Friday, November 30, 2007

The long awaited update, sorry!




Sorry about not being more diligent in keeping this more updated (for your sake and mine)! I guess we left you all back in Sinks Canyon, Wyoming!! That was almost a month and four states ago! Well. We met some really awesome people in Wyoming. God led us to Lander Church of Christ on a Sunday and they were so good to us. One couple from the church, Tom and Sarah took us out for lunch then another couple, Beth and Jeff Leafgreen invited us to their home for dinner and bible study. They were so kind, they offered us showers, then to do laundry, then they let us stay in their spare bedroom!! That was a real treat since we had been sleeping in literally freezing wheather all week. So, that lifted our spirits and reminded us that God and all his people are on our side. This gave us motivation to go and visit Tom and Lisa in Boise (besides, we needed somewhere to declare recidency so we could get some insurance, but to no avail). We took off the next morning from the Leafgreens, stopped in Jackson Hole to see Molly for a night, then drove to Boise.

Tom and Lisa were great, as usual... called them last minute to tell them we were coming and we had no plans of how long we'd stay. Regardless, they took us in and fed us and entertained us for almost a week. We even got to crash their church book group while they were discussing a book Josh and I had recently read, "Sex God" by Rob Bell. Really great book. Makes you think a lot about marriage and sexuality and how it realates to God and who we are called to be in Christ. Josh started a debate on torture at the book group. It was great. Thanks to Ashling for sharing her bedroom with us : )

After Boise, we were itching to climb again... so we drove to Salt Lake City, UT. There we waited for a package of antibiotics for Josh from Dr. Mom- thank you a million... he's all better now!! We climbed a little bit in Little Cottonwood Canyon just outside the city, but it was so cold, we didn't last too long. We'll definately have to go back there when it gets warmer again... the rock climbing was so much fun, and that canyon was so beautiful. The one night just as we were coming down from a climb we spotted a HUGE white mountain goat!!! It was awesome...

Can you see the mountain goat? He's just above the crack we had just climbed!
We got cold, and tired of the city scene, then drove to Moab, UT... the desert! We got to Moab at about midnight and pulled in the camground then got our car stuck in the sand!!! We couldn't get it out! We just grabbed our sleeping bags and left the car there and decided we'd try to get it out in the morning. After sleeping just next to a city for a week in northern Utah, the desert was so so quiet. God blessed us with a wonderful sleep despite our car troubles. In the morning we saw a pack of coyotes run right in front of us at the campsite. They were so cute... just little dogs. They were way more scared of us than us them. It was cool to see the gentle creatures we had been hearing make these horrific screaming noises in the morning. That's just how they communicate with eachother. Maybe they think our voices horrific too? After we spent some time and effort (and money) getting our vehicle out (thanks mom for the tech support) we spent a couple days touring around Arches National Park. It was so beautiful there... huge red sandstone formations, petrified sand dunes, and white capped mountains in the back... a landscape unlike anything I had ever seen before.



Josh in his new wind breaker! This was a cool spot in the park! An artsy shot on our hike out to delicate arch


Me doing dancer pose under the "Delicate Arch" Can you see Josh amongst all the towers??


There we hooked up with Steph and her crew from Telluride, CO. We climbed with them for a weekend which was so nice. Climbing entails so much responsibility that sometimes it's exhausting when it's always just Josh and I. It was great to work as a group for a change versus working as a pair, if that makes any sense. What great company, too. We had such an awesome time with them.
Josh climbing the scariest roof ever! What a great lead! Felt like we were in the Gunks again!
Me on my first 5.9 trad lead! I was so scared, but it was fun when it was done!! Woohoo!
They invited us back to Telluride for Thanksgiving too!! So, turkey day was a blast. Telluride is a beautiful, swank, little ski town tucked away in a canyon. Just beautiful. Steph showed us around town, and we got to spend sometime staying with her at her church, Telluride Christian Fellowship. What a wonderful group of disciples!!! After thanksgiving dinner we spent the night singing worship and dancing and hula hooping... so much fun!!! We woke up the next morning to about 5 inches of snow, so plans of meeting friends in Indian Creek got cancelled, and we ending up staying at the church for a few more days. Not a bad deal... we went out to visit the farm Steph lived and worked on this summer ans stayed there for a night at Sarah and Gerrard's place. Friends from Chicago, Ryan and Merridith cooked us an amazing meal. We had so much fun with all those guys... we hope to connect with them in the not so distant future.


