Enjoy the season

*Destination*

*The path less traveled*

I am very unfortunate when it comes to my conversational skills. I acknowledge that I do not hold a conversation well, especially with people I don't know. To add to my misfortune, my job requires me to sit down with multiple strangers on a daily basis, occasionally for extended periods of time. These two things put together have led to many an awkward "conversation" about the weather and whatnot. I live in central Utah and I am actually quite surprised at how many people I meet that just hate the Winter season and the weather that comes with it. Everyday I hear people complaining about the snow and how they have nothing to do because it keeps them indoors, to those people I say, GET A LIFE! Yes, with Winter comes cold temperatures, scraping your windshield and shoveling the sidewalks. But you also get a whole new list of epic activities that you can't do the rest of the year. Trails that you have hiked dozens of times are suddenly transformed. The mountain bike and hiking boots get put away and the skis, snowboard and snowshoes come out from hibernation. There is so much to do during this wonderful season, get out there and live it up, you will enjoy it so much more!

*The wind coming over the peak was whipping the snow all around*

This season I've been able to get in some good camping trips and some excellent snow-shoeing expeditions. This weekend I was able to get out for one of my adventures. Moonlit hiking, set up camp and sleep, wake up, breakfast, read in sleeping bag because it's warm, pack up with frozen fingers, climb to top of mountain, climb down, enjoy every second!

Thimbleberry! What's that?

Raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. When you ask somebody what their favorite fruit is, if it's a berry it will probably be one of these. People are familiar with these berries, these are generally the berries that your local grocery store supplies and they're just downright tasty. This year I have spent a lot of time outdoors foraging and looking for edible and medicinal plants. I like to call them the "delicious wild edibles." Native peoples all around the world relied on hunting and gathering to make up a large part of their diets and food supply. We have the convenience of grocery stores and markets today to provide us with our food, but with that we are very limited on what foods we can have and sometimes we have to pay obscene prices for them. This is one of the reasons I love foraging and tending my own garden.

Ripe berry (middle). Unripe berries (sides).

A couple years ago I was camped next to a stream and noticed a plant that was flowering. The bud looked very similar to a raspberry bud but the leavers were HUGE, much bigger than any variety of raspberry leaf I had ever seen. Shortly after that outing I forgot about the plant. This year I remembered and returned to the spot I had previously camped, I identified the plant as a thimbleberry! I have since found about 12 other patches of thimbleberries in various areas. I have returned much since identifying the plant and harvested many of these berries. Thimbleberries look much like raspberries, I find they taste similar but have a much sharper flavor. That is the best way I can think of to describe their flavor. Thimbleberries generally aren't sold commercially because they fall apart so easily and don't ship or store well. A ripe thimbleberry can literally fall off the plant with the slightest touch. Native peoples' had many uses for the thimbleberry. Obviously you can eat the berry, and they are quite tasty. Younger plant shoots can be eaten as well, either peeled and raw or cooked. Personally I just prefer the berry. The leaves are actually so big and quite soft that they were often used as toilet paper (haven't tried that yet). Honestly I don't know how I missed this plant before, it's very noticeable and since learning what it is I feel like I see it just about everywhere. Any time you're dealing with plants whether for eating or medicinal purposes I ALWAYS recommend you start off using them in small increments. Even though some plant may be considered edible, you don't know if you will have allergic reactions. Be safe, be smart and enjoy those "delicious wild edibles!"

Photography and Pokemon

I love trying to get up close to capture the detail.

I've mentioned before that I love photography. There is something special about going outdoors and attempting to capture nature in all it's glory. I especially enjoy taking pictures of animals, whether its a bird, mammal, reptile, etc. Obviously some animals are going to be harder to find than others, and when you do find them you've got to be quick or you might miss your shot. Most animals are very shy and quick to run, so sometimes I'll conceal myself and wait for what seems like forever to try and get that great picture of whatever animal it is I'm out to find.

This would be my "Meowth" if we lived in a Pokémon world!

Even critters I see everyday make great subjects for photos.

On a different note, I grew up when Pokémon was just coming out, it was the big thing at the time. They had the TV show, the cards and the Gameboy game. For those of you not familiar with this fad, the goal of the game was to traverse all different types of terrain, find and catch all 150 Pokémon. Some of these Pokémon you could run into just about anywhere, others were one of a kind.

What am I getting at here?


Photography is a lot like Pokémon! My quest in photography is to get the coolest shots that I can of every different species of animal that I can find. Birds for example; You've got your robins and starlings that you can find just about anywhere, then you've got your quail and pheasants that are harder to find and always seem to run or hide when you do find them. I love the challenge of nature photography and the rewarding feelings that come along with getting that great picture and seeing some awesome wildlife while doing so!

Motivation

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything on this blog. I'll be completely honest, I started the year with big goals to post every week and really try to grow this blog. But after week #1 I just let things get in the way and didn't post anything else, I figured what's the point anyways? But lately I've been reminded of why I started this blog, so I'm gonna try this again.





