let the rubber hit the rock

My first MTB ride of 2020 was a full month earlier than 2019.  For one, all the ski areas have been closed due to the coronavirus, so we've been trying to use our freed-up time to get down to Moab.  For another, on Sunday it was finally warm enough for me to ride (I generally need at least 50 F or my hands and feet get too cold).  This was H's second ride; he'd gone once at the end of January and still had red mud caked to his MTB frame.

Remembering how to ride

To ease back into it, we went to the MOAB Brand Trails.  There were just a handful of vehicles in the parking lot, all parked well away from each other to maintain distancing.  That said, we saw no one out on the trails until our second time around, when we spied two MTBs and their accompanying dog about a quarter mile ahead of us.  They turned a corner and we never saw them again.

That's purty

Although weather had moved through as recently as Friday, the bike trails were pretty dry.  And the sun was out in force for the morning, with wide swatches of that gorgeous blue sky.  It was glorious.  We have really, really missed the sun.  (Remind me that I said that when I'm grousing about the 103+ temperatures in July.)

Cow crossing

We did our regular Rusty Spur/Bar M loop once, then around again but taking the cutoff back to the parking lot on the second go-round.  It was enough riding to wake my legs up and I remembered how much I like MTBing.  Of course, I did find myself a little saddle-sore for the next couple of days!

We hung out in the parking lot for a while afterwards, having beers as the clouds grew.  There were more people around, riding and trail-running, and we met another Underdog rescue puppy named Murphy, who looked just like our Milton without the white.  We also talked to all the range cows and calves who were crisscrossing the parking lot, looking for the quickest way to the best grazing. 

Chilly but worth it

Bike stats: 15.85 miles; time 1:30; average speed 10.6 m.p.h.; H's top speed 22.2 m.p.h.

porcupine rim, part 3

Once again we were able to get out of Dodge (SLC) early on Friday, enabling us to arrive in Moab at a reasonable, early evening time.  We did have some snow flurries going up Spanish Fork Canyon and across the top of Soldier Summit, but it wasn't sticking to the road and there wasn't much traffic.  The weather was forecasted to be a bit better than it's been lately; we drove down in the truck, hoping that warmer weather might enable us to get out on our MTBs.  

 Smooth stretch there

But first we went hiking on Saturday.  When we had done the Porcupine Rim portion of the Whole Enchilada trail the prior weekend, we noted the signed turn-off for the Porcupine Rim 4x4 trail.  We've really been enjoying our explorations of this part of Moab - upper Grandstaff Canyon, Jackass Canyon, the greater Sand Flats - and thought that we should see what the 4x4 trail had to offer.  With no tourist lodging available in Moab right now, trails are not being heavily used and we decided to take advantage of an OHV trail with probably no OHVs on it.

Grandstaff Canyon

We parked in the same spot as before, the area by the water tanks on the Sand Flats road.  After starting on the Porcupine Rim trail, we turned left at the first sign, where the 4x4 trail reverses back down the canyon on a short, steep, rough pitch.  This section was loose dirt and stones and it looked like it had recently been dug out.  It's just a few yards long, however, and after that the trail was remarkably like the MTB trail: a mix of dirt, sand, slickrock ledge and boulder-y bits.

Pour-over

Of course, since we were going the other way, towards the mouth of the canyon, we started out going down (which would mean an uphill finish, the bane of a hiker's existence).  The grade was mostly gentle, with some steeper, steppier sections, especially on corners.  It seemed MTB rideable, though, with not too, too many hike-a-bike parts.

Adventure dog

Milton once again ranged around, even flushing out a big rabbit at one point.  H called him off it - or, more likely, it was savvy enough to go to ground where he couldn't see it any more - but not before he had burned a lot of energy in the chase.  He's pretty fast when he wants to be.  Luckily, the rabbit was faster.

Have you guys seen a rabbit around here?

One trail runner passed us, and we saw him further ahead having branched off onto another trail.  At around three miles in, there is a junction where several trails intersect, including, we believe, the newly-installed Falcon Flow.  Falcon Flow is the first of a series of new trails meant to be single-track options to bailing out of the Whole Enchilada, for MTBers too fatigued for the technical bottom half.  We haven't checked it out yet (either on foot or on wheels) but we saw a number of MTBers at various points along the trail and it looks like a good one.

