Jack Mowers Blog

Dec 2010 storms

2010-12-23T15:11:00.001-08:00

Santiago Peak Hike 2010 (Saddleback Mtn.)

2010-09-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

August 28, 2010

Saddleback Hike via Maple Springs

Zack, Trent, and I woke up at 4am for our adventure to the top of Saddleback Mountain…specifically…Santiago Peak. I had ridden this many times before, but I was a lot younger and of course…I was on a BIKE. This time I was on foot. Zack and I had climbed the peak two years earlier via Holy Jim trail. Holy Jim trail is 16 miles round trip and Maple Springs is a whopping 24 miles round trip. What was I thinking? From my fading memory of the past I remember Maple Springs trail to be a lot flatter and less technical. (Rocky) What I didn’t put into the calculation was taking Trent (more food and water to bring with us) and of course the extra 8 miles of hiking. Mother Nature smiled on us today, it was not nearly as hot as last weeks near triple digit temperatures. We got on the trail at 6am and started our hike to the top. This trail has only been re-opened since May due to the fires back in 2007. We were literally above the clouds below. Climbing up and up…it wasn’t too hot or too cold. The packs we carried were heavy, after all we had to carry enough food and water for all three of us all day. I figured if we averaged 3 mph it would take us 8 hours of hiking…probably 9 hours total. (1 hour at the top) We finally arrived at Four Corners which lands you at an intersection of four trails at the main divide.
The ranger we spoke to said we were about 3 miles from the peak. This basically means 1.5 to 2 hours. This area of the trail is a little more steep and rugged compared to the rest…so I think it took us a little longer. The extra time was nothing a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich won’t fix. I’ve been to the top many times before, but this time I learned a little more. We met up with the rangers again. He talked about a few things I never knew before. He showed us the marker that designates the actual peak at Santiago Peak and he showed us the decommissioned fire look-out post. He also pointed out San Jacinto Mtn, Big Bear, Banning Pass, and the convergence zone where a lot of summer weather is formed. It was nice having them around just incase we needed anything. There is not really any kind of cell phone service. Most of the time I just turned my phone off to save the battery. We looked around a little more and then at 1:30p we started heading down. We had been hiking now for 7.5 hours and we were still at the top. My 8 hour estimate was going to be a little off. The fatigue was starting to kick in now. We just wanted to get down.
Hiking down was a lot faster than heading up. Gravity was helping us now, but our muscles and joints were nearly done…but we still had a LONG ways to go. We moved down away from Santiago, then down into what I call the saddle. There I showed the boys the Joplin drop in trail. This is an advanced single track down the canyon. Then we started walking back up from the saddle towards Modjeska. That really made our legs burn and really slowed us down. We still had plenty of water, but we were not even to four corners which I knew was 9 miles to our car. We had a battle in front of us. A battle of mind over pain. You just keep telling your self…another step towards our goal, another step towards our goal, etc. You just keep walking and forcing your way down the mountain.
We finally made it to four corners. Now the energy level was way down, so we had ourselves our last energy Goo. We knew we had 6 more miles of dirt and then 3 miles of paved. We kept trekking as fast as we could.Where is the paved road? Are we there yet? Every little step that we had to go up (mini rock slide) caused a great deal of pain and the sun was starting to go down. I think it was 5:40 when we make it to the pavement. The sun was beginning to go down behind the canyon walls. We still had 3 miles to go.You can not imagine how long that paved road lasted. Many cars drove by us asking if we wanted a ride down to the parking lot. I did think about it a couple of times, but thought that would be throwing our huge accomplishment down the drain…so I thanked them and we kept walking. Finally at 7:10 pm we made it to the parking lot and the car. We walked 24 miles in just over 13 hours (with an hour or so at the top.) It never felt so good to sit down in my car. It was so nice to get home and eat a real meal and take a HOT shower. We were very dirty and tired but glad to be home.

Summer Road Trip 2010

2010-08-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

July 27, 2010 we left Orange County for Las Vegas. Zack’s team had his 10U tournament, and the 5onFive President quickly put a 9U together team to take to Vegas that I was going to coach and Trent would be on the team. This was going to be fun. Trent got some good AAU experience in Vegas. Trent’s team only had 3 practices and we didn’t have one when we were all together. We had a few kids cancel at the last minute so we only had 4 confirmed players going into the last practice. We needed a miracle. Luckily, we were aloud to bring some 10 year old to bring us up to 7 total players. We could go and play, but we could not win a championship because of the 10 year olds. Well, when we got there, we found that most of teams in our division were 10 year olds with only a couple of 9U’s. So with only 3 practices under our belt, our 9U’s played their hearts out. The lost every game, but to me they won because they did their very best. They all gained a great deal of higher level experience.

