Most of us know where and what the "fours corners" are (where the corners of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, & New Mexico meet). But not many know about an amazing geological wonder that surrounds the St. George area. I guess you could call it the "three corners". In the wilderness surrounding St. George the Colorado Plateau, Mojave Desert, and the Great Basin collide and have produced amazing areas of adventure. One place to witness this great collision is from the top of Canaan Mountain.

Degrees Minutes Seconds:
Latitude: 37-04'57'' N, Longitude: 113-00'38'' W

Decimal Degrees:
Latitude: 37.0824834, Longitude: -113.0104948

We joined our friends Paul & Chantra Gooch and their mules and rode up to the top of Canaan Mountain last Saturday. It was a long day in the saddle, and my body was not happy with me the day after, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat to soak in the views from the top. To the West you can see Pine Mountain, the Kolob Cliffs & the East side of Zion. To the North & East, Bryce Canyon and the Paunsaugunt Plateau. To the South the Arizona Strip and Mount Trumbull which sits on the North rim of the Grand Canyon. I regret I only had my phone to take pictures with, next time I will remember a proper camera. Here are some pictures and a short video of our adventure:







Sometimes videos don't embed in emails, so you will have to visit www.thejankefamily.com, or www.youtube.com to watch it

We explored the Red Mountain Wilderness Area a couple times the last two weekends. The Red Mountain Trail is actually a couple different trails that start just north of Diamond Valley on Highway 18 (GPS coordinates N 37° 16.784 W 113° 39.163). We first explored the trail two weekends ago with Dan & Beth in the Jeeps. You can only Jeep in about a mile on the middle trail. It is an awesome Jeep trail strewn with large boulders. From the end of the Jeep trail we hiked about a mile and half to the East Snow Canyon Overlook. It was Amazing! Then last weekend the boys and I joined our neighbors the Gooch's to explore the North trail. We rode mules all the way to Hell's Canyon above Kayenta (approximately 20 miles round trip). This part of the trail included the West Snow Canyon overlook & awesome red rock country. We stopped for lunch overlooking Hell's Canyon in an area with dozens of huge water pots full of water and Triops. Henry rode a mule & Erik rode a mustang that Paul Gooch bought from the BLM wild horse adoption program. They were awesome cowboys! They are tough little men!

Happy Halloween from the Janke's!!! Zombies, cheerleaders, halloweiners...oh my!!!

Maci, aka Jedi Knight Mace Windu, has an epic battle versus Yogurt the Hutt...and looses! Luckily the chicken nuggets were not hurt...




Sometimes videos don't embed in emails, so you will have to visit www.thejankefamily.com, or www.youtube.com to watch it

Henry took this cute video of Maci...



Sometimes videos don't embed in emails, so you will have to visit www.thejankefamily.com, or www.youtube.com to watch it

Just a quick update on the latest Janke activities. Our house is finally being framed! Hopefully, fingers crossed, there will be no more delays. I thought it was hilarious that the first equipment they delivered to the job site was a generator and a microwave! Erik has been ripping it up in tennis camp, Henry has been in swim lessons, & Maci rules the roost with a fist of terror! Mo turned 29, again, this month! And, we are both really excited for school to start in August! I got an email from Linda Hollard, she is retiring after 39 years with Qwest/CenturyLink! Congratulations Linda, way to go!

My employer (TCN) put together a 12 man team to run the Top of Zion Relay last weekend. It is a two day 200 mile relay race across some of the most unbelievable scenery in southern Utah. Each runner in the 12 man team ran 3 legs, for a total of approximately 16 miles. It was an amazing experience and a total blast to compete with the other TCN Team members! Physically I was totally destroyed for days afterwards. My first leg was a 10K @ approximately 9000 feet elevation. I ran it in 42 minutes (7 minute miles!). My second leg was an 8 miler in the middle of the night, I posted a time of an hour 18 minutes (9:45 minute miles). My final leg was a short 2 mile run, which I ran in 15 minutes (7:30 minute miles). I averaged approximately 8:05 minutes per mile across my three legs. I think that is pretty awesome for an old fart like me!





Sometimes videos don't embed in emails, so you will have to visit www.thejankefamily.com, or www.youtube.com to watch it

I'm not sure why we buy our kids cool toys because household items always seem to be more fun!



