Another Year, Another Large, International Conference: Munich
All the Floor Plans I Developed over the Last Year
I’m going to start building a house having someone else build a house to my specification and on my behalf next month. I’m not sure why I became committed to this future, but it kind of happened about a year ago — I started looking for building lots and, more to the point, coming up with floor plans.
This post doesn’t include all the floor plans, just representatives of each creative period. These were all made with LucidChart, which has a pretty low barrier to entry, then ends up not having nearly enough tools to make bona fide (near-buildable) plans. Not actually recommended.
The Pre-Lot Plans
I didn’t buy the lot until last April, but I started plans before that. I wanted to get a lot suited for a walk-out basement, since, for some reason, I view those as the one true basement configuration. Also, I was kind of hoping to recreate the layout from my old Lehi house. I guess it was a starting point.
This was, apparently, at a time in my life when I thought you could fit a stairway into a five-foot space. And: I think I was sort of trying to recreate the floor plan from my Lehi house.
The weird-shaped master shower would’ve been cool. The whole 15-degree angle would’ve been cool.
The 10-degree angle, I’m not as sure.
The Plans of Late Winter
The Early Wide-House Era
Consumed by ennui, I needed to break out of the past forms and forge a new path that didn’t try to be the exact same as NE Logan 7g every time. Instead, I (eventually) tried to get everything pushed up closer to the street so as to help compensate for the steep-ish slope of the lot.
I was still at this point clinging to dreams of a third upstairs bedroom. I also thought I was getting close to the end.
For this one, I was inspired by some idealized mid-century architect’s floor plan that I found online — that’s where that bedroom pod at the bottom left is coming from. It’s not not cool, I don’t think. Possibly needed doors on the closets before it would be livable.
This one probably made more sense, just: huge. Also, the in-the way fireplace had, by this time, found a wall to which to connect itself.
I remember thinking I was on to something on this one. Probably would have died of old age and/or dysentery on the walk from the bedroom to the kitchen though.
At which point I was sure I’d found the one. I was so sure this was the plan that I even bothered to put landings on the stairs. I miss the idea of that coffee deck off the master. I never would have used it, but still.
The 2BR Era
In fact, I was so sure that the previous one was The One that I started showing it to random people, at least one of whom pointed out to me that, since the only known would-be residents of this place would be me and a dog, pursuing two-bedroom options might make more sense and be more economical to build.
Which, after going back through all those older ones just seems so tame and boring now. Tame, boring, and going to be built. Somehow, reducing the footprint by 10% decreased the cost by 33%.
In total, I ended up creating 143 of these. Good use of a year. Thank you for participating in this floor plan journey.
bkd
I Don’t Actually Enjoy Backpacking, I Just Keep Doing It
It’s sort of a type for my life in that sense.
I go backpacking sometimes. I’m not really a serious backpacker and I don’t know that it’s a particularly integral part of who I am, but still: sometimes I pack up, drive somewhere, walk somewhere, then sleep on the ground for a night or more.
Over the last 10 years, I’ve gone on backpacking trips to Paria Canyon, Coyote Gulch, Mt. Robson and Berg Lake, Keyser Brown Lake in the Beartooths, Seneca Creek (in West Virginia), Fox Lake and Glacier Lake (both in the Beartooths), the Virgin River Narrows (a few times), Ibantik Lake in the Uintas, Island Lake in the Wind Rivers, White Pine Lake and Steam Mill Lake (in Logan Canyon), and most recently, Stough Creek Basin (also in the Wind Rivers) and Martin Lake Basin sort-of (Beartooths). So that’s a rate of about 1.6 backpacking trips a year, which is probably above-average for a middle-aged American during peace-time.
That said, the following is literally true:
I don’t so much enjoy backpacking. I have never gone on a backpacking trip where I didn’t at some point think this is terrible, I’m never going to do this again.
More specifically:
- Sleeping on the ground is terrible.
- Being cold all night is terrible.
- Having hip pain wake you up multiple times a night is terrible.
- Eating freeze-dried food multiple days in a row is terrible.
- Mosquitoes are terrible.
- Swarms of flies circling around horse manure on the trail is terrible.
- Sitting in tree sap is terrible.
- Sweat stench that compounds with each day of the trip is terrible.
- The scent and feel of bug spray is terrible.
- The inevitable taste of bug spray is also terrible.
- Splash-bathing in a frigid lake or creek when all you have to towel off with is a bandana is terrible.
