juniper mesa

 We took a long weekend down in Moab this last weekend but instead of taking the Friday off, we took Monday instead ... and as a result I don't know what day it is and am frantically playing catch-up on everything.  That is all to say that I've still not gotten the photos in order.  So we'll go in reverse and here's what we did on Monday.

The face when he doesn't get to go

Milton had not gotten to go Saturday or Sunday because we went MTBing and it's just too far and too hot for him right now.  He was very sad about it, refusing to eat his breakfast, but then promptly forgot all about it when we came home (and then he ate).  When Monday rolled around, H and I tried to come up with a place where Milt and I could hike while H MTBed.  We landed on the outer reaches of the Sand Flats Road, where the Juniper Trail (for hiking) is not too far from the new Falcon Flow Trail (for MTBing).  

The face when he does get to go

We three had hiked the Juniper Trail in June 2019: it's a short, 1.9 lollipop with terrific views.  Milton and I headed out there directly, with Milt a little concerned that H wasn't coming with us.  As soon as he scared up some lizards he was fine, although he did stick pretty close to me.  He thought it was pretty hot too, and took advantage of the short juniper trees scattered on top of the mesa to get in some shade whenever he could  We did the loop part of the trail twice - just to get enough mileage in - and only saw a few other people: one older woman, hiking alone; and a young family of four.  When we got back to the truck, we camped out under a tree until H got back from his ride.

Dog with a view

I had had high hopes for Falcon Flow but H was less than enthusiastic about it.  Even taking away how hot he was from the two mile uphill return via the Sand Flats Road, he said that it was very sandy, with lots of sharp corners on cliffs.  Plus his rear brakes weren't at 100%, all of which added up to a less-than-stellar ride.

To wrap up on a high note, then, we drove back down to the Slickrock Trailhead parking lot, nabbed a covered picnic table and drank our post-activity beers in the shade.  Milton kept himself entertained by periodically sprinting the length of the parking lot to chase some ground squirrels.  He never caught any: Squirrels 1 Milton 0.