Suicide Rock Base Holds Huge Amount Of Garbage

It is an icon that most Utahns know or have at least heard about.  Suicide Rock rises majestically out of the mouth of Parley’s Canyon, and is covered in paint and graffiti.
 
Myth surrounds the painted rock.  According to legend, a Native-American maiden stood upon the sheer cliff waiting for her beloved brave to return from battle.  When she learned of his death she leapt to her death. 
 
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s it stood sentry over the old Parley’s Canyon Reservoir, until it was drained at the beginning of the 20th century.  It has been tagged, painted, and sprayed for years and years by graffiti artist, teenage lovers, and fraternity pledges.  
 
For many, the graffiti is harmless, even entertaining, but if you look below the surface you will see what amounts to a modern day tragedy.  At the base of the rock are hundreds and hundreds of discarded paint cans and other garbage thrown without care any and everywhere around Suicide Rock.
 
There are cans in the grass, cans floating in the creek, even cans dangling from the trees.  Take a trip off of the Bonneville Shoreline trail and you find empty 5 and 10 gallon paint cans, the twisted remains of an old bike drifting in Parley’s Creek, and where the creek flows the heaviest an abandoned shopping cart blocks the water.

I wonder how many, if any, bags of garbage and empty spray paint cans Chris Johnson (the KUTV reporter) and the rest of the remote crew hauled away after they finished the story … or do you suppose they just threw it all back down on the ground for the rest of us to clean up?

Gravity, erosion rob Utah park of popular arch - CNN.com

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, Utah (AP) — One of the largest and most photographed arches in Arches National Park has collapsed.

Paul Henderson, the park’s chief of interpretation, said Wall Arch collapsed sometime late Monday or early Tuesday.

The arch is along Devils Garden Trail, one of the most popular in the park. For years, the arch has been a favorite stopping point for photographers.

Henderson said the arch was claimed by forces that will eventually destroy others in the park: gravity and erosion.

“They all let go after a while,” he said Friday.

He said it’s the first collapse of a major arch in the park since nearby Landscape Arch fell in 1991. No one has reported seeing it fall.

I’ve never been a big hiker; primarily because it hurts my knees so much … even when I was fit, I never did well walking any great distances, especially not in the heat.

But knowing that one of Utah’s great natural wonders is no more still kind of hits home, because it means that there is one less thing of beauty in the world that I’ll ever get a chance to see.

When I first say the headline, before clicking through to read the full article, I thought “Oh no! Delicate Arch is gone!” … as anyone who lives in Utah knows, Delicate Arch is one of Utah’s major symbols; featured on one of the two main license plate designs.

There was a great deal of controversy a couple years ago when Dean Potter climbed Delicate Arch, possibly causing irreparable damage to the sandstone formation in the process.

Some day, all of the arches will collapse, as gravity and erosion continue to take their toll, but hopefully no more will go before I get a chance to get out there to see them.

Read more about this story at the Salt Lake Tribune.

You just have to love Utah and its wonderfully idiotic (original language snipped, because I’ve got the word “porn” in several blog entries to help drive traffic) concept of holiday celebrations.

Today is July 24, which has some meaning to the Mormons, although I’ve no clue exactly what. Problem is that most people in the state act like it’s Christmas in July without the gifts.

According to Wikipedia:

Pioneer Day (also archaically called the Day of Deliverance) is an official Utah state holiday celebrated on July 24 in the U.S. state of Utah, with some celebrations in regions of surrounding states originally settled by Mormon pioneers. It commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon Pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, where the Latter-day Saints settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois and other locations in the eastern United States. Parades, fireworks, rodeos, and other festivities help commemorate the event.

In addition to being an official holiday in Utah, Pioneer Day is considered a special occasion by many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On Pioneer Day, some Latter-day Saints walk portions of the Mormon Trail or reenact entering the Salt Lake Valley by handcart. Even Latter-day Saints outside of the U.S. occasionally sing Mormon folk music around July 24 in remembrance of the pioneer era.

Ah … so basically the State of Utah codified a religious holiday, in the name of “history”. Once more proof that there is little (if any) separation of church and state in Utah.

The worst parts? The DABC liquor stores are closed and they shoot off more fireworks than on the 4th of July. So aggravating! Good thing I stocked up on Stella Artois earlier this week.

“There was just an AP article posted that found how Senator Obama’s support among working — hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how the, you know, whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”   — Senator Hillary Clinton

So let me get this straight … hardworking Americans are white? There aren’t any hardworking black Americans? And by proclaiming that whites who haven’t completed college support you, you’re basically making a case that the uneducated (or less-educated) should decide who the nominee is?