- Forest service policy against splash-bathing in lakes and creeks is terrible.
- Taking down and setting up camp is terrible.
- Finding that rodents have eaten a hole through your backpack overnight is terrible.
- Inevitably running out of sun block, bug spray, and/or hand sanitizer is terrible.
- Realizing that you have no interest in eating any of your remaining food is terrible.
- Bugs flying into your just-cooked dinner is terrible.
- The sound of wind and rain on your rip-stop nylon tent is terrible.
- Hiking uphill with a pack on your back is terrible.
- Hiking through tree prisons is terrible.
- Sitting around camp for hours in the evening because there’s not a whole lot else to do is terrible.
- Pump-filtering two liters of drinking water at the rate of one teaspoon per minute is terrible.
- Driving for hours through Wyoming, central Utah, eastern Montana, or wherever to get to the trailhead is terrible.
- Feeling dehydrated is terrible.
- Waking up four times during the night to go to the bathroom because at some point during the day you decided you didn’t want to be dehydrated is terrible.
- Tying a knot around a rock and trying to get your paracord up and over a tree branch so you can hang your food is terrible.
- Digging a six-inch cat-hole with a tent stake is terrible.
- Stuffing used toilet paper into a quart-sized Ziploc bag when your pants are around your ankles and while swatting away mosquitoes is terrible.
So why do I keep doing it?
I don’t know. Really. Here’s the best I’ve come up with.
- I feel like I’m supposed to.
- Fear of regretting not doing things when, later in life, doing those things would be more difficult.
- Probably something about an aspirational self-image.
- Perceived benefits of the forced disconnection with my day-to-day life.
- Lack of better ideas.
- Provides an interesting optimization challenge.
So anyway — this year to the Sawtooths then?
bkd
Day-Hike to Quinnebaugh Meadows
After doing the three-nighter toward Martin Lake, the dog and I went back to Red Lodge, rested up, and then hit the trail again for one more day hike before heading home. This was was out to Quinnebaugh Meadows, which I picked mostly because the dog doesn’t like being in the car and the trailhead at West Fork of Rock Creek is pretty close to Red Lodge.
The Summary
Scenery-to-Effort Ratio: 5? Scenery is probably a 9 and effort is probably a 2 (relative to 10-mile round-trips). So: 4.5 rounded up is 5. The bang-for-buck is tremendous — it’s a pretty easy half-day that takes you through much of what’s great about the Beartooths. (Also, while this is an easy 10-miler, it’s still 10 miles at very high elevation, so that might not net out as actually “easy” for everyone.)
Elevation Gain: Very gradual 1,000′. You start at about 8,000′ and the meadow is at about 9,000′.
Obstacles: The trail was slightly damp, otherwise it’s all straightforward till you get to the meadow. (If you wanted to go further, you’d have to cross a stream.)
Popularity: Moderate compared to most places, probably heavy compared to other Beartooths hikes. Crossed paths with probably six or seven other groups on the trail.
Distance: About 10 miles round-trip (this is an out-and-back).
Location: Beartooth Mountains near Red Lodge, Mont.
Pros
- Scenery is great the whole way with no lay-off — even the burned out forest for the first mile or two past the trailhead is pretty nice.
- Great views of ridgelines and the river (creek) roars alongside the trail.
- A few nice little waterfalls/cascades.
- If you wanted an easy overnighter (or a good basecamp situation), there are some decent places to camp in the meadow.
- Saw another trail corgi (other than mine).
Cons
- The scenery is all really nice, but there’s nothing jaw-dropping.
- The and-back part of out-and-back i
- s always a little less exciting than the out.
- Not really the route to go on if you’re trying to fish.
The Rest
I dunno. Here are a bunch of photos. That should about cover it. And then we drove back to Red Lodge, ate decent Mexican food, then hung out at the hotel.
bkd
Three Nights in the Beartooths: Sort of Near Martin Lake Eventually
I don’t even know how to refer to this one. It happened in August though.
The Beartooths (in Montana) are good. My friend Dave texted me a few months ago and told me this was the year for him to go there with me. So we sort of planned a trip on the Beaten Path trail over the top of them, then we eventually punted on that one and decided to do an in-and-out to the Martin Lake Basin, and then, because of reasons, we didn’t make it that far the first day and ended up camping somewhere with no apparent name (we eventually named the nearby lake after my dog) and then did a day-hike in to Lake Martin later, except we didn’t actually go to Lake Martin, but instead just pulled up at Wright Lake, which is right next to Lake Martin.
