Campin', Fishin', Hikin', Burnin'

I'm sorry. I don't know why it is, but I always have to use the apostrophe instead of the G's in those words. Anyway, I did all of those things yesterday and today. (Well, the last one was done to me by the sun.) I really love camping, and I really really love fishing. I've been wanting to go camping since this last winter, and now that summer is almost over I finally got to do it. We went to southern Utah and camped in the Boulder Mountain area. We fished at a couple different lakes. Yesterday we fished at the lake near where we camped called Lower Bowns Reservoir. It was AWESOME. I caught about 10 fish in just a few hours of fishing. They were all about 9-13 inch rainbows, so there wasn't much variety, but it was dry-fly fly fishing at its best. I love it. I also got to don my waders for the first time this year. (Except for the fly fishing winter disaster mentioned around the beginning of this blog in March-ish.) After a frigid night in a tent, we decided to go to Oak Creek Reservoir which is at the top of a two and half mile road. I use the term road, but the street sign called it a "primitive road." In other words, unless your vehicle is a mountain climber, do not pass go, do not collect $200. So we hiked up there. (Impressively, my 2 nephews made it up there and back down in good shape, including Jacob who's just 6. He let us know it was hard for him, but he was a trooper.) I caught zero fish. I was, however, glad to have done the hike, and I still had an enjoyable time. My dad and his friend Lyle caught quite a few brook trout. So there's the short of the trip regarding the first three verbs in the title of this post. As for the fourth, OUCH!!! My skin is pretty fair, and burns very easily in the sun. I tend to look bright red after a day in the sun. (Hence many jokes from my friends and family including: I look like a lobster, I'm Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (my nose is usually included in all the burning), and my personal favorite, I don't get sun burned, I get sun RAPED!) My hands look like I'm wearing red gloves right now, and my neck is highly uncomfy, but I'm fine. Unfortunately, I probably have skin cancer in my future.

Well, there was my summer adventure. I'm glad I got to have a good one. I'm tuckered out!
Pics:

We climbed to the top of some red rock formations. (This is me and my nephews Jacob and Ryan.)

Me with Oak Creek Reservoir. It was a fun hike. Long, but beautiful country. This would be a beautiful picture, if there wasn't that ugly lake in it. (Oh, and I'm not wearing my hat backwards to be cool, it was my failed attempt at shading my neck.)

My bro Jake with my nephews. At Oak Creek Reservoir.

Fun hike and embarrassment...

Stewart Falls
Originally uploaded by jeremiah.cougar

Today I had a great day off. I went hiking with my good pal Jules. We hiked to Stewart Falls (in the picture). It's the perfect length. You have just enough time to really enjoy nature, but it's not so long that it's painful or boring. I love how green everything is this year, too. It seems like the extra rain we've gotten has made things greener than usual. And it was a hike full of its share of laughs. Jules is hilarious. It really was a fun time.

Speaking of funny, yesterday at work I laughed for a good while about something that happened. At my job we talk to the sales reps and techs on the phone. We usually ask them for their id number at the beginning of the calls. I got a call from one and I was in kind of a wacky mood. I asked him for his rep id and put it in. In our system the name automatically pops up, and his name came up and it said, "Jeff Ricks." I did a double-take, and then I double checked that he'd given me the right number, and I was shocked when he said that he had. I then said, "NO WAY!!! Your name is JEFF RICKS!!? THAT'S MY NAME!!!" I've had people with my birthday, and I've even been talking to a sales rep named Jeff, who was selling the system to a customer named Jeff, but I'd NEVER talked to another person named Jeff Ricks! I turned around to tell my coworker, Ashley, and she looked at me in a weird way and clearly didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did and I reacted the same way I always do when someone isn't impressed with something I say and it's awkward... and said, "K, see ya." I was a lot louder than anyone should be about someone having my same name. Anyway, I finally calmed down and continued on getting information. He wasn't nearly as excited about having my name as I was about having his. Suddenly he was gone in the middle of giving me information. Then I realized that the two guys and Ashley were laughing. I suddenly understood why Ashley hadn't reacted the way I thought she would to this crazy happenstance. A kid named Skyler had looked up my id number (something we never use, but that is assigned to us in the system), and he called my extension on his cell phone and pretended to be a sales rep. It made me laugh really hard. I was so embarrassed that I had freaked out. He and his friend kept quoting my scream of, "NO WAY! ... That's MY name!" Ashley had been trying to tell me all along that I was being duped. But I was too excited about it to get it or to even hear her. The two guys were surprised that I hadn't heard them both laughing the whole time I was on the call. Anyway, we record our calls and I listened to it a couple times later in my shift for entertainment. I couldn't stop snickering about it. I usually DESPISE when I bear the brunt of a practical joke, but I actually enjoyed this one. Although, I told Skyler that now I'm paranoid that I'm not actually talking to sales reps when I think I am. Good times. K, see ya.