Sometimes videos don't embed in emails, so you will have to visit www.thejankefamily.com, or www.youtube.com to watch it

I have sent many of you the pictures I took of the solar eclipse, but I though I would post them to the The Janke Family Blog. The eclipse yesterday was an annular eclipse. Similar to a total eclipse, but the moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the visible disk of the sun, leaving a ring (annulus) of fiery light around the edges. The last time this event was visible from the western United States was in 1994. I took these pictures of the eclipse with my phone! I put the special glasses over the phones camera lens & adjusted the camera settings so the image wouldn't wash out. It was pretty awesome to watch!

Here is a super cute video of Maci shopping @ Target & saying hello to everyone she meets. She is a social butterfly. Once her feet hit the ground she is off looking for people to talk to and adventures to be discovered. Of all my children she is the first I have considered putting a leash on! She is an amazing little girl & has her Daddy wrapped around her wee little finger.



Sometimes videos don't embed in emails, so you will have to visit www.thejankefamily.com, or www.youtube.com to watch it

Erik's book I'm Glad to Be Me is now available at lulu.com, and at amazon.com.

I'm Glad to Be Me aims to inspire self-worth, and the courage to be yourself. Helping children understand that good self-esteem simply means being themselves. It is great to be you! Every child in the world is special, gifted, and wonderful. Encourage children to explore their strengths, feel successful, be confident in school, make friends, and most importantly be themselves. Celebrate being me!

Thanks to all for your love and support of Erik, and for supporting the Wear Blue on 2/22 campaign!

Wear Blue on 2/22

Erik promoted his anti bullying campaign on KUTV News last night! He is such an incredible person! I recorded it with my phone camera, so the quality is not great. KUTV will be posting the story on their website HERE: Pay it Forward. If you would like more information regarding the Wear Blue on 2/22 campaign, or would like more information about Erik's book "I'm Glad to Be Me", please use our "Contact Us" page HERE: Contact Us.



Sometimes videos don't embed in emails, so you will have to visit www.thejankefamily.com, or www.youtube.com to watch it

Erik sent the email below out to family & friends & it spread like wildfire! Erik's school, Altara Elementary, friends & family all over the world participated. Mark Koelbel from KUTV news caught wind of it and awarded Erik with the "Pay it Forward" award! Erik & his school will be on KUTV (channel 2) news tonight (2/29) @ 10:00! Erik also got to talk about the book that he illustrated & wrote with his Nanny (Peggy deAzevedo). It is titled "I'm Glad to Be Me". Erik is going to use the "Pay it Forward" award money to print copies of his book & donate them to schools, hospitals, & the Ronald McDonald House! He is such an awesome boy, and I am proud that he is my son!



Everyone who gets this e-mail needs to listen up. Let's see if we can get into the paper for this. On February 22 2012, lets everyone wear a blue shirt to protest against bullying. I don't care what shade of blue it is. If you're a kid pass this along to all your friends. If you go into a chat room tell everyone there to tell their friends. If you're an adult pass this to all your friends. And tell everyone at work about it. I'm using the power of e-mail for this. Mark your calendars for Feb. 22, blue shirt day. Let's go down in history for this. I don't care if you get this e-mail 2000 times.
Just keep sending it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ready go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS. Please copy and paste this into a fresh email. Nobody likes scrolling through tons of other people's emails
P.S.S. This is not just a chain email, we're trying to make a difference!

I did a little exploring today in the St. George desert. I had heard of a fun Jeep trail nearby called the West Rim. This trail is part of the Winter on the Rocks off road event (it's like the Easter Jeep Safari of St. George). Wow! It was really fun! To give some perspective, it is kind of a mix of Fins 'n' Things & Elephant Hill, with the views of Top of the World. The views were awesome, and the obstacles were fun and challenging. There was one casualty, I smashed my tail pipe up pretty good. Oh well, my tail pipe sees a lot of abuse ;). I made a .kmz file of the trail, so if you are interested you can download it HERE, then load it up in your GPS, Google Earth, Google Maps, etc.



On a separate note, my good buddy Mike was driving by Rice Eccles Stadium this morning and spotted some deer in the cemetery across the street from the stadium. In the herd was a giant 8 x 10 buck! He sent me a picture, this is a magnificent specimen! Here is the picture of the big Utes buck!