It’s still pretty there. One day, I’ll do that Beaten Path hike. One day.
Here are a bunch of photos.
Me at the trailhead with my shirt straining against various straps:
On this hike, we started at the Beartooth Lake trailhead.
OTOH, this is Clay Butte, the butte after which the trailhead we meant to start at but didn’t because the road was closed was named after:
There was some consternation as to what trail was the one we wanted to go on once we reached all these creeks — mostly due to the fact that I didn’t want to look at the map. There are so many trails of use in the Beartooths, though, it’s easy to be deceived by what appears to obviously be The Main Trail, but which is not actually the trail you want to be on.
Anyway, the trail we wanted to be on looked like this:
It was pretty much uphill for the first three miles. We met a couple of backpackers on their way out, who noted that all the trails were pretty clearly marked except for a “human-made trail” near Native Lake.
Turns out the human-made trail issue was more a problem on the way back than on the way in.
Here’s Aela waiting out the late-afternoon rainstorm from inside the tent that eventually got set up.
And Dave had pretty good success fishing Aela Lake.
Our campsite (we stayed there all three nights) was in a pretty good area, on top of sort of a long, narrow cliff. Good views in most directions.
We eventually did our day-hike to Martin Lake, which was pretty steep in spots. It’d be kind of a slog to get there in one day from the trailhead with packs on. Anyway, here’s how all that looked.
En route:
And then into the Martin Lake basin…:
The dog didn’t really enjoy watching me fish (shrug).
And finally we headed out.
We ended up on the wrong trail around Fossil Lake, so didn’t come back to the right trailhead, which meant a couple of bonus miles hiking on the shoulder of the highway.
And then that was just sort of it.
This place is really pretty.
bkd
Stough Creek Basin via Twin Lakes (Wind Rivers)
Did this trip over four days/three nights (July 24-27) as the High Adventure trip for the boys in the ward (these are Utah/LDS terms — can be replaced with “took a bunch of kids from church” as needed). The group and our arrival time in the eastern Winds dictated the route to some degree (it would’ve been more direct — but steeper and a longer first day — to just hike straight in to the basin). Started from Worthen Meadow Reservoir and went counter-clockwise via Twin Lakes to the Stough Creek Basin (Stough Creek Lakes Basin?), then home via the Stough Creek Lakes Trail. Was somewhere around 20 miles total.
Summary
Scenery-to-Effort Ratio: 1.7? The route in to the basin isn’t always stellar, but the basin definitely is.
Elevation Gain: Total for the route, it was probably 800′ the first day (about 500′ up at first, then 500′ down, then another sort of steep 300′), another 1,500′ the second (pretty steady climb with a little more steepness toward the saddle just before Stough Creek Basin), then maybe another 700′ the third (all of which is in the first 2.5 miles). Let’s call it 3,000ish’ then.
Obstacles: Several creek crossings (three or four without bridges/logs), some pretty real elevations (we topped out at 10,500′ on the way to the campsite and explored to 11,000′), and a whole mess of mosquitoes.
Popularity: Pretty low for the Wind Rivers, especially taking this route through Twin Lakes. We crossed paths with two groups the first day, zero the second (! — although we saw a couple groups camping once we were already in the basin), and IIRC three the third. Pretty low. The scenery-to-popularity ratio for this route is extremely high.
Distance: 20ish round trip, depending on what we’re counting. It was about 5 the first day, probably 6 the second, then another 7 on the way out — but then add 5 or 6 for the basin exploration day hike.
Location: East end of the Wind Rivers (near Lander, Wyo.). The trailheads (Sheep Bridge, Roaring Fork) are located at the Worthen Meadow campground situated at Worthen Meadow Reservoir.
Pros
- Incredible lakes and rugged scenery once you’re in the basin.
- Amazing solitude and lack of crowds.
- Hot fishing (for seven-inch brookies).
- Pretty good wildflowers.
Cons
- The Wind Rivers are known for their mosquitoes. This was a high mosquito year even for the Wind Rivers. There were a LOT of mosquitoes, especially at the campsites (or, really, any time you stopped moving).
- Most of the scenery is at the basin — the first and last five miles of the trip consisted mostly of walking through trees.
