Why you should be prepared for anything....

For Labor Day yesterday, we decided (along with the rest of the state of Utah, it seemed) to go 4-wheeling. I suppose we are living by the view, since we have 'em, we better use 'em! So up American Fork Canyon we headed. The l...o...n...g line at the pay station was our first clue that the canyon was going to be incredibly busy! Lots of people heading up to hike to the cave, go picnicking, fishing, and 4-wheeling. Actually, the worst part was finding a place to park. Once that was accomplished, we unloaded and off we headed to Miner's Basin.

The ride was fun, we got up to a little picnic spot we had visited before, had some snacks, and then headed off on a little hike that Nicole and Jared were begging to do. Not long after starting out, we discovered an old beaver dam and lodge that daddy decided to explore and teach the kids about. It was very cool! The water was drained out, so the view of the dam was great, as well as the lodge. There were large trees all around that had been gnawed down, and these were BIG trees! We found some smaller branches and sicks with teeth marks for the kids to bring home, and this awesome branch that wasn't completely chewed through.
It'll be perfect for a show & tell for school sometime....a little more interesting than, "This is my favorite stuffed dog that I've had since birth. When it had fur it was black and white.."

The kids wanted to know where the beavers went. Nicole decided the miners took them away. Jared said the cowboys came and got them, but my theory is more complex and involves alien anasazi's.

There was a bit of a pond left, and while we were sitting around it watching some little trout swimming around, we noticed a little black rain cloud overhead. No worries, it was a beautiful day, blue sky everywhere else, so we didn't pay it much attention. Until it started letting loose on us....with large raindrops and HAIL! What the heck?! So we headed back down to the trail head, and took shelter under a large pine tree there. Once it lightened up, we got on the 4-wheelers and tried to leave, but apparently the little black rain cloud wasn't done with us. Half inch hail and more rain this time...back to the pine tree...literally, this cloud, although black, was a little strip in the sky overhead. All around it was blue sky.

So after it lightened up again, we decided to head down the mountain. Here's the unprepared part. We never in a million years thought that morning that we needed to bring jackets with us. We found out that we always need to! It was, ummm, kinda cold riding down in more rain, when you are already wet, and then you have the cold air rushing against you while riding. Ron pulled out the mylar emergency blanket(I guess we were a little prepared for having that!) out to wrap around Jared and Nicole, and I wrapped an arm around Ellie to help shield the wind. The good news is that a mile and a half down the road, we were back in the sunshine and on dusty roads again, and warmed up quickly. It had only rained in the little area where we were! How odd.