This isn't a real post - year-end is always busy for me at work and that, plus general pandemic fun, is making me totally zone out in the evenings, unable to form coherent thoughts, much less posts - but on this sixth day of Christmas, I give to you our new Christmas tradition: Bloody Marys from scratch. We got a hankering for them and then cobbled them together from whatever we had in the fridge. And they were really quite good:
Posts about our long holiday weekend in Moab coming soon!
Sunday was cloudy but not as cold. H went up skiing again and reported that it wasn't quite as crowded either. At 8:15, he was parked in the front row at Wildcat base, but all the way down at the far end of the parking lot, basically at the Peruvian. This time he went straight to Supreme and did three runs there before it got busy: Challenger was a bad idea (rock hard and skied off), as was Upper Big Dipper; Three Bears is still full of rocks. He gave the Ballroom a go as well, and regretted it as well too - none of this is surprising and fairly typical for early season skiing. Although it doesn't seem all that early, does it, with Christmas just days away.
Down in the valley, Milton (who seems confused to have me home but not H and who alternately sleeps on our bed, ignoring me, or is my shadow and entirely underfoot) and I had our list of things to do. After our walk, I cleaned two bathrooms, vacuumed and swiffered, did two loads of laundry.
For more fun, I made a rustic loaf - olive oil bread - and chana masala for dinner. Both recipes are again from Isa Does It because when we were down in Moab last weekend, I read that cookbook cover to cover and marked all the recipes I wanted to try. Fair warning: you may be seeing a lot of food photos here this winter.
Back in SLC for the week, where we got a decent snowstorm that gave Alta around 28" (YTD total: 110"). This got all the locals excited about skiing, which filled up the available parking by 9:30 a.m. on Saturday in both Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. H got up to Wildcat Base at 8:10 and reported that the parking lot was half full with more than an hour until chairs would be loaded; it would fill by 9:10. Traffic was heavy but not stop-and-go until Snowbird. Because of COVID precautions, the lift lines were slow (twenty minutes per run) and he didn't even try Supreme because the lines were so long. Conditions were better than his first outing of the year but certainly not that good: firm and fast. He finished up at 1:10 and headed down the canyon, well ahead of the red snake that was reported later. When he got home, he shook his head and said that if things were as busy and slow now, he couldn't imagine what Christmas week was going to be like. I guess we'll find out.
While H was getting his ski on, Milton and I were keeping busy. We did our three mile walk (sunny but chilly in the high 20s F), then a couple of quick errands. Once home and cleaned up, I went through a box of my old paperwork that we'd found in a closet (college transcripts, bank statements from the early 2000s). Gosh I'm glad we moved that out here eleven years ago!
Then I decorated our little Christmas tree/holiday ornament display system - which took me all of twenty-six minutes - and made a batch of turmeric chai and a pineapple upside-down cake. It has been ages since I had one of those cakes and when my brother's family sent me a new cookbook, Isa Does It, and I found that recipe, I knew I had to make it. It's very easy to make, vegan and turned out pretty tasty (although it didn't rise much because I didn't take into account the effect of higher altitude has on baking). I will definitely be trying it again, next time with half the leavening agent.
The days they pass so quickly ... here it already is, late Wednesday night, and I haven't posted since Friday. To be fair, there isn't all that much to post about so this will have to bridge the gap until the coming weekend. We did go down to Moab last weekend, leaving mid-afternoon on Friday, driving through some flurries through the Spanish Fork/Price canyon, and then arriving in Moab in the chilly evening. No traffic back-ups this time: we must officially be in the slow season.
Henry had to keep available for a work project all Saturday, so Milton and I were left to our own devices. We had driven down in the truck, and I don't like driving the truck all that much, so we opted for a hike along the Pipe Dream trail since we didn't have to drive to any trailheads, just walked down to Jackson Street and picked up the trail there.
There was a storm moving in and it was overcast and cold (high 20s/low 30s), with a slight breeze. Even so, I broke a sweat within fifteen minutes since there is some elevation gain; later, my hands would get cold but otherwise the temperatures were pretty good for hiking. I let Milton off leash as soon as we got on the trail and he did his wide-ranging thing - I suspect that's good rabbit terrain, although I didn't see any. We went to within shouting distance of the Hidden Valley trailhead - where the snow was starting to fall in earnest - and then turned around and retraced our steps. We pretty much had it to ourselves: we saw two trailrunners in the distance and met two women and a nice dog on our outbound leg. Other than that, it was just Milt, me and the trail. It's a great trail: far enough from the road that the traffic noise is muted; rolling ups and downs; good footing. It's too difficult for me to MTB but I sure like walking it. I didn't take the GPS but I would guess we did about six miles round trip.
After we got back, the snow picked up. The storm would leave a couple of inches in the Moab valley by the next morning. It also left very cold temperatures - it was 9 F when we got up Sunday - cold enough to dissuade us from doing more than neighborhood walks before we had to head back north. A quick trip this time - hopefully we'll be able to get out more our next time down.
While H was remembering how to ski again after 8+ months away, I tried to stay busy at home, not wanting to waste the weekend in front of the t.v. (Don't get me wrong: I totally could have, I just didn't want to feel guilty about it.) On Saturday, therefore, Milton and I were out the door at 8:15 a.m., bundled up against the 19F cold, to do our 3.25 mile loop; we alternated walking and jogging on each block, trying to keep warm. After that, a shower and a big coffee, we did a quick run to the post office and the store, and then settled in at home where we: failed at making a white bread sandwich loaf; succeeded at making brownies and peanut butter and pumpkin dog cookies; made a batch of chili; did a load of laundry; wrapped and packaged up some stuff for mailing back east; and wrote a bunch of holiday cards.
Milton followed the sun around from room to room as it came in the windows.