At just under four miles we paused, took in the scenery and started retracing our steps.  The Porcupine Rim 4x4 trail deadends at five miles, at a scenic overlook.  We were being conscious of our mileage, since we had spotted a wash we wanted to explore on the way back, and anyway the whole dang trail is a scenic overlook, perched as it is on the edge of upper Grandstaff Canyon.  It would probably be simpler if they just put signs where it isn't beautiful.

Hike stats:  7.8 miles; moving time 2:46 / speed 2.8 m.p.h.; overall time 3;06 / speed 2.5; 1,030 feet of elevation

porcupine rim, part 2

Back in December, we did the bottom portion of the Whole Enchilada trail: the Porcupine Rim trail from the Colorado River to the rim of Jackass Canyon.  It was chilly, with blustery winds and spits of rain, and we had the trail largely to ourselves, other than a MTBer. 

 Coming up one of the slickrock ledges

Two Sundays ago, we did some of the middle portion of the Whole Enchilada trail:  the Porcupine Rim trail from the water tanks on the Sand Flats road to the High Anxiety view point.  It was chilly, with blustery winds, and we had the trail to ourselves on the outbound leg, only stepping aside for a few MTBers on the return.

Grandstaff Canyon

This section of trail can be very busy - in better weather / less of a pandemic - as it has MTBers linking the top/La Sal mountains portion of the WE with the technical ride down along Jackass Canyon, as well as riders who either rode up from town themselves on the Sand Flats road or took a shuttle.  There is a decent parking area and a pit toilet at the trailhead, as well as maps.  The trail itself is well-signed to keep riders on the WE trail, as opposed to the Porcupine Rim 4x4 that dead-ends at a Grandstaff Canyon overlook (see next post!)

La Sals rising out of Castle Valley

We got on the trail mid-morning, seeing no need for an early start given the chilly weather and generally deserted trails.  Milton ranged off-leash, with just slightly less get-up-and-go than the day before; there must have been some cumulative fatigue after Pritchett Canyon.  We did keep an eye on him as it gets cliffy in places and we don't want him to hurtle over the edge after something small and scurrying.

View!

The trail is double-track, dirt and stones and slickrock ledges, and is used by hikers, MTBers and OHVs along the stretch we did.  It also climbs pretty steadily from the trailhead to the Castle Valley overlook, which must be a bit of a shock to the system after the long descent out of the La Sals.

Right along the rim of upper Grandstaff Canyon

The High Anxiety viewpoint is marked by a sign: VIEW!  And what a view it is, looking out west over the bowl of Castle Valley some 800-900 feet below, with the snowy La Sals looming overhead.  It was stunning scenery - and we had the dog on the leash the whole time we lingered there.

We continued a little further past the VIEW! but turned around when it started to descend.  As we retraced our route, we started to see MTBers grinding their way up the trail.  They seemed to show up in distinct groups, which made us think that shuttles were dropping their passengers regularly, now that it was after noon.  Those riders had a long way to go still - for us, our cooler full of beers was just minutes away.

Hike stats:  7.4 miles; moving time 2:27 / speed 3.0 m.p.h.; overall time 2:44 / speed 2.7; 1,620' elevation

when the world intrudes

Oops!  The week got away from me: I fully intended to have our Porcupine Rim hike post up and running for last Friday, but last week was a little stressful - for everyone! - and I didn't get around to it.  We're fine, still healthy and social distance-ing like champs.  And now I have TWO Porcupine Rim hikes to share with you, plus our first MTB of the season.  The next post should be up late tomorrow night.

So stay well, stay away from people and keep washing your hands! 

pritchett canyon

Yeah, the country/world has gone completely mad since my last post.  But we had a couple of soups in the freezer and a bunch of beer so we went to Moab on Friday. 

Ready. For. Anything.

Social distancing is not difficult for us: we scarcely go out to eat since we went vegan and we try really, really hard to find trails that don't have many people on them.  The only real change for us  was that this time we didn't go hang out at Woody's - which saved us some money.

The Brickyard obstacle

We knew where we wanted to hike on Saturday: Pritchett Canyon.  H had been watching some jeeping videos in that canyon - it has the highest difficulty rating of all the April Jeep Safari trails - and noticed how pretty it was.  We wanted to check it out before OHVing got into full swing.  You do have to pay a small entrance fee to access the canyon because the trail crosses private land, but after you walk through the campground, you're back on BLM land.

