Yearly Powell Trip 2013

In an attempt to avoid last year's stormy weather, we planned our Powell trip at the end of September.  It didn't work.  So much for that idea.  I guess the law of averages just caught up with us.  It must be mathematically impossible to have perfect weather every single year.  Anyway our 10 year run of great weather has hit a two year bad weather stretch.  We traveled over on Thursday and found ourselves in a wind storm.  Even so we still launched our boat and had an exciting trip up the lake.  We only took one wave over the bow but water spray still soaked us.  On the bright side, there were few people on the lake and we had many beaches to choose from.  We settled in on the west side of Gregory Butte.  It turned out to be our best camp spot ever.  The weather improved dramatically the next two days and we all had a great time.  There was even a brief debate on Saturday afternoon to justify a decision to stay on the lake another day.

 The football game was spirited and resulted in a tie.  Larsens don't like to lose.

 Wakeboarding & surfing time!

Siena celebrated her sixth birthday on the second day of the trip.  She had such a fun time!  What a beautiful girl!

Kokopelli Tri

A few days ago I participated in a local triathlon.  It is called the Kokopelli Triathlon.  I competed in the "sprint" distance.  It is held at Sand Hollow Reservoir.   Two years ago I did the same race.  My times were not great.  This year I trained a little more and I borrowed a triathlon specific wet suit for the swim in the lake.  I had a good race and improved my overall time by 11 minutes.  Because of this, I was able to make the "podium".  I placed third in my age category and was awarded a medal.  My son-in-law, Peter, also ran in the race and competed in the longer "Olympic" distance.  It was a beautiful sunny Southern Utah day and it was fun to have many of my family there to cheer me on.  Thanks guys!

Today I had the day off after working the past couple of days.  I met my friend Tully up Cedar Canyon and did some rock climbing.  I was able to redpoint a project that we had bolted earlier this year.  That was a great feeling!  It is the climb called "Wicked" and we think it is 5.12a  We then drove further up the mountain and rode our mountain bikes around Navajo Lake on some awesome single track through the pines and aspens.  The fall colors are just starting and it was a cool, exhilarating ride.  A great day in the mountains.