MOAB spring 09

I know this one is way overdue since our Moab trip was all the way back in late March but I told several people I would post some pictures of the trip, so I better follow through on my word. You know many people say, “You are only as good as your word” so I better not blow that. As always Moab was great, one of my favorite places! We ran the Moab (or Canyonlands) Half Marathon, Tara’s 4th and my 3rd there, it has become an annul tradition. We go because of the half but what really gets us down there is the incredible mountain biking, and we just love the atmosphere. Several of our family members and neighbors have also made this trip an annual tradition. We had Dustin, Jaylynn, Grandpa and Grandma Jensen, Bret & Jen, Orr’s, Melancon’s, Hawke’s & Workman’s to hang with. It is always an adventure! While driving out to Bartlett’s wash for a ride a guy stopped us and let us know that we were dragging a bike behind the truck. Opps it was Makenna’s (Sorry Mak) so while the rest of our crew went for a ride Mak and I stayed at the truck and tried to repair the damage (bent brake levers, broken spokes, flat tire, torn off cable etc.). We were able to get it together enough to get out for part of the ride. It’s one of those life lessons - you can never have to many tools and knowing how to use them is equally important as having them. Even though Mak was a bit upset at first it was really fun or us to get some one on one time out there, and she forgave me for damaging her bike. The next day while we were running the half Lannie Workman took it to the bike shop and got it fixed up for Mak (THANKS Lannie). The run was fun, Tara and I stayed together and we bumped into an old friend - Nylyn, who we ran the half with last year and Tara had run with during the Ogden Marathon 3 years ago. You know Tara; she makes friends everywhere she goes. You can never have too many friends. After the half Tara, and the girls took the kids out on Slickrock, and sand dunes, while the guys and myself went on a more difficult ride. We rode most of the Whole Enchilada; we could not ride the Hazard County section since it was covered with snow. It is a downhill epic starting high and coming down, Kokopelli, the upper and lower Porcupine Single-track, and Porcupine Rim. They are all pretty good rides by themselves. I believe it was around 25 miles. It was quite the adventure especially since most of us had just run 13 miles. We started in the mud and snow and missed our first cut off so we had to do some extra climbing, but eventually got on dry single-track and of course some slickrock. It took us a bit longer than we had expected and we ended up coming out in the pitch black darkness, only a few of us were smart enough to have headlamps with us. I have to mention that poor TJ did the whole trip with a bent disc brake. TJ you are one tough 60 something dude! We went to Arches National Park on the way home and saw some beautiful scenery; it always amazes me how diverse the world is, and I always feel fortunate to be able to witness some of its grandeur! Until next year our good old friend - Moab.

Ogden 1/2 Marathon

We got home from Maui just in time to run the Ogden ½ Marathon. Actually we came home one day early to run the thing, Tara really loves to run! We were able so stay at the Bailey’s place down in Liberty Utah with a bunch of friends (Thanks Jordan and Heather). We had some great company in Tara’s great running partners. It makes it really nice to be so close to the start line and not have to wake up a 4:00 am to get shuttled up the canyon. The weather was great and the course was beautiful. Grandpa TJ and his best friend Lowell ran the full marathon and TJ won 1st place in his age group, Lowell got 2nd!

More on Maui

I had hoped to have more updates from our trip but I ran into some problems with my laptop, but hey that’s life, and since we were on Maui time none of that really seamed to matter too much anyway. The trip was totally awesome; we had an absolutely incredible time! I will try to just give a “brief” description of our activities so I don’t bore you all to death. After the great time we had on the Hana (eastern) side of the Island we started to explore the western side of the island and ocean, we snorkeled all over the place in the crystal clear water, some of our favorite spots were: Honolua Bay, Black rock, and 5 graves/caves. We were able to see tons of beautiful fish; we swam with a bunch of sea turtles almost everywhere we went. One turtle was almost as big as our kitchen table; we saw a reef shark, and a couple of moray eels, one of which was huge and pretty scary. We surfed some more, one day at Lahaina Break Wall and, one day at Launiupoko Beach for 6 hours straight, Tara got pretty good at it but we both got totally fried. We drove all the way back to the southeastern side of the island so we could hike the trail through a bamboo forest to the Waimoku waterfalls and swim the seven sacred pools in Haleakela National Park. We went down to the Wailea and Makena area where we did some more boggie boarding/body surfing, and beach hangin. We went all the way to the north and drove the one lane road through the small village of Kahakuloa, there were some breathtaking views but the road was a bit hair-raising at times. We drove a bit inland to the Io needle; by the end of the trip we were able to drive the entire perimeter of the island. Can’t wait until we have the chance to go back someday!

Maui

ALOHA!
I promised both Makenna and Mason that I would post some updates of our Maui trip so they could see what we were up to. So here goes POST #1: After landing we went to the Hawaii State Park office to pick up a camping permit. We got there at 4 PM and the office was closed. Office hours for Hawaii Government are 9 am to 3:30 pm, who would have thought. Well I figured OK since I had a backup camping plan. We took off for Hana soon after and we soon learned why the road to Hana has such a wild reputation. Hana is 50-60 miles from the airport and it takes around 3 hours to get there. The local literature says it has over 600 curves or turns and I lost count of the one lane bridges, but WOW it is one unbelievably beautiful drive. So we made it to the Wai’anapanapapa State Park where we had planned to camp. I found the camp manager and she said that we could not stay there since I did not get the permit. I figured OK the backup plan was to go to Kipahulu which is right at the base of the Seven Sacred Pools since that is what we had planned to hike and swim the next day anyway. Well can you believe it the road to Kipahulu was closed since one of the bridges fell down, what terrible luck or maybe a bit of bad planning on my part. The lady at the state park told us we should either go back to the other side of the island (which meant another 3 hour drive) or stay in Hana. She said we should be able to pick up a room in Hana for around 40 bucks a night so we decided to stay there. Well after arriving in Hana the only available room we could find was at the Hotel Hana and the available cottage was $1,600 a night. By this time we were totally beat and we decided to stay the night in the car, so we parked at Hana Bay and slept the night away. We woke up to a beautiful view of the ocean and the bay. We were pretty much the only people awake at 5:30 am except for a few fishermen so we had the whole beach to ourselves; we did a bit of exploring and found a gorgeous red sand beach. After a great breakfast at a very casual Hawaiian diner we headed for Hamoa beach to do some boggie boarding. We were the only people at the beach for a few hours when some local surfers started to show up. Tara checked with the only rental shop on the beach and the next thing you know we were out surfing. It was great we were both catching waves right away (and sometimes the waves were giving us a serious beat down) but neither of us have got standing up and steering down yet, but by the end of the week we hope to have learned the trick. Hamoa beach has got to be the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. We were getting quite a bit of rain during the morning which was fine since we were pretty wet anyway, but the way the sun was shining through the rain with the lush rain forest in the background was breathtaking (I had a Forest Gump moment while I was waiting for the next wave to come carry me away). After we left the beach at noon we headed back on the Hana Highway, but this time we took the chance to stop at several waterfalls, swim is some freshwater pools (our favorite was the China Pool), and explore the Wai’anapanapapa state parks black sand beach and incredible scenery. We finally made it to our condo and hung out for a bit looking at the ocean out our backyard. Tara and I are already missing the Mak and Mas a bunch, hope we can make it another 7 days!