Milton in cruise mode

What makes Pritchett Canyon so difficult?  The eight+ obstacles that will stymie the average rig.  Many of these obstacles have winch anchors; most of them involve step-ups over five feet high.  There are lots of off-camber angles to deal with and rollovers are more common than not.  For hiking, it's straightforward since it's a jeep road, but the footing is mixed, with sand and cobbles and slickrock and ledges, and it's fairly long.

Milton and me atop Chewy

When you're on foot (two or four), these obstacles are no big deal.  But they are impressive to look at as you climb up them.  We were hoping that we would see some vehicles attempting them on our hike back out (if you're hiking, this is a 9+ mile out-and-back; if you're in a jeep, you can make a loop out of it.

Rocker Knocker: double ledge, nearly impossible if wet

Pritchett Canyon is also very, very pretty.  There was more green than I expected, even though the creek doesn't run year-round.  The canyon walls are high and there are numerous side canyons and rock features.  We heard canyon wrens trilling their lovely songs for nearly half the hike.

Arch in the wall after Rocker Knocker 

Since this trail didn't have too much slickrock, we weren't planning on making Milton wear his new shoes the whole time.  We put the front ones on, intending to have him wear them for a couple miles, just to keep getting used to them.  He lost one of them a half mile into the canyon but, incredibly, H found it.  Buying bright red dog shoes was a good idea!

Axle Hill: the black is from all the tire rubber

Towards the head of the canyon, it gets narrow again, rocky and steep.  The final few obstacles are incredible: I can't imagine driving a jeep up them.  And then, once we climbed up Yellow Hill to the saddle, the 360-degree views were phenomenal.  The clouds started to break up a bit and the sun came out long enough for us to have a snack.  Simply gorgeous up there.

Rockpile or Son-of-Rockpile

That's Yellow Hill, the last obstacle

We retraced our steps from that saddle and as we made our way back down, we began to see some more people: a couple of dirt bikes, ten jeeps and about eight hikers just as we were finishing up.  That's really not too many people for a 4+ hour hike on a popular trail.

View back down Pritchett Canyon

We didn't encounter any jeeps on any of the infamous named obstacles but we did watch three of them playing around in the slickrock area below Rocker Knocker.  It is truly amazing what these vehicles can do.  And not a little terrifying.

The guy on foot had broken his own jeep's axle

the day before so he was scouting

We finished up the hike under a few passing rain sprinkles but it was windy enough to move the clouds past in short order.  Milton zonked out - if we people did nine miles, he must have done at least twelve - and H and I snacked and drank some beers while watching all the parking lot activity around us: trail runners with dogs, old school ATVs, lots of dirt bikes, jeeps and OHVs either getting set up and starting out or finishing and loading up.  This is a very popular motorized area, with Pritchett Canyon, Amasa Back and the Kane Creek Road all in one centralized spot: there's plenty to do and there's plenty to watch.

Hike stats: 9.2 miles; moving 3:36 hours / 2.7 m.p.h; overall 4:34 / 2.2 m.p.h.; 1,530 feet of elevation

a little goes a long way

It's cliche but what a difference a day makes!  A little storm moved into the area Saturday evening and although Brighton over in Big Cottonwood Canyon got the most snow out of it, Alta managed about 4" at the base and what seemed more like 8" up at the top.  The snow was fairly dense and heavy, which meant it got tracked out and bumped up quickly, especially given how busy it was, but it also made all the difference in the conditions.  Sure, the high traffic areas got scraped off down to the crusty stuff.  But if you could score fresh tracks, it was creamy and smooth.  We even heard some hootin' and hollerin' from the Stonecrusher area!

Views were ... limited

Funnily enough, the Collins lift line was the most treacherous terrain anywhere: the heavy, wet snow was quickly compacted and iced over smooth as the scores of skiers shuffled their way through the line.  The singles lines, on the far left of the corral, were on a bit of an incline and people were skidding and sliding into each other, even as we were all just trying to stand there.  If we'd had edges on our skis, it would have been fine.  But we haven't had our skis tuned since last season so there was no edge to dig in.

