OUT N BACK BLOG

Too many places to play and not enough time to do it all. This last weekend we made a trek down to Coyote gulch. A Utah oasis tucked away in the Escalante desert. I had to laugh at all of our map planning and gps coordinates. The path was wide and the way was well marked. We entered at the forty mile road trailhead, hiked over to crack canyon, down the sand hill to the coyote creek. Took the detour down to the escalante river, and then up to Stevens Arch. We found the trail up to the arch itself and were almost blown off the mountain by the high winds.

That afternoon we followed the river up to Coyote bridge. Set up camp in a clearing to the south and endured the wild wind gusts that evening. Mountain House “rice and chicken” for dinner topped off with “chocolate strawberry crunch” for desert. All put together with the help of the jetboil stove. We put to good use the MSR Hubba tent and the Big Agnes Emerald Mountain 1 tent. Both endured the strong winds but didn’t do much to keep out the fine sand that blew in. Mountain Hardwear supplied a phantom 15 bag and a ultra-lamina 0 bag. It was a chilly night but we slept toasty. Hats off to Exped! We got to demo the brand new UL pads and pillows. A one pound pad that provided 5 pounds of comfort! Kylee demoed the Osprey Talon 44 pack and I tried out the Black Diamond Axium 30. Both performed very well.

Saturday we hiked up to Jacob Hamblin Arch and then exited up the cliff behind the million dollar outhouse. A steep climb and Kelly has a few profound scrapes to show off. I would suggest setting a hand line to assist for future trips. I used the gps just to prove I knew how but once again the way was set with enough markers to make a blind man proud. We were back to the truck by noon and sitting down to  pizza at “Escalante Outfitters” by 1. Lets say 1:30 because I drive slow.

This was a great trip. I highly recommend it to anyone. The company was awesome, the gear all worked well, the weather held, and everyone made it home safe and sound.

A group of Out N Back employees, including me, went on our first mountaineering trip. Much thanks is owed to Glen with Camp and our awesome guide Dallin for making this trip happen. We embarked on our journey at the early morning hour of 5 am and planned to hike Nebo. We were being taught how to use mountaineering gear such as ice axes, crampons, snowshoes, etc. This trip turned out to not be the most idea trip seeing as how we did not come near the summit, but learning was taking place every step of the way…literally. The terrain was steep and that made it cool to walk in the snow with snowshoes because at that angle they really dig in and work well. The crampons were fun…until you kicked your own leg one to many times, and the ice axes became very handy on the steep slopes. Hope you enjoy the pics.

I decided I am a lizard due to my need for the sun…and sun I got this weekend. First camping trip of the year! We went to Moe’s valley (just outside of St. George) in which there is a boulder field of many marvelous and beautiful boulders to climb. After climbing we went to Snow Canyon (also outside of St. George). Snow Canyon is a pretty little canyon where you can hike, bike, climb, ride horses, and camp. Its only 6 dollars to get in and its a very pretty canyon. Hope you enjoy the pictures.