The best of times: New blog coming!

Most of what I say on this blog is pointless dribble. 98%, at least (if not more...) I will proudly admit that. But today I actually do have something important to say. The next post I write is going to be the last post I write on this blog. And I'm dead serious about that. And the reason for this news is that I am starting a new blog, one in which I can add new pictures...

You see, several months ago I maxed out my limit of pictures that I'm allowed to put on this blog for free. Any new pictures and I'd have to pay money to buy space. I don't want to delete old posts because that would go against everything I stand for. It would be like ripping out pages of my journal and denying my Bolts of Thunder heritage. And I won't do that to my friends... So being the American that I am, I refuse to pay for something and would just rather put in more work and effort to go around the system to keep my mooching habits alive. So I actually started a new Bolts of Thunder blog so that I can add new pictures to it and keep you posted on the progress of our next video. This is quite a big leap for the Bolts of Thunder franchise because I am once again committing myself to take a lot of pictures when we're out skating and put them on the blog. Oh, those were the days when I used to do that... So it's what I'm going to commit myself to doing again. So in the next post, I will put the link to our new blog and try to make sure that it is really clear where all the latest action is going to be going. I'll give you a hint, it's going to be called "Bolts of Thunder 4" in commemoration of our next blog. But that's all I can say now.

So in this, my last real post of the Bolts of Thunder blog, I would like to leave you all with the image of the OG Bolts of Thunder team, the crew that started it all, the 5 ragtag rebels that spit in the face of social structure, classes, organization, law, age, and gravity. We made middle aged skating look good, we brought sexy back way before Justin Timberlake was pretending to do so, we told you that war was good for absolutely nothing, and we were the wind beneath your wings. And as a side note, I will say that the feeling in the air these days is very similar to the old days, which is an exciting feeling. We've got a solid crew of friends, and we all skate, hang, cry, and film together, the way skate crews should be. So I'm really excited for what Bolts of Thunder's putting out next.

So in this picture you will find the fit, post central American surfing sugar glazed version of Nick, the 35 year old scout master version of me, the timeless version of Matt, the jacked up drugged out of his mind making you feel uncomfortable while he invades your private space and stares deep into your eyes Dave, and the having fun, business as usual Dan. They were the best of times and the best of times. It was the first Bolts of Thunder video premier at my house. Brings a tear to my eye...

Havasupi: the final chapter

Tonight I finish this story. For real. So the trip was super fun, swimming in the water and jumping off of waterfalls the entire time. Beside the minor setbacks of having to cuddle with Matt's girlfriend to keep me warm and eating Matt's food to sustain myself, the trip went relatively smoothly. So we went down on one condition, and that was that we had to be out of Havasupi and back at our cars by a certain time so that we could drive back to St George the next morning so that Spencer could catch his flight to Salt Lake to make it to work the next day. We all agreed on it, and that was the plan. So the plan was to be at the cars by a certain time and we were all good. All that stood between us and this plan was a 13 mile uphill hike with a killer last mile or two of steep switch backs to finish us off. But we knew what it was before we picked it up, so we started our trip home in the evening giving ourselves 6 or 7 hours to make it to the top. Plenty of time if you keep a steady pace.

All I had to eat on the hike out (and most of the trip anyway) was a package of roman noodles and a package of maple syrup instant oatmeal. It would have been too tricky to try and sneak that last granola bar out of Matt's pack on the hike up, so I ruled that out of the equation from the get go. But one problem was we didn't have time to stop and cook water, so I had to eat the roman noodles raw, which is disgusting. But half way through the trip I gave in to hunger and did it. I will never do it again...

So Matt followed the camel back theory to hiking which is one of the more dangerous approaches to outdoor living. It is that rather than spacing out your rations of water over the entire hike, you down it all at the very beginning and then let your body slowly distribute the water to the appropriate places. This method doesn't work, and you end up being thirsty an hour later no matter how much water you drank at the beginning. So Matt and maybe even Hannah drank all their water at the very beginning of the hike and had nothing left for the rest. Add on top of that that they were both planning on eating their granola bars that they had saved for the hike up only to find that a rat had made his way into their pack and taken it all for himself. And then add one more tasty layer on top of that that Matt noticed a pain in his foot at the beginning of the hike that later turned out to be a fracture he had gotten some time on the trip. He was about to hike 13 miles on a broken foot.

