Fear of a Female Planet

The Move: We've booked a moving truck (even with gas for the truck and the car this was still the cheapest option and at least we'll have our stuff right away), are about to sign a lease on a 3 bedroom apartment in Albany (wood floors, pantry, dishwasher, front porch, built ins, good neighborhood, previous tenant was there 9 years), and have started packing things up here.

Work: Sent my latest chapter off to my advisor and it was returned with reasonable edits (I'm very happy with this one, it's a turning point in the dissertation's argument) and my boss is very sad to see me go at Ancestry. One of the things I've enjoyed about that job is the performance monitoring they do - you can check your productivity daily and compare it to your squad, team, shift, and other shifts. Unlike grad school, which leaves you constantly wondering how you are doing, I know that I am one of their top performing workers (images per hour, QC disagreements, amount of time actively working in programs), even after only 90 days on the job.

Utah: Last weekend we went down to Arches again and did a backcountry trip in Canyonlands. Nick's old roommate had flown out to go with us and it was a little bit of an adjustment for him to do desert hiking (no peak to conquer or even trail to stick to - just explore!) but I think he ended up really enjoying it and appreciating nature more than he usually does camping. (It was also sort of funny to realize I am now in better shape than Jason, when he kept trailing behind us. Back in Yellowstone a few years back I was always the last person up the hill)

Jason imitating Edward Abbey:


Taking our packs off for a few minutes - about to descend into the Canyonlands - our destination is that bend in the river behind us, about a 21 miles round trip. It was nice to have a third person around to take photos of the two of us!


The descent mostly occurred here, at this rock slide (looking back up it). We descended 995' in .95 miles over dozens of switchbacks. Gorgeous views.


Looking back at where we had descended.


Taking a break on the way back up, with a view of Airport Tower and our hiking buddy. <3 Utah.

On Sunday we hiked the Pfeifferhorn - a 11,326' peak in Little Cottonwood Canyon that several people had recommended to us. It would be our highest peak yet.

We got to the trailhead at 9:30 AM and saw mostly trail runners on the way up. The trail is very steep after the first few miles - 2,000' elevation gain in 3 miles.



The peak in the distance is the false peak we would have to summit before reaching the Pfeifferhorn.



We had lunch at Red Pine Lake, where we watched a fly fisherman catch several fish and asked around about the trail up to Pfeifferhorn but only succeeded in finding out that no one knew anything other than it wasn't marked.



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After a night in probably the worst motel room ever, we returned to Arches to hike into the Petrified Dunes and backcountry camp for the night. The website and guidebooks discourage backcountry camping in Arches - it is a small park with limited backcountry areas and requires a lot of water - but once we talked to actual rangers they had tons of suggestions and we were so glad we basically pack our full backcountry gear everytime we go camping, so we had everything we needed.

If you check out this map, our destination was pretty much exactly where the pin is. This is my GPS watch's record of our first day (the battery died halfway through the second day - dream REI purchase? Solar panel charger). You can see where we tried to climb out of the canyon and wandered all over :)

We entered the canyons with the plan of going up the third one and seeing if we could climb out of it to camp for the night (no trail, only rules were camp on rock more than 300 feet from arch, water, and archaeology sites). The canyon was actually quite lush, with lots of water crossings and signs of beavers.



About a mile in the canyon walls got much higher and we started taking breaks to scramble up them and explore.



We resisted the urge to soak our feet in the water.



Eventually we began to wonder how we were going to climb back out...



Looking back toward the main canyon, from about halfway up the canyon wall:



In our attempt to find our way up on top of the canyon we explored caves, shelves, and arches - did I mention there was no trail and not a sign of another human being - well except archaeologically speaking (we saw a campsite that was probably 200 years old)?



This was as close as we got to the top - Nick went exploring and decided we had a 95% chance of making it. We decided it wasn't worth the risk, since the fall was over 200 feet.



It helped that we had spotted a flat rock area at the bend in the canyon, so we knew we had an option for the night. Since we still had daylight - and we are completists - we went to the very end of the canyon and found an even better spot to camp. Desert camping - you may need to carry a lot of water (5 liters per person per day - heavy!), but no bears, bugs, or people? Heck, due to the canyon walls we were able to sleep in!



On the way back out we took a slight higher route, enjoying the Spring wildflowers.



26 hours later!



We had a few hours of daylight left so we checked out Double Arch.



Petroglyphs:



And Delicate Arch.

1. Sadly, we had to reschedule our trip down to Arches and Canyonlands due to Nick's frisbee injury (cracked rib or torn muscle - just not getting better). Hiking would be fine, but sleeping on the hard ground might exacerbate it.

