Spring is finally springing in southern Utah: the skies are blue, the flowers are starting to appear and the jeepers have descended on Moab. After being entirely canceled last year, the 2021 Easter Jeep Safari kicked off its modified week last weekend. In addition to those shenanigans, it is spring break for a lot of schools, plus southern Utah is known to be open for camping. All those things added up to full motels, full campgrounds and busy trailheads. Again, I'm conflicted: I know the local businesses need the money but, gosh, it's been nice not having to share the trails.
The first weekend of the Jeep Safari is low-key, with only a couple scheduled routes. One of those was Cliffhanger, which was closed to all motorized vehicles except those on the Safari drive. We thought that might make it good to hike: we'd only be contending with hikers, MTBers and one group of jeeps, instead of also inundated with side-by-sides and dirt bikes. We decided to do a loop: up Jackson's Trail and across and down the Cliffhanger jeep road.
We parked at the Amasa Back trail head and were walking back along the Kane Creek Road a little before 9 to the Jackson trail head. Milton got his crazy on as soon as we crossed Kane Creek, running and splashing and leaping off rocks. It was cool in the shade as we followed the Colorado River but the sun was out and we were de-layering as soon as we started to climb. It was here that we saw a trailrunner wearing a race bib: he was the first of many we'd see for the Mad Moose Behind the Rocks 50-miler. Later, we looked up the course and it was awesome: starting at Behind the Rocks, coming through Pritchett and Hunter Canyons, up Hymasa, down/around/and back up Jackson Hole, down Jackson Trail and back out the Kane Creek Road to the finish.
There was an aid station at the race's turnoff for Jackson's Ladder and we saw lots of trail runners there and on the cliffy portion of Cliffhanger. We started seeing MTBers out on Hymasa as we came over the top and started descending the jeep road, and then stopped for about an hour to wait for and watch the Safari jeepers navigate one of the biggest obstacles on the route. While we were spectating, we talked with Jennifer, a BLM employee who'd been assigned to the Safari group for the day. She was super-nice, an Eastern transplant like us (grew up in Massachusetts, spent a couple years at UMaine Orono before deciding it was too cold), and gave us lots of information about some archeoastronomy sites we've been trying to find/hadn't heard about before. She liked Milton too.
Back at the car, the parking lot had filled up with hikers, MTBers, vans, Subarus and trucks. We hung out for about an hour, talking with our neighbors - Oregon, in a sprinter van with hound mix Tucker (second Maine connection of the day as the girl had gone to Bates); and New Mexico, who'd driven up for the day - while Milton made friends with everyone, human and dog alike. The guys from New Mexico just loved him. I'm not sure what he likes better, the hiking or the parking lot visiting, but one thing is for sure: Milt is glad that people have come back to Moab.
Hike stats: 6.96 miles; 2:36 hours/2.8 m.p.h. moving average; 4;17/2.4 overall; 1,080' elevation
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment