The Speedy Ice Effect: American cup/Backpacking Lake Powell

Ive been putting off this post FOREVER so here it is finally. Am cup 1 was in Saratoga NY which was not too bad of a drive for my sister inlaw Anne and my brothers friend Geff. Im glad they came!! Loved having a support crew and Geff took tons of pictures. My brother ditched me to go to Germany for Oktoberfest, which is ok cuz I totally would have done the same thing lol. I skated horribly, probably the worst ive ever skated. Got dead last. But it was fun being back in NY, I got to see my friends again (Meghantron treated me to lunch at the best deli everrr!!) and visit my grandmas camp in the Adirondacks. I havent been there in a few years at least. I sure do miss the trees in NY...Utah is pretty but im just not a canyon/desert person.

Speaking of canyons and deserts..I took a backpacking class thu the U in the Lake Powell area. I assumed since it said LAKE powell I would be in a wooded area near a lake. NOPE! it was in the desert and we were hiking through canyons for 3 days. It was super fun though. The instructors we had are the climbing instructors who teach rock and ice climbing and were filling in for the normal instructor. Apparently the map the instructor gave our instructors didnt work since the canyons have changed since it was made..We all got lost at least 3 times, lol. On all of the occasions where we got lost, in order to get out of the canyon we were in we had to use technical rock climbing and scrambling skills so we were VERY lucky we had the climbing instructors. It was funny, they were like um yeah sorry guys.. we were told we wouldnt need ropes or climbing equipment so we didnt bring it..and you all have 40 lb packs on...and were going to have to get everyone over that cliff without rope, lol. We ended up making a shuttle, with a train of people on the rock wall holding eachother up while passing up the packs. It was interesting. Especially this one area of rock we had to get across that had a deep pool of water under it. Soft landing maybe? Well I love rock climbing so I had alot of fun, Ive always wanted to learn how to free climb without rope. OH I also got to walk on quicksand for the first time!!

I have a slideshow of some of the pics, which ill have to post separately cuz blogger is stupid. The slideshow is in the previous post. My carpool group went to 7-11 n i got coffee in a domo-kun cup and a SROOPWAFFEL!! whoda thunk 7-11 would have those things...thats what the coffee pic is about. Theres another pic of a noticeable set of fang marks on my hip..that was a HUGE spider bit i got, must have been in my sleeping bag. Lucky it wasnt a black widow, Ive seen them around here...

Heres some pics I took in NY