amongst the blossoms

The reason we've only been hiking lately is that the truck has been out of commission and the Subaru doesn't have a hitch, which we need for the bike rack, which we need to go MTBing.  So when we got the truck back from the shop, we were long overdue for some riding. 

Ridin' around 

This pandemic is wreaking havoc on our fitness (in addition to wreaking havoc on everything).  I haven't been motivated to run from home, at most taking the dog for three mile half-walks/half-jogs.  H, meanwhile, has been chomping at the bit to get back on his road bike now that the weather has turned nice, but wasn't really good about getting on his rollers when it was inclement.  All that is to say: when we got to the MOAB Brand Trails and got on our MTBs, neither of us had much in the way of legs.

Cactus in bloom

But the morning was glorious.  Clear blue sky, no clouds, no wind, bright sunshine and temperatures reaching into the mid-70s.  It truly doesn't get much better than that.  Unless you add in sparsely-populated trails.  Because we only saw a handful of people and never anyone on the trails where we were.

So delicate

To get back into things, we just did our standard two loops of Rusty Spur and the Bar M trail.  The herd of range cows that overwintered in the area were not kind to some of the trails, trampling them into sand pits.  Even sandy swaths couldn't bring the mood down, though - it was just too nice a day.

Staying cool

The spring flowers are really coming out too.  We saw desert primrose, claret cup and barrel (?) cactus, all in bloom.  I love the desert wildflowers.  They're so delicate and only here for a short time but they are bright and cheerful in a harsh environment.  They're hopeful.

Snowline is rising

Milton was not psyched about our MTBing since he doesn't get to go, so after we were done riding, I took him on a short hike in the Sand Flats Recreation Area: out to the Grandstaff Canyon overlook via Fins 'N Things.  Thank goodness it was a short hike: it's been a while since I've done double-sessions!  It wasn't too hot but the late April sun is strong so I made Milt wear a white t-shirt.  He can overheat, with his black fur absorbing the sun, so the t-shirt was an attempt to reflect some of that energy.  It certainly didn't dampen any of his energy as there were lots and lots of lizards to chase.  By the time we were back at the truck to drive home, he was worn out and had forgiven - or at least forgotten - being left behind for MTBing in the morning.

Ride stats:  17.95 miles; 1:48 time; 9.9 m.p.h. average speed (H's)

return (again) to fins 'n things

Milton certainly prefers the weekends when we don't go MTBing.  With the truck still in the shop, and with no hitch on the Subaru for the bike rack, this was another one of those weekends.  We went back out to the Sand Flats Recreation Area to knock off a section of Fins 'N Things that we hadn't done yet.

Milton in motion 

We parked at the radio tower again and walked in on the cut-off.  When we got to the Fins 'N Things 4x4 trail, we turned right(-ish), walking against the direction of traffic and towards the turn-off for the Grandstaff Canyon overlook.  At that intersection, however, we stayed on FNT, heading in a south-ish direction, and following a very pretty wash.

A branch of Grandstaff Canyon

This section of FNT was mostly sandy, with a few sandstone humps and ledges to get over.  It is well-mapped with clear signs at most intersections so even though we didn't know where we were going, we mostly knew where we were.  Milton, of course, didn't care where we were because the lizards were out for him to chase.

Back to the sandstone fins

We connected with the Porcupine 4x4 which took us to an overlook over what we assumed as a fork of Grandstaff Canyon.  There was nobody out there and it was awesome.  After walking the gravel roads a while, we reconnected with FNT (more sand, more slickrock fins) which eventually took us back to the Sand Flats road, right across from the Pinyon Trail interpretive hike. 

No vehicles out there, just us

To make a loop out of it, we walked back (1+ mile) on the Sand Flats road.  In normal times, this would have been made miserable with choking dust from all the recreational vehicle traffic; this time, however, only two or three vehicles passed us.  It was so quiet we almost could have let Milton off his leash.

We collected the truck and drove back to the Slickrock trailhead parking lot for our snacks and beers.  There were a few other folks there and as the wind picked up, we watched a couple of them trying to launch kites.

Hike stats: 7.08 miles; moving 2:24 / 2.9 m.p.h.; overall 2;49 / 2.5 m.p.h.; 810' elevation

how spring is your valley

We didn't plan ahead very well and ended up casting about for a Saturday hike right then on Saturday morning (despite best intentions to start making plans the night before).  As it was already 9 a.m. - a late start for April hiking in Moab, even during a pandemic - we decided on Hidden Valley since the drive to the trailhead would be quick.  Even so, there were at least five other cars in the parking lot, which is more than we've seen all winter and spring.  Hidden Valley is a popular hike and we weren't surprised by the other people.