Zack’s team had been playing very well near the end of the season. They won Championships from 3 of the final 4 tournaments they played in. But this was Vegas. This is a whole different ball of wax. All the teams they played against were much more athletic than our team. But what the opponents didn’t know was the high octane, never give up attitude of 5onFive. They beat very good team the first game. Then they battled another great team. This other team (who had two 12 year old on the team) had to make a desperation, fall away, 3-pointer, with two defenders right in his face to win. I guess they need those 12 year olds to beat us. The next game we battled a tough team from Colorado. Zack had his best game of the season. He scored 16 points in 10 point win over a much more athletic Colorado team. The bummer is, the very next day we had to play the same team in the semi-final. The other team made some adjustments and we couldn’t counter them, but once again they played hard all the way and had a great tournament.

Now that we were done with basketball, it was time to decompress and get ready for our journey. We were off to Brian Head, UT. We stayed in our time share in Cedar Breaks/ Brian Head for 3 days. It was nice to relax away from the hustle and bustle of basketball and Vegas. On our first full day we drove up to Brian Head peak to see everything. The elevation on the peak was a little over 11,000 feet. The altitude was really getting to us here. Zack and I hiked down 10 or 15 feet to a little abandoned well. When we hiked out, it took me a minute or two to actually catch my breath. We looked around the peak for a while watching the thunder clouds build and seeing the native flowers and rock formations. Then we were off to Cedar Breaks National Monument. This monument was formed over millions of years of erosion. Boy it is a site to see. It’s shaped like a half bowl. We went out to the point where you can really see its beauty. A ranger came out to tell us he was closing the point due to the approaching thunder storm. Earlier in the week a lightning bolt hit the point very near to the visitor’s center. As we walked back off the point he told me to be sure and look out at the bowl after the rain. He told us the rain really brings out the red color of the monument.

On day two we decided to drive out towards Cedar Breaks and hike Alpine Pond. This hike was a 3 mile educational power house. We all learned so much about nature and all the little animals that live in it. We paid $1 for a guide pamphlet that really made the hike special. After our hike we had a great pizza in Brain Head.

The next day we were on the road to Moab, UT to see the Arches National Park. Luckily, thunderstorms were following us everywhere we went. The big benefit to the storms, (besides me loving the storms) was keeping the temperatures nice comfortable. I think it barely got into the mid 80 while we were there. We got into Moab and stayed in a nice place. The next day we got an early start out to Arches. This place was beautiful. Our goal was to hike Delicate Arch and maybe some other arches and view bunch more. We did all that. Delicate Arch was another 3 mile hike. The boys loved climbing the big rock up to the arch. Even Matt loved it as he sang his “energy song.” Delicate Arch was awesome and huge. We took turns taking pictures under the arch. It’s much taller and bigger than I anticipated. When you look up, you really get dizzy…the arch is tall and if you fell, you would get banged up pretty good. (Not as scary as Half Dome cables though.) After our hike we continued on to a short hike of the “Windows” and the “Turret.” Matt and Stef sat these two out, but they were pretty cool to see. We then continued to several viewing points for the “Gossip Sisters, Balanced Rock, Windows, and Park Avenue.” This was defiantly one of our highlights of the trip.

The next day we’re going to drive through 4-Corners on our way to Monument Valley. 4-Corners was a bit of drive out of the way, but well worth the stop for a photo opp. They’ve re-done monument and it looks great. There was short line for a picture for us to all be in CO, UT, NM, and AZ at the same time. Some of the others in line cautioned us about the Navajo police. They said to drive the speed limit exactly. I guess they will write tickets even if you are 1 mph over the speed limit. I was very careful from that point on while driving on the reservation. The monument is run by the Navajo Nation so we had to try the Navajo bread. Basically it was fried bread with cinnamon, or honey, or powdered sugar on top. We tried them all. Ummmm they were good.

Now we were on our way to Mexican Hat, UT. We were only staying one night in Mexican Hat, so once again we left early to see Monument Valley. Monument Valley was the set for many of John Ford’s Westerns. You can see a great deal of the beautiful monuments from the road. But an even better view can be seen by going into the park. The best view was from the visitor’s center. I think my favorite buttes were the Mittens. We decided to get a better look by taking the 17 dirt road around the majority of the site. After the bumpy ride, we felt that the view from the visitor’s center was the best. We got back on the road and it was off to Zion, UT