After a couple miles of hiking out, Brian and I were setting a much faster pace than the rest, and we'd have to stop every half hour or so to let the rest catch up. Matt, Hannah, and Justin finally told us to just keep going and they'd catch up to us at the end. So we booked it out of their. Every time I've hiked out of Havasupi, I stare at Brian's foot prints right in front of me and just step in those. I keep the same pace as him, and we end up making good time. A couple hours later, we were looking up from the bottom of the switch backs at our car at the top. We started up the switch backs for a few minutes then decided to have a rest and wait for the others. 15 minutes or so later Spencer showed up and took a seat with us. He said he hadn't seen the others for a while, and they were behind him. So we sat and waited for a while. Then for another little while. Then for like a solid hour. They didn't show. We didn't want to get too out of the groove, so every 15 minutes or so we'd get up and walk another 5 minutes then sit again, hoping to see their flash lights coming up from the canyon, but nothing happened. After a good hour or so of waiting, we thought it'd be a good idea to send one of us back to see if they were alright. I was nominated to go, and Brian even carried my pack the rest of the way for me up the mountain in exchange for back tracking. But before parting ways, I grabbed my last pack of maple syrup instant oatmeal and put it in my pocket for safe keeping. I figured I'd want a little snack on the way back up.

I didn't have a flash light when I was walking back into the canyon, so it was kind of scary. I had a little blue light that you stick on your key chain that really serves no purpose for how bulky it is compared to how little light it provides, but it was all I had. I kept thinking that a bum or zombie would attack me en route, so I was sure to keep all my survival fighting tactics on call. They failed me as all of a sudden I heard my name being called from the bushes in some beaten, raspy voice. I shined my little light in the bushes to find a man staring straight at me. It was Jesus coming off the mountain from his 40 day fast, and he looked beat... Wait, no, it was Justin, who looked exactly like all the paintings of Jesus I've ever seen (he had a beard and long hair), and he was lying on the rocks on the side of the trail. "What are you doing? Where are Matt and Hannah?" I asked him. "They're back there a little way. They're not doing so good. And I can't walk anymore..." So I left him stranded on his rock and walked another couple minutes down the trail to find Matt and Hannah sitting on the ground with their gear sprawled out on the trail. Hannah was mumbling gibberish from being so exhausted, and Matt looked like he was in post-alien abduction shock. I don't remember what the conversation went like, but I remember being informed that I had eaten his granola bars, that they had no water and so I gave them what I had, and that Matt couldn't walk because his foot was broken. So I took the contents of Hannah's pack, emptied them into Matt's pack, then carried the pack with the contents of two packs. But just before setting off, I downed that pack of instant oatmeal, and I remember feeling the sugar rush through my veins and give me a new sense of vision in life. I had so much energy.

So we walked up the trail a little way to meet up with Justin where he tried to mutiny against our original plan of hiking out of Havasupi. I remember saying that we needed to get out of there within an hour to make it back to St George in time, and Justin responded with, "yeah.. it's a good plan and all, but.. I think I'm just going to stay here..." Not wanting to strand one of our company in the middle of the grand canyon, I volunteered to carry Justin's pack for him, which wasn't a pack as much as it was just a big duffle bag way too full for only a couple days of camping, and his guitar. With Matt's super pack already on my back, I put Justin's bag on my chest then strapped his guitar to the side of my body and started walking up the mountain. I remember Justin yelling at me, "are you on crack or something?!" as I started walking up, but I told him I was on oatmeal, which is pretty much the same thing. So we made our way back up the mountain with Matt limping along, Justin trying to find large rocks to lie on and die, and Hannah wobbling from side to side as she walked and mumbling nonsense as we walked. We made it for a ways like this, but they finally said they had had enough and couldn't go any further without some more food or water. So I walked up the rest of the mountain with the rest of the gear and made it to the car where Brian and Spencer were waiting. I told Brian that they needed food and water, so he walked back down with a gallon of water and some candy. That was enough to get them mobile again, and they soon made their way to the top.