 In his happy place (mine too)

With Milton happily ranging ahead, we made quick work of the initial steep uphill section where we passed a young family on their way up and a couple of couples on their way down.  To our surprise, we were passed by two trail runner dudes on their way up - they were really fast because it wasn't like we were poking along.

View towards the Colorado River

Once we got up to the valley portion, we had the trail to ourselves.  It was a gorgeous morning, super-pleasant in the sunshine, and we both agreed that we could walk on a trail like that forever: smooth surface, firm but not hard underfoot, with just a gradual incline.  The scenery helps too, with the green grasses surrounded by the red rock cliffs.

A dude and his dog

When we got to the pass, we decided to keep going down to find the Moab Rim trail; our hope is to one day make a giant loop out of these two trails.  We weren't exactly sure where the trail junction was, however, and wanted to do a little recon.  It's actually not that far, easily found, and when we realized where we were on the map, we got more eager to do that loop.  We didn't have enough food or water for it, especially not with Milton, so we've saved that for another day. 

Clouds on the La Sals, per usual

We did find another trail that we hadn't done and that was doable, an out-and-back to a Moab valley overlook.  There was some up involved: it was actually a pretty steep jeep road, some gravel with some sections of giant, smooth slabs.  Just before we got to the top, it got steeper, curving up a slickrock bowl to the rim. 

Doesn't get much prettier than that

The views were fantastic, showing the whole Moab valley from the La Sals and Ken's Lake to Arches National Park, with the Sand Flats Recreation Area directly across from us.  Our return trip retraced our steps.  We saw quite a few more hikers as we finished up the valley section, including two large groups, and a lot of dogs.  Despite the people, we still heard the trilling of canyon wrens as we finished up the rocky section and got back to the car.

Tired and happy.  And dirty.

Milton, once again, may have overdone it.  After a bowl of water and a handful of dog biscuits, he napped in the dirt while we drank our beers, not even lifting his head when other hikers walked past.  It was never hot during our walk but it is the end of April, which means that the sun is getting stronger.  Since he is an all-black dog, he can overheat so we're working on something to help with that.  In the meantime, he still likes to bake himself in the spring sunshine after a hike.  Who doesn't?

Hike stats:  7.93 miles; moving 2:34 / 3.1 m.p.h; overall 3:12 / 2.5 m.p.h.; 1,790' elevation

season post-mortem

Apologies for the currently missing photos on my most recent posts; the Blogger host seems to be experiencing some technical difficulties.  They're supposed to be working on a fix but if I get the chance, I'll restore those photos myself.

In the meantime, before I share our previous weekend in the desert with you, I guess I should do a little 2019/2020 ski season wrap-up.  Our last day of skiing was March 8th, just days before this country shut down, like the rest of the planet, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.   After that, one by one, the ski areas began to close to help keep community spread of the virus down.  This past Sunday (April 19th) would have been Alta's official closing day/Frank celebration.  There was decent snowfall after that - year-to-date snowfall total was 538", above average for the last ten years - and many, many folks went back-country, so many that the Alta town officials closed the parking area in Grizzly Gulch because too many people were congregating too closely.  These are weird times.

Because of the shortened season, H only got twenty-three ski days in.  Me, I just barely paid for my season pass at twelve days.  We had good snow early and then, after our friend Will was in town in early February, the storms sort of dried up.  It all just sort of fizzled out - weird times indeed.

No word yet on season passes.  The 2020/2021 ski season could be affected by the virus.  People may not have the money for season passes, depending on what the economy does.  We'll just have to see what happens.  At least we've got options.  And I know Milton wouldn't mind if we skied less and hiked in the desert more!

So raise your glasses in remembrance of the short, strange 2019/2020 ski season.  May we ski more, longer, better and safer next season!

further explorations into grandstaff canyon

Grandstaff Canyon is an impressive canyon.  Most (and many, many) people know it as the route to Morning Glory Arch but that isn't even on the main fork of the canyon.  There is very little access to the main fork and, as such, we've had a great time exploring ways to get into it since little access means fewer people.  We've gone at it from the main fork and from a couple forays along the Porcupine Rim Trail and Porcupine Rim 4x4 trail.  But back in December, we found a less-traveled trail from the Grandstaff overlook off Fins 'N Things and we've had it on our minds since then.  Sunday, we checked it out.

 Heading down in

We drove into the Sand Flats Recreation Area and parked by the radio tower, then went in the cutoff to the intersection of Fins 'N Things/Porcupine Rim 4x4/overlook spur.  We saw just a few older tracks in the sand but nothing recent; this hike would once again be one we had all to ourselves.  From the overlook, we went through the gap in the fence, marked by a WSA (Wilderness Study Area) flap pole, and began our descent into a fork of Grandstaff Canyon.