We arrived at the park and it was beautiful. The formations of the rock were so different than I’d ever seen before. Red and white striations or layers that were created over millions of years. We drove through the two man-made tunnels that got us to the other side of the park where we were staying in Springdale, UT. The weather was nice and cool due to the earlier thunderstorms. Springdale is awesome. It’s a town right next to the park with the best shuttle service ever. We got some dinner and got ready for our hike. Zack I decided to take pre-hike so we knew where were going and what we needed to get. We were ready. We took the first shuttle to the park and then took another shuttle to the trail head. We had decided to hike the Emerald Pools. We did get a picture of us all at the first stop. Matt made it about 3 quarters of the way up and then the energy that his energy song gave him ran out. So, Stef and Matt headed back. And it was a good thing he did. The trail got a bit more technical (rocky) and some storm clouds were closing in. Zack, Trent, and I made it to Upper Emerald Pool. It was beautiful and SO tall. The canyon walls probably were 100-150 feet up from where we stood. Then we started to hear some thunder. It was getting closer, so we decided to head back. People were still coming up, while we were headed down. By the time we found some adequate shelter, the lighting had pretty much stopped, but we were already soaked. The boys wanted to plow down so we decided to keep hiking in the rain. By the time we got to the bottom, we were WET and a little cold. We got some hot chocolate and I got 2 new shirts. (Package deal) Once we got warmed up, the sun came out and it was time to go see more of the park. Stef wanted to see a movie at one of the stops in the park. It was an educational movie about the park. Zack, Trent, Matt, and I wanted to see more of the park. So we got back on the shuttle that went around the park. We got off the shuttle at Temple of Sinswava. The tour bus guide told us that this water fall usually only flows in the spring…but it was flowing now…so we got a picture. We got back on the first shuttle and then the second shuttle right back to our motel. We had some pool fun and then got ready for our last leg back to Vegas.

We got into Vegas at around 10:30. Not only did we leave around 9 or so, we gained an hour with the time change. Since we were so early, our timeshare room was not ready. We decided to visit one of our new favorite restaurants, The Aloha Kitchen, to burn some time. (The other was Thai…Lotus of Siam…yum!) After lunch, the room was still not ready. They gave us a pool key and we went out to the big pool for some fun. On one side the pool has a neat water fall that falls from a pyramid type temple. On the other side are the four slides. Two for younger kids and two for the bigger ones. The boys had a blast on slides. When the room was ready at 4p…they were ready to go. When we got to the room, it was a site to see. We actually had two bedrooms and a pull out couch. We had been living out of our suitcases for about two weeks, so I was glad we were staying two nights here. We had more pool fun the next day and then we got ready for home. We were really looking forward to getting home into our own beds.

As our summer adventure was nearing its end, we really noticed, how beautiful Utah is in many ways. And we were really only in the Southern part of Utah. We saw the upper elevations of Brian Head, to the desert regions of Moab, 4-Corners, and Monument Valley, to the canyons of Zion. This was a great adventure!

Half Dome Summit July 3, 2009

2009-08-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

Our vacation began by visiting Stef's sister near Grass Valley, CA (just north of Sacramento) We did a whole bunch of fun stuff including (but not limited to) the train museum, State Capitol, Sutter's Mill, panning for gold and went swimming in the Yuba River. I have uploaded a few pictures on Facebook it you have any interest. http://tinyurl.com/lvewxb

On July 2nd we headed south to Yosemite National Park for our Half Dome Summit attempt. Due to the difficulty and time commitment, only Zack and I were going to make the attempt. There was a great deal of planning before we left to go up North. We needed something to carry 4 liters of water each, enough food for the day, first aid kit, flash lights, and of course new shoes. I wasn't going to get new hiking shoes, but I'm glad I did. It probably saved our lives. The plan was to get up at 4am and be on the trail by 5am. (I wish we would have gotten up an hour earlier.) We were walking on the trail at 5:15 am which wasn't too far off the plan. We could just barely see the start of dawn. We didn't need the head mounted flash lights we had brought, and it was warm enough that we didn't need the sweat shirts that we took off 15 minutes into the hike.

