10,000 Steps

In my last blog post I wrote about some of the goals I have for 2019, and that I wanted to begin a project I’ve been thinking about for 10 years. That project being about walking and hiking. A tentative title for it has been 10,000 Steps. And when I say I plan on beginning the project, I mean I’m going to undertake the project more earnestly. Because the truth is, over the years I have made the occasional  image while hiking in the mountains surrounding Cache Valley with the intention of developing the idea. In fact, I’ve blogged about it before, twice in 2013, and again in August of last year.

This project, I feel, has so much potential, and there are so many directions I can take it. Or that it can take me, which will probably be more accurate, both creatively and geographically.

The following image, a 360° panorama, is the first I deliberately made nearly 6 years ago, and it more closely resembles what I then imagined the images to be. Now, in 2019, I’m not so sure of the format of the images.

I like that you can see the trail leading both to the North and to the South in the same image, and this is one direction the project could go. We’ll see. I just need winter to come to an end so I can start making images. And since it’s mid-February, I’ve got a long wait ahead of me…

And now for something completely different...

Okay, different may not be the best word. Maybe unexpected is better. 

I don't typically post things from my personal life on here. Sure, I share experiences and thoughts from hikes and fishing outings, but I've mostly been a closed book when it comes to what's going on in my everyday life (partly because my everyday life is pretty mundane). But this particular thing is big and important enough that I thought I needed to share it.

On that note, welcome to a glimpse of my personal life. 

I probably threw a lot of people for a loop when, on April 28, I posted on Facebook and Instagram that I was engaged. Not many people even knew I was dating anyone.

So, how did it all happen?

Back in September or October I decided to check out an app called Tinder. I'd heard about it before, and I'd always looked upon it with no small amount of disdain. For you who don't know what Tinder is, it is a dating app for smartphones that was originally created with the "one night stand" or the "hook up" in mind. Once you've created a profile, which is done by pulling info from your Facebook account, you can specify a few parameters for the kind of person you want to meet, as well as a proximity. From there, you're presented with other users (just a photo, really) that match those parameters. If you like a person, you can swipe right, or left if you don't like them. It can all be pretty superficial, and shallow, but, you can click through a person's profile and read their short bio and look at additional photos if they have any. If you like a person who has also liked you, you're matched with them, and after that, the two can message each other. If you don't like a person, they're never any the wiser, as they don't get any sort of notification that someone has swiped left on their profile.

Eventually the app became a legitimate dating tool for more than just the "one night stands". So, one evening I was bored and decided I'd give the app a look. I installed it, and set up a profile, and started swiping. For the sake of brevity, I'll say that nothing happened for months. Well, nothing serious. I was matched up with a few girls here and there, but nothing ever turned out from it. It didn't take long for me to lose a lot of interest in the service, but I'd still check in every week and a half to two weeks.

Now fast forward to February 15. I had just finished getting ready for church, and sat down on my couch to kill a few minutes before I left, and decided to just check Tinder, since it'd been about two weeks or more since my last check in. I went through a few profiles (swiping left) and then happened upon a certain girl named Gina that I thought was pretty. I never really liked to just swipe right—or left, for that matter—without reading their bio first. It just felt like I was giving the person a bit of a fighting chance if I read about them before I liked or rejected them. Anyways...I saw this girl, and wanted to learn more, so I clicked on her profile. She said she liked to hike! And then I looked through her other photos, and really thought she was pretty! And, she was close by! So, I swiped right. But, as was so often the case with so many other "right swipes" I didn't expect anything to come of it. But to my surprise we were immediately matched! Now, this wasn't the first time that had happened. I'd swiped right and been immediately matched before, and I'd send the girl a message right away, but I'd never hear back. So, I almost didn't message this newest match, but I just knew I needed to message her immediately. So I did. I never really thought I was good at the whole self-introduction, icebreaker sort of thing, but I had to message this girl. So I wrote some message about where she liked to hike. And then I went to church. At this point, I can't remember if she messaged me back while I was at church or shortly after I got home, but we spent the rest of the day messaging each other back and forth. It turned out that she was from Brigham City, but she was living in Idaho Falls and she was down visiting family. As the day progressed, and the end of it approached, I knew I had to find a way to meet this girl. The following day was President's Day, and I knew a lot of people had the day off (I didn't), so I asked about setting up a date for after work in Brigham, and she accepted.

