back to amasa back

 As we like to do, we recently spent a week plus surrounding weekends down in Moab.  We try to do this in April/early May and October; they are the busiest times there but they also have the best weather.  This fall, however, we were about a week later than we usually go and that, coupled with unusually low temperatures, meant it was too cold most days for me to go MTBing in the mornings.  Yes, we could have gone MTBing in the afternoons when it had warmed up, but we prefer to get up and get going in the mornings, seizing our motivation when it is highest.  It turned out okay: we did a bunch of hiking with Milton and I read a ton of books.  We also went to bars.

"Adventure dog!" from one of the MTBers we saw

We drove down Friday afternoon.  It had been in the 30s so we turned on the heat and walked to Woody's for a beer.  Whilst there, we asked if they knew where Crystal, former and our favorite bartender, had gone.  They didn't know so we decided that it would be our mission to find her: she'd recently done a whitewater rafting trip in West Virginia and we wanted to hear about it.

Not technically an adventure dog

Saturday was sunny and in the mid-60s.  We got up and drove to the Amasa Back trailhead to do the Jackson's Trail/Cliffhanger/Amasa Back loop that we like so much (6.36 miles).  The Moab Trail Mix crew has done a terrific job of repairing the creek crossings and creek-adjacent portions of Jackson's Trail.  We didn't see anyone until we got up to the Cliffhanger stretch (two jeeps and a MTBer); once we started down we saw a lot of MTBers.

So nice to see snow back in the La Sals

Saturday's search for Crystal: beers at Dewey's.  The bartenders didn't know where she'd gone either but we did talk to some tourists who were friendly.  They were heading to Zion next and I was able to point them towards an alternate hike to Angel's Landing that seems to have fewer visitors and much less vertigo.

In his happy place

true to form

 You guessed it: we spent ten days in Moab and have come back to ridiculous amounts of laundry and work emails. So here is a photo of our Milton enjoying himself out on the Amasa Back trail while we get our acts together.  More to come!

change in the weather

 The recent storm has gotten all the powderheads excited (although I myself am still the fence regarding skiing).  Here are the 2021/2022 anticipated opening dates, subject to change, of course:

Alta Ski Area - November 20, 2021

Beaver Mountain - TBD

Brian Head - TBD

Brighton  - TBD

Cherry Peak - TBD

Deer Valley - December 4, 2021

Eagle Point - December 17, 2021

Nordic Valley - TBD

Park City Mountain - November 19, 2021

Powder Mountain - TBD

Snowbasin - November 24, 2021

Snowbird - December 1, 2021

Solitude - November 19, 2021

Sundance - December 10, 2021

Woodward Park City - TBD

And here's what everyone's excited about, snow totals as of October 12, 2021 (Park City Mountain resort claimed 15+ inches):

obviously not to be confused with a cooking blog

Did I mention that we haven't been able to get out much due to inclement weather?  I've been cooking, so there's that, at least.  Disclaimer: not a food stylist.

Curried lentil veggie cakes

Chocolate chip cookies

Whole meal muffins (very hearty)

Not pictured but also made: soy curl jerky; vegan lu rou fan (Taiwanese braised tofu); lentil-farro stew with kale; and a vegan zebra bundt cake.

another milton appreciation post

 Our weather pattern has definitely changed, bringing storms and rain (yay!) and snow (!!!) to the higher elevations.  This is fantastic.  We need all the moisture we can get and we are not complaining about it at all.  Except that we wish that the storms would happen midweek when we are trapped in the office, instead of on the weekends when we want to be out doing stuff.  These weekend storms are really impacting the content here at We Went West.

And so, because of the current lack of content, here is a Milton appreciation post because he is absolutely the best dog ever.

Neighborhood watch

Under the table at Grid City

crowd control

 We've had a sparsely-activitied couple of weekends, I'm afraid, with not much to share with you here.  Last weekend, although the weather was absolutely gorgeous, every canyon on the Wasatch Front saw record amounts of traffic - from Ogden and Weber Canyons, to both Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, to the Alpine loop.  The leaf-peepers were out in force; popular trails saw hundreds of hikers; and Snowbird's Oktoberfest backed up traffic as badly as a big-snow ski day.  It would have been a beautiful day to do a hike but H and I have just gotten so leery of crowds that we couldn't bring ourselves to do it.  Instead, he got two road rides in and Milton and I did our Dimple Dell walks.  There was some beers on the patio time too, just to enjoy the last of the sunny fall weather.