We barely made it to the gas station driving out of their because the car was on empty. Once we filled up, me, Matt, and Hannah slept in Matt's car while Brian drove mach 5 back to St George with Spencer and Justin sleeping in the car. He had promised to get Spencer back to St George by a certain time and only had about 5 hours to do so, so he had to get moving fast. I remember him telling me that he was running stop signs and everything through little towns so that he'd make it on time. And he did it. He got him there right on time. Then Spencer told Brian that he actually didn't have to be there right then, he still had a couple more hours before he had to be at the airport, and he just wanted to make sure he was on time. So thank you, Brian, for being a man of your word and flirting with danger to be so. Me, Matt, and Hannah woke up in the car the next morning, drove to Vegas and had our customary buffet breakfast at Palace Station. It was a well-deserved meal for 3 starved and dehydrated campers. Then we drove to St George where Justin and Brian were waiting for us at Justin's place with home made sausage, biscuits, and gravy, which we ate with no problem. It was a fun trip...

Havasupi, our sleeping arangements

I hope I finish telling this story tonight. It's taken me a while to get it out, but I'm really hoping that tonight will be the final night. So last I left you, I had eaten almost all of Matt and Hannah's chocolate Sunbelt granola bars because I did not bring much food of my own and was starving. Not only did I overestimate myself in thinking I could last a week with no food, but I also thought that my core body temperature does not need to be sustained above a healthy 96 degrees. I didn't bring a sleeping bag, only a small fleece blanket to try and cover my bones, but it didn't even completely cover my body. Then Brian only brought a tarp that has no warmth-retaining attributes whatsoever, so we were up creek without a paddle...

I don't remember what happened the first night, but I'm sure it involved little sleep. I was freezing. But I remember the 2nd night very well. I woke up probably a half hour or so into my sleep shivering and wishing I was some place warm. Then out of the darkness I heard a shivering voice, "Jonny?" It was Brian. He wasn't sleeping either. "Hey, maybe if we sleep next to each other we can keep each other warm," he said. I've heard of this kind of thing from survival stories on Discovery Channel and what not, and I figured we'd gather strength in numbers. So me and Brian huddled together on the ground and combined our fleece blanket and tarp together, hoping that with our combined strength we'd be warm. It was a good attempt, but it failed... A little while later, me and Brian were both shivering and seeing a bright light make its way toward us. Not ready to walk through that light, we lashed out in desperation at the first person we could find. Hannah.

Hannah is now Matt's wife, but she wasn't at the time. Although I had known her for a couple months, Brian had just barely met her, and we were quite uncomfortable asking for her help. I can't remember why we didn't ask Matt, but I think it had something to do with him not wanting to give up his comfy spot on the table where he was sleeping. So we woke up Hannah and asked her if she'd be willing to share any of her nice warm sleeping bag with us. Feeling very uncomfortable and a little pressured into the situation, she gave in, and the next thing she knew she was lying between two freezing future brother-in-laws that were using her for her warmth. We opened up her sleeping bag and put it over all three of us, and me and Brian cuddled up next to Hannah whose body acted as a heating system under our little makeshift bed. I slept just fine after that, but I've heard from Hannah after that it was very uncomfortable for her. I can imagine...

Well, I'm not going to finish this story tonight. An impending bed time and those bad carrots I ate two nights ago are making me tired and a bit weezy, so I'm going to have to finish this story another time. Think of this as the longest story I've ever had to tell on this blog...

This week's inspiring quote

This little gem comes straight from the belly of the most conservative school I know of, BYU, in probably one of the most conservative classes it has to offer, Family Finance in the School of Family Life major. My teacher was talking about insurance, and he asked a probing question to know what kind of risks or dangers we each face each day and why we should want insurance. He was looking for more broad answers like accidents and what not. To this question, a girl raised her hand and answered,

"Cancer, we should get insurance to protect ourselves from cancer. Because if your husband has cold sores in his mouth then you can get cervical cancer, and insurance companies don't cover your medication, and it's REALLY expensive!"

to which my teacher stared surprised and blankly back at the girl, wondering why she would divulge such intimate and personal information in front of a class of 200+ strangers. It was inspiring.