Well, Hillary, I’m white, being of English and Scottish heritage. I grew up in the Bible Belt, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I am a two-time college drop-out, meaning I haven’t completed college. I currently live in one of the nation’s MOST conservative states, Utah. I support Barack Obama.

You have to love the weather in Utah … especially during T-Bird’s favorite season.

80-degrees yesterday on my commute home … snow today.

Does anyone else find this weekend’s projected heat bubble scary?

From a high near 40 yesterday to a high near 80 on Sunday … I get the feeling this is going to be a long, hard, hot summer.

Fatty, of FatCyclist.com, has a new article up at BikeRadar.com; in which he attempts to mediate the divorce between Greg LeMond and Trek Bicycle Co.

A Letter To Trek Bicycle Co. And Greg LeMond

What Trek Gets

1. Lance Armstrong’s Peace of Mind: First and foremost, Trek receives a guarantee that Mr LeMond will never ever, ever, ever use any combination of the words “Lance,” “Armstrong,” or “dope” (or any of their synonyms) within three minutes of each other. Not in public. Not in private. Not by doing charades or meaningfully-raised eyebrows. From now on, in fact, Mr LeMond promises to pretend he has simply never heard of Lance Armstrong, and will act pleasantly surprised to hear that another American has also won the Tour de France. If Mr LeMond crosses this line even once, Trek may - at its own expense - use whatever combination of shock therapy, hypnotherapy and surgery it deems necessary to literally remove any recollection of Armstrong from Mr LeMond’s memory.
2. Custody of the Children: Trek retains the rights to all licensed Trek/LeMond dealerships, except for the ones where Mr LeMond had so deeply undercut the market that Trek no longer wants those dealerships anymore, anyway.
3. Existing “Fillmore” Inventory: Trek will take custody of all 2008 (and any remaining 2007) LeMond Fillmore bikes, to be re-decaled as Gary Fisher Triton bikes or sold to be used as ballast in seagoing barges, as Trek sees fit.

What LeMond Gets

1. Personal Freedom, Within Limits: As long as he pretends Armstrong doesn’t exist, Mr LeMond is welcome to rant about anyone else he wants. Except for people at Trek. They’re off-limits, too. And so is everyone at Astana. But he should feel free to hammer on Floyd Landis whenever he feels like it.
2. eBay: While Trek retains the traditional distribution channels, Mr LeMond receives a non-compete guarantee from Trek in the eBay channel. Also, Trek promises that it will not start selling bikes to Mr LeMond’s friends.
3. Employee Pricing: Mr LeMond will continue to get employee pricing on up to $2500 worth of Bontrager components per year.
4. Visitation Rights with Gary Fisher (Conditional): If Mr LeMond abides by the conditions thus far laid out for six contiguous months, he will be allowed to talk with Gary Fisher and begin to gather advice on how it’s possible to be completely insane, yet be regarded as an eccentric, beloved icon.
5. A Yellow Jersey, Autographed by Lance Armstrong: Oh, come on. We all know that this is what it’s really all about. You could have just asked for one, you know.

How typical! Siding with the cheating husband! Shame on you, Fatty … I would have expected more from a resident of Utah County. Shouldn’t this divorce reflect the reality of an actual divorce?

As such I propose the following:

As the aggrieved first wife in this marriage (even if she is a bit of a shrew), Fat Greggie should get it all … the rights to his bikes and name back, as well as the right to bash Armstrong (that hussy who stole Trek’s affections) and Trek in perpetuity.

And then there’s the alimony … Trek needs to make sure that Greggie can continue to live the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed by providing a generous alimony settlement; to continue for at least 15 years, even IF Greggie finds a new husband.

And while we’re at it, Greggie gets the house, too … this includes the Trek factory in Waterloo, Wisconsin AND all of the Trek Concept stores throughout the United States, where she can (if she so chooses), systematically cut hussy Lancey-poo’s face out of all pictures documenting their previous friendship.

After all, Trek flaunted its relationship with Lancey-poo in front of Greggie … didn’t even try to hide it like a good husband should, not to mention that you know from the beginning Lancey-poo was out to break-up the marriage. She was “surgically-enhanced”, after all, to lose that crucial weight that was required to win the Tour de France seven consecutive times.

No; instead Trek attempted to take a page from the gospel of Warren Steed Jeffs and build a polygamist community! And we all know that polygamy just doesn’t work. It’s too hard to ride in the flannel plaid shirts, jeans and boots.