Immediately we started to climb. It was steeper than I thought it would be. More rocky too. Zack (age 9) was a trooper the whole trip. I constantly had to slow him down. (For him so he wouldn't burn out and for me...because he was moving fast.) We passed one water fall, then walked behind another, then crossed over the big Nevada Falls. This was a site to see. We could clearly see one side of Half Dome, but it was still far away. In my mind I'm thinking, what have I gotten us into, how are we going to make it there up the cables, down cables, and back to the car alive? Zack then sees the face of Half Dome and says, "We are going to make it to the summit...I just know it." That was exactly what I needed to hear. There was no way this 44 year old was going to let his son down. We just had to keep going. For the next hour or so we were in a huge meadow, with tallest trees you've ever seen. After the meadow we were climbing switch backs again. Zack was getting tired...then I realized he passed on a food break the last time and now he's dragging...hmmm. "I'm not hungry." he said...I don't care...If you don't eat, we are going back. As soon as he ate some food he was back to cranking up the mountain. About 5 or so hours into our assault we got a pretty good view of our goal. If you looked really closely you could see tiny people climbing the cables. A few minutes later we were at the base of Sub Dome. This is where it gets tricky. It's a very steep a climb on what looks like rock stairs. After about 30 minutes or so of the steep ascent we come to the base of the cables. The dreaded cables that I had read so much about. The cables are put up by the park service only between May and October. Many hundreds or thousands of people climb the cables every year. It can be very dangerous especially in rain or thunder storms. No such bad weather on this day. The only bad thing I can say about this day was that the park service was manging a fire, so smoke filled the valley partially occluding our view below. Once again Zack was eager to get going up the cables. When we first got there, the line up the face was not bad. Zack said, "let's go!" I told him we needed to eat first to get our strength up. Then we were ready to make our final assault. But now more people had arrived. Remember this was the July 4th holiday weekend. There were tons of people now arriving at the base of the cables. The cables are about 3 feet apart width wise and there are poles drilled into the rock about every four feet or so. At each pole there is a 2 x 4 going length wise between the poles. This give you a good place to rest. As we started our climb, somebody way farther going up and somebody coming down got really scared. They couldn't move and neither could anyone else until they did move. I was between the 2 x 4's for about 15 minutes until somebody helped the scared people through the rough spots. Later, Zack told me that was the only time he was scared because his hands were getting tired of holding on. After that we learned to stop on the 2 x 4's until the next one was open. That made it much easier. I was behind Zack the whole time telling him to hold on a focus on every step. I tried to look around every once in a while, but I'm not the best with heights, and I was worried for Zack. After about 45 minutes we made it to the top! I think it would have taken 15 or 20 minutes to make it with out a line. The summit was beautiful. We snapped a few pictures including one of me out on the Visor. The Visor scared me. When you looked down, you could see straight down over 4000 feet. If you fell, you would not hit anything until you reached valley floor. That's me looking scared near the end of the Visor. We ate some more and we were ready to head down. This part wasn't particularly hard, but there was still a line to get down, and I was really worried Zack was getting tired and would slip and roll off the mountain. Of course, I didn't need to worry...he did awesome all the way down the cables. I am glad we got those new hiking shoes...they really gripped the rock well. We rested at the base of the cables, ate some more and then headed down Sub Dome. I knew once we got down Sub Dome, we were home free. Once we passed the base of Sub Dome, I felt much better, but we still had to get down. We had plenty of water and food left...we were looking and feeling good. We just needed to get down. The last two hours down, my downhill legs were getting tired. We were not out of breath as much, and we were moving faster, but my legs were taking a beating. The last half hour I ran out of water. I was fully hydrated and not worried...plus Zack had about 1.5 liters of water left in his pack. Plus in another half hour of walking there would be a potable drinking fountain. We were down to the last 15 minutes or so. There were way more people down here. We kept walking waiting to get back to the car. Finally at about 5:55 pm we made it back to the car. The hike took us 12 hours and 45 minutes. (approx. 1 hour at the top) Total elevation of Half Dome is 8,842…4,800 feet of elevation gain…17 miles round trip. It was the most unreal thing I ever done. I can now scratch Half Dome off my bucket list. During the whole hike, I would occasional do a video journal entry. The video links below will give you a feeling for what we were seeing and how we were feeling. Please click the links to see the video journal of our summit trip of Half Dome on July 3rd, 2009.

Leaving Hotel 4:39a

5:42a on paved trail 1/2 hr in

6:30a steep trail

7:17a climbing switch backs

7:40a Nevada Falls

Behind mini waterfall

7:54a coming up on Nevada Falls

Nevada Falls

8:21a meadow

8:40 climbing switch backs again

8:52a forest

9:30a rocky steep trail

10:03a beautiful

10:16a sub dome

10:35a climbing sub dome

10:49a climbing sub dome 2

10:52a Almost to Cables

11:42a Through Cables

12:55p Down Cables

1:30p Base of Sub Dome

2p heading down

3:21p meadow

4:09p just passed Nevada Falls

5:04p Within A Mile

5:55p At Car...smoke bothering my eyes

Robinson R22 Helicopter Ride

2009-05-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

I got a call from one of my storm chasing buddies to go up with him in his helicopter. He's asked me to go a couple of times before, but I could never do it. I knew that if I said no this time, the chances of him continuing to ask me would drop. It was 12:30 pm and he was already at Long Beach Airport. He gave directions, I drank a protein drink and I was off. He was waiting, so I really wanted to get a move on. Of course, my gas tank was empty, so I would be few more minutes late. What's a few minutes...well long enough to wonder what I was doing leaving work at the last minute to go up in a two seat helicopter. As I was driving through a little traffic on the 405, I couldn't help but remember a friend of a friend who died 16 years ago in a similar helicopter. I also remembered my old statistic teacher believing that more could go wrong in a helicopter than a plane. But, on the other side of the coin, my friend is an experienced commercial helicopter pilot. He's currently studying to become an instructor. And he owns the aircraft. How many opportunities does one get to see Orange County from a helicopter?? I decided to take the plunge...even though I had already committed. I arrived and Long Beach Airport and Jeff had already completed the pre-flight and we were ready to take off. We got clearance from the tower and we took off with more forward speed than I expected. Very quickly, we were well over 1000 feet over Long Beach headed to the ocean. Once there we headed South passing over Belmont Shore, Surfside, Sunset Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Dana Point, and Laguna Beach. We then headed north through Laguna Canyon towards my house. It didn't take long before we were over the boys' elementary school. (They both said they saw us.) We then headed literally over my house. (see picture above.)The forward speed is deceptively fast. I was way behind telling him where to go. I snapped a couple of photos and then headed to Anaheim hills. As we approached the ridge of the 2008 Anaheim Hills fire, we could see the total randomness from the fires. We witnessed one or two homes lost in between many that were still standing. Then more of the same. It was very random...sometime two homes standing and two missing. All that was left was hardscaping and the foundations, with many empty pools in the backyard. It was really sad to see the loss of property. We then headed back West towards Long Beach. We travelled along the Santa Ana River for a while seeing Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm out in the distance. We then approached the airport for a fun landing. I'm so glad I took the time off for this flight. It was a blast! See Landing: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1145662118035

