Just Hike It! Red Pine Canyon and the Pfeifferhorn

Continuing my exploration of the Wasatch, I decided to go on a hike up Red Pine Canyon and check out the possibilities of climbing the Pfiefferhorn.  Utah has some spectacular mountains!

At the trail head in Little Cottonwood 

Crossing White Pine Creek 

Salt Lake City far below Little Cottonwood Canyon

Red Pine Lake with the Pfeifferhorn looming in the background.. 

Going swimming..  It was a bad idea.  Way too Coldddd!!

Fully submerged..

Swimming faster than Micheal Phelps here.. sooo cold

Marie contemplating the idea of a swim...

Back to summertime

Just Hike It! Exploring the Wasatch

So today for my afternoon workout I decided to go check out a hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon.  I had no idea where to go, but just parked at one of the trail heads and started out.  It turned out to be an amazing hike!

It started down in the bottom of the canyon and quickly climbed almost 3,000 vertical feet in 2.5 mile to Lake Blanche. 

I hiked past ragging rivers full of spring runoff, newly blooming aspen groves, and piles of snow remaining in slide paths from avalanches last winter!

All in all, a greatt little hike and it was only a 15 minute drive from my house in downtown Salt Lake!  And to top it all off, two days earlier, in Little Cottonwood Canyon, just over the next ridge from where I was hiking, I skied a foot of fresh powder at Snowbird, on June 12th!!!  Utah is a pretty rad place! 

USSA Center of Excelence

I will be spending the next two month training at the USSA Center of Excelence out in Park City, Utah.  This new training center is amazing.  It has everything you need to become physically ready for compeating on the World Cup.  There is a weight room, sports science labs, cardio area, kitchen and recovery area, basketball/game court, meeting rooms, full locker rooms, physical therapy area, hot tubs and cold tubs, tramploines with foam pits and skateboard ramps, and officies and conference rooms where the USSA staff works.  Having all of these tools at my finger tips for the next two months is going to be awesome.  Although there really is no better place to spend summer than back in Tahoe, right now its time to get to work and get strong!

Lac-Etchemin, Quebec

Ive had the oportunity to check out another corner of the world while visiting my girlfriend in Quebec, Canada.  She lives in the countryside about an hour outside of Quebec City, right on a lake.  I was just out there last week in Lac-Etchemin visiting and enjoying summer time activities in the warm weather.

 Tubing on the Lac

Paddle boarding the Lac

Sunset from Canoe

Cold tub in the river... 

Hiking in the woods..

Fog on the Lac after a rain storm...