Trees at the bottom of the canyon = water in the creek

The trail (mostly dirt and sand with a few ledge sections) was narrow, for foot traffic only, and at first descended fairly steeply to get from the canyon rim to the creek.  As we continued down the branch towards the main canyon, however, the creek dropped more quickly than the trail did and we soon found ourselves high up the canyon wall.  It got a little edge-y in a couple of spots - although nothing as terrifying as the Portal Trail - and we did end up putting Milton on his leash for a while.  He seems to have pretty good instincts along cliff edges but we think that if he saw a squirrel scurry by, he would pounce first and think later.  No sense taking chances.

At the lunch rocks

After about 1.5 hours, we got back down to the creek.  The trail faded away at this point and, given the nice, flat rocks along the creek, I figure the few people who hike this trail come down for lunch/beers on those rocks before heading back up.  We did note a side canyon across the way which might merit some exploring at a later date.

You can see where we joined the main fork

Although it was cooler than Saturday had been, the sun was peeking in and out from the clouds, so we took a pause to apply sunscreen before retracing our steps.  We had thought the return trip might be a bit of a grind, given that we had done nothing but descend for an hour and a half.  But it was never particularly steep, just a steady climb, and we made good time with the good footing.

Hike stats:  6.34 miles; moving 2:22 / 2.7 m.p.h.; overall 2:41 / 2.4 m.p.h.; 1,010' elevation (strangely the same as the day before)

sovereign trail system

Sometimes it feels like we've hiked everything in the greater Moab area, at least everything that we can access without a jeep or a shuttle car.  This isn't true, of course, as there are so many trails and dirt roads out there.  Case in point: on Saturday we drove north of town on 191 and turned right onto the Dalton Wells Road.  At first I thought we'd been out there before, forgetting that the Klonzo trail system is off the Willow Springs Road.  But when we pulled into the large-ish parking area at the Sovereign system trailhead, it was clear that this was new territory for us.

Boys in the desert

Apparently the Sovereign system was one of the first areas developed for dirt- and mountain-biking in Moab.  There are OHV-accessible trails and non-motorized-only trails, all crisscrossing each other.  Unfortunately, we didn't have any sort of map so we were just winging it, although we did manage to stick mostly to the Salt Wash singletrack.  I'd really like to go back with a good map, detailing all the linking trails.  But we did okay and the trails are all well-signed.

An excellent, sandy wash

We were literally the only ones out there (if you don't count the range cows).  That was amazing.  The trails were pretty amazing too, a mixture of packed dirt, sand, slickrock, loose chunks and some very steep downhills (hill-climbing not recommended so as not to damage the trail surface with spin-outs).  It's pretty much cross-country riding, with a couple of exciting pitches to keep things interesting.

Salt Wash singletrack

We left the parking lot heading south-ish on sandy doubletrack, crossing a couple of washes before finding a sign for the Salt Wash singletrack and turning north/northeast-ish onto it.  From there the terrain was much more varied than I had expected: I thought we were in for a day of tromping through flat, sandy desert but instead we alternated climbing over rocky ridges and traipsing through narrow, flat meadows and washes before coming out onto the slickrock at the eastern edge of the trail system.

Edge of the slickrock section

The skies were clear and temperatures got warm but never hot.  It even got warm enough that some lizards came out, much to Milton's delight.  Lizard-chasing is one of his favorite things ever.  Luckily, he's not very good at it.  Because of the sun, and because we hadn't gotten a very early start, we were cognizant of how long we were out; Milton can overheat because of his black coat.  When we were ready to head back to the car, we weren't sure that the trail we were on would take us there.  We were on top of one of those rocky ridges, however, with a clearly-defined wash heading in the right direction.  So we bushwhacked back to the trailhead, walking only on rock and in the wash, and managed to get back there in under a mile with only a few scratches on our legs from the thorny tumbleweeds.

Art shot

When we got back to the car, we were still the only ones there.  A lot of times, we will be the first people parked at a trailhead, only to have it filled up by the time we finish.  Not this time.  We still had the place to ourselves, under gorgeous blue April skies, with only a couple of range cows for company. 

Fancy graphics! 

Hike stats: 7.55 miles; moving 2:37 / 2.9 m.p.h.; overall 3:03 / 2.5 m.p.h; 1,010' elevation

behind the rocks

Sunday's hike was on the Behind the Rocks 4x4 road.  There a couple of entrances to the maze of trails in the Behind the Rocks WSA; we ended up at the first trailhead off of 191, just south of Ken's Lake.  The ambient temperature was warmer than it had been on Saturday but there were more thin clouds, so the sun wasn't very strong, and it was rather windy.