Details
Day 1: Sheep Bridge Trailhead to Twin Lakes
We weren’t going to be able to get to the trailhead at Worthen Meadow till after noon, and given that our pace was going to be slow and a little stoppy, we opted for this route to the basin that didn’t require a lot of steep uphill. It’s hard to find many people who have hiked the Twin Lakes Trail specifically, but it was a-okay if also a bit of a tree prison at times. Route was easy to find.
Mosquitoes were, relative to the rest of the hike, not bad.
Ended up camping at a site that was just at the end of the Twin Lakes, very near the intersection with the Stough Creek Trail. I never took a photo of either of the Twin Lakes. They were tree-lined and unprepossessing, but probably deserved a photo. >shrug<. The campsite had a ton of good tent sites, you just had to be willing to hike uphill from the trail about 100 yards to get to them.
And then I slept badly, because that’s what I do in the backcountry.
Day 2: Twin Lakes to Stough Creek Basin
Day 2 was designed to be our “hard day” — the one with the most elevation to gain. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of up-and-down on the Stough Creek Trail, so we didn’t give up a lot of elevation until we got to the final saddle at about 10,500′ and then descended only another couple-hundred feet into the basin.
The day started out with a fording.
And then a mile or so later, we started getting into the actual Wind Rivers Scenery.
Of course, the further we went, the worse the mosquitoes became. Man, but there were a lot of mosquitoes on this trip.
We forded the creek one more time, then made our final, relatively steep assault to the basin’s saddle.
And then entered the basin.
A lot of our group were pretty done-out from the climb up to the saddle, but a few of us went ahead and scouted out campsites, eventually finding one at the far end of the basin’s second lake in. It had some good tent sites, plus good access to moving water.
Day 3: Exploring the Basin
This basin is pretty amazing. At first it seems like there are just a few lakes in there, but the deeper you go into the basin, the more lakes you discover. Every time you head up a ridge, you see a couple new lakes connected by creeks to the lake you just saw. Heading to the back of the basin was outstanding and, visually speaking, the highlight of the trip.
Day 4: Stough Creek Basin to Worthen Meadow via the Stough Creek Lakes Trail
Heading out, we completed the loop. The scenery on the way out was more interesting than on the way in.
And then back to the cars, then to Lander for an epic session with Domino’s Pizza. Plus all the kids survived, which was a bonus.
bkd
Steam Mill Lake Hike
I did this hike a couple times in July. The first was on The Fourth and was sort of a scouting trip I undertook on the premise that there has to be another reasonable overnighter destination in Logan Canyon other than just White Pine Lake every time. It was also a destination of considerable curiosity, given that no one I talked to in Logan had ever been there, and it’s hard to find a lot of info on it online. The second was an overnighter (!) with the kids from church.
So!:
The Summary
Scenery-to-Effort Ratio: 1.3? The first mile and half is uphill and ugly. The rest is pretty good.
Elevation Gain: IIRC, it’s around 1,200′, most of which you’re gaining during that first mile and a half. The rest of it is between the mill site and the lake.
Obstacles: A few creek crossings, a couple of which have logs (including the one right at the trailhead if you look hard enough); the trail up to the lake might be a little faint and/or look like a creek, depending on the time of year.
Popularity: Apparently low. Saw two other parties the first time I hiked it and maybe four the second time.
Distance: About 9.2 miles to the lake and back. Add another mile if you want to walk around the lake. (Probably. I didn’t do that.)
Location: Logan Canyon, just off Franklin Basin Road. Turn left on Franklin Basin, then go left on the first dirt road after the first bridge. The trailhead is off to the right somewhere.
Pros
- Really nice scenery once you get past the ridge.
- Beautiful creeks and a box canyon lake (although I’m guessing these are best seen as early in the season as possible).
- Some steam mill machinery.
- Not a lot of people.
Cons
- The first mile and a half is a long slog uphill through trees.
- No water on the bottom half of the hike.
- Kind of a difficult trailhead to locate.
- A lot of horse manure and cow pies.
The Rest
And then the first thing you do is cross a slow-moving stream, which is maybe more bog than spring. There’s a log there if you look for it, which I didn’t the first time out. OTOH, it was a good place to see if the dog could swim (she can).
Then you reach the creek and things get more interesting despite the relative lack of trailside snowmobiles.
Then you reach the steam mill site itself. I’m guessing it was a sawmill and not a place where steam was milled.
There are a lot of good campsites between the mill and the lake. Or, if you wanted, you could take a left at the Steam Mill and somehow end up at White Pine Lake. I didn’t do that.