There's the moon

So here we'll flashback to a Hidden Valley hike that Milton and I did when we were in Moab the last time.  Despite it being a very nice Saturday, there were only four other cars in the lot when we started and we only met two people and their dog on the way up.  It was sunny and clear and although I broke a sweat on the climb, the temperatures were mild (i.e., only into the low 80s).  I did make Milton put his t-shirt on, however, because he was doing a LOT of running and I knew there weren't any creeks for him to wade in to cool off.

Approaching the valley

At the saddle, instead of following the southern (?) face of the wall along the petroglyphs, we took the smaller, less used trail to the north face which we had never done before.  Since there isn't any rock art (that I saw, anyway) and it doesn't really go anywhere, the trail is much fainter, although it did get us all the way down to the wash, and there were even sporadic cairns in the wash.  The wash itself was pretty, narrow in spots and both sandy-bottomed as well as fully carved from the sandstone in parts.

Looking out Behind the Rocks-ish

Although I wasn't exactly sure where it would come out, we just kept heading downstream.  Lo and behold! it came out at the intersection of the Moab Rim jeep road and the trail back up to Hidden Valley.  As we turned left, to head back up to the Hidden Valley saddle, Milton took off after something (a rabbit, if I had to guess) and I had to call him several times to get him to come back to me.  When he did come back, he was panting pretty hard so I put him on the leash until his breathing calmed down.

High alert

There were several groups of hikers making their way up the valley as we headed out but the parking lot didn't seem that much fuller than when we started.  Back at the car, as I was changing my shoes (and having a beer), Milton introduced himself to a couple who had just pulled in (the lady had a ziploc bag and he thought there might be treats in it for him) and then stretched out in the sun to bask.  September and October are often crazy-busy in Moab but this little hike, despite being a popular one, allowed us to avoid the crowds for a change.

Peeking around the back

twelve years

Happy move-iversary to us!  We arrived in Salt Lake City on October 3, 2009 - starting the clock on our October to September personal calendar.  In keeping with tradition, here's what we've been doing for our past year.  Like last year, this one seems a little thin: the pandemic sticking around, me not skiing, the summer's excessive heat and wildfire smoke curtailing our usual routine of hiking and biking.  As you will see (or have seen, if you're a regular reader of this little blog), we've been in Moab a LOT.  No complaints about that, though.

October 2020: Hiking at Alta; new MTB helmets; MTBing at Alta; a week in Moab, including MTBing (Moab Brand trails, Dead Horse Point State Park, Navajo Rocks), hiking (Amasa Back, Pritchett Canyon, Jeep Arch) and catching up with friends (Erica, Kylie and Mo); hiking Mt. Wire with Ted; more Moab hikes: Steelbender, Hells Revenge and the Slickrock trail.

November 2020:  Last Park City MTB with Ted; Saltfire Brewing; windy MTBing in Moab; change in the weather; homebodying and trying new recipes; ski areas slow to open up (no/low snow); Thanksgiving in Moab.

December 2020: Alta finally opens with low snow and pandemic precautions, A decides to cash in her pass and H learns that he doesn't love skiing by himself; baking projects: three kinds of bread (with varying success), scratch brownies, dog cookies and pineapple upside-down cake; Christmas in Moab.

January 2021: H drives to ski instead of taking the bus; Alta's lift lines are very l o n g; baking projects: gingerbread cake, multiple bread attempts, wholemeal muffins, applesauce bread; Baldy's Main Chute opens; no snow but bluebird ski days; long weekend in Moab with hikes on 7-Up and the Slickrock trail.

February 2021: Moab hiking: Amasa Back, Moab Brand trails (and H on his MTB), Poison Spider; baking projects: golden milk cake with vanilla frosting and a chocolate bundt cake with chocolate ganache; major snowstorm bringing nine feet of snow and putting Alta into "maximum interlodge" for sixty hours; H has a great ski day at Deer Valley with a couple of buddies.

March 2021:  Devil's Castle opens for the first time all season; Moab hiking: Four Arch Canyon, Moab Brand trails (H on his MTB), Pipedream, Moab Rim trail; baking projects: banana-nut muffins, scratch brownies, golden milk cake with vanilla frosting (two layers this time!) and a chocolate bundt cake with chocolate ganache; beers at the Hog Wallow.

April 2021: Starting to look like spring; Moab hiking: Jackson/Cliffhanger loop, Day Canyon, Moab Brand trails (with H on his MTB); spring skiing; outside beers at Campfire Lounge with Milton and inside beers at Grid City; baking: scratch brownies, pumpkin-raisin-walnut muffins; wildflowers in Moab; Alta closes for the season.