Meridith, Steph, Trent, and Kelly at TCF Thanksgiving dinner All of us jammin out and worshiping after eating!


Jesse, from Taoz, New Mexico and I Steph, Trent, and Hubby on the free gondola up to Mountain Village!
So, we then went back to Moab, tried to climb Castleton tower, but it was too cold. Spent some time in the library researching straw bale houses insted, then headed south to Zion National Park. We hiked up to observation point in the park and found out Josh is a chipmunk whisperer! Ha!

Josh in Echo Canyon, Zion nat'l park, Utah "Observation Point" overlooking Zion Canyon


Yes, that is a chipmunk!!! There must've been atleast six of them around him! Can you count all three in this picture??
They were so used to people stopping at this peak to eat lunch they were swarming us at the sound of a crumpling bag. It was almost better than the view of the canyon! The next day we went for a much needed run then headed even further south to Las Vegas. Man, that was such a dark city... drt and trash everywhere, literally and figuratively. I hope I never have to go back. We went in, grabbed a guide book for Joshua tree and decided to push on to Southern California. Josh and I were truly disturbed by the state of our species in this lost city.
So, we've finally made it to Joshua Tree! Who Hoo! Last night we arrived late, but were actually warm!! The tent is a much happier place to be when we aren't freezing our butts off if ya know what I mean! But wouldn't you know... we woke up this morning to rain! RAIN IN THE DESERT! What is that?? This place gets 7 inches of rain a year, and it has been steadily raining for about 12 hours now. Everyone is talking about how rare this is, and we can't believe our luck! So, we've been sitting in this coffee shop now since 10:30 this morning (it's now 4:45). We're going to go catch a movie in a little while. As I write this I'm thinking maybe all this rain is a blessing in disguise... after all, at least we won't have to worry about the wild fires coming our way for a little while, and all the wild flowers should bloom like crazy when the sun comes out again! I'll post some pics if it turns out as hoped.

I'll sign off now. Really looking forward to coming home for Christmas on the 18th! We love & miss you guys...

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Greetings from Wyoming


Susan the naturalist loving life at Eagle Bluff


A typical Minnesota sunset from the bluff.


3,371 miles as of last week when we left Minnesota.

Hey everyone! We're here in Lander, Wyoming where we've been freezing out butts off for almost a week now. We left Susan's in Minnesota and headed to Devil's Tower where it was very cold with a snow storm on the way, so we decided to climb for a day (sadly, no summit... but next year for sure).

The tower is a cluster of igneous intrusions in the middle of the Northern Plains of Wyoming. It's unique presence in the otherwise feautreless rolling hills of northeast Wyoming caused the native Americans of the area to worship it. They actually still do to this day. We saw some "prayer scarves" hung in the trees surrounding it's base... it felt little eerie if I do say (not to disrespect the deeply spiritual practice of the natives). To us as climbers, the tower is 800ft. of vertical cracks with a mere half acre grassy summit. So, we were all gung-ho to summit this thing, but as we drove up to it we were seriously humbled by intimidation. This is world class vertical crack climbing here, a whole new ball game for us, as our whole three weeks of traditional rock climbing skills have been aquired on the horizontal cracks of the Gunks.


Devil's Tower, the veiw from our campsite.



Josh and I among the cotton wood trees at our beautiful campsite at the base of the tower.


Besides, it was cold and windy, and a snow storm was on the way. These factors not helping build the mental commitment we would need to muster in order to undertake this summit. We decided we'd just do couple of pitches and return next summer for our summit. We'll gain some experience with vertical cracks this winter in the desert, and come back with a bit more confidence.


