For years Jason and I have harbored fantasies of taking a boarding trip with a group of our powder junkie buddies: staying close to a fabulous resort, boarding until we are exhausted, coming back to our lodgings and jumping in a hot tub to relax our overly-used limbs. Doesn’t that sound exquisite? Well, last weekend all that we desired came to pass.

Jason and I invited a few of our friends, namely Adam, Jacob, and Jeremy, to spend the weekend with us at one of our timeshares located only ten minutes from Powder Mountain, a ski resort we had never ridden but had heard great things about. Our outing plans basically revolved around boards of various types: snowboards and game boards. Once our “boarding weekend” was cleverly named to reflect its clever design its ultimate success was assured.

Originally Abigail, Adam’s wife, was also going to join us but a sick kiddie put a stop to that. So I was stuck with four boys for the weekend and all I can say is that boys are messy. In regards to leaving dirty dishes and half eaten cookies around I think they were worse than children. I felt like I was forced into the role of den mother a bit but nothing makes a man feel at home like perpetual nagging. Right boys?

We started the weekend off Friday night by watching a big mountain boarding flick, The Art of FLIGHT, and playing a few board games. Then we woke on Saturday morning all stoked to hit the peaks.

I have to say that I was generally impressed with Powder Mountain. Even though we went on a Saturday this enormous resort wasn’t crowded at all; with runs up to 4 miles long I guess it’s easy to spread riders out. So no complaints from me…though Jacob may have a few. He hadn’t boarded in years and his reintroduction to the sport wasn’t as glamorous as he had envisioned it. He seemed to be surprised by the frequency of his falling; I wasn’t. (Jacob, you expected me to make fun of you so I’d hate to disappoint.)

Our boarding posse groped the slopes until the sun started going down and took the temperatures with it. Then it was hot tub time baby! We thawed out in the timeshare’s hot tub and dry sauna, and then, when male collective brain dysfunction syndrome kicked in, we had a snowball fight with painfully crystallized snow, while in our wet swimming attire, before beginning the warming process all over again. Boys are dumb but they can be fun.

I quite enjoyed my boarding weekend. I think it might be something we repeat in the future but I hope next time a few ladies will join us so I don’t have to be the only voice of reason or cleanliness’ lone sentinel.

Jason and I recently traveled back to Moab for another long weekend of Sabin adventures.

This time, in addition to our usual hiking and biking, Jason requested that we do some river rafting. I was down with that. We went on a half day rafting trip down the Colorado River. It was surprisingly relaxing. It turns out that rafting mostly involves just chilling and chatting on the boat while you float through calm waters and wait for the occasional excitement of rapids.

A few members of our group seemed content waiting indefinitely for some whitewater thrills. The first time we approached a section of rapids a lady sitting at the front of our raft became very concerned about being tossed into the river. The guide admitted that if anyone was going to fall in it would probably be the people at the tip of the vessel. Not surprisingly, this acknowledgement did not soothe her nerves. She promptly requested that someone switch places with her and her husband. Jason and I got volunteered by our guide for this switcharoo either because he had already ascertained that we welcome danger or that we’re wastes of flesh and therefore expendable. Whatever the reason, Jas and I didn’t mind being in the hot seats. However, I wasn’t too hip on getting a surprise river dip so, per our guide’s instructions, I wound my legs around parts of the raft to keep my booteh inside our boateh. All that fancy twisting worked, Jas and I did not end up being tossed overboard but we did get really, really wet. Good thing “getting wet” was on my river agenda. Rafting was a blast and I think Jas and I are up for trying a more demanding section of the river next time.

We got back from our dousing at nearly 5:00 that evening but decided that while there was still daylight there was still fun to be had. We assumed, incorrectly of course, that we could squeeze in a hike to the Fisher Towers before it got dark, which is about a 4.4 mile roundtrip. This hike is supposed to take 3 to 4 hours; we did it in 2. Despite our hurried pace, the sun had sunk below the horizon before we even reached the trail’s end. So we spent the first part of our trip back down nearly running in an attempt to cover as much ground as we could until we couldn’t see anymore. Once the landscape became too shadowed to distinguish we were forced to decrease our speed. Since this path travels over slickrock periodically, making small cairns the only trail markers in sections, it was pretty tricky to follow with minimal light. Fortunately, I had enough foresight to grab a flashlight out of the trunk of our car when we started out otherwise I think we would have had to find a cozy monolith to snuggle up to for the night.

The next day we biked to a Canyonlands overlook on an ORV road that was pretty tame for the most part. This path did have some fun slickrock and bumpy sections to keep it interesting but the main draw of pedaling these 13.8 miles was definitely the views at the end. Being atop an immense plateau with 270 degrees of grandeur sprawled out below us in the form of the winding Colorado snaking along through a rainbow of whittled rock was well worth our efforts.

The last hike we did before returning home was through Hunters Canyon. This canyon was its own kind of adventure; getting lost in it didn’t require the cover of darkness. The trail we followed was not well-worn and became nonexistent in the thickets or creek bed quite often. But it was a pretty 4 mile trek with flora, fauna, and trail forging aplenty, lots of the stuff that good hikes are made of.

We had another lovely trip to one of our favorite vacation locations. Oddly, this time we saw next to no one on all of our hiking and biking excursions because we either hiked at times of the day when only idiots would chose to go or because the trails we hit were a little lesser known. I’m not complaining though; I would never gripe about getting to hog gorgeous terrain all to myself.

No matter how many times we go to Moab we still always find new territory to discover and more adventures to be had. If you delight in the daring and relish unique beauty you will never leave Moab disappointed.