See More R22 Helicopter Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=23098&id=1121970393

Mowers Family Update

2009-01-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

I wanted to catch everybody up on couple of things we've been doing. Last Monday Zack, Trent, Matt, Amber, and I went on a hike to a hilly area by our house. There is an old abandoned avocado farm there. It will soon be turned into a business park, so I wanted to take the boys there before it's gone. They all loved the trip including Amber. She loved getting all those cool smells. This was also a great way to release some extra energy. I was even able to cut off a small avocado limb to graft on to our current avocado tree. Since this is my first graft, I hope it takes.

Today I lowered our basketball hoop so we could all dunk. No I did not dunk on the regulation 10 foot hoop, but the old man did get up to 9 feet. Zack and Trent were enjoying dunking on the 6 foot rim.

Me Dunking!

Zack Dunking

Here is a video of Matt riding his red bike and the boys on the court.

Real Winter Storm Blasts Southern California

2008-12-19T22:39:00.000-08:00

Friday, December 19th 2008--

This week we were hit by an actual winter storm. After this weeks rain, we accrued almost three inches of rain and had some of the coldest temperatures in a while. When I woke up Thursday morning and looked out the window, I was amazed at how much snow had fallen on our local Santa Ana Mountains. Usually the snow melts quickly or the Mountain is covered by clouds, but not today. Saddleback Mountain was blanketed with a layer of snow. So much so, that I went out and snapped a few shots. Most of the time, when snow falls on Saddleback, it's gone in a day or so. But the temperatures here are still really cold...at least for Southern California standards. The last few nights low temperatures were in the upper 30's and the temperatures during the day struggled to get out of the 40's. Not only is it really cold for us, but we also got some much need rain. So far this '08 season, we've received 4.66 inches of rain. All last year we received 11.12 inches of rain. Currently we are 1.67 inches ahead of last year at the same time. And we are expecting more next week.

This last shot I took looking out our window facing north. It over-looks Redrock Canyon in the foreground, and the Santa Ana Mountains in the background.

Have a blessed and Happy Holiday Season!

Our Dog Amber (Born July 9th 2008)

2008-09-12T17:36:00.000-07:00

On September 5th, 2008 our dog's foster mom brought Amber to our house for a house check. Amber is now 9 weeks old and loves to get into things. When we first got her home, we let her have the run of the house. That quickly ended when Amber left her deposits in every room possible. We decided to only let her have use of the family room, so we could keep an eye on her. Since she was so small, she could easily get under the baby gate. She even made it through some of the vertical slats. (Please hurry up and get bigger!) I put some cardboard up so she couldn't get through...but the little devil made it out anyway. I think we've finally got it so she can't really get out.

It's been some time since we've done potty training with a dog. Pups at this age just love to pee and poop everywhere. We've been told by just about everybody that crate training is the only way to go. Instinctively, they won't potty in their den/crate. I didn't like the idea at first, but now I'm glad we did it. The first night was probably the hardest. Amber missed her brothers and sisters and this was a whole new place to get used to. She cried for a while, but when the light went out, she went down and fell right asleep. I think we got up 6 times that night. Since the second night, (knock on wood) she hasn't had an accident in her den. But I've been getting up with her 2-4 times a night to take her potty. She still will have an accident in the family room, if we lose track of time, but I think she's starting to get it.

During part of the day, she will sleep behind the small of my back in my chair. (I wonder how long that will last??) Every couple of hours I take a break and go outside to get a little exercise. By the end of the day, she's tired of sleeping and starts getting into trouble. What ever wires or things she can chew on she will. She has plenty of toys, but the good stuff is connected to computers.

Other than being a little tired from getting up during the night, she's a blast to have around. She and the boys just love playing with each other. Be sure to scroll down a few posts to see what she looked like at 5 weeks old. Anyway, that's enough for now, I hope you enjoyed the pics.

