Topaz Mountain

I think my parents might stop accepting our invitations. They have had the worst of luck the last two trips - the only two trips with us.

At Sinkhole flat, not only did they run out of gas, they hadn't brought any extra. When they go up to the property they don't wheel as much as we did and they have spare gas up there. But luckily there was enough spare gas around camp to get them running again and then Sunday morning they took a trip to Green River to refill.

So, Jason got off work early Friday and we were on the road about 1:30. Mom and Dad weren't getting off for a few more hours and Uncle Eric thought they could meet up along the way and caravan together, however, Aunt Leslie got off work early too. But Mom and Dad wouldn't be very far behind and they had the map and directions.

Well, with all the construction going on in the Big Shitty, I-80 was a parking lot and it was a few more miles of sit-&-go traffic to even get near the on-ramps. Getting directly on I-15 would be better, or so they thought. I think it took them half an hour to get to an on-ramp that wasn't closed. By then it was rush hour, on a Friday.

We were sitting at camp, not the one my parents had the map and directions to because it was already taken, and Abriana asked, "When are Grandma and Grandpa going to be here?! I want to see them!" Aunt Leslie made a stab-in-the-dark, "Maybe they stopped for dinner, so I'd say they'll be here in...oh...about 35 minutes." 10 minutes later the van pulled up. Mom was driving, there was no trailer and no Dad either. They blew a tire on the trailer about half an hour from camp, didn't have a spare and Dad was sitting with the wheelers.

Uncle Eric had a spare and Jason went to rescue Dad. Mom started getting a little nervous when they weren't back yet and I told her I'd drive her down the road if she wanted. Just then we saw headlights. It was Dad and Jason but still no trailer; the spare went flat 4 miles from camp! Dad had hammered the fender back in place after the blow out and he even spun the tire around to make sure it wasn't touching. But, in the dark and cold, he didn't think to make sure the tire wasn't touching when he took the trailer off the jack. Oops! But again, Uncle Eric came to the rescue and pulled a tire off his trailer so my parents could get everything to camp.

With everyone finally at camp, the party began, and Eric and Cameron tended the fire. Those two love a huge fire; if it's not 6 feet high and blazing hot 10 feet away then it's not a fire.


Sophie thinks she is a parrot and could not be comfortable unless she was perched.


Mom and Dad took off early Saturday morning to make the hour or so drive to Delta to get some new tires. They were able to replace the blown ones, but the tire place didn't have rims for them to get a spare. At least it was better than nothing and they would be able to get home.

When Mom and Dad got back it was off to explore. We went up to one mine where there were the prettiest purple rocks.


You can't really see the color, but those holes are entrances that go down. I walked over there with Chey and she got a little nervous, "Mommy, careful, fall." (which means: be careful, don't fall). There's also a large hole on the left that goes down about 50 feet and is about 25 feet across. Everyone else had been down in that when they went in the lower mine, I was in the jeep with a sleeping little one.

After we explored that mine, we went looking for another, but couldn't get the jeeps through the gate so we went wheeling. It was a nice sunny day and we ended up childless; Abriana was riding with Grandma, Kayla with Uncle Eric and Grandpa had Chey. It was so relaxing to spend some time with just my hubby.

When we got back to camp, the kids still hadn't had enough of the wheelers, and Cheyenne and Ian had become quite the little buddies. They would go from wheeler to wheeler and "bive." They followed each other around and had a good ol' time playing.



The next day everyone was eager to look for rocks and stones. You just gotta when you go all the way to Topaz. Cameron knew a guy that gave him permission to rock hound on his claim, but first we checked out an area we thought might be good. I got a pretty good sized one with the help of...everyone. Jason first started hammering but, earlier he had saved a huge stake from crashing into his knee as it was rolling down the rock, and in the process smashed and peeled his finger. Every time he swung the hammer blood literally squirted, it was kinda gross.

On the way back to camp we ran into a lonely antelope that posed for pictures.


It was another great weekend, and I really enjoy the fact that my parents love to do what we do and join us on our adventures. And you know, they weren't the only ones with problems that trip; Uncle Eric's motorcycle quit running, Cameron seized the engine on his motorcycle and his scrambler and Eric's motorcycle was giving him fits.

Until next time...no plans yet until Memorial.

Adventures adventures

I don't know about anyone else, but I am just loving Spring, and it seems that the rest of my family is also.

On our way to Sinkhole Flat Jason saw a Ram Charger for sale. It's something we have been talking about for quite some time now since it is hard to wheel in the winter with the girls just hanging out in the back of the mud truck. Getting the jeep was supposed to help solve that, but it needs some money put into it to get it where we'd like to go, but then it wouldn't be such a great family vehicle for running errands.

We thought about it for a week and then Jason made the call. He ended up talking the guy down on the price, so how could we pass it up?


We took it wheeling Thursday night when we brought it home and realized it was almost exactly a year from when we bought the jeep (maybe we've started a new tradition). Well, it is not the wheeling machine the guy made it out to be; just going down a dirt road that had a few dips in it, and we were rubbing the fenders with the tires.

Our plan is to swap all the parts from the mud truck to the Ram Charger so it will then be our mud truck. We'll have to do a little more work on it to fit those 38" tires!