I got to the restaurant at 5:30 exactly, and texted Gina to tell her I was there. But I didn't hear back from her. I kept scanning the parking lot as I sat in my car for a girl sitting in her car, but couldn't see anyone. After about 5 minutes of waiting, I decided to just go in and see if she was there. And she was. And she was even prettier in real life than she was in her pictures. We got seated, and then started talking. And talking. And talking some more. I was almost annoyed that I actually had to eat, and not talk with her. In fact, I only ate half my meal and said I was full just so I could talk with her more. She still had to drive up to Idaho Falls that night, so I had intended on it being a sort of short date...however, almost two and half hours later, I knew I very reluctantly needed to let her get on the road. So, we said goodbye and drove away. And like a stupid chicken, I let her go without even mentioning a second date! I knew I wanted to see her again, but was too scared to bring up or ask about a second date. Luckily, though, about half-way through Sardine Canyon on my way back to Logan I got a text from her thanking me for dinner. And there was my window of opportunity. I told her she was welcome and asked if she wanted to do it again some time. And she said yes!

Just after we knew for sure we wanted to get married.

To keep a long story short, we went on that second date. And then a third... And then a fourth... Things just felt so natural and right with Gina. Before long we knew marriage was on the table. On April 11, we went for a hike up Kelly Canyon. We were hoping to start at a different point than we did. There was still some snow on the road, so we had to just start right at the ski resort and go from there. Let me tell you now, this girl can hike. I like to keep a fast pace, but I think she could keep a faster one. So we walked along, trying not to slip on the snow, when there was a good clear opening off to the side of the road, and we decided to take a breather there. As we rested and hugged each other, I told her "my mind's made up. I want to marry you." And she replied "sounds good!" And then we realized what had just happened. I didn't mean for that to be the proposal, but it sort of was. Unofficially.

Just after we got engaged for real, but before it started raining.

Once we got back into town, we went an shopped around for rings. We didn't find any that we absolutely loved, but I at least got an idea of what she liked. Thanks to Pinterest and Etsy, I got some good inspiration for designing a ring, and got it ordered the following Monday, and it was finished a week later. On April 23, Gina came down to Logan, and we decided to go for a hike up Green Canyon. It was cloudy, and it looked like it was going to rain any second. We started up the trail (with a shiny new engagement ring in my pocket) at our usual quick pace, all the while scanning for a nice secluded spot for me to pop the question. We finally came to a good turning around point, and we started to head back, but we didn't even take one step before I pulled her close and kissed her, then told her I had something to ask her. I fished the ring out of my pocket, got down on my knee and asked her to marry me. And she said yes!

Things only seem crazy when I look at a calendar, and see how little time has elapsed. But, like I said before, things have just felt so right every step of the way with Gina. The Lord knew when we needed to meet and He knew we needed to be with each other for Eternity, and I can't wait to start a new life with her. She inspires me to be the very best man I can be, and I love her absolutely.

Thanks to my sister(-in-law) Hailey for our engagement photos!

Spawn Creek

I think last night was the last night I'll spend in Right Hand Fork Canyon for a little while. I need to spend some time away from it in a new place. I feel my images there are becoming homogenous. Then again, photographing there under the morning light would help bring some variety to the work. Anyway, here are some images I made last night:

I had decided on hiking up Spawn Creek today, and was on the trail bright and early. Well, it was actually kind of dark, but plenty early. Spawn Creek is a small creek in the Temple Fork watershed. It drains into Temple Fork near the trail head to the Temple Fork Sawmill. And like Temple Fork, there are plenty of beaver ponds along the creek, with schools of Bonneville Cutthroat Trout that spook easily. I'll have to take my rod up there one of these days. It'll be a perfect test of how stealthy a fly fisher I am.

Temple Fork and Spawn Creek, along with the upper Logan River in the Franklin Basin, are spawning habitat for the Bonneville Cutthroat Trout. An old road used to parallel Temple Fork, and overgrazing, and general misuse of the land lead to poor water quality in the Temple Fork watershed. In 1999, the old road was removed, along with stream-side campsites, and the area was rehabilitated. Better grazing management practices were adopted. All this has served to greatly improve the health of Temple Fork and Spawn Creek, thus improving also, the health of the Logan River.