2. So instead, we are going to get some more work done (new chapter for me, second article for him) and take a break to see Jodorowsky's Dune at the local film society. Maybe a hike on Sunday out to one of the Great Salt Lake islands (Saturday is supposed to be rainy and gross).

3. I scored a great point in frisbee last night - diving catch of an upside down disc by the fingertips - best score of the game if I do say so myself :)

4. I think I might do some gardening today :)

5. I made a YouTube playlist of my half-marathon setlist:

Have I mentioned that our yard is lousy with trilobites?



The hyacinths have switched over to tulips - I'm actually getting in the habit of cutting fresh flowers from our yard for inside the house - weird!



Our next door neighbors (Oink's owners) took this great panoramic view from their roof - this is essentially my office view (actually, if you click on the image to make it bigger you can see my office window, it is the grey house on the far left - the two windows right next to each other):

Something I still find jarring about Utah, but must seem completely normal to folks here, is the modesty dress.

I'm not talking the cute stylish outfits of Mormon mommy bloggers - I'd wear those (actually, some of my style is pretty close to that...) or the FLDS prairie dress - but the women I see who take something that is immodest (a spaghetti strap tank top, a skirt above the knees) and just put something on under it (a plain white t-shirt, jeans). I just wonder - why buy that immodest thing to begin with? I was at the store you bought that top from the other day and it had some super cute cap sleeve shirts that would look better on you!

On the other hand, I suppose I feel like they do when they see someone dressing "immodestly."

In related news, I have loreofcure to thank for the tip on Joe Fresh jeans for a cheap option for the brightly colored jeans fad. See, this outfit is modest! And cute! And apparently I'm a size 4 :)

This week Nick's college roommate Greg came to visit. He was very excited to try the hiking, so we started off with The Living Room (followed by the Natural History Museum, since they share the same parking lot), which he did well on, so the next day I took him to Frary Peak on Antelope Island (Nick had a lot of work to do before our trip to Zion and Vegas).

The Peak is the highest point on the island, which is one of the islands in the Great Salt Lake. Due to it's protected nature and remoteness, it has herds of bison, bighorn sheep, deer, pronghorn sheep, and coyotes. We saw all of those except the sheep on the trip.

You know you are getting used to Utah when your guest sees this view and says "wow!" and you say "yeah, it's alright."



The peak is only 6596 ft, but the island is at a quite low elevation, so that isn't low for out there. After about three miles of ascending around foothills you reach the false summit. You then descend the right side of the peak before ascending up again. The peak is in the distance.



Near the top the ascent is very steep.



The views were amazing though - 360 views of the area.



On the way back the sunset made everything look different and wonderful.

Last night we went to dinner and the opera - a much appreciated night out after weeks of austerity.

We had dinner at Bistro 222, which I picked for it's proximity to the theatre and it's small plate focused menu (easier to pay less). I ended up getting the paella because it had sturgeon, a fish I had never had before, and it was delicious. Nick got a delicious pizza with artisanal imported meats.



The opera was La Traviata - which was the first opera I ever saw, back in college at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, VT (my honors program paid for all of us to go - it was a first for all of us and I'm sure it created many future patrons). Since then I think I have seen 10 more (Carmen, Aida, The Queen of Spades, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, Don Pasquale, The Flying Dutchman, Faust, Lucia di Lammermore, and Don Giovanni)?

This performance was middling - Violetta was good and so was Alfredo's father, but the sets were very boring and the chorus and the orchestra too quiet. The Capitol Theatre is a smaller theatre, so all the seats are pretty good - this was our view:



But, of course, half of the fun of the opera is dressing up, especially in a dress that hasn't fit you in a few years :)

Last night we drove up to Park City for the FIS Freestyle World Cup (the qualifiers for Aerial Skiing in the Olympics) with our friends Jen and Erik. Dan was also visiting on his way back from Portland for the Holidays (he is in my program in at Wisconsin and he and Jen entered the same year - she left with a terminal MA to finish her medical degree). This is from the parking lot at Deer Valley, with the mogul run lit up behind us.



Said mogul run. Erik said "I'd try that" and Nick said "I'd die on that."



One of the competitors:

This was a qualifier for Aerial Skiing in the Olympics next month and will air on NBC sports at 5:30 PM EST tomorrow. It was super fun - very different than anything else I'd done and really impressive athletes. For some reason I never thought of this before (I'm sure it was obvious to everyone else), but I now know why they use cowbells so much at skiing events - your hands have gloves on and don't make much noise clapping!