So after two days and a gorgeous full moon night at Devil's Tower, we were headed to Tensleep. Plans changed as soon as we hit the Big Horn Mountain Range where everything was COLD and icy. Our sights were then directed a little further south to Lander. So, here we are. We're camping in Sinks Canyon State Park. The rock here and style of climbing here is very similar to Ten Sleep or Paint Rock Canyon, so we haven't been dissapointd by the change in plans. It's still pretty cold here though. On Halloween morning, we unexpectedly woke to a frozen campsite. We also had a little problem with deer mice taking refuge from the cold IN OUR CAR!!! This was quite scary as we just read an article on mice carrying Hantavirus and transmitting it to climbers living out of their car last year in Colorado (about 6% of all deer mice carry the virus)! So Josh insisted we immmediately drive to town, empty out all our belongings, vaccuum, and wipe down the whole car with bleach water. The Sentra's never been so clean. We've been setting mouse traps every night since then in the car, and sadly, I think the deer mouse population around our campsite has really taken a hit. :(




Happy Halloween!!!

We've been waiting on a few packages from the family which finally came today. We're dying to get down south. Getting out of your sleeping bag in the morning to face cooking oatmeal with freezing hands is becoming quite difficult. We put off getting out of the tent every morning until our blatters are about to explode!! It's amazing how much you miss the comfort of four walls and a roof as soon as the cold creeps in. Getting our packages today was great!! Whoo hoo!! Feels like Christmas... by the way Mom Di- Josh wants to know where his Halloween socks are!! :) Seriously though- thanks for the granola and seeds... they will help to keep us regular in the face of too much camp food!! We'll climb here for one more day, then we're off to the desert. May I just say, praise God for warm places to go and the means to get there. When we figure out where we're going next, we'll let ya'll know.


Can't beat a view like this! Another beautiful sunset while making dinner at the campsite at Sinks Canyon.

As for Josh and I, we're learning new things about each other everyday, and falling deeper in love anyway : ) We are learning many lessons in patience, grace, and mercy being within 6 feet of each other 24-7. We've decided that if we can do this for a year and still be so in love, we can do anything. We've been meeting some really great random people along the way that are encouraging us when we need it most. Married Life is interesting and fun, and certainly a blessing from God.

Missing you all, Love You!


Mitzi and Josh

Friday, October 19, 2007



Hey everyone, Josh and Mitzi here from Lanesboro, Minnesota. Eagle Bluff Environmental Education Center to be exact. We are here visiting Susan the Naturalist for a few days.

I'll try to give an update of the places we went and the people we've met since our last blog (which seems like so long ago already!) sorry!


















So, we stayed for three weeks in the Gunks. Autumn rolled in right before our eyes, and we felt truly blessed to be living outside during such a beautiful time of year in the Northeast. After the Gunks, we returned home to drop off/pick up a few more items need for our cross-country adventure. It was really nice to spend a few days with the family before taking off. We got a chance to see Logan, Todd and Stacy's baby boy, which was a real treat. The first Harding grandbaby!!

Then we set off for good this time, with 1,463 miles so far on the trip odometer. Our first stop was Lock Haven. Josh did a presentation to finish up his degree, and got an A (way to go Babe!). We stayed one night with the Smiths and Pairodox Farm, our second favorite place in Lock Haven (the first being Texas for breakfast, and we went there too!) Joanna made us a delicious home grown meal, and we had a great time visiting with them. Thank you!!

We stayed a second night with Heather and spent some time with Luke too... making our stop to Lock Haven really nice. Thanks to Heather for boarding us, and thanks to Luke for the beer. We love you guys.
We left LHU on a Friday, heading west to visit Sue in Minnesota, thinking we'd stop in Southern Illinois for some climbing. We stopped for coffee in Northern Kentucky at about 10pm and found out the Red River Gorge was only 2 hours away! Our other destination in Southern Illinois was 3.5 hours away so, we decided to change course and head to the gorge for some world class sport climbing for a few days!!

When we arrived at Miguel's (pizza shop/climber's campground), we found out it was "Rocktoberfest 2007"-a world famous climbing festival, and the Petzel climbing team was in town for a competition and other festival events. There had to be 150 tents set up at the spot we were planning on camping at, but we squeezed our car in the parking lot and found an empty patch of grass for our tent at 12:30am when we finally get there.