At the confluence of the Temple Fork and the Logan, there are two rectangular frames made of 4" diameter steel pipe, and a mesh fence. Since there are efforts to rehabilitate the native cutthroat trout in Right Hand Fork and Temple Fork, I assume, since there are no natural barriers, that these act as the barrier to the brown trout in the Logan River, preventing them from creeping up Temple Fork. I need to talk to the rangers at the Ranger Station and get some better info than just assumptions.

Three of the steel rectangles are placed above the confluence of Spawn Creek and Temple Fork. I assume these are there to direct the cutthroats up Spawn Creek, though I don't know why whatever conservation group would want to block Temple Fork. Again, I need to do some investigating. 

I've always loved the scenery along the highway through Logan Canyon, but there is so much more to see in the Bear River Range and in order to see it, you have to get out of your car and walk, and only those willing to do so are blessed with the rewards of even more beautiful scenery, sounds and smells. I just can't wait for the trees and shrubs to regrow their leaves and the flowers to bloom. Rest assured, I'll be there with my camera when they do.

Temple Fork

Wanting to see a different part of the Bear River Range, I decided on hiking the trail up Temple Fork this weekend. But not before spending the night in Right Hand Fork Canyon again. I've mentioned how convenient Right Hand Fork is for just pulling off the road and pitching a tent. Skipping the tent and just sleeping in the back of the 4Runner makes it even more convenient. I know, I said I wasn't going to cheat and do that, but it allows me to hit the trail much earlier than if I'd pitched a tent, and I wanted to be on the trail as early as possible. Partly for the nice morning light for photographing, and partly because when the weather gets warm, as was forecasted for today, I like to hike in the cool morning air.

I've decided to try and incorporate Right Hand Fork to be it's own photographic project, as I mentioned I thought of doing last week.

This morning I was on the trail by about 6:30. There is a dirt road that connects Temple Fork to Right Hand Fork, Left Hand Fork, Blacksmith Fork, and if you take the right roads, you can end up at Bear Lake. Right now, those roads are gated off, and any hikers wanting to hike the trails up Temple Fork, have to start at the gate, adding about a mile to the overall trip, not that that's a bad thing.

I made it almost all the way across this bridge and then thought it just needed to be photographed.

A little further up, I turned around and saw this:

Then walked another hundred feet or so and photographed this:

At the actual trailhead to the Temple Fork Sawmill Site (more on that later), there is a beaver dam. I made this photograph:

And then this:

And this:

I continued following the stream off-trail, stopping and making photographs as I saw them, which was pretty often. Here's just one of them:

I'm not 100% satisfied with most of the others. I'll need to spend some time with them, and I'll post them later if I deem them worthy of a blog post.

After I'd made that photograph, I finally got back on the trail, and set out for the Sawmill.

The trail parallels the stream the whole way, never getting more than about 100 feet away from the water, so the hiker is constantly accompanied by the sound of the water dribbling over a shallow bed of pebbles, or crashing over feet-high drops in elevation. The chirping of birds waking up also provide more melodies and harmonies to the score of mother nature's soundtrack.

Continuing south, and then bending to a more easterly direction, the trail passes several more beaver ponds, that look to be uninhabited (I vaguely remember hearing that all the beavers up on the Temple Fork have been removed). This one, however looked a little less "unoccupied:"

I had been periodically making video with my phone (which I may or may not post to Youtube when I get it all edited and put together), and as I was walking and recording, I came upon this beaver pond. There's a pretty big grove of Cottonwood trees that the beaver has really been hard at work at cutting down. If that beaver has been removed, it wasn't removed before it felled a few dozen trees, all about twenty-plus inches in diameter, and getting half-way through several more, and even more smaller trees. It's lodge alone was around twenty feet in diameter—one of the largest lodges I've ever seen. It was all rather impressive that a rodent so small could have that kind of impact.