This year so far has been great, I think I've spent about 90% of my free-time outside. Whether it's biking, hiking, camping, rock-climbing or gardening/foraging you can usually find me outside... somewhere. This past month I have spent 3 of my 4 weekends camping and it has been excellent. When it comes to nature and the outdoors I feel the more you respect nature, the more nature will respect you.
I love nature and have a huge respect for it, but unfortunately not everybody feels the same way. This last weekend I went camping and as I arrived at my previously chosen, relatively secluded spot, what I saw disgusted me. The area was literally covered with trash, broken glass bottles and the vegetation was broken and uprooted as if somebody had driven through it with some sort of vehicle to get to this spot. I don't understand how people can be so disrespectful to their surroundings and all this beauty we have around us. I spent a lot of my time there picking up the garbage and cleaning up the area. I remembered why I started this blog, to help people appreciate, understand and respect the great outdoors and the wonderful plant and animal life that we share with planet with. So I'm really going to try harder with this blog to help educate others about nature and hopefully help others gain that sense of respect towards nature that I feel.

*These pictures have nothing to do with my camping trips, I just thought they were nice. Enjoy*

Winter's on it's way out

In the past I've always been excited for winter to come and go quickly. I generally prefer heat over cold and it's the coldest season. When it snows it makes it harder to drive and scraping your windshield in the morning is the worst! I've always felt limited on how active I can be outside during the winter, so I've never really enjoyed it. This is the first year in a long time that I have actually been excited for winter, and it already seems like it's on it's way out! LAME!
For all of you who may be feeling the same way as me right now, I decided to put together a few pictures that I took this year during some of my outings so we can enjoy this wonderful season a little bit longer.
This year I was really looking forward to winter and the cold because I had planned various outings and adventures that can only be enjoyed while it is cold and there is snow! This made the season a lot more enjoyable and fun for me, although I still hate scraping my windshield, but whatever.
I wasn't able to do everything I had planned for, but I was still able to get out a few times and thoroughly enjoy myself. My different outings included bird watching migratory birds that we don't see a whole lot of in the other seasons, camping, hiking, snow-shoeing, tracking a group of deer and stalking a flock of wild turkey (I wanted to see how close I could get!), trying out a new pair of gators, identifying wild plants and starting a zero match fire in the snow! I had a lot of fun and I'm hoping for more snow, but if we don't get it then I'll just start planning early for next year. Whichever season it is, I'm always looking for more fun activities to do! What did you do this year that made your winter fun? Leave a comment and let me know!

Outings 1 & 2, 2014

Once again it's been quite some time since my last post. With the new year I plan on being better with posting and all that, wish me luck.

Work has been pretty busy lately, so unfortunately I haven't been able to get out much the past few weeks. Finally this past week I got out and had some much needed fun! On Thursday I got off of work a little early and decided to do a little hiking up one of the local canyons. It was a wonderful day for hiking. It was a little warmer due to the cloud cover, except for in the mouth of the canyon where it was a little more windy. I hiked for a few miles and saw some beautiful scenery along the way. As I've previously mentioned I'm always on the lookout for wildlife and different varieties of useful plants. On this hike I found a wild rose bush with some rose hips from last season. Rose hips are a good source of vitamin C and are actually quite tasty, they almost taste like strawberry fruit leather... Of course I stopped and had a few...

When eating rose hips you want to remember to cut them open and take out the seeds and small inner hairs. The seeds can be toxic and the hairs can irritate the skin. I'm glad I haven't experienced this, but I've heard if the hairs are eaten, then in the next day or two you get something called "itchy bum."

After work on Friday I went up another of the nearby canyons and did some night snow-shoeing. I shoed in about 2 miles and set up camp via headlamp, camp is easy to set up when it consists of only a bivy sack and sleeping bag. Snow-shoeing at night is quite fun, the moon was out and the snow glowing around me, I barely needed my headlamp. I shoed to an area that was pretty exposed, with not a lot of trees. So I picked out one of the bigger trees to act as a wind-break and set up camp underneath. It's a good thing I did because the wind picked up quite a bit during the night. Saturday morning I woke to a wonderful sunrise, gathered what little dry fuel I could and got a fire going with flint and steel. Later I snow-shoed for a few more miles and then headed back home. Overall it was a great weekend full of fun and a lot of snow!

*When you go out, make sure somebody always knows where you are going and when you will be back*

Mud!

Once again, it has been a little while since my last post. I really hope this doesn't become a habit. Well as you all know, here in the northern hemisphere it is Autumn! What a wonderful time of year and personally, my favorite season. It's still warm outside, but there is sometimes a nice chill in the breeze, which means it's the perfect weather to be active in the great outdoors! Usually I spend my Autumn weekends camping and hiking around. This year has been a bit busier than previous years, so to get the most out of my time outside I have been spending a lot of time mountain biking! I am able to see more and cover more distance in shorter amounts of time on a bike.

On the way up the trails I go slow enough to enjoy the colors and wildlife around me. Ill even stop occasionally to snap a picture of the beautiful trees or the snow capped mountains.

The other day while I was out biking, I decided to go up a little further than usual so I could hit the snow! Word of advice: If you're ever looking for a great leg workout, try peddling a bike through snow. The ride up was good, it took about an hour. The ride down was GREAT, it took about 7 minutes!

 

You always know when you've had a good time, but sometimes others need a little bit of help knowing how fun the experience really was. Some people are great story tellers and you just need to listen to them and you know they've had a good time. Me.... It's a little easier to tell, just look to see how dirty I am afterwards, and you can tell if I had fun or not!

Get outside and have some fun! Until next time...