New Wenger store opens: It's not about the knives anymore

Wenger, one of the two producers of the venerable Swiss Amy Knife,  opened its first United States store on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder yesterday.  Here follows a review from a committed knife nut and hopeless gear head.

Helicoptering by satellite

I've always rolled my eyes at "helicopter parents," the ones who hover over their offspring and thus prevent them from making mistakes or, in the worse cases, just  being kids.  This weekend I am such a parent.  Electronics such as cell phones enable this kind of behavior, as does one I'm using right now to follow my son:  the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger. 

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Eight--Saturday

The young guys slept through the arrival of the Paria crews, so they awake to some familiar faces. Our crew packs up ahead of the older guys--a first--then everyone eats a breakfast of orange juice and doughnuts.

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Seven--Friday

We woke up for our last day in the wilderness.  Only two meals to carry, and everyone is eager to get back to civilization.  First, we fill up the water bottles.

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Six--Thursday

When we went to bed, it was relatively warm.  I usually sleep with top and bottom polypro long johns, yet on this night I slept in a T-shirt and placed the long john top on the pack beside me.  I got cold in the night, however, and reached over to find heavy frost on my long john top.  I put in on nonetheless, and quickly warmed up and went back to sleep.

The front must have come in that night.  We woke up to our coldest morning so far.

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Five--Wednesday

This is a big day for us.  We will do no more backpacking down the canyon; today we will conceal our camp, don daypacks, and strike out for the Escalante River.  We're not entirely sure where it is.  I didn't plan for us to hike Harris Wash, so I didn't bring a map.  One of the dependable things about a slot canyon, however, is that is almost impossible to get lost.  You are either going up-canyon or down-canyon.

Two passing up-canyon hikers estimate that it will take us two hours to get to the  Escalante.  We load up and take off.  Without the heavy backpacks and with two days of canyon experience under our belts, we fly down Harris Wash.

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Four--Tuesday

We got up at 7:00 and started hiking at 9:35.  Spirits were much better; the Scouts had gotten more accustomed to hiking through the water and brush, and we weren't stopping every 15 minutes.  As we moved down canyon, it got narrower and the walls got higher.

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Three--Monday

We drove back up the Hole-in-the-Rock Road to the road to Harris Wash, where the high-clearance vehicles proved their worth.  We got to the trail head and began the second stage of Getting Your Act Together.  We planned to stay in the Wash until Friday morning, so we had to carry 12 meals, plus crew gear such as pumps, stoves, water jugs, and the first aid kit. Given that we were organized into two eating crews, we had a total of 24 meals to carry, divided by 13 people.  You do the math. 

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Two--Sunday

Another name for this expedition might be the "Learning to Get Your Act Together Tour."  Gear expands to fill whatever vehicle in which it is carried, and it took our campers a lot of effort to fix breakfast, roll up their bedding, pack away their tents, and get ready to roll.  We pulled out at 9:50 AM.

We drove through Hanksville, passed through Capital Reed National Park, then turned left at Torrey and climbed through the Dixie National Forest.  The highest point is 9,600 feet high amid the largest aspen forest I have ever seen.  We dropped into the town of Boulder, Utah, where we stopped at a good coffee place.  From there we drove along one of the more stupendous roads in the Mountain Time Zone.

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day One--Saturday

Our troop always goes to the Utah desert for Spring Break.  This year we took five crews in all--three to Paria Canyon, and two to the Escalante/Grand Staircase National Monument.  I was with the latter bunch, seven 12-year-olds and a couple of 11-year olds and three of their fathers, so this account will be about them.  

We rendezvoused with the Paria crews at the visitors center in Fruita, where we bid adieu to them and continued to Green River, Utah, where we gassed up, drove west on I-70, and headed down Highway 24 into the wild.  We chose a campsite outside of Goblin Valley State Park.  We go here for a couple of reasons.  First, there's no charge.  Second, we can camp in places where the boys can make all manner of noise.