The Temple Fork Sawmill was built by Mormon settlers in 1877 to provide lumber for buildings in Cache Valley, including the Logan Temple, and ties for the Utah & Northern Railroad. It ceased operation in 1883 after having produced an estimated "2.5 million board feet of lumber, 21,000 railroad ties, 900,000 laths, 2,000,000 shingles, 50,000 pickets, charcoal and an uncounted number of broom handles." It burned down in 1886, and wasn't rebuilt. There is now a monument at the site with a few pieces of equipment.

Of the trails I've hiked so far, this one ranks pretty high. It was absolutely gorgeous, both in sights and sounds.

Right Hand Fork Canyon

Today I realized that with all the photographs of Right Hand Fork I've got, I have a pretty good start at a project of that canyon itself. For such a relatively small geographic area, there's quite a variety of images to be made regarding the canyon and river. Cache Anglers collaborates with the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources and USU to restore the Cutthroat Trout population in Right Hand Fork, and it serves as a launching point to many different trails in the Bear River Range, including connecting with the Great Western Trail.

Last night I drove up and made these while my dinner was cooking over the fire.

This morning I headed up the trail. It only goes up Right Hand Fork Canyon about a mile before it veers up Willow Creek. Another mile further up R. H. F. Canyon, there are some cliffs that I wanted to check out, which means I had to bushwhack a mile through dense brush, and follow the dry streambed. But not long after leaving the trail, the canyon walls narrowed to 20' to 60' wide, with ciffs on either side, ranging from only about 20 about 100 feet tall. The cliffs I had as a destination, according to the topo maps are at least 200 feet tall.

Since the sun can't reach the canyon bottom for very long during the day, there is still quite a bit of snow, and I really would have benefitted from bringing my snowshoes, but I didn't think I'd need them. Anyway, bushwhacking through dense brush and thigh-deep snow can really take it out of you, and add rain to the mix, I threw in the towel before I got too worn out to make it out safely. Once the snow is gone, I'll give it another go.

I did make some photographs along the way though.


After the hike, I decided to head up Logan Canyon and see how high up I could get on the road up to Tony Grove. On my way there, I saw this and had to stop and photograph it:

Lots of good images, and plumb tuckered out. I've had a good weekend so far.

Right Hand Fork, Little Cottonwood Creek

When March rolls around every year, I start suffering from cabin fever. And this year was no different. Actually it was a little different. It was different because I had it worse probably than ever before. The deep freeze of January really brought the hermit out in me, and I spent a lot of time inside. I didn't get out fishing once in November clear through until two weeks ago. I did get out snowshoeing once, but it was a short trip and did absolutely nothing fill my "need-to-get-outside" canteen.

During the past two weeks I've spent a lot of time pouring over topo maps and satellite imagery on Google Earth, planning and plotting and scheming all the different trails to hike and places to pitch a tent. I've spent a lot of time doing maintenance on any gear that's needed it. I've spent a lot of money (throughout the winter) getting new pieces of gear.

I've got a plan in mind starting in May for sure—it may have been put into action last night—to spend every Friday night outside. I know there might be one or two that I'm going to have to stay indoors. But the vast majority will be spent under the stars (and no, sleeping in the back of the 4Runner doesn't count).

So, this week I made the determination to sleep in my tent. No matter what. Rain or shine, snow or sleet. I ended up taking my default option and went up Right Hand Fork. Mostly because with all the searching of maps I've done, I knew there are several trails that either start there, or branch off of the main trail in that canyon, and I had planned to explore at least one of them today.

One of my favorite things to do is photograph my campsite wherever I've camped or backpacked in to. Sometimes I include myself in them, sometimes I don't. Last night, I did.

This morning I got up, made breakfast, and headed up the trail that follows Little Cottonwood Creek. It's a gorgeous little trail that eventually turns into an old road (I don't know the history of it, but it looks as though it hasn't been used for several years).

This little stand of aspens caught my eye, and I had to stop and make a few photographs.

One thing about hiking and backpacking I like so much, is it gives me time to think. Without any distractions, I can just let my mind either drift from random thought to random thought, or I concentrate on only one thing. Today I think I stumbled on a new photographic project. The first one I've really been excited about since my BFA project (I know, I know, it's been eight years. Don't judge me). I still haven't noodled all of the nitty gritty details out yet, but I at least have a Departure point.