Another one of those great signs

Not super-busy at the trailhead (that's the truck there all by itself)

After passing the sign and maps, the road got rocky right away, going up Rubble Hill - very up, in some places.   In general, the road/trail is sandy but it crosses many small canyons and washes and each of those is rocky and ledge-y.  After Rubble Hill and the barbed wire fence we had to refasten behind ourselves (because of theoretical range cattle), we went down a long, steep, red sand hill, with stunning sandstone domes and fins to our right (north-ish).  It did not escape our notice that we were going to have to climb that long, steep, sandy hill on our way out.

Atop Rubble Hill

Fins and things

Again, since we were on foot and with a dog who doesn't know how to pace himself, we only got in a little ways.  The hiking was easy, however, and went quickly as we cruised the sandy double-track.  We did get past one of the gnarlier obstacles on the trail: High Dive, into a small canyon, and its accompanying Upchuck Hill, to climb out on the other side.  To see this obstacle in person - I couldn't imagine a jeep coming down it.  But later we searched out some videos and yes, jeeps do.  Crazy.

Milton and me at the bottom of High Dive

After more than four miles, we paused for snacks - Milton gets Milkbones during hikes because he burns so many calories - and then went back out the way we came.  We didn't see a soul until we had just gotten to the top of that long, steep, red sand hill and then we saw two jeeps and then, just a few minutes later, two hikers with two dogs.  Pretty good job of staying away from people.

Long, steep, red sand hill

After the hike, we went back to Ken's Lake for our beers.  We didn't stay as long this time because it was quite a bit chillier with the increased wind.  We did have some minor excitement on the way back to Salt Lake City.  At one point we heard a noise from the front of the truck.  We stopped, got out and looked but saw nothing; we checked another couple of times during the drive - just in case - but still saw nothing wrong.  About 1.5 miles from our house, we heard another, bigger noise and H could feel something was now wrong through the steering wheel.  By the time we pulled into our driveway, our wheel looked like this (below) ... and also was on fire a little bit.  So we doused the flames, unloaded our gear, walked Milton and then toasted the safe and sound end to another nice desert weekend.

Broken tie rod?  Issues with the wheel bearings?

Hike stats: 8.49 miles; moving 2:58 / 2.9 m.p.h; overall 3:27 / 2.5 m.p.h; 1,650' elevation

steelbender

Continuing in our quest to explore places that would be very, very busy this time of year (i.e., the Moab Easter Jeep Safari week, sadly canceled for the first time in 53 years due to the pandemic), we checked out Ken's Lake and the Steelbender 4x4 trail on Saturday.  It was by far the best weather we've had since October: clear skies, sunny and temperatures almost reaching 70.

Somewhere along the Rock Trail

Milton at the top of the falls' spillover

The Ken's Lake recreation area consists of a small man-made reservoir that allows swimming, fishing and non-motorized boating, a campground (currently closed) and short hiking/equestrian trails.  Dogs need to be kept on a leash while in the recreation area.

Seems plausible

I love these metal signs

We walked around the reservoir, explored the Rock Trail and then went up to Faux Falls, created when they diverted part of Mill Creek by drilling a tunnel through a sandstone dome.  There is a trail to looker's right of the falls that continues up the hillside to where the diverted creek comes through the rock, and then connected with the Flat Pass Road.  Flat Pass Road becomes the Steelbender trail and that's where we went.

Heading down the Flat Pass road

View of the La Sals from Steelbender

It was very pretty back in there, with the snow-covered La Sals looming above and the walls of Mill Creek Canyon starting to rise up.  The road started as dirt, following along the creek and passing some pictographs and old (c. 1905) cowboy graffiti.  When it crossed the creek, the trail surface changed to cobbles, ledges and slickrock shelves, at least as far as we followed it.  It was climbing steadily but not steeply after we crossed the creek.

A gentle section of Steelbender

The 4x4 trail itself is about ten miles long, coming out further north in a Spanish Valley neighborhood.  According to the Jeep Safari booklet, it is rated a 6 out of 10, with the difficulty changing from year to year as erosion changes the various obstacles.  We didn't get out that far on it since we'd spent time on the Ken's Lake trails, but it's not unreasonable to think a person could hike the whole trail with a shuttle vehicle.

Shorts and a light fleece - hooray for spring!

The clouds were building over the La Sals when we got back to the truck.  There were fifteen or so other vehicles around, with locals fishing, walking dogs, reading and picnicking on the shores, but consciously physically distant from one another.  We perched on the tailgate for a couple of beers, Milton sprawled out below us, all of soaking up the sunshine.  What a gorgeous day.

Hike stats: 7.63 miles; moving 2:44 / 2.8 m.p.h; overall 3:23 / 2.2 m.p.h; 1,160' elevation