Woke up about 6:30 this morning after an undisturbed night in the back seat of my Civic. I figured that it was a good time to switch spots, heading up the canyon, so I did.
But I ran into an awkward issue right away. I turned the car on without unlocking the doors first, and that set off the alarm.
Honk. Honk. Honk. Honk. Honk. Honk.
😬
I thought it might turn itself off once I started going, but no. No such luck. So I turned it off, but the key wouldn’t come out (took me a bit to realize it was still in drive).
Put it in drive, clicked the unlock button, and that turned off the alarm.
Sorry, everyone!! 😅
Drove to one of my spots up Provo Canyon (the place where I built my shower many years ago), and I slept a while longer until the sun heated up the car to uncomfortable levels.
Then I hung out under the foot bridge that goes over Provo River (by the Olmstead Diversion Dam, or something like that). I listened to the commentators covering the Nadal/Fritz Wimbledon matchup.
I hung out there, doing a little swimming as well (jumping off the bridge into the freezing water a few times with some locals while I waited for my friend Cory).
Once he got there, we talked for a bit on the bridge and then decided to hike up Slide Canyon. I hadn’t been up Slide Canyon for years because they put no trespassing signs up, and I learned that the canyon was actually private property. But some years back, they built a parking lot at the bottom, so it was nice to be able to go hike that canyon. It has one of my favorite waterfalls.
One of the cool things about the canyon is that you don’t realize that there’s any water at all because somewhere toward the bottom of the canyon the water disappears into the ground, so you think it’s a dry Canyon and not really much to look at. But if you’re adventurous and go up the canyon anyway, you’ll find several very beautiful waterfalls, and a terrain that’s so soggy that the cliff faces are covered with moss and flowers and dripping water. Makes you think you could be in Hawaii or something like that. But no, it’s drought-stricken Utah mountains. But it’s still full of tons of water.
It was a lot of fun to go up the canyon and to show Cory one of my favorite places.
We took some pictures and enjoyed the soggy terrain, and on the way back I got to play nurse for Cory. He slipped and went down, and his pinky landed awkwardly catching his whole weight I think, and as I looked over and asked him if he was okay, just as the words left my mouth, I saw that his pinky was pointing the wrong direction.
😬
He replied to my question by saying, “nope, not okay. Pull my finger.” That’s when I realized it was dislocated and not broken, as my first glance to it got me thinking that maybe he busted it. But I grabbed his pinky gave it a yank, and it popped back in without any problems at all.
😶
His finger is a little swollen and a little sore, but hoping that’s all.
Might send some positive whichevers his way, if you would. 😊
After getting down, we just sat and talked by the river for probably an hour or two, and then we got ourselves distracted with a little… project.
So… earlier in the morning, when I was following the tennis match, I noticed a very short rope hanging down from the bottom of the walkway bridge. I changed my position to see better, and I realized that the rope was hanging from what looked like a really huge magnet. I couldn’t get to the magnet easily, but climbing out on the outside of the bridge and swinging my leg underneath the bridge I was able to get the leftovers of the rope just close enough that I could grab it with my hand. Couldn’t budge the magnet by pulling on it, so I figured I’d just hold onto the rope and jump into the water and that my weight holding on to the magnet would pull the magnet off the bridge.
Nope.
I knew it was a strong magnet, but it was so strong that even with all of my weight and gravity pulling on the rope as I was plunging toward the water wasn’t enough, and I wasn’t able to hold on to the rope because the magnet wouldn’t budge and so the rope slid through my hand, and I splashed harmlessly down into the water, magnet not in tow.
Super super strong magnet. So when we came back after everything and were just talking by the river, we decided to try and figure out a way to get the magnet off the bridge. (Guessing someone had been magnet fishing and got the magnet stuck when they were pulling it back up.)
After several attempts, we finally settled on a plan that we thought would work. I pulled the shoelace off one of my shoes, tied it around the ring that was attached to the magnet, so the ones we broke it free, it wouldn’t just fall into the deep water and be lost, then we grabbed one of my hook tools, since I brought the majority of my hand tools with me in case of car troubles, and with Cory putting pulling pressure on the magnet, and with me using a two and a half pound sledgehammer to to smack the back of the magnet because a little portion of the magnet was sticking below the frame of the footbridge, so I could smack the back of the magnet just a little bit away from the bridge, we got just enough force with me smacking the magnet repeatedly and him pulling that finally it broke free of its hold on the bridge.
At that point in time Cory kept pulling because he thought it was not quite off yet, but it was completely off and the resistance he was feeling was pulling against my pulling back because the sledgehammer was so solidly attached to the magnet that I couldn’t pull the sledgehammer off the magnet so he was pulling one way and I was pulling the other way before he finally realized that the magnet was free. One of the younger kids that was there jumping in the river from the bridge grabbed the magnet as I handed it up to him so that I didn’t accidentally get it stuck back on the bridge.
Why was the magnet so hard to get off? Well, after a quick google, but without a tape measure to be sure which model it was, this particular magnet is rated at somewhere between 1200 and 2,000 lb of holding Force.
Yeah.
😶 wow.
After our successful little project of getting that off the bridge, I drove to the hospital to visit my aunt, spending the next 3 hours or so sitting and talking with her. She’s not doing so great, but hopefully she’ll get better.
It’s 12:49 p.m., and I’m up Provo Canyon for the night, and it’s time for me to pack it in. Need to get some aloe vera gel and some chapstick, though. I’m a bit burnt on my face, and my lack of hydration combined with Utah’s dry climate, have my lips not feeling the greatest.
G’night, all. 😊
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 