Tile Saw and Spring Rolls - October 20 and 21, 2010

October 20, Anja worked a lot and we went to the climbing gym Momentum.  We got in some great training days on it's long steep overhung walls.

October 21, was another work day but Anja really wanted to see what more of the geodes we got at Dugway looked like inside so we headed over Home Depot and a $89 tile saw from Home Depot.  From online research we did on geode the saw should be able to cut the geodes no problem.

Since Anja had loved the spring rolls at Sonora Thai we also stopped and picked up some ingrediance for Ken to try to make them.

Here is the shopping list for spring rolls and peanut dipping sauce: 

SPRING ROLLS

• Spring roll wrappers (yes, we found these in the asian section of an average grocery store)
• 1/2 cup alphalpha sprouts
• 1/2 head green leaf lettuce
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup fresh basil (thai basil if you can find it)
• 1/2 cup carrots, grated
• 1 large avocado
• 1 cucumber

SPRING ROLLS

• 1.5 cups of peanut butter (creamy or chucky)
• 3-5 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbl of fresh ginger root
• 2 tbl fishy sauce (can substitute soy sauce)
• 2 tbl soy sauce
• 1/2 cup coconut milk (from can)
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Preparation:

SPRING ROLS:  Wash every thing except the wrappers.  Grate the carrots, make avocado slices, slice the cucumber, and break lettuce leafs off. 

 
Submerge spring roll wrappers in hot water until pliable, about 15 seconds in a small water bath on a plate or in a large bowl. Use half of the wrapper to layout your ingredients.  Place lettuce leaf on wrapper, then avocado and cucumber slices, then grated carrot, alphalpha sprouts, basil and cilantro.  Put in fridge to chill while you make sauce.

Peanut Sauce: Add all of the peanut sauce ingredients to a blender and fire up the blender.  Add water until mixture blends well. 

Serve spring rolls with dipping sauce and enjoy!

This peanut sauce can also be used as an easy dipping sauce for chicken saute or as a marinade for pork chops or other meats.

They should look something like this:

Even with Ken's meager cooking skills it came out pretty close. 

Red Rock climbing Draper, UT - Oct 19, 2010

Ken went climbing at a little sport area called Red Rock and Anja went for a run around Sandy.  Anja loved the run through Dimple Park and the neighborhoods to the north of it and wants to checkout the real estate market near there.

Running in Sandy, UT at EveryTrail
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The climbing at Red Rock was ok with climbs between 30' and 50' and most climbs being in the 5.9-5.10a range.

The best part was the short hike up so Denise brought there dogs.

Biking Corner Canyon in Draper, UT - Oct 18, 2010

The day was looking ok weather wise so we headed 10 miles south to Corner Canyon for a mountain bike ride. It was a pretty nice ride on mostly hard pack singletrack. Anja enjoyed the warm weather and seeing the leaves changing colors.

You can see the weather up canyon looking pretty iffy into the mountains.

The weather still looked great down in the valley so after we climbed to about 6,000 ft (1,300 ft of elevation gain) we got some nice views back down the canyon and headed back down.

Biking in Sandy, UT at EveryTrail
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Momentum Rock Climbing Gym - October 17, 2010

We got to Sandy, UT and met George who Anja had arranged to rent a room from for two weeks.  It was pretty funny since George works at Snowbird at the Condo complex Adam's parents stay at every year for January and February every year so of course he knew them.

Since Anja had some work on the back burner we wanted to get to it so we went over to the local climbing gym Momentum with one of the other tenants Mary.  Mary just finished up in Chemical Engineering at Michigan and is taking some time off.

We were able to get a membership for two weeks for $49 each which isn't too bad and after getting through the paperwork and belay tests we got to some great climbs at the gym.

Anja and Mary had fun.

Then back to George and Denise's for Anja to work.