There’s a small pond that comes before the lake. The small pond is not the lake. The lake looks like this:
And then, the way back looks a lot like the way there.
bkd
Sigh: Hiking to Cherry Creek Falls
One day, I’ll look back on this post and be amazed at… I dunno. I can’t imagine what in this particular post is ever going to leave me thinking: yeah, that was a good use of a half-hour of my time or similar. Maybe I’m shooting too high.
Too highly? No.
This hike tl;dr –> Falls are nice, otherwise it’s kind of a steep tree prison with snakes. OTOH, lower starting elevation than a lot of the hikes around here, so it’s snow free when some other places aren’t. Also: what else did I have going on that day?
6 miles total (out-and-back), 2,000′ of elevation gain. Trail was a little overgrown with grass and weeds. Trailhead is at the Cherry Peak Ski Resort (there’s a parking lot just north of the base) near Richmond, Utah. Two creek crossings with narrow logs for bridges that the dog was too afraid of and so I had to wade across the creek both times while carrying her. Poor little dog. The water was high enough and fast enough that she made the right call.
So you spend the two miles or so in a steep tree prison. Can’t see anything but trees (sometimes the creek) and it’s pretty steep. Not my favorite kind of hiking. Eventually the trees get a little sparser and the scenery picks up.
^^ That might be Cherry Peak.
A lot of wildflowers if you’re into that sort of thing:
Sun was in the wrong place for most of the hike. Maybe it’s more of an afternoon hike than a morning one. Is that a thing? I guess it can be now.
Here we go. Eventually I turned around so the lighting wouldn’t be a problem.
And then, eventually, there’s the waterfall.
So you got that going for you.
Hard to get from the waterfall viewpoint down to the waterfall itself, so we didn’t do that. Actually Aela kind of wanted to, but I didn’t want to go down after her — it was kind of just a cliff heading down there.
And:
- Fine, it’s really just the first third of the hike that’s a chore, but still. You promise yourself things during that first third that are hard to take back later.
- The other two-thirds are mainly fine, particularly once you get out of the trees.
- I saw more snakes on the trail (two) than other humans (one).
- The trail continues up toward Cherry Peak and eventually you can get to Naomi Peak and Tony Grove this way, should you choose to do so.
- But: toward the end of June when I did this hike, there were still some serious snowfields just above this waterfall, so…
- Also: there are no campsites anywhere on the trail to these falls. Some reports online said “camping: yes”, but I have no idea what they were talking about. I think the first campsites you’d come to would be past Cherry Peak at that one lake, which is a good, I dunno, four more steep miles past this waterfall.
- Your clothes get dirty when you’re constantly having to carry a wet dog across creeks. They also get damp.
And then we got to the car and drove home.
bkd
Another Local Hike: Jardine Juniper
This one was a few weeks ago at this point, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen or that it doesn’t deserve — nay, require — coverage on my important weblog.
This is a hike in Logan Canyon. It starts low enough that it wasn’t under snow at the time we did it. It runs about 10 miles total and ends at the famous Jardine Juniper, once thought to be the oldest tree in ALL OF UTAH, but later established to not, in fact, be as old as some other trees within the state. Still, it’s like 1,500+ years old, so: it’s old.
Point being: dogs.
Did this hike with Eric and his dog (hence the second dog). Once you get high enough, you start getting views that make Logan Canyon look like Switzerland.
I mean, a little bit. Fewer tunnels, cheaper restaurants (cheaper everything).
And then here’s a badly lit photo of the old tree.
And one other photo, just because I exported it and what the heck.
Thoughts:
- There were a couple places you could camp along the way. (These aren’t all deep thoughts.)
- A lot of mountain bikers — possibly a function of going up there on a Saturday.
- Eric’s dog ran away for a while. Mine was pretty good, although she seems to enjoy peeing on the trail more than I’d prefer.
- Steep in places.
- Took my new ABC watch, which did a good job of reporting the elevation gained, which I think was why I bought it?
- There’s eventually a choice to take either the “scenic route” or the “shady route”. We took the scenic to the tree, then the shady on the way back.
- The two routes are pretty equivalent in both scenery and shadiness. For the record.
- At one point it occurred to me to wonder what the tree would tell us about all it had seen if it could talk. It then occurred to me that it would probably say stupid things like: it was cold sometimes, but not other times, and then one time it was hot and later there were some birds and then they left and… And the whole conversation would probably be the worst and awkward to get out of.
bkd
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