I took half a day off work today and drove Traci to her appointment with a surgeon in Provo. We left there with another appointment on Friday to have her gallbladder removed. I was surprised to learn that it's an outpatient procedure, so we'll drive up Friday morning, she'll have the surgery, and we'll get to go home the same day (if everything goes according to plan). This is going to be a long week, but I'm hopeful that when it's over we'll be able to get back to a somewhat normal life.

It's been another week of ups-and-downs. I took Friday off work to do some more hiking at the Wedge. I was trying to find some routes from the Wedge Overlook down to the San Rafael River so that I could find some geocaches that are just across the river. The caches were placed by people who rafted/canoed down the river when it was in flood stage, which is the only time the river is navigable, and which only occurs for a very short period each year in late spring. Any other time of year and you've got to do either a very long day hike or an overnighter to hike along the river through the Little Grand Canyon. My attempt at a shortcut didn't pan out very well, though I didn't expect to have any success. I first tried getting down to the river via a canyon about a mile west of the main road where it connects to the Wedge Overlook. I hiked more than a mile down the canyon before coming up against a band of cliffs that was impassable, though I was less than a quarter of a mile from my destination at the mouth of Virgin Spring Canyon. It was worth it just for the scenery and solitude. Just as I got back to where the truck was parked, Traci called to let me know that Michael came home early from school with flu symptoms. Great. My second attempt was going to be from the end of the road at the far east end of the Wedge Overlook, but just from looking down from the top of the overlook I could tell that the route I'd mapped out in Google Earth would be impassable, again due to cliffs. I ate lunch there and spent about half an hour just looking down into the river gorge with binoculars, then headed home.

My plans for Saturday included an ATV ride somewhere, but by Friday evening I still hadn't decided where, nor had I bothered loading up my ATV or any other gear because I wasn't sure I felt up to it. When I woke up on Saturday morning I decided that I just couldn't spend the rest of the weekend at home, so I got my stuff ready and loaded and started out a bit late. I settled on the Woodside Anticline area because I could just wander around and explore without committing myself to a long ride. Just before I left, Traci had made an appointment for Michael to see the doctor, so I didn't want to be riding too far from where I parked the truck just in case she needed me to get home quickly. I had no solid plans for my ride--I just set out from the staging area and started checking out side roads leading off the main road. The first road was pretty easy and led to an old drill hole, but after that it started climbing and ran across a lot of bare rock, and some sections were a bit difficult. The trail topped out along a ridge that had some nice views, then descended some steep old bulldozed switchbacks. Not far before the trail met back up with the main road again, I ran into a fairly new oil/gas well that had been drilled by Bill Barrett Corp., and the dirt that they'd pushed for the drill pad completely covered the trail I was on and made it impassible. I was kind of pissed, but after doing some hiking around I found a cross-country route that got me around the drill pad and back onto the trail. I followed several more trails and old mining tracks after that, and saw some interesting sights--a rock quarry in the Morrison Formation, an interesting rock formation, and an old uranium prospect. Here are all of the photos, and here's a Google Earth .KML file showing my tracklog and some waypoints.

During my ride, Traci called me after the doctor visit. They said that Michael was almost certainly suffering from the flu, but they didn't test to see which strain. They did, however, prescribe flu medicine for the entire family and said to keep the kids home from school. Michael is the only one suffering from symptoms, but acetaminophen couldn't keep his fever down. We were pretty worried about him Friday night/Saturday morning, but today he's doing much better. Tomorrow, Traci has an appointment at a surgeon's office to have her gallbladder checked out. We're putting a lot of plans on hold until we find out whether or not she needs surgery, and I'm sure this coming week will be a lot like the last couple of weeks. I'm growing weary of all the ER/doctor visits we've had lately, and I'm hoping things look up soon.

There's been a mix of good and bad this weekend. The kids didn't have school on Friday, and Traci was planning on spending Friday and Saturday in Orem while she scrapbooked with her mom and sister. I took Friday off work so the kids and I could do some hiking at the Wedge. I wanted to check out another of the small unnamed canyons in that area, and we spent about three hours and hiked 2.5 miles round trip in a canyon near the end of the spur road leading west from the Wedge Overlook. The canyon was a lot like all the others in the area. We started at the head of the canyon but quickly ran into a dryfall that was too steep to downclimb. I had the kids wait near the dryfall while I hiked out of the canyon bottom and tried finding a way around it. I found a good but very steep route and returned for the kids, then we retraced my steps and followed the route down into the canyon downstream from the dryfall. After that it was pretty easy going, and we continued until the canyon ended at a 450' cliff just above the San Rafael River in the Little Grand Canyon. The kids spent some time playing in a pool of water there while I hid a geocache, then we returned back to the truck using a different route that made the return hike a bit shorter. We found a couple of geocaches in the area before returning home, then spent the rest of the evening at home just relaxing. Here are the photos from that trip.

The next morning I was awakened by a phone call from Traci. She had spent much of the night in the emergency room at UVRMC. Earlier in the week she had a severe pain in her chest and difficulty breathing, but it went away after about 10 minutes. Saturday night at around 3:00 the pain returned but it was much worse, so her mom and sister took her to the ER where they treated her for the pain while they tried to figure out what was causing it. After several different tests and an ultrasound, they determined that she has some gallstones and that she'll more than likely need to have her gallbladder removed. They released her from the ER at about 7:30 that morning, which is when she called me. She was feeling better, but there was no guarantee that it wouldn't return before she could see a specialist. For now she's on a no/low-fat diet to try and keep her gallbladder from acting up again, and tomorrow morning she's going to call the surgeon who the ER referred her to, and we'll know more after her appointment with him.

There wasn't really any point in sitting around worrying about Traci since she was feeling better and was still planning on spending the rest of the day in Orem, so the kids and I went for another drive. The geocache that I placed in Bob Wright Canyon several years ago came up missing recently, so we were going to check on it and replace it if necessary. We didn't spend a lot of time up there because we got a late start and it was already nearing lunchtime when we got to the canyon. We hiked up and found that my cache was indeed missing, which was surprising because it was a very large metal box. Instead of leaving another cache in its place, I hid one in a different spot a few hundred feet away and farther off the ATV trail. The fall colors were beautiful up there, and they'll probably get even better in the next week or so.

I had wanted to get out again today, perhaps back to the Swell, but Traci wasn't feeling up to it and I didn't feel like lugging the kids around with me again, so I'm still at home in my PJs. :D

Even though we only spent the weekend in Sigurd, it felt like a vacation, and it was nice! I had Thursday and Friday off work and spent that time getting ready for the trip. At around 11:00 a.m. on Friday I hitched the trailer on to the truck while Traci was just getting ready to get the kids out of school early, but when I lowered the tongue of the trailer down onto the hitch, one of the rear tires on the truck suddenly looked a little flat. While inspecting the tire I saw a screw sticking out of the tread very close to the sidewall, and I knew I had to get it fixed before we pulled the trailer for two hours along the highway. The repair set us back about an hour, but at least the guy at the tire shop was nice and didn't charge me for it (even though I'd bought that tire elsewhere). That makes three flat tires in about a month--hopefully that's enough to last me for a few years!

We left town at around 12:30 p.m., got stopped in construction twice, and made it to Sigurd by 2:45. After setting up our camp trailer in the Hunts' driveway, a few of us guys took off on ATVs to do some geocaching. Friday marked my sixth year of geocaching and I wanted to hit 1,000 cache finds, but since not everybody was in town yet, we found enough to get me up to 999. Once a few more people arrived in town later that evening, we all went out for find #1,000, then started the party. Cortney had made a firepit in his back yard, and everyone spent the evening and well into the night moving between the house and the yard.

We got a late start the next morning, but eventually everyone ended up at the Utah Association of Geocachers event a few miles away in Richfield. The event was uneventful, though it was nice getting a chance to talk to some folks who I rarely see. Once the event was over and we went back to Sigurd, Cortney and Chris and I set out on ATVs and covered about 40 miles while finding three geocaches. The first one was on Carter Peak, and the road going to the top was incredibly steep with a lot of switchbacks. The view from up top was awesome though, and from there we could see Squaw Ledge a couple of miles away and decided to go for the cache up there too. We didn't realize there would be a hike involved, but we hit a dead-end on the ATV trail about 0.6 miles short of the cache, so we huffed it the rest of the way and were rewarded with an awesome view as the sun was beginning to set. We found one more easy geocache on the way back to Cortney's house, but the sun had gone down by then and the ladies back home were getting worried about us. We cruised back and got there just in time for a delicious dutch oven dinner made by Shawn. After dinner we spent more time around the campfire, and then had a glowstick fight (ugh).