Because the snow was heavy, my legs tired quickly - I am in terrible shape this season!  The low visibility made things tough too as we couldn't really see what we were skiing on until we were skiing on it.  But the new snow made everything better and everyone happy: there were many more locals in evidence on Sunday, brought out by the promise of freshies, however small; and the tourists, who don't know any better, were all smiles too.  Even though we always want to ski in the sunshine, this new snow was very welcome.

warm and windy

There has been very little snow recently and when we went skiing Saturday morning, H remarked that it's been years since Alta has been this skied out.  It was warm (ranging from 29 to 43 F such that I didn't even wear my boot covers), cloudy and blustery.  Off piste was crusty and hard, never really softening up; steep sections, like Challenger, were so scraped off that even H side-slipped the whole way down.  The groomers were okay, and down towards the base the snow got soft and a little slushy.  With all the clouds, the light was very flat - you'd think we'd be used to that by now.

Crowd-wise it was about medium.  The lifties were running Collins a little slow so it took a long time to get through that lift line.  It looked to be lots of tourists/Icon pass-holders and mid-range skiers on the hill ... because all the good local skiers think the conditions aren't worth it.  H and me, we'll ski on anything.

I look like the Stay-Puft marshmallow man in this jacket

We stuck to Collins for the morning, cruising groomers, alternating between Mambo and Main Street.  H had the good idea to go to lunch a little early lunch (I think he got hungry), which meant that the Supreme lift line had pretty much cleared out when we went back out.  The wind picked up in the afternoon, however, and the temperature dropped as the day wore on.  After a couple of Sugarloaf runs, we were bored with the groomers, as well as getting a little chilled, so we went back to the Goldminer's Daughter and had a couple of beers (Loose Boots IPA in cans) before catching the bus down canyon.

For those of us who ski Alta all the time, this was sort of a meh kind of day.  But even with the meh conditions, we still saw tourists who had never been to Alta before, oohing and aahing over the scenery, just loving the place.   That's good for us to see as it reminds us not to take Alta for granted.

pocket arch (attempt #3)

We thought we had it this time.  We really thought we'd found Pocket Arch.  It is not entirely undocumented: it is on the circa 1991 map we have of Sand Flats Recreation Area; it is in one of the funky little F.A. Barnes hiking books; H found two mentions of it (and only two) online, each with a set of coordinates.

So Sunday morning, he put the destination coordinates into our GPS.  We drove up to the Sand Flats and parked in the Slickrock parking lot, crossed the road, climbed up onto the slickrock fins and started following the GPS.

Hey, look - it's Low Arch (again)

We pretty much made a beeline out to the cliffs over Millcreek Canyon, keeping to the slickrock fins and, when we had to cross sandy areas, washes where we could walk where the water had/would run.  Before too long, the canyon was in sight and I thought I recognized where we were: "Oh!  It's Low Arch!"  We were surprised, because when we found Low Arch the first time, we had then been unable to locate Pocket Arch, despite our references saying that she'd stopped at Low Arch en route to Pocket. 

We kept at it, following the GPS right up to the edge of the cliff.  We stared in the direction it indicated, where - supposedly - .14 miles straight ahead Pocket Arch was located.  Nothing.  We could see nothing.  Nothing in front of us, nothing at the bottom of the canyon, nothing across the canyon in the cliff wall facing us.  I guess maybe the arch could have been snug up against the cliff wall under us, and we just couldn't see it, but, nope.  Nothing.

Curses! Foiled again!  But now it's personal: we will find Pocket Arch this year.  Now we're obsessed.

Buddy the Elf at the Slickrock parking lot

Hike stats:  4.8 miles; 2:18 total time and 2.1 m.p.h. overall; around 1,800 feet of elevation

uranium arch

Northern Utah (and its ski areas) has been having a bit of a dry patch lately, which encouraged us to throw our hiking stuff in the truck for another Moab weekend.  I picked out Saturday's hike - to Uranium Arch - not only because it looked like a good one for solitude this time of year, but also because it looked really exposed (i.e., little to no shade) which we wouldn't want to do later into the spring/summer.

Courthouse Rock

The trailhead is north of town, in the Mill Canyon multi-use area.  In this case, "multi-use" means hiking, MTBing, equestrian, dirt bikes and OHVs, BLM camping and dinosaur tracks.  Our trail guide suggested that we could drive in a ways to park but there was a wash crossing that looked a little wet so we ended up at the main staging/parking lot.  It's a big lot, with a pit toilet and corrals for horses; we were only of only three vehicles parked there.

