river walk

 Saturday wasn't the nicest day - cool to start, then warmed up a little; cloudy for most of the day - so we decided to do a family town walk and did pretty much the whole paved bike path in Moab, and then some.  We started out by Rotary Park, took the tunnel under 400 East, moseyed over the creek a couple of times and under Main Street.  Continuing north along 100 West, we passed Swanny Park and picked up the most recent segment of the bike path, crossing 191 by Lin Ottinger's Rock Shop.  We crossed back over to the west side of 191 just a little further on because we wanted to check out a gate and a kiosk just north of the Aarchway Inn: it's an entrance into the Matheson Wetlands Preserve.  We didn't go in, though, because no dogs allowed; there also don't seem to be any trails at this northern end although the southern end does.

We kept going north on the sidewalk and were delighted to discover that there's a pedestrian walkway under 191 to the Lions Park.  From here, we took the foot bridge across the Colorado River, pausing to check out how low the river was at the town put-in, then kept going upriver along an unsigned trail.  It was clear that lots of people have gone in here but we didn't see anyone on our way in.  We didn't have a goal in mind - we just wanted to see how far we'd get.  The trail goes between the cliffs and the river, through flood sections and tamarisk groves (yuck tamarisk).  When we found a little sign saying that we were crossing into Arches National Park, we stopped because no dogs allowed.  The trail kept going, however, and we were curious to come back sometime without Milt to see just how far it continues.  I can't imagine it goes too far as the cliffs come right down to the riverbanks, but it would be fun to see.

So we retraced our steps and then went south on the paved path alongside 191.  At this point, it was late enough in the day that MTBers started passing us on their way back to town from the Whole Enchilada.  We crossed 191 at Ottinger's again and when we got to the Spitfire, the beers just called our name.  While Milton loves going on walks, this may have been his favorite part of the whole day: making friends with a group of millenials from New York and charming several MTBers.

You can see why Milton likes going to bars

By the time we got home, we'd done 10.23 miles - not too shabby for a stroll about town.