Friday, November 28, 2008

School uniforms

A friend of mine from High school found a couple of pictures that I thought you all might want to see. I don't remember having school uniforms but here is the proof in black and white.

White T shirt? Check. Timberlands? Check. Acid washed jeans? Check. Mullets? Check.
Top row; Brent Allsop, Todd Passey, Dustin Warr.
Bottom row; Mike Bearnson, Matt Izatt and Yours Truly.
That was from our senior year seated on the "senior bench in the lobby at THE Bountiful High.


Graduation trip to Lake Powell. If memory serves this was taken in the parking lot at Stromboli's Pizza in Page Arizona. Let's play where's Marco. The first to locate me correctly wins a prize.


There is a lot of neon colors in that picture and some really short shorts. I remember being pretty cool but I had no idea I was that cool.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Kayenta Love Shack

Here are some pictures of a recently completed project in Kayenta. Absolutely wonderful homeowners with a terrific plan. Probably my favorite house that I have built in Kayenta, there are a lot of little extras that can't be shown with pictures but these are the highlights. Pay particular attention to the views that you can see out the windows.

This is where I started.






And this is where we finished.





Yep, that's a fountain.




The smaller rectangle by the posts is a fire pit.



Anybody like travertine tile?







This is the library. Love it.




A couple of shots of the kitchen.





Start to finish 7 months build time. 3700 square feet with a basement, casita and pool.

Tours given by appointment only.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Broken Mesa

A Tuesday afternoon with not much going on so I headed to the Broken Mesa trail. There was a fire there about a year ago and I haven't been up since then. The trail is much easier as a shuttle but I didn't have anybody to go with me so I rode up the dirt road and made it into a loop. Total mileage 16+. It started sprinkling at about mile 3 and didn't let up until I was nearly done.
This ride links to the Ice House trail that I will get to a little later.



At the trail head I could see that no one had been on this trail in some time. It was overgrown and with the fire killing off most of the grass and trees the water runoff had really done some damage. Lots of loose rock.
At the top of the switchback climb they have built up a dirt ramp to take you over the water pipes headed back to town. You can see the concrete pipe on the left and the newer steel pipe that took it's place.





Looking west at Red Mountain. Scroll back two posts ago to get the ride report on that trail.



I took a little video for you, the views on this ride are absolutely spectacular. None of the photos or this video do it justice. You can hear the wind blowing pretty hard and sorry for the quality I am using the camera that my wife deemed unsuitable for her use.





OK, to get off Broken Mesa you have to descend the Ice House trail. It derives it's name from the road that the pioneers made up the side of the hill. In the fall they would drive empty, specially sealed wagons up the mountain to Pine Valley, fill them with water and leave them until they froze solid. They would then bring the wagons back down the hill and put them in a special barn or "ice house," cover them with hay and would have ice for most of the summer. This next picture shows the trail cut into the side of the hill. This sucker is steep and nasty, I can't imagine who thought this would be a good idea. To ride this down you better bring your "A" game and have your stuff wired pretty tight.




To sum it up, the trail conditions were deplorable and the weather was wet, windy and cold and as I said before the scenery is really good so I had a great time.
What is it about adversity that makes men feel like they are doing something worth doing?