Friday night Abriana had her friend, Tanisha, spend the night and we took the RC out again to find some squeakies. We got to Axtel and the thing died in the middle of the road; seems we need an alternator. So we went back home and loaded up in the jeep. No luck on the squeakies, but it was a lot of family fun.

In the morning we went fishing. Jason has had a hankering for trout for awhile so we hit Nine Mile. The sun was shining, the breeze was cold, the girls were hiking, the fish weren't biting. Hours and hours without a bite isn't much fun anymore, so we loaded up and went home to grab a few things before we went to try Redmond. We were thinking some more 27 inch pike (or bigger) would at least curb the fishing crave we had.

John called when we got to the house. They were headed up XL Canyon and asked if we'd like to come. Sweet! We've heard a lot about it, but never have been. Change of plans; we'll go fishing in the morning and Tanisha can stay another night. We left right away and since we beat them there we took a few minutes to get my new gun on paper. I like my new gun!

We finally hooked up with everyone and set out up the canyon. We were the first ones to park and walk. Our jeep does not have the clearance or flex that it needs to conquer that canyon. Maybe that is a good thing considering what happened later.

John was the next to park it when he got stuck in a hole right beside a rock. Eric and Mandy didn't want to beat their truck or do any body damage, so they parked it a little farther up. Kevin and Mike kept going until Kevin came down on a rock and split the tube of his drive-line in half! Everyone was saying, "Wow, I've never seen that happen before!" So while the guys worked on replacing the drive-line, a fire was started for the kids. Mike decided he wanted to go up to the top and see the waterfall.

Kevin's truck was ready to go and we could hear Mike coming back down when all my girls decided they just wanted to lay down in the jeep. I walked them back down and sat waiting thinking any minute we would leave. Jason showed up almost half an hour later and said, "We are officially on a rescue mission. Mike did the exact same thing his brother did, and when pulling his truck off the rock, it yipped over!" It was a sight to see and I really wish I had remembered the camera.

John got his Blazer unstuck and tried to get up to Mike to use the winch to upright the truck. He didn't make it very far; he almost tipped over on the next obstacle. Everyone decided then it would be best to go back in the light. We changed our plans again, and said we'd get the mud truck up there to help.

Long story short, by the time we got the mud truck just about ready to go, we figured they had already got the job done. Besides they probably had enough vehicles up there anyway. So we loaded up in the jeep and went fishing on the west side of Yuba.

It was a great day to be fishing! The sun was blazing, the girls were playing in the sand and water, and the lake was smooth as glass. Wish we had the boat out there.
But again, no fish were biting. We stayed for quite some time enjoying the nice summer day, until it was time to get the girls home, showered and put to bed.

It felt so good to be outdoors in the nice weather! It was like a mini vacation.

Sinkhole Flat

It's a good and bad thing that I put a memory card in the digital camera. Now my pictures can't get lost and I can take more pictures, however, that is also the downfall. I've been trying to figure out which of the 105 pictures to post and doing a little thinking on how to do it exactly. But here it is a week after our trip with another weekend to blog about.

So, the weekend before last, a bunch of us went southeast on the Swell: John & Shiree, Eric & Leslie, Eric & Mandy, Cameron, Brian, Mom & Dad, and Lena. We had an adventurous weekend full of sight-seeing, wheeling and fun. We camped on the Sinkhole Flat and although we drove by the Sinkhole like half a dozen times or so, we never stopped to look at it. Next time. There is so much to see down there, we will definitely have to plan another trip.

Saturday we took off on a trail that would be about a 60 mile loop back to camp. The rocks and geology were breath taking, I couldn't get enough.

This was the second trip for Mom and Dad on their wheelers, if you count the first one; 8 miles in 4 hours really isn't wheeling. So when we found a spot in the trail that was really fun, Dad says to Mom, "This one is gonna be your test." She was a little nervous to start out, but then it was an adrenaline rush! Chey was sitting next to me just a cheering everyone on! "A-hoo Unco Ewic!" "A-hoo Ba-pa!" It was so freaking cute!

Well, about halfway around this loop, Mom and Dad realized they were low on fuel. John decided to take a short cut to get them back to camp faster; just a little jaunt down I-70, no big deal, right? Well, luckily Mom's wheeler has a reserve tank because right there, halfway through our little jaunt, on the Interstate, her wheeler dies. Brian was already in reverse to load up her wheeler, when Uncle Eric pulled up and showed us where her switch was for the reserve tank. What good men! So off we went.

We were almost back to camp when we realized we lost some folks. Mom finally appeared and said Dad ran out of gas, so we hurried to grab the gas can. We were almost where she told us Dad was, when there was Dad on Uncle Eric's wheeler, followed by Brian's truck with a wheeler in it. What a nice guy Brian is, he didn't even hesitate to wait for anyone, just loaded up Dad's wheeler. However, Brian, Dad and Uncle Eric have more muscle than they realize and pushed the wheeler right into the back window of the truck. Um...oops! If it wasn't for the tint, Brain would've had a seat full of glass. Dad later asked Brian what he owed for the back window. Brian said, "Don't worry, I've done worse. No big deal."

Sunday we went sight-seeing:

At one point, Jason took John's motorcycle for a little spin. He was flying down the trail and the thought crossed his mind, what would Manda do if I died? It was that fun of a ride! He was telling us all about this and Leslie says, "Guys don't think like that!" That's why he is my guy!

We all had a great time, just wish there was more time.

Next trip: Topaz Mountain.