making the rounds

If Saturday had been a beautiful day, Sunday was gorgeous with blue sky, sunshine and no breeze to speak of.  It started off a bit chilly, though, as we left the house around 9 and - amazingly - encountered no traffic in order to get to the Moab Brand Trails parking lot by 9:15 a.m.  While there was already a line to get into Arches National Park, there were fewer than twenty vehicles at the trail head.  Since we had the Subaru, there was only room for one MTB, so H biked while Milton and I hiked, all parties sticking with our regular routes.

First desert bloom spotted

For the number of vehicles in the lot (and continuing to steadily roll in throughout the morning), we were surprised not to see more folks out on the trails.  H only had to deal with three or four small groups as he pounded through Copper Ridge Road, Lazy-EZ, Rusty Spur and the Bar M loop; Milt and I saw two MTBers on Bar M and five out on Circle O.

With the temperatures in the 60s, and seeming warmer because of the sun, it was perfect conditions and Milt even found plenty of water in the potholes on the Circle O slickrock to drink from.  H came out onto the Circle O trail from the far end to find us - when Milton saw him, he sprinted across the rock to meet him.  After that, I had to keep him leashed as H rode off to finish his loop; Milt notices that H went right at the Circle O/Bar M intersection and was very concerned when I turned left instead.  But then H came out on the parking lot cutoff to meet us again, and I unleashed M to chase him all the way back to the car.  

M's preferred way to "swim"

After that, Milton was definitely tired, what with the overdoing it and all, but not too tired to work the crowds in the parking lot.  After a snack and some water, he introduced himself to the folks in the cars on either side of us, and when the mother/daughter from Colorado drove away, he introduced himself to the new folks who took that parking spot.  (Here was our third Maine connection of the weekend: a young couple who live in St. George now but the woman grew up in Bangor.)

In-town blossoms

We ended up spending Sunday night in Moab as well, to avoid the potentially heavy traffic.  This turned out to be a great idea as we were on the road by 7 Monday morning, cruised through the drive with no hold-ups, and arrived back in SLC around 10:30, late enough to have missed the morning commute rush but early enough for a half day at work.