My 2,000-Mile Journey

Although this journey took about 3 weeks to accomplish, I will make this as short and sweet as possible ;).

The first week of September I started out in Phoenix (flew from OR to AZ) and hung out with my friends down there before my big move back to the NW. It was great to see everyone again, just unfortunate that I had to say "hello" and "goodbye" in the same visit. Erik and I had a lot of time to talk, but it still didn't seem like enough. I think I left on good terms though, and we are going to try and stay good friends. While I was there it was storming pretty good, and I've been working on getting good shots of lightning... this will suffice for now.

6 days later, I drove from Phoenix to Orem, UT in 10 hours, where a bunch of my old friends live. I grew up with a family in West Salem, elementary school through middle school, and hadn't seen any of them since they lived in Oregon, 4 years ago. It was so wonderful to see them all again, and their husbands, wives, and children whom I had never met! The youngest, Samantha, who was my best friend in my younger years, and her friend Elise took me around Salt Lake to show me the sights and go shopping. We hung out a few times and it was great to catch up with her. I really missed that family! I had another friend who was another best friend in middle/high school, that lives in that area, and we were able to have time to catch up as well. Then there was my good friend Jake who I worked with at Reds, who took me hiking and to see sights in the mountains that I never new existed in that place. I always thought of Utah as a rocky desert, but this place was pretty beautiful, and the fall colors were just beginging to show through.

In these mountains, just outside of Provo and Orem, are numerous canyons, and each canyon had what seemed like hundres of waterfalls pouring down the walls. We went to Sundance, where the film festival takes place, and visited Robert Redford's resort and stables and said hello to the horses.

Other days we went to explore some caves in one of the canyons, and I went rock climbing for the first time in my life! Although I only went up about 15 feet, it felt like much more since we were on the side of an open cliff that overlooked the entire valley. The sunset was amazing that evening.

After spending about a week and a half in Utah, I drove SW another 10 hours through the boring state of NV back to the Sierra Nevada Moutains, where I worked this summer, to ride along on the horse drive from Mammoth Lakes to Bishop, CA (45 miles). A horse drive is like a cattle drive, by the way, for those of you that do not know, where we herd 90 animals all that way, coyboy style. It was a blast, but quite hot (105 degrees in the sun) since we rode in the desert the whole way. I don't have pictures of the horse drive yet, but will hopefully soon. Since I only had 3 days off this summer, I didn't get many pictures of the high trail, my favorite trail along the Pacific Crest Trail, but arrived a day early to do so, and capture the fall colors there.

Along my hike to Shadow Lake Lookout I spotted black bear tracks left by a medium sized bear, relatively fresh, but there was no sight of the bear.

It's always nice to get back to the Sierras, and I rarely get to see them in the fall, so that was a treat.

After the weekend horse drive I left Monday morning and drove back to Salem, OR in 12 hours where I am now. I had a great trip, and I'm glad I did as much as I did and saw so many people, "stopping to smell the flowers" rather than doing the whole 2,000 miles in one stretch. Now it's time to look for a job and a place to live......