Snowshoeing with the Boy Scouts

Since I work on most Fridays, I only go camping with my troop about every other month. On the off months I try to take them on a weekend adventure, and this month's activity was snowshoeing! Saturday morning we met at the church and carpooled to the trailhead of Green Pond, near Snowbasin Resort. After fitting everyone's snowshoes and ensuring everyone had the gear they needed, we headed down the trail. As we got quite a bit of snow overnight and it was still snowing, we were breaking trail, so it was good for each boy to experience leading the troop. At our turning around point we discussed some avalanche safety and winter survival techniques.

One of the boys didn't let us know he was going to show up, so we were short a pair of shoes. It worked out though -- I let him use mine and I brought up the rear after the trail was packed down enough for my boots. As you can see, whenever I got off the trail I post-holed pretty deep! 

One of the leaders and boys had to return early, so it wasn't a very long hike, but I think it was just perfect for some of the boys who were not used to tromping around in the fresh powder.

The week before our snowshoeing trip, we organized a community service project for which Ogden Recreation Outlet offered free rentals for the boys and leaders who participated. I was unable to attend, but our troop performed some trail clean-up and maintenance for the Ogden Nature Center. I felt pretty proud, as these have been the first outings that I've organized and successfully pulled off! Many of the boys enjoyed themselves and said they'd do it again.

So much snow...

We seem to keep getting storm after storm and the snow is just piling up. I love it!

This week was pretty rough for Dani. We know there's no magic date for the "morning" sickness to go away, but it was discouraging for her to feel better for a little bit and then go back to feeling lousy.

On Tuesday my buddy Todd and I drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon to snowshoe to White Pine Lake. Todd used skins on his splitboard and he let me borrow a pair of snowshoes. We were one of the only ones to hike that trail since the last snowfall, so we were breaking trail most of the way. I realized pretty quick that I am out of shape! It felt like wearing flip-flops in knee-deep water while sinking down into mud, except with heavy winter gear and all snow. It was all I could do to keep up with the guy who's been fighting fire as a hotshot all season! Regardless, we enjoyed catching up and breathing the smog-free mountain air. It was incredible hiking through the blanketed trees and deep snowdrifts with white mountain peaks surrounding us.

Our trail through the trees

This week I had my first ride-a-long with Morgan County EMS. I will be volunteering with them just like I did down in Moab. Morgan is a small community of less than 10,000 residents about 25 minutes away from my house. Our call volume is pretty small, so sometimes it can be boring around here. I usually just bring my homework and hang out at the station until we get a 911 call. It will be a good way to force me to take a full study day for the week while still doing what I love on the ambulance.

The call we had that day was for a woman with a kidney stone in extreme back pain. She was at the Morgan Health Center and we transported her to McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden. We don't have a hospital locally, so we take all of our patients to Ogden. A fairly uneventful day, but I love being back on the ambulance.