so much up

Saturday (we'll get back to Friday) was a great day.  It was clear and pleasant, sunny and about 70 F.  We left around 8:45 a.m. and drove up to the Sand Flats Recreation Area, home of the famed Slickrock Trail.  That trail is way above my MTB skill set, however, so we had something else in mind: riding the Sand Flats road all the way out to where the Porcupine Rim trail comes in.  From the Slickrock parking lot, this road starts out going up immediately and doesn't really let up.  Ever.

 Up

Vehicle traffic faded away after we passed the Fins N Things turn-offs and we had the road to ourselves for long stretches.  It's a dirt road, kind of soft, a little sandy, with occasion stretches of wonderful hardpack.

Up up up

And it is definitely up.  There were several steep sections but when it flattened out, we were still going up and I was SO SLOW.  I felt like I couldn't move forward at all.  But I'm pretty good at climbing hills and I just put my head down and kept going.

H with Moab Valley behind him

We turned around just past the Porcupine trail and went back the way we came, even though the road keeps going, into Colorado where it turns into the Kokopelli Trail and will take you to Fruita.  We had a slight uphill - and a wonderful tailwind so we flew up it - and then it was downhill for nearly seven miles, back to the truck.  What had taken me 1.5 hours on the outbound leg only took half an hour for the return: coasting down 1,200+ feet is much easier and faster than climbing up it.

Water troughs at Porcupine Rim trail

That afternoon, we put on old sneakers and took Milton to Millcreek Canyon.  This is a well-known spot where the locals go to cool off in the desert heat.  It is also off-leash and since it is a narrow, high-walled canyon, we felt okay letting Milton run free for a change.

Exploring

We hiked slowly up the north fork of the canyon to the first pour-off/pool, with multiple stream crossings and many people and dogs for Milt to meet.  Then we found a trail that kept going upstream and, since most folks had stopped at that first pool, the crowds really thinned out.  We kept going until we got to a second pool; the canyon keeps going, however, and it would be fun to keep exploring further.

Gorgeous day

Milt did really well off-leash: he would run ahead but then stop and look back to make sure we were following; he came back when H called him; he was interested in the other dogs but not obnoxiously so; and he had no qualms about wading right into the water.

Diving right in

We returned home a couple of hours later, got cleaned up and went to Woody's for drinks, leaving an exhausted Milton asleep on the bed, feet twitching as he presumably dreamed of wading in the creek.