My next post, whenever that will be, will probably continue our Havasupi adventure. Good stories deserve time to tell them...

Havasupi: I'm sorry, Matt...

Ok, Havasupi. So we made the trip down just fine, it was a fun hike of about 13 miles, and we got a spot staked out. Did I mention that we didn't have permits to be down there? That meant we had to try and hide from the Indian police while there so that we wouldn't get thrown into Indian jail or anything. But we made it down and had a full day ahead of us to swim and play. Havasupi is the most amazing place I've ever been, no joke, and I love to swim there. I will go as soon as I can, so keep a look out Havasupi...

Things went rather smoothly until it came time to eat. I honestly don't even remember what I brought down with me, but I know it wasn't much. Me and Brian both boasted on being able to survive the elements with minimal preparation. Except, as I recall, Brian actually did bring food. But I just had a couple packages of oatmeal and roman noodles, and I seriously think that was it. So after a hearty lunch of roman noodles, I think Matt and Hannah were feeling generous and offered me some of their Sunbelt chocolate granola bars. I've never been one to turn down free food or chocolate, so the combination of both can be dangerous. Not to mention that over consumption of products tends to eat the lining of my stomach and produce some of the most potent methane gas you've ever smelt in your life. It can bring a grown man down in one whiff, I'm not joking here. So I've been staying away from it lately. Except in Italy, dark chocolate was my stable diet. I've lost 10 pounds since I've been home from Italy. I'm way off track...

Free granola bars from Matt and Hannah. They offered me one and made the mistake of telling me where the box was located in their package. I guess I could have gone looking for it had I become desperate, but I usually don't look for food, that's not my style. When I stumble upon it, that's when I go to town on it. So I helped myself to one of their delicious Sunbelt chocolate flavored granola bars and really liked it. It got me through the rest of the day, but sometime later that day or the next, I got hungry again... Well, in a package of 10 granola bars, who's going to notice if one more is missing? So I helped myself to another one of their granola bars... Man, I'm so ashamed of myself right now as I write this. I would just like to say that I have learned to control my appetite as I have gotten older. I used to be a thieving, conniving liar when it came to eating other people's food. I was willing to stab my best friend in the back in order to steal his chocolate milk from him.. Well I don't think that ever happened, but in first grade I would have seriously considered befriending someone over chocolate milk. That's how hungry I was... But I think that I've become a lot more honest in my dealings with my fellow men and culinary items. But I'm ashamed of eating all of Matt's granola bars. Because that's what happened. One turned into two which turned into three which turned into pretty much the entire box. They might have eaten one or two out of the box before I got my grubby little paws on them, but I ate the rest until there was only one left. It was at that moment, as I stared into an empty granola box in my brother's backpack, that I realized my friendship wasn't worth a dime and that I needed help. Real help. But that would have to wait until I got back home. I had too much swimming to attend to before I straightened things out... So I left that box with one granola bar left in Matt's backpack as sort of a note to Matt that I should no longer be trusted around his life line of food. It was his fault for telling me where the food was hidden... Man, I'm a lousy brother... Well, remember this empty box of granola bars because it will come into the story later on as we battled through broken bones, starvation, fatigue, and dehydration to make our way out of this place. More to come...

more havasupi

Here are some pictures of Wizard grinding the hospital hubba. So last I saw you, I left you getting ready for our epic Havasupi trip. We got it all planned out, I was coming up from California to meet Matt, Hannah (who had come from Provo), Spencer (who came from Salt Lake), Spencer (from St George), and Brian (not sure where he was?) in Las Vegas. We all met up, made sure we were ready to go, and in a few minutes we were off to Havasupi. Let me prep this by saying that Brian and my last trip had instilled quite a lot of confidence within us. We went there and back again in a total of 48 hours (10ish hours of driving, 11 ish hours of hiking, 3 ish hours of sleeping, and the rest of the time swimming in waterfalls) with no blankets or provisions. I ate raw packages of oatmeal that pumped my blood up full of sugar and got me right up that mountain. We brought two cans of soup, one of them we brought down and ate for lunch, the other we left in the car and ate as a victory meal. We were pretty confident in our amazing ability to survive the elements of Havasupi, and we didn't feel many provisions would be necessary on this trip. Keep in mind that last time we went was in June or July when it was really warm at night, and we didn't really even sleep a full night, and this time going down was in September and we were sleeping a couple nights. But I thought I would be fine with no more than a fleece blanket that was 3 feet by 5 feet, a box of oatmeal and a few granola bars, a couple cups of noodles, and maybe a couple freeze dried hiking meals. I didn't even bring a stove or anything to cook the food, I was just going raw on it. I was pretty confident about this one...

