Birthday/Backpacking Weekend!

Aaron turned 24 this last weekend! We had such a fun time celebrating. His family was up here visiting for a family reunion a few weeks ago and we did a little celebration with them. We had a BBQ and Aaron opened some presents from them. They gave him a new pair of binoculars for hunting and he was SO excited!!! Unfortunately I only got one picture from that night. 

Rachel, Trina and Steph's husband Stew are missing from this picture. They weren't able to come. 

The weekend of Aaron's actual birthday we planned to go on a backpacking trip. He has been wanting to hike to the top of this mountain in NV for a while now. It's called Goshute mountain. We went south of Wendover again, really close to where we took our last adventure. I have never been backpacking before and I think Aaron only went one or two times when he was younger with the scouts so we didn't have anything for this trip. We had to buy our packs, sleeping bags, bed rolls, and a bunch of other stuff. It ended up being kinda expensive but we plan to do a lot more of these trips so hopefully we will get some really good use out of everything. 

We woke up early so we could get on the road as soon as possible. We woke up to streamers and balloons in the kitchen! The birthday fairy came in the middle of the night for Aaron!!! 

I got him a few movies, some fun camping stuff for the trip and tickets to a Real soccer game here in Salt Lake. He also got a homemade ticket to go pick out a new cowboy hat. He was so excited!

After opening presents and eating breakfast we loaded everything up in the car and headed on our way!

Similar picture in my previous post except this time we were more prepared and took the Murano instead of the Geo! haha

Starting our journey! This was seriously the hardest hike I have ever done in my life! It was SO steep and on super rough terrain. There were points where we were on our hands and knees trying to get through the thick trees and bushes. Oh! And not to mention we had SUPER heavy bags on our backs. There was no water on this mountain so we had to pack it all in. That's the main reason why our packs were so dang heavy! I think my legs are going to be sore for like weeks!

Some of our sweet findings! Aaron picked a huge dandelion and I found a fossil in a rock. 

 We were probably not even half way at this point and my legs were about to fall off. 

This is a big storm that started to come towards us. It was thundering like crazy. I was so nervous we were going to be stuck in this storm with no tarps or anything for protection. Luckily we were hiking in the opposite direction the storm was moving and barely missed it. We got a few sprinkles and some heavy wind but it only lasted for maybe 15 minutes. Thank heavens! 

 At the top! We actually made it!

 It felt like we were on top of the world!

"No Pain, No Gain." Even though it was so hard getting up to the top, it was totally worth it! These pictures don't give it justice. It was seriously so beautiful!

Once we got to the top, we relaxed for a little just enjoying the scenery and then decided to walk around and explore a bit. And boy did we find some fun stuff! Just a side note... Aaron and I were in the middle of NO WHERE! We didn't see a single person or any sign of one until we found this......

Porta-pottys randomly sitting at the top of the mountain! .....??????...... That's what we were thinking!

Then about 100 yards away we found this.....

Tarps covering a whole bunch of camping gear. By this point things were getting a bit eery. We were thinking this is either some weird government thing or someone's getaway if the world goes to pot. We then found little trails leading to more and more random things. 

 Bird cages with no birds in them and an old homemade coop.

These big metal containers said on the side of them "Rocket ammunition with explosive projectile packed..." can't remember the rest. "Handle with care. Do not drop". This trip was getting way more exciting then we had planned it to be.

We opened one of them and found inside just a bunch of bird feeders and other random stuff. Come to find out at the end of our trip the BLM along with some bird specialist group come up here and band hawks during the fall to study their migration patterns. It was great because they had some chopped wood that we used for our fire and we borrowed a couple of their folding chairs to sit on and one of their shovels to stir the fire with. It was like our own little camping site haha. Don't worry.... we left everything the way we found it other than the few missing pieces of chopped wood.

 It's hard to tell in this picture, but Aaron found four bucks with his NEW 'optics' (that's what he calls his binoculars haha) just a couple hundred yards from where we set up camp. We watched them bed down for the night. He was so excited about his find!

We watched the sunset from the top of the mountain. So beautiful and romantic! :)

We then made a fire and cooked yummy hobo dinners. This is Aaron with a little chocolate cake and candles that I sneaked in my bag. It just doesn't feel like a birthday without being sung to and blowing out candles!

Waking up the next morning! You can barely see Aaron because he is so bundled up in his sleeping bag. Neither of us slept very much at all haha. Aaron was too cold and I was paranoid that our fire was going to jump and start a forest fire or that an animal was going to try and come eat us. I made Aaron sleep with his gun right next to him just in case! It was super fun though sleeping under the beautiful stars and watching the sunrise.

Leaving our little campsite. We found a man made trail that led all the way back to the road that our car was on haha. It was seriously a million times easier then the way we went up! We had such a fun time and can't wait for another backpacking adventure!