Mini Vacation to Laramie, Wyoming

2008-08-17T14:33:00.001-07:00

It was time to show the boys our 40 acres in Laramie, Wyoming. They've been asking about it for so long. We got into Denver, rented a car, and headed off to Laramie. We got in about 9p local time. We had been traveling all day, so we all hit the hay. That morning we got breakfast and headed off to see our ranch. Yes, right now, it's just wide open ranch land, but someday we plan to build on it. We jumped in our rented jeep and journeyed the 20 minutes to the property. The boys loved running around checking everything out. We spent a few hours there, before our planned meeting with one of my storm chasing partners (Paul) and his girl friend. Paul wanted to see the land, so he followed me to our destination. After the ranch, Paul promised the boys he would take them fishing.

We grabbed his equipment and went fishing along the Laramie river that runs right through town. This was the boys first try at fishing. I thought they would be bored after the first hour. But, they couldn't get enough. Zack caught his first fish that day. I had to pull the plug on our fishing expedition about 4 hours later. They just couldn't get enough fishing. Paul thinks they have fishing in their blood. The next morning was a busy one. After breakfast, we visited the beautiful University Of Wyoming campus. It was truly a site to see. We had planned to go fishing again with Paul before he left. Once again, we met up at the river and fished for while. Zack caught 2 more fish(rainbow and brown trout.) They were not big enough to keep, but they really enjoyed the excitement. Since we didn't have any sun lotion, and it was almost mid-day, we decided to get out of the sun. We said good bye to Paul and got in the car headed on long driving loop around the County. We headed up to the ski resort area of Centennial. Before reaching Centennial, we stopped at one of the Overland Trail Markers. These markers help settlers get across the plains before the Trans Continental Railroad was built. This was some of the prettiest areas I have seen. Once in the mountains, there were plenty of rivers and lakes to fish in. We fished for about 15 minutes at two lakes at 12,000 feet of elevation. The wind was blowing and it was pretty cold. We tried our luck at some more fishing for a while, but then decided to move on to the rest of our adventure. We headed down the other side of the mountain towards Saratoga, where they have the natural hot springs. We witnesses a lot of the Wyoming countryside, which as you can imagine was green, open and very hilly. We all really wanted to see the dinosaur museum at Como Bluffs. Como Bluffs is a National site that claims to have one of the largest dinosaur grave yards in the world. It also has a house made out of dinosaur bones. (Believe it or not) When we got out there, 1.5 hours later, we found the site to be closed and for sale. We looked around the property for a while, but nothing was open and not a whole lot to see. At least we got to see the house of bones. We headed back home. On the way we stopped at a old town called Bosler. It's a town mostly deserted with old houses that somehow stay standing in the big Laramie winds. When we got back into town we decided to head back to the ranch. The boys spent the next 3 or 4 hours having a blast on the ranch. There are thousands of different types rocks to sift though. We continued to build the Mowers large rock formation. (Top picture) The boys built their own rock formations. We played around the ranch until sunset. What a day! The next day we had to start heading back to Denver. On the way back we stopped and saw the Ames Monument. These two brothers were instrumental in creating and building the Trans Continental Railroad. Right across the road from the Ames Monument was the highlight of our day, Vedauwoo National Park. This is a beautiful camp ground with hiking trails and huge rock formations. We spent about 3 or 4 hours hiking through the trails and bouldering on some huge rocks. The trail eventually led us to a large pond covered with green reeds, tall pine trees and tall grass. We travelled on, looking at all the beautiful sites for a while, but then had to turn back. Some of these rock formations were 80-100 feet tall. Some even taller. We had a lot of fun on our hike, but now it was time for our journey home. We got back to Denver with out any problems. We all had a fun trip.

To see my photo show, please click on the following link: http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=jackmowers&P=&SID=225068&Show=Y Or you can go to my "My Picture Shows" on the top right of this blog, and click on "Laramie, Wyoming Mini-Trip."

Check out a couple video clips:

Vedauwoo:

