This site is basically dedicated to sharing the things I’m learning in continuing my faith and trust in Christ. As well as to let friends and family keep up with what’s going on in our lives. I hope as I put my heart and thoughts into this blog you will in some way be blessed and mostly that God would be Glorified.
S
My first trip last summer was to an old favorite, I’ve done several trips to McAllister Creek Camp off of Thunder Creek trail. What made this one different was the fact that this time we took a person new to backpacking and our sons. I also brought a friend of ours son with us for his first backpacking experience. It was the longest hike any of the boys had been on, roughly 14mi round trip. Our crew consisted of Luis, Little Lu; Ryan, Owen, Gabe, Jaydon and I. This would be Ryan, Owen and Jaydon’s first backpacking trip. Ryan borrowed an external frame pack from a buddy at work. Gabe and Jaydon were using Osprey Jib 35′s, great packs for kids.
The weather was fantastic, perhaps a little warmer than ideal but beautiful and sunny. I had gotten my pack weight down quite a bit, and with Gabe and Jaydon carrying packs with their own gear, it promised to be a great backpacking trip! We hit the trailhead raring to go. It was pretty quick time to make it to the bridge across Thunder creek at roughly 2 miles in. After that the boys started asking the typical questions… How much longer? Are we almost there? Can we stop and take a brake? This was pretty consistent for the next 4 – 5 miles. The good thing about this trail is that it is relatively easy, other than the distance, there is not a lot of elevation gain or loss. I’ve found that as long as I hydrate well it is an easy hike even when I’m out of shape and carry to much stuff- 
We were assigned the group camp at the end of the McAllister camp area. We were pretty tired and got camp setup up quick. Ryan had developed some decent blisters on his feet. A good soaking in the creek was in order. We basically hung out the rest of the day, the boys explored and built a fort while us dad’s setup tents and filtered water and got dinner going.
After dinner we had a deer wander into our camp and pretty much hang out there for the rest of the evening. We chatted and then everyone went off to bed. This is the first trip I brought my iPhone with me, so Jaydon, Gabe and I watched The Bourne Identity before going to bed. About half way through we got tired though and decided we would finish the rest the next night. We were startled several times by the crazy deer. She would come right up to our tent. She was just eating leaves. It was weird how tame she was. The smoke and fire at the camp site earlier had not fazed her at all. Our yelling and smacking the side of the tent had little effect on her grazing by us as well. She woke me up a few times stepping on twigs and I would jolt up and shine my headlamp out and see her out there. Then I would drift back off to sleep. I hate being scared awake… it does get the heart pumping and then sleep comes a little harder.
Saturday we got up and had breakfast and the boys and us dad’s played kick the can(read empty fuel canister). Then we decided to do some exploring and so we hiked up McAllister creek for a mile or so. The first obstacle we came to was a huge log jam. Navigated our way across it and then had to cross a very long log across the creek to the opposite side. Everyone made it across without any issues. We had a lot of fun, we took some side shoots up exploring wading in the water a lot of the time. We were numb pretty quick the water was so cold. We took a break when we got to an area where we could not really continue with out crossing some pretty fast moving water. We decided to head back to camp and eat lunch.
On our way back to camp as we were crossing back over the log jam little Luis had the misfortune of a branch breaking on a log we used as a ladder and impaled his inner thigh on the broken branch. He bravely shrugged it off at first and we did not really get a good look at it until we made it back to camp. There we found he gouged a quarter sized hunk of skin off his thigh and had some fair chunks of wood stuck in his leg. It was pretty meaty looking as you can tell from the pictures, but we cleaned it and dressed it. I think this would be a good time to note that this trip with the boys used up more medical supplies than all of my other backpacking trips combined. These boys were relentless with each other, fighting with sticks, hitting themselves with the hatchet, hitting each other with sticks, I think by the end of the trip we had emptied all of our medical packs of bandages, gauze and anti-biotic ointment. Needless to say though little Luis’s thigh did well with the cleaning and he took it pretty easy the rest of that evening.
