School and such

Well, I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into. I apologize for not posting very much, but this stinkin' school thing is keeping me really busy. I have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and Saturdays for the last few weeks, but those are done for now), and I meet with my PMBA team on Mondays, Wednesdays, and, if necessary, Fridays. Saturdays (when I don't have class from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM) are used for homework. In fact, I shouldn't even be posting right now, but I'm procrastinating my homework.
I have a different class on Tuesdays than I do on Thursdays. At the beginning of the semester my Tuesday teacher told the class that he couldn't talk for 4 hours (the classes are scheduled from 6 to 10 PM), so we would have a lecture for 2 hours and then he would stick around if we wanted to work on the homework and answer any questions. I've never had to continue his homework beyond Tuesday night. I thought that was great, and I had heard rumors that a lot of the program would be like that.
Thursday, we walked into the class room and saw the US government time projected on the screen, counting down until 6:00. The very second it turned to 6:00, the professor told us all to look at the wall clock and said, "I've been teaching in this classroom for four years, and that clock has always been 5 minutes fast (it said 6:05). So, when that clock says 10:00, I don't want anyone looking at me like I'm supposed to be done, because I still have 5 minutes left." So much for that rumor!
Anyway, it's really interesting stuff, but its just hard to focus on it for four hours at a time. Basically, I'm writing this as a present and future excuse for the lack of blogs you might see. Please try not to get too angry, and I'll try to post as much as I can. Who knows, maybe you'll see a lot more posts because of my mad skills in procrastination.

The Barrier is Broken!

Well folks, there you have it. I broke the 40 mpg barrier in my car! Up to this point, the best I've been able to get was 37.5. I was really shooting for 38 when last time I ended up with 32. I was so disappointed that I decided to really focus in on it. I normally go about 400 miles on a tank, but this time I went 440. I could have gone farther, but I wasn't going to have time to go to the gas station until well after I thought I would run out, so I had to cave and fill up. Here's how I did it, just in case you want to give it a shot. One of the key factors to my success is in the fact that I have books on tape to listen to in my car. It helps me be more patient, which you will see why that's necessary in a minute. Here are some more keys to my success:

• 90% of my driving is freeway driving. I realize that's just not realistic for most people, but we live just a few blocks from the freeway and my work is just a few blocks from the freeway too.


• I use cruise control as much as possible.


• I drive about 63-64 mph. This is where the books on tape come in handy. I just move over to the right lane like all slow people should, get involved in my book, and let everyone pass me. Don't worry though, I'm a great slow driver. I always move over to let people around me, and let people merge. This also helps me not to yell as much while I'm driving.


• I watch the tachometer (measures RPMs), and try not to ever go over 3000 RPMs. This is impossible sometimes if I have to speed up to enter the freeway (which you should always do at freeway speeds), or move over to pass people, but for the most part I follow this. Sometimes this even involves turning off the cruise control if I'm going up a hill (I commute around point of the mountain every day) and letting myself slow down a couple miles an hour. Once I start down the other side it's easy to get back up to speed without ever letting the car downshift.

These are the main points of my success. I recommend getting a library card and checking out books on tape (or CD if you please). It's not easy to change my driving habits, but I always felt like I was too angry in the car before I slowed down. It's good for me, but it may not be your cup of tea. Maybe just give a couple of points a try. You may not be able to get 40 mpg, but I bet you can get better.

Mount Timpanogos

We did it! Now we don't ever have to say that we lived in Utah for all this time and never made it to the top of Mount Timpanogos. We had two options for which trail to take: the Aspen Grove Trail from Provo Canyon and the Timpooneke Trail in American Fork Canyon (the same canyon that the trail to the cave is in). We decided to tak the Timpooneke trail because it was closer, not as steep, and we heard it was prettier even though it was a little longer. I had been working 12 hour days that week, so we slept in clear until 5:00 A.M. We got to the trailhead at about 7:00. It was a beautiful morning, and we were thoroughly enjoying our "little" hike. About an hour and a half into our hike, we passed a girl coming down (yeah, some people hike up in the middle of the night so they can see the sunrise, but we can see that from our house, so we decided to be more practical).
"How far away is the bottom?" she asked. "Please tell me it's like 3 minutes away."
We told her the truth and asked her how long it took her to get to the top. She said the trail goes forever and ever, and that we would never get there. We kept hiking anyway.