Sunday, we left at about the same time for the same loop (the temperature was 21F this time but it actually felt a little colder). Shower, coffee and then: another load of laundry, plus put away the clean stuff; did a run to the pharmacy and attempted to mail the packages; made a whole wheat boule; prepped breakfasts for Monday and Tuesday; dusted and vacuumed a couple of rooms; and put out some Christmas decorations.
Milton chased the sun and also napped on our bed.
Last ski season was abruptly terminated in early March 2020 when the pandemic hit: all the Utah ski resorts closed down as everyone scrambled to understand what was going on. Many of the ski resorts, Alta included, offered a credit towards a 2020/2021 season pass to make up for the two month foreshortening of the 19/20 season. (Alta also then raised the price of their season passes for the first time in ten years, all but negating that credit, but that's not the point.) As the deadline to buy passes grew closer - end of August - H and I fretted incessantly since Utah's case numbers were ... not good. In the end, we bought Alta season passes, as we have since our second year here, comforted by the fact that for the first time, Alta offered 100% money back if you haven't used your pass by the end of December. This would, we reasoned, give us a chance to see how the early season shook out.
It's now in the early season and we're still fretting incessantly. It hasn't snowed in three weeks (big time drought y'all) and the base is under two feet. We were in Moab for Alta's opening weekend but stayed in SLC for this past weekend and H, after much fretting, decided to go skiing. Things are different.
The ski busses are running but only allowing twenty people on each bus. Cars are being spaced - with a six foot pole - which H estimates will decrease available parking by 20-25%. Right now, Alta is offering updates on parking availability via social media - the powers that be are not allowing vehicles up the canyons once Alta and Snowbird's parking is full (no more road parking); Snowbird is requiring parking reservations. Once you get up there, as a season passholder/day skier, options are limited. You cannot go into the Goldminer's Daughter lodge to use the bathrooms or the day lockers; bathrooms are available at Wildcat base only in the skier services building and they are letting people in one at a time. Bathrooms and some lockers are available at Albion (also Watsons and Alf's, once you get on the mountain). On mountain, Alf's no longer allows you to bring your own food: you are seated at a specific table and order from the table, and they ask that you limit your stay to thirty minutes. In the liftlines, masks are required and employees are calling people out if they're not wearing them over nose and mouth (I'm okay with that). The singles lines have been eliminated: the new rule is, if you arrive together, you ride together.
We knew H would go a little crazy if he didn't ski this year, new restrictions and all. So he skied both Saturday and Sunday, driving up and sitting in the truck until the chair opened (because you can't wait in the lodge). He rode each chair by himself, which was fine now, when there weren't that many people skiing, but the lift lines are going to get so long once the snow and the skiers come. Skiing is very limited right now, due to the dearth of snow, and all southern-facing slopes are bare. He went off-piste once and immediately regretted it (hard, crusty, rocks). He skied until 1 p.m. each day, then drove home, still fretting.
Me, I still don't know what to do. If I take the bus, I'll have to wear my boots, because I can't use the day lockers, and I'll have to wait outside, getting cold, until the lifts start. I won't be allowed to go into any lodges to warm up on cold days and I get cold very quickly when it's under 20F. I could drive up with H and then take the bus down if I get cold/want to leave earlier, I suppose. It just all sounds like such a huge hassle. We're not blaming Alta for this at all - they are making the best of a bad situation, as is everyone these days - I just don't know if it's worth it for me. I've got another couple of weeks to fret some more and figure it out.
The southern Utah skies cleared up after Thursday, giving us bright sunshine and blue for days. It stayed on the chilly side, however, so on Friday and Saturday, when H wanted to go MTBing, I opted to hike with Milton instead. My threshold for biking is about 50 F; any lower than that and my fingers and toes just get too cold.
We hustled on down to Moab the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, heading south as soon as we could and thus enjoying the avoidance of any holiday traffic. Both H and I had enough work to do Wednesday that we didn't take vacation time for that day (and thus didn't get out to play in the desert); Milton was a little confused - although he often is - but rolled with it.
Thursday was a little cloudier but still dry so we hit the trails. We had learned to avoid Arches NP from our last Thanksgiving's Delicate Arch hike, with hundreds of other hikers, and instead sought out a trailhead that was less popular, returning to the Sovereign Trails off the Dalton Wells Road. With the not-snowy weather, there were actually quite a few campers and vans scattered about the dispersed camping area. We walked past one group, with two dogs to whom Milton gladly introduced himself, but once out on the trails, we scarcely saw anyone.
When we were here before, in April, we'd wished for a trail map because there seemed to be lots of trails, well-marked/blazed but with no maps, and we didn't know where we were heading or how far we'd be going. This time, we had a map which H found at the visitors' center in town. At only $4.00 it was a bargain - but it was also printed on thin paper that tore on its first unfolding. We looked at it once, tried to take a photo and then just hiked - so we pretty much didn't have a map this time either. (The new plan is to take it into work and make photocopies of each section so we'll have those for reference next time.)
After parking at the trailhead lot, we kept walking out the dirt road until we came to a white-blazed single-track trail. The Sovereign system has trails for jeeps, 4x4s, dirtbikes, MTBs and hikers; this one was for dirtbikes/MTBs/hikers. We stayed on this trail through a couple of junctions, before switch-backing down a short, steep section and onto the Copper Ridge 4x4 road.
We stayed on this across some slickrock and down through a wash until we came to a fairly major intersection with another singletrack climbing up another butte. We took that and at the top realized we'd be able to make a loop by descending another trail that would take us back to the Copper Ridge Road.
From there, we took the CRR out through the wash, which turned out to be the wash we'd hiked last time, and followed the road right back to the car. We ended up with just under six miles (probably at least nine for Milton who still doesn't know how to pace himself).
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