The next morning we were once again very late in getting up and starting breakfast, but while breakfast was being made, Bradley managed to get himself into trouble. He was playing on Cortney's boat and he slammed his fingers in a hatch under the bow, which tore two of his fingernails off. His fingers were bleeding badly and one of the fingernails was still partially attached near the top, so Cort drove us to the hospital in Gunnison to have it looked at. I regretted going almost as soon as we showed up, 'cause all they did was put some antibiotic cream and a bandage on his fingers, without even cleaning the wounds! He's healing up well so far, and hopefully in a few months he'll have some new fingernails.

We got back to Sigurd and ate a late breakfast, then a few of us went out and found several geocaches while some stormy weather rolled in. After getting done with that, Traci and I spent the afternoon getting the trailer loaded and then headed home. The roads were wet for the drive home, but it didn't rain and traffic was light. We got home just in time to get the kids cleaned up and put to bed, then Traci and I turned in early ourselves--the late nights had taken their toll on us. It was a really fun time though, and I just wish we lived a bit closer to our friends. About halfway through the weekend I did remember to take some photos (I usually forget when I'm having so much fun), and I've put a few of them here.

I've been remiss in keeping this site up-to-date lately, though very little of interest has been going on. Last week I had a very long day on Tuesday. I drove to Orem for work, then went to lunch and played golf with some co-workers. It was my first time golfing and I'm sure that I looked quite comical. When I was first invited to the golf activity, I thought I would prefer staying at work rather than going golfing, but surprisingly I had a pretty good time. After embarrassing myself at the golf course, I went in for an eye exam. It's not that my eyesight seemed any worse than when I got my current eyeglass prescription eight years ago, but my favorite pair of glasses broke recently and I simply wanted to get new ones. After spending nearly two hours at the eye doctor in Orem, I headed up to Cabela's to look for some new winter boots. During the last two years I learned that winter is not the time to buy winter boots (and I've gone without for two years now), so this year I started looking early. I was bummed, however, that Cabela's store selection was piss-poor compared to their website, and I left empty-handed (though later in the week I found some good boots online for a great price). I decided to find some geocaches on the drive home that day, and though I only found nine, it made for a very long drive home and I didn't get there until around midnight.

I spent Labor Day weekend fixing a few minor problems with the camp trailer (stripped screw holes, a broken fuel shutoff switch, a gap in the weatherstripping in the back door, etc.), and I found a few geocaches. Friday night was the most fun of the weekend because Traci and I took the kids out to find a couple of night caches. The first was near the end of Airport Road, and when we were about halfway finished following the reflectors to the final cache, a coyote howled less than 300' from us. The kids were so terrified that their legs were trembling, and though they wanted immediately to go home, I calmed them down and we were able to finish finding the cache. The next cache on Wood Hill was uneventful compared to the first, and I think that helped to allay the kids' fears of wild animals and being out late at night.

This week is a very short one for me, since Monday was a holiday and I'm taking vacation Thursday and Friday. I drove back to Orem yesterday after work to pick up my new glasses, then met up with Jacob to do some geocaching in Provo. He's found nearly all the caches in the area, so I hopped in his Jeep and we drove a few miles from where we met up so he could find a new one, then he basically chauffeured me back to my car while stopping at several more caches that he'd already found. After returning to my car, I headed home and found more geocaches along the way in Springville and Mapleton, finding a total of 23 for the day and bringing my grand total up to 996.

It'll be nice spending this week leisurely getting ready for camping rather than scrambling to get it all done after work in the evenings. I've been so busy on a project at work that I haven't been able to take much vacation time this year, but with the project winding down now I'll be enjoying a lot of three- or four-day weekends through the end of the year.