Clean 2011 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Premium-Automatic (w/ CVT), all wheel drive Sedan, all weather pkg (including heated front seats). Like new, great leg room and head room, Synthetic Oil, Regular maintenance, 34K highway miles, Mp3 player/CD, Great gas mileage-30 mpg avg, Non-Smoker & No Pets, One Owner. $16,495
Awesome car hate to see it go, but wife lost job in Cedar City. Clean title VIN 4S3BMBC62B3231377
March 8, 2012, I had 1 adventure left and no idea what I wanted to do, so I asked my climbing class for suggestions.
The best suggestion was an adventure that I have wanted to do for about 2 decades now, do an IRONMAN Triathlon.
Thursday night, I asked my supportive wife, she agreed, and I had it on the books for March 13. No time to train, think, or obsess about it.
Swim 2.4 miles, bike 113 miles, run 26.2 miles.
Did it in 17:38!! Right off the couch.
Really, Sharks in the desert?
That’s the question I usually answer when I tell my friends about the Bonneville Sea-Base. The Sea-Base is built around a naturally brackish warm spring and supports the imported tropical fish brought in for SCUBA and snorkeling enjoyment. And yes, there are even 2 sharks, 10 footers.
Accross the parking lot, just a few steps away, is “the Abyss”, the 62 foot deep section with a buoyed rope stretching all the way to the bottom. It is pitch black down there, and SCUBA divers need dive lights to see what they are doing. There are wall lights at 20 and 60 feet deep, but the visibility is so low (3-5 feet) that they only light up a few feet, between the lights it is black. On my second-to-last dive, I actually saw the 62 foot deep dive platform illuminated by the 60 foot deep dive light. On my last attempt, I hit a SCUBA diver at about 50 feet deep.
There is no way to know EXACTLY how deep I went, but I am comfortable with saying “50+ feet”.
What do you get when you add a priceless family heirloom, an inch-too-short pickup bed, 9 feet of tie-down strap, and LA traffic? The most stressful of the 40 Adventures!
Impossible to relay in this clip, but this was like living through a horror movie, where any second the string would snap, or the wood collapse, or the hutch fall over… all leading to 7 unlucky drivers behind me being decapitated! At least that is what I imagined.
Jen saw it differently, she saw her deceased father in spirit form keeping the hutch in the truck, watching over the whole project. I like her version better-much less STRESS-FULL; but I lived my version.
In the early 1900′s, there was a big demand for lumber in Southern Utah. Workmen went to Pine Valley and Mt Trumble to get it, both days away by wagon. The timber on top of Zion canyon was closer, but impossible to access.
Then, some entrepreneur built the “cable works”, a 2,000′ long ski lift to lower quality lumber to the bottom of the canyon. It thrived for years, until the trees ran out.
Now the cable works are in ruins, and are a fun hiking destination.
I was able to hike it in February 2012 with Hans Graf.
Hans is an inspiring entrepreneur in his own rite, being most famous for introducing container Shipping to Japan… you know… those metal shipping containers on trucks, trains, and ships that are full of everything you can imagine? Hans started it in Asia.
There are few things in my life that I willingly rise early to do. One of them is Ice Climbing.
Ever since that fateful day in 1995 when I first “discovered” frozen waterfalls, I have been hooked. Even though I live in sunny St. George, I insist on making at least one Ice Climbing trip per year.
This year, I was lucky enough to hook up with Nate Cox of Heber City, Utah, for some of Provo Canyon’s best ice, the “Stairway to Heaven”. We climbed the first 2/3rds of the Stairway, a staggering 400 feet, then went home and had lunch with our wives. What a great climbing trip!
I always try to find climbing partners who are more athletic than I am. Believe me, it has come in handy from time to time. My newest climbing partner and friend is Taylor Apple, a high school star athlete, and an amazing young climber.
For this adventure, I was able to reunite with a living legend, Adam Owsley. We have climbed the face of Mt Whitney twice, climbed the highest peaks in Africa together, and scuba dove in the Indian Ocean. We have been friends since high school, over 20 years ago.
The three of us, Taylor Apple, Adam Owsley, and I, Jared McBride climbed the 600 foot sheer lime stone wall, outside of Mesquite Nevada, in Lime Kiln Canyon. This is an awesome location for big-wall sport climbing, in fact, we climbed 600 feet twice, by two different routes. I am glad I had the chance to climb with these two great athletes! Thanks for the FUN!!!
Adventure Out!!!
If you do climb here, I recommend using helmets. There is lots of loose rocks on all the ledges!!!
Call me spoiled, but I teach rock climbing. And I get paid to do it.
It really is an adventure to take a group of young adults, show them a few basic safety and rope work skills, and bingo-they are climbing safely all by themselves.
It gets more fun every semester.
A big THANK YOU to all my students who are the stars of this movie!
“WOOHOO!! This is AMAZING!!”
Taylor was shouting at the top of his lungs to the family below, but they couldn’t hear him. The family had parked their minivan, piled out of the sliding doors, ran to the red sand dunes and were having a grand time; running up and down the dunes, chasing each other with shouts and squeals, smiling.
I was having a grand time too, looking down, as I hovered 600′ above them. Taylor Apple and I were tethered to the side of “Island in the Sky”, a gigantic sandstone formation in Snow Canyon State Park, just outside St George, Utah.
We had been making our way up this cliff for hours, and still had a few to go, so we were able to watch families come and watch families leave. Families like the one below us.
Fittingly, the climb was named “Gratitude”, after the feelings of the men who first climbed it; those who left a trail of shiny bolts to follow. It also summed up my feelings for being able to enjoy the precious gifts of Big Stone, amazing January weather, and a good friend to share it with.
600′ of climbing, views from the top of the “island”, and 5 repels to get back to level ground. This was a day for the record books.
From the first moment I laid eyes on the Koi pond, I knew I would have one in my yard.
It was a typical day in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. Going door-to-door as a missionary in the suburbs was not always the most action packed part of the day. In fact, because the ‘burbs were populated by 2 income households, I would go hours without seeing anyone except my mission buddy, who was with me 24-7. Sometimes we would knock on 10-15 doors per hour for 4 hours and see NO ONE.
As we approached one house, I could hear a bubbling waterfall. The sound came from a large pond directly in front of us, and the sidewalk to the entry formed a bridge over this pond. I stared into the water from the bridge. It was so soothing and calming. Then, from under the bridge, out swam a few Koi fish. We dutifully knocked on the door, and -big surprise- no one was home. I knocked again more vigorously, I wanted to meet these people and ask them about their Koi.
It was not to be that day. They were not home, and neither was anyone else in the neighborhood. But I was left in awe of the peacefulness of Zen design.
That was 1992. In 2010, Jen & I bought our current home and soon made plans for our own Koi Pond.