Dugway Geode Rockhounding - October 16, 2010

Dugway was about a hour drive away down a bunch of dirt roads and over Dugway pass.  The views were great from the pass.  We found our way to Dugway and drove up the dirt road which we were supposed to take for 3 miles but about 1.5 miles in it got too bad so we stopped and parked.  We descided to go scout around and look for the good spot we had heard about in Ace the day before with a backhole working.  Luckily we took the road back and found it right way.  Lots of people were there including mini vans.  We'd missed something so Anja stayed to scout around the site and Ken rode back out to figure out how to drive the van in.

We got the van in and found the back hole.  It had dug a hole about 8 ft deep and piled everything next to the hole so it was really easy to get up on the pile and sift through a lot of dirt quickly.

The local beta wasn't to crack them open there but to fill a bucket with rocks you think are likely and take it home to cut it open with a tile saw.  So we filled a bin from the van full.

 Ken digging in the pile with our Gerber shovel turns out its good for something beside a small hole 6 inches deep.

Questioning our ability to identify geodes we took a few that looked the least likely to have a good geode and Ken cracked them with a chisel.

Each cracked open without much problem and though not amazing were each a geode.

Anja is really excited to get a tile saw and cut the whole tub open.  That night we headed to Sandy, UT to get Anja setup to work for the next two weeks.

Rockhounding geodes in Dugway, UT at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Nevada

Sunstone Knoll and Topaz Mountain Rock Hounding - October 15, 2010

After Ibex Anja was dieing to rock hounding so we headed to Delta to ask about local spots and get a few supplies.  In Ace Hardware we ended up talking to a customer who was a local and told us about a few spots.  So we set a plan hit Sunstone Knoll for labradorite that evening, then Topaz Mountain in the morning, and then Dugway the next afternoon for Geodes. 

So we headed over to Sunstone Knoll about 45 miles away on the hwy and about 1 mile up a dirt road.

Anja was better at finding the crystals so Ken set to swinging the hammer into the rocks.

Anja searching for more crystals.

It was a fun outing and few found a few things mostly very small but Anja still kept going by headlamp.  After she had enough we jumped in the van and headed up to Topaz Mountain.

We found a great spot to park the van for the night and woke up to great scenery.  Ken sent Anja off to scout for good spots.  After an hour and a half Anja came back and said she didn't find anything.  Well off to site Dugway.

Ibex Aurora Borealis to Luner Power 5.10b - October 14, 2010

In the morning Anja was walking around and found this guy walking across the dry lake bed.

Before we got out to Ibex we did a little web research and found 6 pitch 5.10b called Aurora Borealis/Luner Power on the Quartermoon area.  

Ken walking up to the base of the route starting from the center of the buttress.

Anja at the base of the route excited about how the route looks.

The first moves were 5.12a so we pulled on the bolts through the first moves.

Anja pulling the moves through the first crux.

Anja pulling through the roof on the route.

Anja at the last crux.

Anja climbed the first pitch for 180 ft.  It was really really good and ended at a huge belay ledge.

Ken took the next lead and headed up a little slab move to a crack to a face move to a lineback to a easy crack to another easy crack and belayed below a large offwidth.  The pitcher is looking down from the first easy crack.

Looking down from Ken's belay to Anja at her belay.  She's down there.

Anja finishing the second pitch.

At the belay we debated how far in the 6 pitch climb we where and we determined Anja had led pitch 1 and 2 and Ken had led pitch 3, 4, and 5.  Guess this climb was going to be a little shorter than expected.

Looking down at the lake bed.

Anja starting up the last pitch.  Kindly there was a bolt next to the offwidth that we could mostly be face climbed and stemmed.

Anja pulling through.

On the top someone had stashed a summit register and a bottle of tequila so we had a little taste.

Ok Ken had a bigger taste.

Then we found the raps down.  After the rap down we had a little walk to get back to the van during which we came across two rattlesnakes.  Weird spiders, giant spiders, and rattlesnakes; Ibex was cool but we'd had enough of it.