GOING WITH THE FLOW: Trip to Colorado and finally the end of the guiding season!

I made a trip to Colorado on August 28, 2008 for my good friend Paul DiGrappa's Wedding in Vail. It was a great trip for many reasons but most importantly it marked the end to a long and hard worked summer! I started working in mid June after taking 2 classes to finish my undergraduate degree in Business Finance.

Lee's Ferry

I ended up having to leave school early for my first trip of the season. At the beginning of the summer I was planning on doing only 4 trips but I ended up doing 9 or 10. It was full-time plus some! I had maybe 5 days off from June 11th until August 28th, it was crazy!

Moon Flower- Jimson Weed- Sacred Datura

Before I left on my first trip of the year I went on a Westwater one day river trip on the Colorado river with some friends and I ended up inviting a lot of friends from Salt Lake City. One of the people that ended up coming was Emily Allen, who I knew but not really well. We hit it off and she ended up coming with me on a Grand Canyon trip in July. We have been hanging out for the last few months and we are becoming great friends. You can read about our Grand Canyon trip in July on her blog at http://ukulele-emily.blogspot.com/.

Silver grotto

Grand Canyon- mile 50

Saddle Canyon

Redwall cavern

Elves Chasm

Desert Bighorn Sheep

Albino Desert Bighorn Sheep

I am really happy that my summer job is over but I am a little apprehensive about the future. I am finishing up my personal finance class that I did not finish in the spring and then it is off to the real world. I am happy to be done but play time is over for the most part. I am excited to move on to the next stage in my life, which is WHAT? No Se!!!!!!!!

On our trip to Colorado we went to Vail to go to the wedding. We drove from Vail to Aspen then back to Glenwood Springs. It was a lot of fun to see Paul get married. It was especially fun to just be out in Colorado having a relaxing weekend. We went to the kayak park in Glenwood Springs on the way to Vail and also on the way back. It was a lot of fun and I am so thankful that Emily was willing to let me stop and play. She went on a run through Glenwood the second time we stopped. We also drove through Leadville and that was amazing! The passes we went over were really nice and the temperature was nice even with the rain. We camped at 9000 ft. and it wasn't even too cold. We decided that we would leave Glenwood by 2pm so we would be back to Salt Lake City by 8pm at the latest. But when we stopped to get gas in Grand Junction and got back on the freeway my car battery light came on and I knew we where in trouble, but I kept driving anyway. We made it to about 20 miles outside of Green River and the car died. I knew it was the alternator so I called Marcus Cline in Moab to see if he could do me a huge favor and he did. He showed up with an alternator and we changed it out on the side of the freeway. We made it back to Utah valley by midnight. It was all in all a great weekend. I can't wait to hit up the Glenwood Kayak park again, especially at high water!