After lunch Ryan took Owen, Jaydon and Gabe exploring the trail back in the other direction. Luis and little Lu hung out in their tent and I decided to take a nap. It was a great afternoon with temperatures probably in the upper 80′s, it was very relaxing. We got up and had dinner, cleaned little Lu’s leg again and then roasted marshmallows and then went to bed. We finished Bourne in my tent and then hit the hay. We had far less distractions with the deer gone that night. I was a great night sleep. I thought I would mention we were able to sleep with out the rain fly both nights since it was so nice out.
In the morning we rolled up camp, ate breakfast, did one more once over on Luis’s leg. I told the boys if they did not complain on the way out I would buy them ice cream, but if anyone of them complained they would all lose it. They did a great job hiking out. Spirits were high. One thing I found out about after the fact however was one Jaydon was being pretty dramatic. He was asking Ryan if he was going to dehydrate and die of thirst or something to that affect. We had plenty of water, it was pretty warm but no danger of dehydration at the rate he was drinking it. 
We finished up with what has become a tradition for us when we backpack up in the Cascades around Marble Mount. That is a Burger at the Buffalo Run Restaurant. I’m not sure if it is really as good as it tastes after being out backpacking for a few days but every time its sure been good, and about the last hour of the hike we were talking about how we can’t wait for the Buffalo Run Burgers! You can tell by Ryan’s expression he was not to happy about getting his photo taken at the Buffalo Run…
All in all it was a really good trip, on the way into town we stopped at DQ and I got the boys ice cream. Luis called Gina and told her to go and pick up some more medical supplies, it was pretty funny the way he did it. We could tell she started getting kinda panicky.
Can’t wait until next time…
S
Last summer I planned a few backpacking trips. The first one was with all boys.The second was with, you guessed it, all girls. I took my two youngest girls and several friends brought their daughters. It was a fun trip. We went to Thunder Creek Camp, off of ThunderCreek Trail.It was a two mile hike, I was initially concerned if Mallory 7 could make it. But She and her pal lead the way almost all the way in. We set-up camp and the girls started exploring everywhere. Malloryneeded a stick sharpened rightaway and was ready to do some hunting. By the time we were heading home she wanted to bag a squirrel to take home so mom could skin it and make something for winter out of the skin. We could have squirrel stew for dinner. The main difference I noticed backpacking with the girls was they were much more concerned about what we would be eating. With boys it’s just eat and eat a lot. The girls were much lighter eaters as well. We had a lot of fun and I look forward to some more time with them on the trail.
The Girls
Me and My Girls
S
Gabe put together his first computer today! See photo’s below. It was a lot of fun he said. The funnest part for him was cutting wire ties and then replacing the bad case fan and taking it home, “cause it looks cool”.
Going over the components
Getting the RAM ready
DVD Burner... Check!
Tidying things up
Booted up on the first try! Good Job Gabe!
He put it together for a Non-profit org…
I got invited by a friend to join them shooting this Friday. It was a blast. I got to shoot several different firearms including an AR15, Glock .45, Springfield XD .40 subcompact, 9mm something. We had a great time, the only bad thing was it was soooo cold! We froze. We shot some paper targets and some clay pigeons. Can’t wait to go again!
I’ve not been on in a while. I’ve not done much other than working and learning about being an owner of a business. That said I”m excited to say I’ve had the opportunity to do a couple of backpacking trips with my kids! I will post trip reports soon. I’m really excited about a trip just finished. It was the longest hike I’ve done at 30 miles. It was also the most elevation gain I’ve ever done. It’s from Diablo Lake, (Colonial Creek Campground) to Stehekin on Lake Chelan. Trip reports and gear revies coming soon.
