instead of standing in line

 We finally got a nice little storm in northern Utah this past weekend, which dropped around two feet up for the ski areas but only a couple of inches down in the Salt Lake valley.  The roads were never even very bad - which is how I like my snowstorms.  The new snow led the hordes to the mountains, however: by 6 a.m. Saturday morning, vehicles were lined up at the bottom of Little Cottonwood Canyon, ready to head up as soon as allowed.  

I've never seen lines like that [PC: DCW]

H had some work stuff get in the way, plus he didn't want to tangle with the crowds.  From the picture above, you can see what the morning lift lines looked like at Alta.  That's nuts.  You would never know there was a pandemic on, to be honest.  So while he did fretted about not skiing and did deep dives into western ghost towns and van build-outs, Milton and I did our morning run loop.  And then I cooked.  A lot.

Vegan kaldereta

I started off with a pan of scratch brownies Friday night.  I've made those so often that it scarcely counts as baking anymore - I've nearly got the recipe memorized and we go through a pan a week.

Lentil soup (we eat a lot of soup)

Saturday, I dehydrated tofu jerky, made three meals' worth of lentil soup to freeze and baked sixteen whole meal muffins (tasty and hearty, with oats, carrot, apple and raisins).  Dinner was a vegan Filipino kaldereta: a stew traditionally made with goat, ours had soy curls (eats like chicken) plus potatoes, carrots, peas, green and red peppers and chilies.  It was absolutely delicious and a little miso and peanut butter made the tomato-y broth velvety.

Whole meal muffins

On Sunday, I tried a new applesauce bread recipe (it seems stodgy but should be okay toasted, so I stuck it in the freezer for later.  I also made a chickpea, sweet potato and kale soup, also for the freezer, some kale chips and for dinner we had a spiced lentil tamale pie with a cornmeal crust.  It was quite good and made enough for leftovers.

Lentil tamale pie

I won't say that flexing my cookery muscles is as much fun as skiing.  But I admit that I am getting a lot of satisfaction out of exploring new recipes.  I have always loved to collect recipes and cookbooks.  Now I have the opportunity to actually make what's in them.

snow in the desert, part two

Now knowing that the Moab area dirt roads had a solid coating of snow on them, we decided to stick closer to home for Sunday's hike and go up to the Sand Flats Recreation Area to do the Slickrock trail.  Actually, we had plans to do part of the Slickrock trail, out to the portal overlook, and then take an alternate route back, stopping to check out a notorious 4x4 feature, Mickey's Hot Tub.  There was no line to get in - there wasn't even a ranger at the entrance - and only a couple other vehicles at the trailhead.

South-facing

The difference between the south-facing and the north-facing slopes was evident immediately, the former bare of snow and the latter completely snow-covered, often to a depth of several inches.  We noticed some bike tracks careening down some very steep snowy sections and couldn't decide if that would be fun or terrifying.  A bit of both, most likely.

North-facing

There were a few other people out on the trail - this is one of the most popular/iconic trails in Moab, after all - but just a few.  There were three trail runners with two dogs who started just before we did, plus a handful of other hikers; we saw three dirtbikers, no more than five MTBers, one side-by-side and two white jeeps.  More on them later.

H and M at the portal overlook

We went clockwise on the main Slickrock trail, heading for the alternate spur at the northwest end of the loop that would take us to an overlook.  As we came down through the big intersection by the Abyss overlook, we paused to watch two white jeeps with Texas plates creeping cautiously down the snow-covered rock.  It didn't look like much fun to me: when the slickrock is dry, there's tire grip for days but with a coating of snow, which packed down and iced up quickly when anyone drove - or even walked - over it, would make for challenging off-roading.  There are far too many spots on this trail that could have major consequences if you, or your MTB, or your jeep, just started sliding downhill.  Later, we walked past them as they were trying to go up an icy dome.  As we watched, they gave up and turned around, trying to get out the way they came in.  We hoped they'd make it - in high season, there would have been plenty of other vehicles around to help them but not so much this time of year.

The boys looking into Mickey's Hot Tub

We got out to the overlook (putting M back on the leash for bit since there were ravens roosting on the cliff edge) with its view of the Moab valley and the portal where the Colorado River continues on its way out of town.  From there, we planned to follow an alternate route that would cut off some mileage in addition to bringing us to Mickey's Hot Tub.  We had to do some route finding in a couple of spots, actually, because the snow covered the trail's blazes.

