The Fun Continues ...

Last week my friend John (one of my friends named John) and I went for an quick backpacking trip -- 26 hours including book-ending espressos. After an easy hike to a sweet campsite off trail a bit from a couple of quintessential Utah lakes, I'd thought we'd enjoy a short and relaxing pre-dinner hike with packs-off and views like this:

Instead, John trudged us up a scree/rock pile (not really pictured, right edge of the above photo, left edge of the next one) and then across an absurdly narrow boulder-y spine ... we started about halfway in the next picture and headed toward the camera in attempt to summit a peak that John never had. We made it pretty far, at times basically rock climbing, but we finally had to turn back ... at some point dangling on boulders with a cliff on each side loses its appeal.

Given that it was pretty much the longest night of the year, we had plenty of time to kill, even after an epic Epic, so we decided to strive for the most unabashedly cliched outdoor photo ever:

The night we got back was birthday night #2 arranged by Jeanine (this time around, a fun gathering of our Salt Lake friends at Squatters). The fun continues ... and narcissists need two birthday weekends when they turn 40.

Stay tuned for a surprising entry next ...