The trail had an interesting mix of almost jungle-like foliage in some places; forest trees in others; forlorn, rock wastelands; and slippery, get-ready-to-fall-and-die snow crossings.

The views, however, were very nice. This view is probably about half way up, and that peak is where we were headed. Off to the left of the peak is a glacier (probably not a real glacier, just a year-round snowfield, but everyone calls it a glacier) that we will tell you about in a minute.

Thankfully, after five and a half hours (including stopping times), we made it to the top. The top consists of a shack with a lightning rod (in case you're there at an extremely bad time, in which you should probably be crying long and hard), and about 70 to 100 square feet of standing room on either side of the shack. Not all of that area is a good place to be, but you could probably get away with it. On the side you see from the following picture there is a 15 foot drop-off to a 2 foot shelf, followed by another drop-off to which I dared not get close enough to take a visual measurement. The other side was much better (it's hard to inflect sarcasm into a narrative this short). It consisted of a 10 foot drop-off to the trail that we took to get up, followed by one of those forlorn, rock wastelands at about a 150 percent slope (for every 10 feet out it drops about 15-my guess). That's okay though, because there were plenty of boulders large enough to break your fall (and your body).

All sarcasm aside, it was absolutely gorgeous up there. It was pretty hazy, but we could see all of Utah County down to Nephi on the South. Up into Salt Lake County we could see the Jordan River Temple and could just make out the Great Salt Lake to the North. On the back side (which is the view in the picture above) we could clearly see Heber, and the lake you can see at the top left of the picture is Deer Creek Reservoir. It was really amazing and breathtaking (although the altitude helped with that breathtaking part).

We didn't follow the same trail down right away, but headed past the top to that "glacier" I pointed out in the earlier picture. After one adventure where our trail just ended at a cliff, we backtracked and found the right trail over. The couple we invited to go with us brought 4 plastic garbage bags, which we wore like diapers, to slide down the glacier. Nate had done it before, so he went first, followed by Christie, then Michelle, and me. It started out quite steep, but got a little better after the initial scare. This video is of Christie, but it went pretty much the same for all of us (except my screams were a little bit lower in pitch).

Guess what, there was a lake...and we found it! It's called Emerald Lake, and we were told the water was very near freezing. It was clear and pristine. The picture doesn't quite do it justice with all of the different colors involved.

On the way down we took the time to notice some more amazing areas and get some pictures. This one made us think of the fairies in Fablehaven. We figured it would be a good place for a shrine to the fairy queen, except we didn't turn to dandelion puffs as soon as we set foot near it. It was so cool with the sun coming through the trees and the cool water spilling over the rocks.

Now here comes the lesson for us all. We live in turbulent times. The ozone layer is thinner than ever, and UV radiation is coming through in record proportions. For a person as incandescent as I am, SPF 50 is the minimum for a hike like this. We totally forgot about sunscreen, and this whole time I've thought I was so white that the sun couldn't have any effect. I thought, if anything, the sun would get a Brian burn from the reflection coming off my arms. It wasn't until later that night that I realized the folly of my ways. You can't see it here, but I actually peeled two layers off of my neck. My arms have been itching and peeling for the last week, and my legs are just starting to peel. The good news is that I now have a pretty good farmer tan underneath all that burn. Michelle has a darker complexion than I do, so she didn't get it near as bad.

Anyway, this hike is not for the faint hearted, or for little children. We had been on a couple of hikes to prepare, but it was still pretty hard for us. It wasn't as hard as I've heard people say, but it was definitely a rough hike. The views definitely make it worth it if your a hiking type of person. We definitely wouldn't go more than once in a summer, but we might consider going again at some future date. We'll just make sure we apply thick layers of the strongest sunscreen we can get our hands on.