That's me on the far/lower lip of the Hot Tub

Mickey's Hot Tub - go ahead, I'll wait while you google it and watch a bunch of insane videos - is a big, deep, steep-sided pothole on the Hell's Revenge trail, named for local Dan Mick who was the first to drive it.  The rock around it is stained black from all the scrambling, screaming tires trying to fight their way out.  

Peekaboo

When we got back to the trailhead parking lot, we hung out for a little while, talking to a guy we'd seen on his electric MTB out on the trail.  Milton also took the opportunity to meet some dogs: two French bulldogs puppies, whom he found overwhelming because of all the barking; and an Australian shepherd-ish mix that he ran all the way across the parking lot to go see.  There's fun for everyone on the Slickrock trail (unless you're the driver of a white jeep from Texas).

Hike stats: 7.89 miles; moving time 2:59 / speed 2.6 m.p.h.; overall 3:35 / 2.2; 1,660 feet of elevation 

snow in the desert, part one

 We were in Moab for the MLK, Jr. Day long weekend.  Every time we go down in the winter, we are surprised at how cold it is, although we shouldn't be since the town's elevation is practically the same as Salt Lake City's.  This time we were also surprised at how much snow we found, once we got out of town.

Gorgeous winter day, not a soul in sight

I had found a new hike to do Saturday morning in the Gemini Bridges area.  But as we turned off paved Rte. 313 onto the Gemini Bridges road, we had second thoughts: the dirt road was well-caked with snow, more than we expected, and as the sun was out, we could see it already starting to melt.  Envisioning getting the little Subaru stuck in half-frozen mud out in the middle of nowhere, we prudently turned around, saving this new hike for later in the spring when the roads are dry.

The boys

We ended up parking at the Monitor & Merrimac viewpoint, crossing 313 and getting on the 7-Up trail.  We've MTBed this trail a couple times before and both times remarked that it would be a good winter hike for Milton.  Once we were far enough below the road, we loosed him from his leash and he got his crazy on.

Milton-prints

On foot, this was very easy hiking, gently climbing all the way out with good footing and following the MTB trail/old double-track.  Our boots got soaked with all the snow but with the sun shining, the temperatures were extremely pleasant.  We had it all to ourselves too; there were old footprints right at the beginning but we went out much further than those people had gone.

Well-marked with flap poles at intersections

There were lots of animal tracks too - birds and rabbits and squirrels and tiny critters and coyotes - and Milton seemed determined to follow all of them.  As usual, he completely overdid it: on our way back, he started walking behind H for small stretches (he never does that - he likes to be in front) and when we were walking back up 313 to the car, we were the ones pulling him on the leash (instead of the other way around).  He took a power nap on the tarmac back at the car, not even lifting his head as other cars drove in.  "Is your dog alive?" one lady asked.  He did lift his head at that.

There is NOT much snow in the La Sals

He managed to rally for a few minutes when a woman with her dog, Mesa, rescued two months ago from an Arizona reservation, stopped to say hi.  Mesa greeted Milton politely but was shy around us, preferring to chase her ball.  Milt, who is afraid of balls and doesn't know how to play with toys, just sat and watched her, trying to figure it all out.  When we got home, though, he went straight to bed and crashed until dinner time.  Gotta rest up for the next hike!

Hike stats: 7.17 miles; moving time 2:31 / speed 2.8 m.p.h.; overall 2:43 / 2.6; 630 feet of elevation

prelude

I had intended to get at least one post up about our long weekend in Moab, but here it is, late Thursday night and I still haven't downloaded all the photos.  So for now, here's one of H, out in the desert on Saturday.  Milton is there too, in the distance a bit, snuffling about.  More to come.

Snow, sand, mountains

thin in spots

While I was getting my domesticity on, H went skiing.  After the hottest, driest August on record, the entire state of Utah was under some sort of drought.  That hasn't changed - in fact, has gotten worse - as the state's snowpack totals are way, way low: Alta, for example, has a base of 40" right now and it should have over 100".  Most of the state is in "exceptional drought" (the worst) with the best case scenario up in the very northern parts of the state still registering as "moderate drought."  We need us some snow.  There's slight hope for weak storms to come in Saturday and Monday but nothing to get excited about in the ten-day forecast.

Saturday view from Collins mid-station

That makes for bluebird days up on the hill.  H was up and ensconced in his parking space by 8:10 a.m. Saturday morning, reporting that there were a lot fewer cars than in the previous week.  By 9:30 he'd made his way over to the Sugarloaf chair, where the lift lines were full, and then Supreme at 10:30 a.m., also full.  One run later he'd fled back to Collins where the lines weren't as bad.  He stayed there, cruising groomers - so he wouldn't trash his skis on the off-piste rocks - until his last run at 12:40 p.m.

Now that's what I call a parking spot

His parking spot (8:10 a.m.) Sunday morning was about the best one could hope to get.  It was colder, at least until the sun came out.  The runs were still hard and fast and scratchy but he was at least able to talk with a couple of nice folks on the chairlift rides; Alta has adapted their COVID-preventing lift-loading strategies to allow two singles on one quad chair sitting as far apart as possible.  He rode with one girl who was an environmental studies student at the U and, later, with a different girl who was an environmental studies student at Colby College (in Waterville, Maine), taking a semester off due to the pandemic.

Never get tired of the view

He skied until 12:20 p.m. until he got chilled and then headed home.  He did see all the people poised atop Baldy: it opened for the first time and frankly, it looked better than I thought it would:

unintentional baking blog

 Since I turned my Alta pass, I have been looking to fill the weekends by actually doing things, and not just sitting on the couch, binge-ing all the television on my list.  (I have a lot of content on my list, however, so the temptation is real.)  This comes in the form of getting up early-ish (by 7:30 a.m.) and taking Milton on our 3+ mile loop, getting caught up on laundry and other household chores, and cooking.  

I like to cook but since I go to work, work out somehow and then drive home from work, our weeknight recipes tend to be quick and easy and repetitive: lentil soup, pastas, stirfries and the like.  With this extra time on the weekends now, I've been trying to dive deeper into my favorite cookbooks and put together new, slightly (only slightly) more complicated dinners.  This past weekend, as an example, Saturday's dinner was baked potatoes stuffed with broccolini (from Power Plates) and Sunday's was the Goddess Noodles (whole wheat linguine with tempeh, broccoli and a tahini sauce) from Isa Does It.  I also made a split pea soup to freeze for future consumption.

What I'm really enjoying have the time to do, however, is bake.  I love to bake, even though I'm not that good at it; I don't know what it is but I get a lot of satisfaction out of it.  This past weekend I made a batch of chai-spice snickerdoodles, also from Isa Does It - not pictured here because they came out unlike any snickerdoodles I remember from growing up.  More successful was the coconut-turmeric bread: slightly sweet and with a tiny kick from the turmeric and black pepper.

You can eat it like cake but it's also good lightly toasted

I also took another stab at olive oil bread, this time using instant yeast so I wouldn't kill it with too hot water during the bloom.  It didn't rise as much as I hoped it would (I think I'm still combating the high elevation issues here at 4,800 feet above sea level) but it came out a half decent loaf that we snarfed down in two sittings.

Improvement

I know this isn't a cooking blog - it isn't going to turn into one.  But without me skiing and with this winter's low snow (thus far) keeping H on the groomers, my successes and failures in the kitchen are going to have to be on offer.  Bear with us - we're hoping for more outdoors adventures soon.

homefront

 H took the week off between Christmas and New Year's.  He usually does that, and usually skis each day.  Due to the COVID-19 restrictions this year, however, he's not taking the bus, driving instead.  They have gotten much stricter about requiring snow tires and traction devices on snowy days in the canyon this year; since H has been waiting for his new snow tires to get in, this meant he was only able to ski a couple of times when the roads were clear and dry.  He made it up to Alta on Wednesday (New Year's Eve Eve) and on Friday, reporting both times that although the parking lots filled up quickly, the lines weren't quite as long as before.  He also came back pretty chilled both times, but happy that he'd gotten out of the house for a while.

It's been a slow start to the snow year

Me, I ended up turning my Alta pass in for my money back.  When I got a notification of the credit to m y account, I was a little wistful.  This will be the first year in well over a decade that I haven't had a season pass.  