Brian, too, was quite confident. Although I don't remember what he brought as far as food goes, I remember very well that all he brought to cover him as he slept was a camouflage tarp from the army. It had no warmth-retaining skills at all, just a little tarp that could barely cover his body.

Justin came way over prepared. There's a nice balance somewhere in the middle where you come ready but not overly ready. He was overly ready. He had a giant duffle bag filled to the brim and overflowing with gear and a guitar strapped to his back so he could jam while we were chilling. Everyone else seemed to have been in the good balance section of being prepared.

Sorry, but I have to leave you now. School calls... But the story lives on in our next post...

A man with nothing to lose

This is the look of a man who's got nothing to lose. Remember this look, friends, you'll see it again soon... I'll continue the Havasupi story this week, so stay tuned...

Fellowship of the trip

Two weeks is the longest silent treatment I've ever given, and it was to you. I'm sorry. You're not the one to blame, it's me. I'm the one with problems, not you. It was completely unintentional, actually. I just lost track of time. No joke. My life has been absorbed in school, pug dogs, and skateboarding now that the weather is tinkering somewhere around the freezing mark and our parking lot is cleared off. School's in there somewhere too, but I'm not sure where. But it all fits together.

So a couple weeks ago my brother Brian suggested to me that I tell the story of Havasupi the year that we forgot food and shelter. Actually, forgot suggests that there was some planning on our part and we just didn't forgot to grab the stuff. I can't give myself that much credit. There was no planning... This story is filled with broken feet, eating your brother's granola bars behind his back, and cuddling with his girlfriend at night, so if haven't the stomach for such drama, get out now. I almost fitted the aitch word into that last sentence, but being the family man I am, I didn't. I won't be able to tell this story in one sitting, so it'll probably be a short series we do here on this blog. Good reading material, I can tell you that much.

First off, Havasupi is a magical place. It's a tropical rain forest in the bottom of the grand canyon. Don't believe me? Google it right now and see what happens. You can't keep reading this post if you don't have those images in your head, so take 5 seconds and google it. Ok, now that you're' blown away by those pictures, I will tell you that Elves originally inhabited the area millennial ago, but were driven out by the dark powers. Indians stumbled upon it way back, and they've been there ever since. So you can hike down there, and me and my brothers make it a point to go down there every couple years. It's one of my favorite places in the world, and I've already got goose bumps thinking of the next time that we go. You're invited...

The first time we went I was 13, then me and Brian made an improve trip down there once. From the time we left our house in St George to the time we pulled back up to it was almost 48 hours to the dot. There were only a couple hours of sleeping in there, and I've never sweat that bad in my entire life. That was the epic "F--- you, Andy!" trip. Brian will have to tell you about that one. Suffice it to say that Andy is probably still lost at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, haunting hikers and leading them off the trail to their doom. The third time I went was when I was just about to turn 20 years old. Brian came back from the army on leave for a couple of weeks, so we made sure to fit in a trip to Havasupi for 3 or 4 days. In getting ready for Havasupi, we assembled our team which consisted of Me, Brian, Matt, Hannah (Matt's girlfriend who later became his wife), Spencer (who had come with me and Brian on our 48 hour trip), and Justin (who hadn't walked more than a mile at a time in the last couple years. He came equipped with enough gear to last him several weeks and a guitar strapped to his back. These are important details for later on in the story, so make sure and take note of them).

Well, I think I've written all I have time for today. So I've somewhat set up this little journey, and next time I will take you deep into the heart of the Grand Canyon and to the waters of Havasupi. 'Tis a magical place...