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign

Parking where we did added another 2+ miles to the round trip but it's pretty easy hiking: mostly jeep roads, with some sand and some slick rocks ledges.  Basically all you do is follow the signs to the M&M (Monitor and Merrimac) trail/Uranium Arch.  Other than the sign showing the turn-off of the M&M trail towards the arch which is on the back side of the sign post, this trail is amazingly well signed.  It's good that it is because this area has lots of jeep roads, all just waiting to be explored.

Uranium Arch

Uranium Arch (there's actually no uranium in the vicinity) is a good-sized arch, overshadowing an alcove in the rock.  In the summer, that alcove will provide the only shade in the area.  A local conservation group has protected the feature, roping off a parking area for jeepers.  We had it to ourselves.

Not impressed with the boots

In addition to exploring new territory, this hike was Milton's first real outing with his new boots.  We got them for him because we do so much hiking with him on slickrock, which is very abrasive: this makes for excellent MTBing but is hard on dogs' paws.  He also tends to get a lot of cactus spines and goatheads in his feet when he explores off the trail.  Saturday was Milt's third time wearing the boots and although he did walk a little funny, he figured it out quickly.  He didn't like them at all - and registered his protest by trotting ahead, sitting in some shade until we caught up and then trotting ahead again, instead of ranging and racing far afield - but he likes hiking so much that he was willing to put with them.

The boys descending the slickrock shelf below Courthouse Rock

This was (I think) our longest hike of the winter thus far and we were all glad to take off our boots when we got back to the truck.  There was a moderate amount of activity in the parking lot for us to watch as we had beers and snacks (Milton got extra dog cookies for being a good sport): picnickers, dinosaur groupies, dirt bikers, range cows, etc.  We also checked out the kiosk that listed the equestrian rides; since we can hike anything a horse can do, we noted several other loops for us to come back and explore at a later time.  So many places to go!

This rock formation was so unusual 

and we only found it in this one spot

Hike stats:  8.66 miles; 2:41 hours and 3.2 m.p.h. moving average / 3:03 total time and 2.8 m.p.h overall; 930 feet of elevation

an actual bluebird day

Sunday was crowded in the morning but less so than Saturday.  There were some lift line shenanigans but noticeably less so than Saturday.  Temperatures were cooler and the snow was snow but the skies were completely clear and way sunnier than Saturday.  We're going to call it a win!

Temperatures in the high 20s/low 30s meant that the snow never softened very much even with the bright sun.  Off piste terrain remained a bit stiff well into the afternoon and as the high traffic areas got skied off, they got pretty slippery, i.e. the closest thing to "icy" Utah has.  As I haven't bothered to get my skis tuned yet this year, the skied off sections were a little dicey as I couldn't get an edge in and kept skidding through my turns.  Because the sun was out, however, I could see the best spots to ski and didn't get surprised by much.

Sunshine!!!!!

Like we had done the day before, we skied Collins all morning because it had the best/fastest lift line.  At one point I went over to the Sugarloaf side to see if Razorback had any softening bumps.  It didn't: it had been groomed flat although the snow on the lower face started to soften around noon. I couldn't face the alarmingly long singles line at Sugarloaf and so ended up doing another around-the-world back to Collins.

Birds singing and critter tracks all over in the woods

With the gorgeous sunshine, it was warm enough for people to want to eat outside, so Alf's wasn't crowded at lunch.  And after that, the hordes cleared out and we were almost able to ski right onto the lift at Supreme.  We played around there during the afternoon: going into the gate below East Castle again; bouncing down the gullies between Challenger and No. 9 Express (that thankfully weren't frozen rock hard); poling across the highest traverse around Supreme Bowl, into Catherine's Area and then into the first gate in the first meadow for a go at those trees we like so well.  The snow was still pretty good in there and we almost had it to ourselves, only sharing it with one kid, skiing alone, who passed us while exclaiming out loud, "That was so smooth! This is so great!"  He was absolutely right.

While it wasn't perfect snow conditions this weekend - truly, the entire mountain is completely skied out - it was still decent skiing, and the sunshine on Sunday was terrific.  Also terrific: seeing all the avalanche dogs out and about.  We saw Banjo (?), Monty and Lucy, all working the crowds at Wildcat base - still waiting for an OC sighting though.