Some fun

Could it be that I’m falling in love with winter again? I’m not sure, but whatever is going on, I’m feeling great.

Ever since cross-country skiing, winter has gone from being bearable to something to appreciate and even be amazed by. I’ve actually been having fun in the cold.

Last Saturday, a group of us tried to get to Pink Lime Pit to give me some more experience climbing, but the road was completely snowed over. So we went to nearby Nutty Putty and spent the day spelunking instead. (Oh yea, the cave is technically closed…)

While we spent a lot of time driving through the snow to get to the cave, inside was a nice 60 degrees. So maybe that’s cheating, because it didn’t feel like winter in there. . .

Nutty Putty Cave

It had been eight years since my last visit to Nutty Putty, and that one ended with a bone bruise for me. This time around, I went into a couple of passages I didn’t have the guts to try out when I was younger and more claustrophobic. Oh, and I made it out without any major damage.

We crawled around in places with names like “Scout Trap” and “the aorta.” In parts of certain tube passages, your forward motion was mostly generated by pushing off with your toes. So, sometimes the going was s l o w.

While I had a pair of knee pads on, I wished I’d thought of getting elbow pads. My arms are scraped and bruised from all of that army-crawl action. But I’ll tell you what–caving is great for working the triceps.

We spent the entire afternoon in that cave, so every now and again, we’d stop to snack or just relax. We would turn off our headlamps and chat in complete darkness. After spending so much time in the dark, you’d think that we would have gotten used to it, but when we made it out of the cave and found that it was dark outside as well, it was weird for all of us.

No one had thought to bring a watch inside, so I think on some level we were expecting a little bit of sunlight to greet us as we got out. But we had no such luck. We entered the cave around 1 pm and didn’t exit until just after 7.

Oh, and the fun didn’t stop there. . . As we started to make our way home, our SUV’s got stuck in the snow–for two hours! It was an adventure getting out, and then we had to backtrack and take a different route to the main road that would lead us back to civilization.

If you count in the drive time and the dinner we grabbed while mucky and dusty, our little day trip ended up lasting just over 11 hours.

*Suzy has a lot more photos from our trip here. And Shaun has some here.

A couple of days later, I went out and played in the snow.

snow hike

The day was January 19th–by dad’s birthday. It seemed fitting to go do something outdoorsy to celebrate and remember him by.

SLC snow hike

Jon and I trudged through snow and followed where other people had gone, but here and there I am certain that we wandered from the trail. (Like when we decided to hike uphill through a stream, for example.)

There were so many cool little coves and views to stumble upon. I’ve got to try it again with an earlier start.

After all of that hiking, the only logical thing to do was to eat. We ended up at the Market Street Broiler. It was incredible. We started off with a creamed asparagus and crab dip. For my dinner, I got the seared Ahi tuna, and Jon got a dish with both halibut and salmon, and of course, we shared. Everything was so tasty.

One of my dad’s favorite treats was ice cream, and while I was thinking of stopping by Coldstone, the universe had something else in mind. While munching on dinner, Jon saw an ice cream dessert go by and asked if I thought that could count. I counted it. So, we ended my dad’s birthday celebration with a decadent ice cream dessert topped with fresh whipped cream and berries. I’m making myself drool just remembering it.

So yea, the winter is treating me well.

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