounded interesting.

 End of the drive at the base of Mollies.

 Looking eastward with Mollies on the right.

 The road in and out.

  Corrals, cows, cow pies, cattle guards and fences were very much a part of the landscape.

Ear tags and a brand.

 Grazing along the upper reaches of Diamond Fork.

 20 mile mark. Next time I may explore the route to HWY 6.

 Diamond Fork

The location of our sweat lodge activities. The stream in November is very cold.

 Near the junction of Diamond Fork Canyon with Spanish Fork Canyon. Loafer Mountain in the distance.

Diamond Fork Canyon in one of the few Wasatch Front canyons that is not dammed. Happily it was decided instead to install a series of tunnels and buried pipelines bringing water from Strawberry Reservoir (part of the Colorado River drainage basin) over the mountains and in to the Great Basin for use along Utah's urban corridor.

Weeds like this grew in the fields behind our homes in Logan. My childhood, neighborhood friend Kirk thought the rust colored weeds looked like tobacco so one day he stuffed the seeds into a hollow shaft of a weed stalk thinking he could have a cigar smoking experience. He lit the end and inhaled deeply which resulted in a mouth full of weeds and lungs full of fire smoke. That was then end of his cigar making experiment.