Monthly Archives: August 2019

King in a Day

I’m preparing to hike Mount Whitney in September with some friends at work.  Mt Whitney is the highest mountain in the Continental United States.  No small feat for someone that hasn’t really done serious or even medium serious hiking for like 10 years.  As part of our training routine, we hiked Kings Peak…in a day.  In the end, it took just under 14 hours, 25.1 miles, and 5077 feet of ascent.  It was an experience to never be repeated, at least not for a very long time.  I’d make it a two night trip and break it up though.  My body held together pretty well, until like the last 6 miles when my knees began to give out and get really sore.  By the time we got to the end, I was walking like I had two peg legs.  Haha.  This was my first time in the Uintas.  They are really different than the Wasatch Mountains.  Much less rugged, but very high up.  All in all, it was a great trip.  Looking forward to “bagging” Mt Whitney.

Up at the top of this massive pile of rocks is Kings Peak.

This is scrambling/bouldering up the ridgeline to the peak.  You can see little people up ahead if you look closely.

Made it!  King in a day!

Moore Fun at Redfish Lake

We just had a lot of Moore Fun at Redfish Lake. Here are some of the highlights.

We decided to take up Thunder so we could haul up some extra kayaks up to the lake.  Here we go with three kids all within reach of each other.  Hope this doesn’t end poorly.

Listening to the Four Seasons as we drove over Galena Summit and through the Sawtooth Basin.  I’ve been in the backseat so many times on this very drive listening to this same music.  This was a surreal experience, driving our own truck with our own kids in the back. 

We made it to the lake and got everybody dressed in their matching shirts for picture time.  It was a pretty gray day all around, but we still had lots of fun.

The whole Moore clan.

Individual family photo entertainment 🙂

I really enjoyed flying the Mavic on this trip.  I got 6 flights in up at the lake, and then another one at home.

360 degree panorama of Redfish Lake.

Dinner time.

Time for another couple flights.  Such a pretty vantage point.

The Bench Lakes.  We hiked up here back in 2013.  Here is that post to see those lakes from the ground.

All the siblings and spouses.

Story time.

We did the Fishhook Creek hike with the kids.  They did great.

Landon got to ride in the Kronk Chariot.

We made it to “Fishhook Creek at Trail’s End.”

Some of the mountains just starting to poke out from behind the clouds.

Kayaking with Ashley.

K and E in the other one.

This looks yummy.

Spit it out, son!  (We didn’t get it all out as we later found out…)

Time for another flight with the Mavic since I have a great model out in the water.  I love how Mom and Eliza are hovering in this picture.

Love it.  Need to frame this.

Time to head back to Filer.  Kids didn’t last long before they all fell asleep.

The next day Kathryn put on a baby shower for Bethany.

The men were in charge of watching the kids.

Full on pool party now that the baby shower was done.  Ashley was all of the sudden swimming under water and across the pool.  Huge progress with a good swimming lesson with Dad and watching the cousins do it.  Good work girl.

That’s all folks.  See you later.

Maple Mountain

Pretty much every day, we look out fondly on Maple Mountain, whether from our kitchen table, our kitchen sink, or the big front room picture window. I’ve always wanted to hike up to the top, named Spanish Fork Peak, and I finally got the chance to do it.

Everything was so green!  I fit right in 🙂

And so many beautiful flowers!

Yeah! Made the summit. 5.5 miles and 4700 feet of ascent.  There were some rain storms rolling through the valley, and right over top of me.

That big downpour just to the left of center in this image is where our house is.

After just a few minutes, it was all cleared out.  Crazy how fast things change.

I hiked back down a little ways off the summit, and by then the weather had cleared up even more so I decided to fly the Mavic.  I was hoping to fly it at the summit, but is was too windy and rainy while I was there.  No problem, it only took a few minutes for it to climb up 1500 feet from where I was back up to the top.

All told, it was 11 miles roundtrip with the 4700 feet of ascent.  Very pretty hike with great weather overall.  Now when I look out at that beautiful mountain, I can remember when I was standing on the top of it and looking back the other way.