Our Missionary Group Picnic August 6, 2012

 

I know you all are sick of seeing bike rides by now! 

 

This is about a picnic we had with the group of missionaries we started with in September 2011.  Several of them will return home this month, toward the end of the month.  Several of the single missionaries provided the food for this social outing in the woods at Mill Creek Canyon.  It was so nice to be in the woods and have it be cooler!

This is Anna Miller, Pat Strange and Roberta Daniels, with Linda Marks in the background..  Anna Miller is returning home this month.

This is James & Carol Sullinger, zone leaders in the International floor of the Family History Library.  Vernon Marks is a zone leader in the British floor of the library. We have great missionaries in our group!

This is Lola Glaszczak and Anna Miller.  They are both going home this month.

Jim, Jeannine Skousen, James Sullinger, Sherry Peck and Lola Glaszczak.

Joyce Woerner, Linda & Vernon Marks, Polly & Kent Erickson.

Janet Babcock, Jim Speidel, Carol & James Sullenger, James babcock, Sherry & Kenneth Peck.

Lola Glaszczak, Roberta Daniels, Jeannine Skousen, Patricia Strange, Anna Miller.

Some of the group leaving in August are: Jeannine Skousen, Lola Glaszczak, Janet and Jim babcock.  Others leaving not pictured are: Don & Janet Asay, Evangelina Gallego, Lavar Skousen.  Two couples left earlier: Ron & Linda Vincent and Laray & Linda Harmon.

After eating and everyone leaving that night, we headed up to thew top of the canyon.  As we rounded a curve we saw this deer who seemed unafraid of us.  It was near dusk which is the best time to see wildlife.

She is sure beautiful!

When we were at the top of the canyon we saw many wildflowers.  This is just one.

and another...

and another...

and a bunch of seeds.  (Remind you of Christmas? -Red & Green)

This scene is on top as the sun is going down.

We were able to get into the canyon for free but had to pay to get down!  This shows the ticket booth where we paid by carload.

Last but not least is a sunflower, which grows wild all over the West!

Antelope Island Moonlight Ride, July 5, 2012

We decided to try something new when we heard about this published moonlight ride on Antelope Island. The ride was supposed to start at 10 pm, when we were supposed to ride from the start of the island and ride about 11 plus miles to the Ranch on the southeast end of the island.  We decied to start our ride at 7:45 pm so that we would be in the light on the ride to the ranch.

These are avocets and gulls on the edge of the Great Salt Lake.

At the start of the ride about half-way up the first hill we saw this sign, "(buffalo) stay on the road."  We wondered if the buffalo could read!

I even got into the act.

Walt shows the flat part of the road and the lake.

Here he is showing just one of the rock formations on the island.

More road scenes with the mountains in the background.

Walt is using his bike for a chair.

Jim and Walt are on a pretty striated rock.

Some other early riders stopped to shoot all three of us on the rock.

Ha!  The wonderful buffalo herd is shown in the distance on the meadow.

This is a close-up and a cropped shot of the buffalo herd.

Here we all are in the meadow.

This gives you an idea of how far away those buffalo are!

Just before the ranch we saw a beautiful cloud with sunset color in the east.

This proves we made it to the ranch.

Someone changed some setting on the camera and made this weird shot.  Walter really liked the pyramid mountain over our heads in the background.

It was really dark when we shot these photos of deer in the ranch pasture.  However use your imagination.

This is another nearly dark scene on the ranch looking west toward the mountains.

This is from the ranch looking eat toward the mainland.

When we arrivedf back at the Jeep at nearly 11 pm, we saw a large group of cyclists just arriving to START their ride.

They look quite shost-like, don't they!

We really had the "adventure" on the ride back from the ranch in the dark! First of all a deer ran across the road between me and walt as we started back.  Then we encountered over a thousand cyclists on the road riding toward the ranch.  The only trouble was that they were riding very fast and were taking up both sides of the road, forcing us several times to ride on the gravel shoulder!  We also saw a lady rider take a bad fall as she rode down a hill with a large group.  We were sure glad that we were not riding with the main group and had decided to ride it early!

Mill Creek Canyon Ride, June 30, 2012

 Jim, Walter Mills and Michael Randall all rode up Mill Creek Canyon near SLC.  This canyon has a summit of over 7500 feet and the ride climbs at least 2700 feet in just over 9 miles.   However these guys atarted even lower, at the first gate, whereas most start at the second gate up the mountain.  Some grades are pretty steep but the average grade is 6.7 degrees. Jim said it was their hardest bike ride so far.

Jim took this flower picture for me!

 One part of the canyon has a hill side called 1000 springs.  Here Jim is pointing out one of them.

 This is near the summit and is where the mountain bike trail exits.  In the foreground is Jim's red bike and Mike Randall's white bike.  They each had road bikes and biked up the road.

 This is the little rest room facility at the summit.  Those two riders were doing the mountain bike trail.  Mountain bikes have springs in the forks to absorb some of the rough terrain.
 Due to the air pressure, the energy bar packages blew up like balloons!  The top one is inflated and the bottom one is opened and non-inflated.

 Walter Mills is showing the two contrasts of the bar packages.

 Michael Randall is also showing the difference.

 Theer are several trailheads here.  Jim's bike is by one of them.

 Here are the three of them relaxing after that hard climb.

 This is a distant shot to show the guys in the beauty of their surrondings.

 

 This is another trailhead, perhaps for walking to the top of the mountain.

 

 They stopped on the way down for photos by waterfalls and rocks.

 Here is Michael Randall and Walter Mills by a pretty spot with a bridge in the background.

 Jim and Mike are at the same place.

 This shot shows how tall the evergreen trees are on the way.  There was a lot of shade on this canyon ride.

 A creek ran alongside the road.