You can see the inversion filling the valley below

I am determined to keep busy, however!  I didn't have to make dinner during the week - since he wasn't working, H volunteered to do that, so I got home to soups, chilis and pastas all week - but spent some quality time in the kitchen on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I made: vegan "parmesan cheese," a gingerbread cake with whiskey-soaked raisins, a red lentil soup (to freeze), a tofu scramble (one of our favorite recipes) for Friday dinner, a winter vegetable variation on a shepherd's pie for Saturday dinner (with H guest-starring on the mashed potatoes), a white chili with delicata squash (for Sunday dinner and to freeze), a pan of scratch brownies and a couple of tiny loaves of bread (which hadn't risen but I baked them anyway, figuring we could always toast it for croutons).  I also did two loads of laundry and put away the Christmas stuff, plus Milton and I did our three mile loop three days in a row, so on the homefront it was a successful weekend, even if it wasn't all that exciting.

boxing day

Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) was another beautiful day, clear and not so cold.  I wanted to take Milton somewhere he could get his run on, while H wanted to do another long town walk (he's enjoying exploring Moab's neighborhoods).  We decided to divide and conquer.

Matheson Wetlands Preserve

H took the Millcreek Parkway path to the other side of town, then got on Kane Creek Boulevard to the entrance of Matheson Wetlands Preserve (no dogs, no bicycles).  We've often driven by but never stopped in at the largest intact Colorado River wetlands in Utah, commonly known as the Moab Slough.  There's a one mile trail in the preserve, which is home to over 200 species of birds, mammals and amphibians.

The slough

At the far end, he made his way out of the preserve, continuing on old roads through the slough and searching for a way out.  He finally found an exit (after dousing one foot in a thawing soggy spot) all the way at the northern end of town, by the Aarchway Inn.  This meant a long walk back along Main Street, some of which still doesn't have a sidewalk put in due to all the road-widening work they've been doing.  He got back before we did but I think he put more miles in.

The way out!

Milton and I drove down to the Hidden Valley trailhead.  We didn't have a particularly early start, so there were already five or six cars there; two other parties of hikers - a couple with two dogs on-leash and three hikers with one dog off-leash - started out just ahead of us.  We caught them quickly, however, during the steep uphill. 

More snow than I expected

I should have thought a little more about the position of the sun on this trail this time of year.  The outbound/uphill leg was fine, even in the shady spots which were exponentially colder, because we were climbing the whole way.  The saddle was entirely in the shade so we climbed a little further to the start of the petroglyph section so I could give Milton snacks and some water.

View from our snack spot

The group of three hikers, plus Ranger the dog, caught us there.  They were hiking through to the Moab Rim side and the girl asked if I was local.  When I said yes, she asked if I could keep an eye out for her gloves, which she'd mistakenly left on the steep part of the trail.  We exchanged cell numbers and they continued on as Milton and I headed back down.

Desert dog in his element

The sun had continued its journey across the sky and our return trip was much more in the shade.  I got pretty chilled and had to put on another fleece and swap out my gloves for mittens.  We found the gloves and I texted her when we got back to the trailhead, arranging for a masked hand-off at Woody's later in the afternoon.  It all worked out very well since Milt had tired himself out enough that he didn't even lift his head when we headed out.  We people weren't that worn out but figured we'd earned the beer.
 

quick christmas revisit

 We were able to adjust work schedules enough that we could drive down to Moab Wednesday afternoon, leaving early enough that it was just barely after dark when we rolled into town.  There had been a little snow in the mountains on Tuesday, and the next storm didn't come in until the Monday after Christmas, so driving was fine.  The weather was actually beautiful for the duration: clear and sunny and quite cold - I don't think it got out of the 30s the whole time.

You can't really see him but H is right in the center of this photo

After we got what work we had out of the day, the three of us went for a short hike on Christmas Eve afternoon.  We walked to the Jackson Street trailhead of Pipedream and turned right, heading north.  As the trail wound in and out of the washes, it was alternately pleasant in the weak sun and cold in the shade; this time of year, some parts of the trail never get any sun so the snow was lingering there.  Milton covered a lot of ground as he raced around, following rabbit tracks.  There were only a couple other people out there with us, including one trail runner with a very nice yellow lab.

Millcreek ramblings

It was really cold Christmas morning (10 F!) so we let it warm up a bit (into the high 20s) before going out for a long walk around town:  Millcreek Parkway, down Main Street, through the food truck court, past the hospital to get back on the parkway, through the skills park and then back.  Again, there were very few people out and about, even though the day was gorgeous.  This truly is the off-season in Moab (with or without a pandemic).

Super-tasty

The rest of Christmas day was spent reading, doing crossword and jigsaw puzzles, calling family, mixing scratch Bloody Marys (previous post) and making pesto risotto with roasted zucchini for dinner (delicious!).  It was a very mellow Christmas and that was just what we were looking for.