Cheers,
S
It’s been almost a year since I’ve been able to put anything up on the blog, but wanted to take the time to let everyone who doesn’t know yet that I purchased a business that a year or so ago I felt God had been leading me to go into business for myself. Over the last few months of 09 I had begun working with a friend to buy his IT consulting services business and computer retail and repair store. He moved to Columbia with his family and it seemed like a great fit and oportunity for my families future. I was sad to be leaving Valley Electric. I had been working for Valley for 8 1/2 years. They have been great to work for. That said I’m very excited for what God has for this business in the future. Please pray we would continue seeking His face. I praise God for this blessing he has given me.
That said it has been a very busy few months for me learning all that there is to do to open, purchase and operate a business. I started my company Corban IT Services, LLC to purchase PrimeWest Systems, Inc. The purchase was completed January 1, 2010.
S
Had our first regular season soccer game last weekend. I have 3 out of 7 kids from last year returning to our team. Gabe, Josh & Xavier. 1 of my boys has never played before, one has not played for two years and is a year younger than the rest of the team. I was a bit worried about this game and I use the term worried loosely, as it is just a U9 soccer game. Last weekend we played in a Jamboree and lost all three games. We not only lost but got schooled pretty much each of the games. We did not score a single goal and had maybe 3 -4 shots on goal for all three games. My worry was mainly that this would be a really long season for the boys. Read the rest of this entry »
Hike Summary:
Destination: Sauk Mountain Peak
Mileage: 2 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 1,200 feet
Weather Conditions: Mostly Sunny
This weekend I had the pleasure of going with my son on an AWANA camp out and hike. We left Friday at 5:30pm and drove east for about an out to Rockport. We camped at Howard Miller Steelhead Park. This was the second time I’ve stayed at this camp ground. It is right on the Skagit River so when the weather is warmer it’s fun to explore the river, swim or fish. We rented the adirondacks which have 8 bunks each for a total of 16 bunks. We had 17 boys and 7 Men. We spent the evening getting setup and the boys played games, we then took a hike out the back or west end of the park. The trail we took is probably a 1/2 mile or so and we wanted to familiarize our selves with the path so we could come back and hike it in the dark without lights. We got back to camp from the initial hike and Gene built a fire and we had hotdogs and chips. The boys played capture the flag. Then about 9:30pm we headed out for the dark hike. It was pitch black out, but as our eyes adjusted the walk was not too bad. Andrew did a devotional and gave the message of the gospel. It was neat sitting along the river with the stars and listening to him. One of the boys about half-way through raised his hand. Andrew finished and asked him what his question was, we were all expecting a deep question 
about Andrews devotion. But the boy asked, “what do you think that light is over that mountain?” We had a good laugh. It was an air plane. We saw a couple of shooting stars. When we got back to camp we roasted marshmallows then pretty much went to bed. Gene and I with two boys ended up sleeping out under the stars. It was a beautiful night.
Pros:
Cons:
I have been looking for a good lightweight tent for backpacking. I came across the QD-UL2 which on REI’s site had a 4.6 star rating with 56 reviews. The main drawback from the reviewers was that it was cramped for a two person tent. But for under 4 lbs and a killer price tag I decided to take the plunge and purchase it.
Yesterday I told you about my quest for a new shelter. On my last trip I had the priviledge of seeing the ill effects of weather on tarp users. We backpacked into Ridge Lake on Labor Day weekend.
In the afternoon a larger group came in and setup camp over by Gravel Lake. I noticed that part of the group pitched a large maroon colored tarp in a stand of trees. I wasn’t sure if that was for their kitchen or what. It turned out part of the group was using it for their shelter.
That night it poured rain, also sleeted and there was ice on the outside of the fly when we woke up, not to mention the wind. It rained all morning as well until about 11:30am. We took off for a hike and happened by the group with the tarp. I asked a gal outside how they faired in the weather. She was said the ones in the tent stayed pretty dry, but the folks in the tarp got drenched.
I’m so glad I got the tent. I do want to try a Hennessy Hammock though. Hopefully in the future.
S
