Jacob Lake Adventures: Revisited

So I started this post right after I returned from this trip, but for some reason at that time I was unable to upload the pictures. It only took me a few months to fix that problem...but here it is. My President's Day Weekend:

I visited a dear friend, Joseph Weatherford, at Jacob Lake this weekend with my other dear friend, Heidi Collins. We left on Saturday and returned Monday (thank goodness for national holidays). My family kept asking me why I went back to Jacob Lake since they thought I had been miserable there. Well, I wasn't completely miserable: there is no way to be miserable when there are opportunities to be epic in nearly every moment of the day. Jacob Lake is where I started running, where I took an hours long off-trail-adventures, where I hiked across the Grand Canyon, where I made a perfectly symmetrical sweet roll and perfect bread. I did a lot of awesome things there.

Friends were one of the most epic parts of Jacob Lake. Heidi worked with me in the bakery, and Joe and Chad worked in the service station. The four of "Us" hung out all the time, stargazing at the Grand Canyon, singing "Lake Ponchartrain," and walking up the road a mile to climb the fire tower at night. Also, we played the question game a lot, so of course, they quickly became some of the best friends I've had.

So that's the background of this weekend. Well, when we got to Jacob Lake, there were two feet of snow on the ground, and another foot fell on Saturday night.

 

We decided it would be a brilliantly epic idea to hike the mile uphill to the fire tower in the three feet of snow, then climb the 80-foot tower in a blizzard:

 

After that, we played cards and watched August Rush. That night, we played the question game in our room until we all fell asleep (don't worry, Joe was in a different bed!)

On Monday morning we hung out in Fredonia, Arizona, which is the most sad place I have ever been. Haha. Don't go live there. Then Heidi and I drove back up and on the way we found this sign in Orderville, which we thought was fantastic. :)

Although it seems simple, it was a fantastic weekend. I finally was able to buy my Mexican hoodie from the "Guns Ammo Lotto Beer" gas station in Fredonia. I mean, it was wonderful. And now I can tell my kids and my grandkids that I once had to walk a mile uphill in three feet of snow. Besides, the best kind of friends are the ones where it doesn't matter if you do epic things or not, because every moment together is epic. :)