The Red River Gorge is one of the most spectacular places we've ever climbed. The sand stone cliffs that make up the gorge are beyond describtion, they are so beautiful. It has a great mix of all types of climbing, from sport face climbing to tradition crack/offwidths, and every variation in between.
We met some really cool folks there. Two guys we spent some time with have been travling like us for two years now!! They were an inspirtaion to us!! Thanks to Daniel for all his generosity. We met a guy named Matt from Oregon and climbed hard with him the day before we left. He was a good guy, hope to meet up with him sometime in the future out west maybe. We also exchanged numbers with a super mellow couple from Denver who offered to meet up and climb some once we get out there. One of the greatest parts of being climbing bums is the people we meet.

So, we headed out of Kentucky when the rains moved in (last Tuesday or Wednesday, I think??). Onto Chicago for the night to stay with Ashley, Jason and Makai for the night. We spent the next day with Jason for his b-day, then headed the rest of the way up to Lanesboro, Minnesota to visit Sue.


We've been here at Eagle Bluff for almost a week. Everyone here is so great, and welcoming. They've been letting us bum around the "commune" all week, and feeding us too!! We've seen a bunch of Bald Eagles, and some other raptors, beautiful hikes, and A LOT of corn. We went to Minneapolis for the weekend to visit Steph Zmich, and stupid us didn't take any pictures!!! : ( Sorry!!) . But Minneapolis is a beautiful city, and Steph was a great tour guide. We will post some pictures of Eagle Bluff next time it is getting late and, today is Susan's birthday so I want to go hang out. We will be on the road again tomorrow morning before the sun comes up. We have a twelve hour drive ahead of us to Ten Sleep, Wyoming. Pray for no snow for us. We miss all of you and will be in touch soon.
Love, Grace, and Peace!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Married Life is Good


So, this is Mitzi and Josh from "The Muddy Cup" coffee shop in New Paltz, NY. Our sister Danielle was so kind to set up this "blog site" for us so we can keep all our loved ones posted on our whereabouts and adventures, even when we may be out of reach. We usually venture into town once or twice a week to check emails and make phone calls, so we'll try our best to keep this updated for ya'll!! : )
So, after the wedding we went to the Delaware water gap to "Santosha on the Ridge" yoga retreat-bed and breakfast for two nights... living in the lap of luxury. It was so wonderful and rejuventating after the craziness of the wedding, a well needed time of meditation, good food, and good lovin' ;) !!!

Josh lounging at the B&B

Then we took off for Naples, Florida to stay in my cousin's condo for a week. We tried to go out kayaking in the estuary, but Josh got attacked by a Manatee. We decided we'd better stay on the beach and soak up some rays insted, get rested for our up coming adventures. We had a great time. Again, really good food and lots of it too!!


Then, the road trip began...



So, now we are wrapping up our second week here climbing in the gunks. It's beautiful up here in the Shawangunk Mountains this time of year. Over the last few weeks we've witnessed the leaves getting more and more colorful each day. We're they'll hit their peak color withing the next week and a half while we're here. We're living in a feild at a distillery where they make whiskey and burbon, a few miles from the cliff. We've made friends with a Canadian couple staying there too, Trevor and Sarah. They are really great people.
We've been falling in love with all our new gear... a huge heartfelt thanks to all of you who contributed!!! Josh and I spent last week getting our confidence up in placing our own protection on the wall... climbing easy routes, really focusing on all of our placement safety and anchor building techniques. This week we've pushed ourselves to do some harder routes. I led my first 5.7 on trad, and Josh here (my sexy husband) led his first 5.10b AND 5.11a!!! So, week two and hubby has already met his goal for the summer... this gives us many oppurtunities to explore more places and climb more climbs across the country. We are so excited as to what adventures lie ahead, so we'll keep you posted.

Me leading a climb...

Josh leading a climb...

And at the summit...


Loving married life,
Mitzi and Josh