GC2 Turns 300

Thousand miles, that is.  On my way back from Wood Hill yesterday, I saw the odometer turn just as I hit the oil on the outskirts of Price.  I stopped on the edge of the neighborhood, under the power line, for a few pictures.  GC2 is our new truck (manufactured in 2006), but it has more miles than thirty-year-old GC1 (~260,000) because we use it for all of our commuting:  When I lived in California, I drove it back and forth across Nevada more than 60 times.  It probably won't run forever, but it is so expensive to replace a 4x4 pick-up that I wouldn't mind getting another 120,000 or so!

Move-in Day

Last year, we moved EDO into one of the oldest dorms on campus.  This year, she is in Building E of the Living Learning Community.  It is much newer and nicer and she will be, evidently, living and learning?

Among the other amenities, the community has a couple of outdoor grills and a firepit overlooking the Cache Valley.  No sipping beer around the campfire, though, Utah State runs a dry campus.

Rainy Season

Things have been quiet at this newspaper for the past couple of weeks.  I'm not sure why?  We've been out and about doing our normal hikes.  Or, I guess I have been doing the normal hikes by myself and I don't always carry the camera when I'm alone:  I come home with better pictures when the girls are with me.  At any rate, the real news of the past two weeks has been the rainy season.  Along with the seasonal monsoons, Hurricane Hillary brought a lot of moisture to the state.  The normal August precipitation in Salt Lake is .58 inches.  So far this month we've had 2.75 inches.

Wild Berries in Wild Cattle

We were heading up Wild Cattle Canyon yesterday afternoon when EDO noticed the raspberries.  They were ripe and, in some places, very thick.  We could have picked a tub full, but didn't have a tub.  The best we could do was eat what we could grab while walking (or crouching).

Fifty Eight

Yesterday, a colleague and I went for a big tree tour.  He knows the forest better than I do and had a couple of locations in mind.  The first find was a thirty eight inch aspen, followed by a forty seven inch Douglas fir, but the prize winner was this beauty:  A fifty eight inch ponderosa.  It might be the largest one I've seen on the Manti Skyline.