Tuesday, March 24 (Cedar Hills, UT)

Got into Cedar Hills on Monday evening. I met Tom at Mert's bar (an old steelworker bar near the site of what was one of the largest steel plants in the country). I wish I'd seen the plant, as I love industrial scenery. It really represents a way of life and a time in this country that is quickly getting outsourced and outpaced. We also met Steve, a third generation steelworker from Orem and a great guy. Had some beers, talked trucks, and then it was time to hit the homestead. Tom's wife was understandably a little hesitant when he explained that he was bringing home some random guy from the internet, so I was on my best behavior (shaved, used deoderant, and tried not to let my neurosis show too much). It was relatively easy, as Tom and his wife Cathy are some of the most friendly, open and generally nice people I've ever met. They met up in Alaska, and moved back when they had their son to give him a more normal upbringing. Their love of Alaska, nature and each other is really evident as you speak to them, and it was a great source of inspiration for me. Tom also offered a lot of sage and useful advice on Alaska, the outdoors, and bears, which dispelled some of the ideas I had had, and reinforced others.
- Is bear spray effective? You don't want to be close enough to use it. Better to make lots of noise and act big and weird.
- What do you do if you actually get between a sow and her cubs? Pray.

We had some great mexican food, talked about my background, the trip, how they met, their plans and just had an all around great time.

Tom has an amazing truck with a stroked 350 and 35 inch tires, so we took it up through the national park canyon they have as a back yard, and planned the next day's activities. Tom runs fly fishing tours out of Alaska in the summers, but during the winter he runs snowmobile tours. Having never been on a snowmobile, it seemed like a good idea to change that as soon as possible.

I woke up the next morning to the amazing view from their house:


And Tom and I went snowmobiling through the wasatch mountains. It was a very intense experience, much more so than the grand canyon or Arches. I'm not sure why, except that it was much more involved than a trip to either of the other places. I felt much more that I was partaking in the natural beauty, rather than simply observing it.

The snowmobiling was great. We pulled over in some amazing places and had great conversation, shared stories and observations and really relaxed. Turns out Tom and I have very similar backgrounds, similar feelings on those backgrounds and outlooks on people, life, and our own paths.

The wasatch mountains are simply beautiful. I kept on overusing words like "amazing" and "awesome" because I just don't have enough synonyms to come up with new words to express how struck I was with the situation.

Without further commentary:

snowmobiling