May 2021: Beers at Hog Wallow and Campfire Lounge (with Milton); afternoon with friends; week in Moab, MTBing (Moab Brand trails, Dead Horse Point State Park, Klondike Bluffs and Navajo Rocks) and hiking (Oowah Lake, Pipedream, Alcove Spring, Pritchett Canyon, Jackson's Hole); SLC hike to Avenues Twin Peaks.

June 2021: Mulching Moab; also hiking (Mary Jane slot canyon, Millcreek Canyon, Moab Rim trail) and MTBing (Moab Brand trails, Dead Horse Point State Park) Moab; beers at the Spitfire Smokehouse with Milton; MTBing with Ted (Jordanelle State Park, Round Valley); Pack Creek fire in the La Sals; beers with Milton at the Brickyard Bar.

July 2021: Hiking the Alta "ridge run;" MTBing with Ted at Round Valley; July 4th in Moab with MTBing in the usual spots and a couple of Millcreek hikes with the dog; Alta wildflowers; A goes to Maine and H rides his legs off in Moab for the week.

August 2021:  Flash floods; really bad blown-in wildfire smoke from California and Oregon; Moab MTBing and hiking (Amasa Back, Jeep Arch, Millcreek Canyon); Clementine Ranch; 20th anniversary and a hike to Ibantik Lake in the Uintas.

September 2021: Emma Ridge hike; Labor Day long weekend in Moab with hiking and MTBing; MTBing with Ted at Round Valley; Grid City roof deck with Milton, Erica and Kylie; beers with Milton at the Garage Grill; baking: rustic apple galette.

Happy twelfth move-iversary and here's to the start of a new year!

desert treasures

 No doubt about it, fall is my favorite season.  Yes, summer has its long days and winter has skiing and spring has flowers, but fall is the best.  It's cool in the mornings, pleasant during the day and chilly overnight.  The air is clear and the colors bold.  A lot of the tourists go home.  In Moab, autumn marks the return to silly season of course - spring and fall being prime desert time - but we manage to get away from the crowds.  

Killer B goes up quick

This past weekend was beautiful down there - it didn't even get up to 90F, which was just delightful, and it cooled off enough when the sun went down that we were able to drag the firepit out and light it up.  We didn't take the MTBs with us this time, instead opting for foot travel; our first hike left a pouty Milton at home because we were going into Arches National Park the back way.

Park road

On our very first time around the Bar B trail at the Moab Brand MTB trails, we came across a gate into ANP: hikers only, back country rules apply.  From the gate, an old jeep road headed south/southeast.  We decided we should come back and explore it some day.  This past weekend brought that day.  We parked in the large dirt lot off the highway between the ANP entrance and the Moab Brand trails.  This is where the Killer B MTB trail comes down and that is the trail we hiked up.  I feel very confident in saying that we will never, ever ride our MTBs on that trail.  It is super-steep, rocky and loose underfoot.  On the plus side, you gain elevation very quickly.

Rock-walking

Killer B connects to Bar B and we went into the park through that gate.  We followed the old double-track until it just disappeared near some slickrock.  Then, spotting some very sporadic cairns and random footprints in the sand, we kept heading in a southerly direction until we cliffed out overlooking the park road.  We startled a couple of big mule deer, clearly not expecting to see any humans in those parts.

There's the view

From there, we kept to the rock and in washes as best we could, checking out the view across Courthouse Wash.  Since we were up on the cliff tops, we weren't going to be able to make our way down to the road; when we started, we imagined making a loop out of it, coming out the main entrance and walking back up to the car via the paved bike path.  It was not to be, which was fine because the views were fantastic and we didn't have to share them with anyone.

These sheds had been there a while

We wandered around for a while, then found our way back to the end of that old road.  It's not my place to tell the Park Service what to do but if you're going to go to the trouble to have a back country gate into the park, it would be a good idea to have a "Trail Ends" sign or perhaps maintain a few cairns to keep people on the right path.  That gate has got to be one of the least used entrances to the park, however, so I guess they're not too worried about rampaging hordes.  Those deer shouldn't worry about being disturbed too often.

Just your typical desert scenery

Hike stats: 7.43 miles; 2:50 hours/2.6 m.p.h. moving; 3:08/2.4 overall; 1,060' elevation (and that was all on Killer B, I reckon

Imagine riding your MTB down (or up) this