Lot 87: Wild Horse Ranch

Santiago Peak Hike

2008-08-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

August 16th, 2008--Zack and I got on the trail to the top of Saddleback Mountain at 8am. A few months back Zack, Trent, and I made it to the upper Holy Jim Trail head. At the time, Zack wanted to summit. I told him, we didn't have enough food or water. He continued to ask about the peak, so we planned a bid for the top. We brought along enough energy bars and energy gels for a bid and half. The problem, for me, was the all important fluid. We each brought a water pack full of water and couple extra large bottles. I was also bringing along a back pack for all the food and extra water. With everything we were taking, the packs were very heavy, especially for Zack. Although the Holy Jim trail is very beautiful, I would have preferred the Maple Springs trail up Silverado Canyon, but it's still closed due to October 2007 fires. I also, would have preferred to get on the trail earlier, but since I knew we would be hiking pretty slowly, we would be hiking during the heat day anyway. It took us about 3 hours to arrive at the upper Holy Jim trail head on the main divide. We took a little break and then we're off up the main divide. This trail, up the Main Divide, is a wide fire road climbing steeply in places. While hiking up, we occasionally benefit from the forest canopy. As we were hiking in the heat of the day, we would often take short breaks in the shade of the mountain. Often we would benefit from cool pockets of air that felt wonderful against our sweating t-shirts. At time I felt my steps becoming shorter and more difficult. This was mostly due to the steep grade and the thinning air. As we started to head over the mountain, we could see over into the Corona area. We could see Lake Matthews and good part of the Inland Empire. It wasn't a totally clear day, but we could make out a lot of land marks like the 15 freeway. It seemed as though we had our second wind by now. The repeaters on the top of the mountain were close now. The air was much cooler now. Finally, we rounded what ended up being the last switch back. Somehow out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something in the road moving. I looked up and saw a snake. In fact, it was a rattlesnake dragging it's lunch to it's lair. As we walked by, giving it a wide berth, the snake looked at us just to be sure we were not interested in it's meal. That was cool to see. Another 300 yards and we were at the top. It was just like I remembered. It took me a second to get my bearing and I took Zack over to the point over-looking Orange County and I snapped a few photos. We took a break in some shade under one of the repeater towers. We filled up the last of our water, and we were off down the mountain. It had taken us 5 hours to reach Santiago Peak, so we wanted to get moving. We blazed down the mountain, but our quads were screaming with each pounding step down the mountain. We reached the upper Holy Jim Trail head in little more than an hour. Now down Holy Jim trail to the car. By this time, this 43 year old Dad was having difficulty keeping up with 8 year old. We were both really tired, but it seemed like he could have climbed the whole thing again. Finally, we got to the trail head and back to the car. It took us 5 hours to get up, 3 hours down, and almost 1 hour at the top. Now the dirt road back to the paved road. Before we even got to the paved road Zack was asleep. I guess he was tired after all. We made the successful summit of Santiago Peak. Now it's time for this old man to recover.

Our Reserved Adopted Puppy

2008-08-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally decided to start looking for a puppy. This time I did a lot of online research and found a couple of shelters that had puppies. The shelter we decided on is called the Friends of Orange County's Homeless Pets. In the beginning, I was looking at a couple of pups, but they were quickly adopted out. The person in charge informed me that she just got a momma in with 5 pups. The only problem was they were only 2 weeks old. She said at 5 weeks, we could come take a look and put in a reservation on one that we liked. So yesterday we went over to see the pups. The fostered pups were conveniently housed a stones throw from my Mom's house in Tustin. When we walked in the back yard, 5 of the smallest little puppies you've ever seen came to greet us. I don't ever remember seeing pups so young. You can imagine how hard it was, at 5 weeks, to try and decide on one. They were all so cute. The Momma is an American Staffordshire Terrier, and we don't know what the dad was. The great thing about this foster home is that both humans are animal control officers, so they have a lot of experience working with animals and especially dogs. They have a young child and they have adopted other American Staffordshire Terriers. The benefit of this is the puppies are socialized with other dogs and children. This breed is already great with children, families, and other dogs...as long as you bring them up right. Here is a link to the breed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Staffordshire_Terrier Anyway, the foster home is going to deliver our pup in about 3 weeks. She will have most all of her shots, spayed, and microchiped. We don't have a name yet, but we are working on that. We are all really excited!

Cabo Azul--Cabo, Mexico--2008

2008-07-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in renting this spot, please see my email at bottom of this post:

We just got back from Cabo. Once we got out of the airport "time share" adventure, our vacation was a blast. We stayed just north of Cabo San Lucas in the town of Cabo Del San Jose. San Jose is a little more quaint than San Lucas, however, both towns are definitely worth seeing. The resort we were staying at was beautiful. Five star with all the amenities...however it wasn't as family friendly as I would have liked. For example, out by the pool, was a lot of polished limestone or travertine. It looked beautiful, but Matt had a couple of falls. I even saw a few adults slip on these areas. The inside was beautiful too. However, the all white couch's and polished travertine was not the most family friendly. Anyway, it was a beautiful room.

We spent most of our time at the pool, however we took a couple of day trips. We rented a car and traveled north on a small two lane highway through the desert to a small town called Buena Vista. Here there were no waves, so the kids had a blast swimming with the fish. We thought we'd get some lunch since it was a little after 11:30. Since this is a fishing village, lunch is not served until after 1:30 and you needed a reservation. It seemed strange at the time since there was not a sole on the beach or at the resort. Any we decided to move on to our second destination...Cabo Pulmo. Pulmo is South of Buena Vista. There are not a whole lot of signs in this area, so you have to go on your instinct, what you can translate from the locals, and your map. We ended up heading down a single lane dirt road...it probably would have got us there...but it didn't feel right.

We ended up backing tracking and getting on another road. Everything seemed right until we ran into another dirt road. This one was a two way road and there were some cars coming the other way. We figured we must be on the right track??? However, there were no signs, so we still didn't know if we were even heading in the right direction...finally we arrived some 10-15 miles later. Pulmo was worth it though. It was a National Marine Reserve that had all the views you would expect from this beautiful untouched area. It probably looked just like it did 100's of years ago.

We also took some shorter trips into San Jose (above) where we had great food and great sunsets. This was taken from Shooter's overlooking the town. This was a great place to get some good Mexican food as well as some kid friendly hamburgers.

We also took a water taxi from Cabo San Lucas out to see the famous arch and Lover's Beach. We stayed at the beach and had a blast. While the boys were playing in the small surf, and Stef was watching Matt, I swam around a small point to small cave. It was fun to see the cave up close. At least I got a little exercise.

If interested in renting for a week, please contact me by email: jackmowers@hotmail.com

Anyway, it's back to real life...talk to you soon. Jack

Laker Finals Game 4

2008-06-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 12, 2008 my friend Marc Harris calls and says..."let's go to the Laker game tonight." How much are tickets, and where are we sitting I ask. He informed me that this is a tough market to buy tickets due to the nature of the game. If the Laker's win, the series will be tied 2-2. If not, the Laker's will be down 3-1. He told me the tickets are too expensive right now, but we should be able to do better at the Staples Center. So he picked me up at 3:30 pm and we headed to Staples. A couple hours later we found ourselves in compeititon with 1000 other Laker fans looking for tickets. They were sold out every where. The scalpers didn't even have any tickets. We were getting desperate. We went into a ticket broker next to Staples...none...all sold out. We couldn't even get in the door. We kept asking everybody...and there were no tickets anywhere. By this time the game had already started. Luckily, the Lakers' were winning. I was watching the score on my BlackBerry. Marc wasn't listening to my updates. He was just focusing on our situation. Did we drive all the way to LA for no reason?? We thought we would try one ticket broker next to Staples. We walked in and of course, we heard the same response. "no tickets." As we were about to leave, thinking we had lost, we saw a man walk in with 4 tickets. He was selling them on consignment to the broker. Luckily, Marc saw this and went right up to the counter. The person behind the counter and Marc were talking and then I saw Marc handing over our money so I knew something good was happening. He said we're in the door for $500 each. We were very lucky. This is the first time I been on an adventure like this, but not Marc...he's done this before. The tickets were in a suite...which at least gives us a good starting point. From the very start, Marc said we would find better seats. He always finds his way down to better seats. Something, that I'm not very comfortable with nor know how to do. He told me not to make any eye contact, follow him, and look like you know what you are doing. After a quick pit stop, we check in on the game. We went into the first tunnel and snapped a couple pictures. The first quarter was half way over and the Lakers were up over 10 points. This was a very good sign. We hopped on the VIP elevator to head up to our third level suite. The door opened at the first level (not our floor) and Marc jumped off at the last second. I quickly followed. We walked around restaurant and found another tunnel down to some pretty good seats. Of course the usher stopped Marc as he tried to talk her into letting us sit for a while. She didn't say no and Marc didn't wait for answer, he just sat down in an open seat. We were sitting in some pretty good seats in the lower bowl level 2. We watched the game for about the rest of the quarter. Then I looked up and saw the usher. She was signaling us out. Marc said, "you didn't make eye contact did you?" My bad...Marc said don't worry, we'll find some better seats. We moved closer to midcourt and made our way down to the Premier Seats. The usher stopped us, but said we couldn't go down until the action went the other way. As soon as the possession changed, we headed down. We found two open seats, with the menu's for the waitress service which was still rolled up in the beverage holder. This was a good sign. Marc reminded me that these seats were going for over $3,500 a seat late in the day. These seats would be our home for the remainder of the game. No one came to kick us out they were teriffic seats. As you know, if you are a Laker fan, (or Celtic fan) the Lakers made history this night. No, they did not win the game and tie the series, they were the first team ever to lose a 24 point lead after leading the first quarter by more than 10 points. Yes, we witnessed the biggest melt down in Finals history. The crowd was absolutely stunned. It was so quite leaving Stapes, all you could hear were the cheers of Celtic fans and the grumbles of Laker fans. No team in Finals history has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit. Kobe and Phil say it's not over...today we will see what the Lakers are made of. Will they fold for summer vacation, or rise like champions...??? I can only give the Laker's one small bit of advise..."Never Give Up" Take it one game at a time and keep surviving. You never know what might happen...look at what Marc and I did on our adventure. Our backs were up agaist the wall, we had no tickets and really no way of getting any. But somehow, we got in to the game. Some how the Lakers must find a way to win three in a row and two of them in Boston!

Video: Kobe to the Rack

ME: