equinox skiing

Looking at the weather for the spring equinox weekend - warm-ish and dry on Saturday; stormy on Sunday - I switched up my routine and skied Saturday instead.  My ski pants and storm coat are so old as to barely be wet weather resistant (even with waterproofing spray) and I just don't like skiing soggy.  We had to stand on the bus ride up (there were seats in the back but it was just easier to stand) and it got busy by 10 a.m.  We managed five runs on Supreme before any line showed up, but when we moved on to Sugarloaf, we went straight to the singles line.  We rode singles at Collins too although for some reason the lines at Collins have - all year, really - moved faster than Sugarloaf.  Go figure.

Knowing that he'd have some solo storm skiing on Sunday, H took his telemark gear on Saturday.  Even though he hasn't done it too much lately due to extreme boot discomfort, he's still good enough that he is faster than me now.  We spent some time in the Ballroom, working the bumps there: they weren't too big and were pretty soft and both of us needed the practice.  We skied until our feet were numb and then caught the 1:29 bus down canyon.  The small storm that we'd had midweek had softened things up somewhat and allowed Alta to get all their terrain open.  By noon it was getting scratchy, though, and everyone was looking forward to Sunday's storm.

Saturday sunshine

Milton and I did homebody stuff (met dogs on our walk, made soup and chocolate chip cookies and pickled red onions and homemade bread, put away a ridiculous amount of clean laundry, etc.) and H got on a standing room only bus for Alta.  At the upper end of the bypass road, the bus (brand new) broke down, unable to get into gear coming around the corner.  H volunteered to watch for traffic as the bus backed down and onto the shoulder.  Then, he and a bunch of other folks just got off the bus and walked up to Alta.  H took it one step further, walking along the tow rope up to the Albion lodge: he was pretty sweaty by the time he got there but at least he didn't have to pay $15 for a day locker.

Sunday snow

It snowed the whole time he was up there, consistently although it hadn't stacked up too deep by the time he left, and enough to soak and freeze his outer layers.  The snow had a high water content and clumped up quickly; H was able to ski through the bumps and clumps but if I'd gone, I would have been pinballing off them.  There were lots fewer people due to the storm but a number of those there were impressed with the ice mask he was sporting.  He again hopped on the 1:29 down bus and, despite some slush and a couple of slide-offs to work around, got home quite quickly.  Typical Utah spring, swinging from 60 F to a big ol' snowstorm in less than 24 hours.

taking advantage of the time change

Hooray for Daylight Savings!  We are full-on Daylight Savings proponents over here, not least because it means we can stay later in Moab before having to drive back north.  Because we had some wiggle room with the additional daylight, H suggested that we hike the whole of the Slickrock trail up at the Sandflats Recreational Area.  We've hiked portions of it numerous times but had only hiked all of it once, back in 2018, when it rained pretty much the whole time.  It would not rain this time.

It was warmish but with a high, thin layer of clouds that kept it from getting truly.  There were a few vehicles in the lot when we started; we saw just three MTBers going our way early on but then began seeing lots more folks (MTBs, dirtbikes, jeeps and 4x4s) as the morning wore on.  This trail is super-popular and just a little later into the spring it will be unwise to hike with Milton off-leash, due to all the traffic (both human and fossil fuel powered).  For now, we let him have free rein, only holding onto him a couple of times when MTBers came close - this ride is tough enough without having to avoid an oblivious dog too.

Desert boys

This trail isn't the most difficult 8+ mile hike we've ever done ... but it isn't easy.  It is well-marked with blazes and trail signs and the slickrock is grippy and good to walk on.  But there is way more elevation gain than you might think and a lot of the climbs, while short or short-ish, are very, very steep.  The next day I would feel it in my quads from holding back on the downhills.  It's a great hike, though, and since it's so popular, there's plenty of opportunity to watch various attempts at various obstacles by various vehicles.

Hike stats: 8.66 miles; moving 2:53 hours/3.0 m.p.h.; overall 2:59/2.9; 1,910' elevation

round and round we go

 Saturday proved warmer than Friday, perfect for a Moab Brand trails excursion.  Due to increasing gas prices, we opted to bring the Subaru so this was one of those H: MTB/A: hike deals; Milton, that lucky dog, would get to do a little of each.  We are definitely edging towards full season and there were quite a few vehicles already in the lot when we got there.  As H did some on-site bike maintenance, Milt and I headed out on foot.  The dog kept checking back over his shoulder, expecting H to catch us, but by the time we had gotten across the parking lot cut-off to the Bar M double track, he had switched focus and was ranging far and wide, sniffing out critters.  I was grateful that he hadn't seen the desert cottontail that I saw - he'd likely be chasing after it still.

La Sals

We segued from Bar M to Circle O and I had a moment of indecision about layering: it was warm in long sleeves but cool with the breeze in short sleeves.  I stuck with long sleeves and, once we turned to head north, I was happy with the decision.  Milt didn't care either way, running and sniffing and yet careful to check back in with me.  A couple of groups of four MTBers passed us while we were out on the rock but however many people were in the parking lot, they weren't out on the rock with us.

Arches NP

As we neared the end of Circle O, we saw a group of MTBers about a quarter mile away: four guys going the way we were and H solo, coming towards us.  Milton saw them, paused until he was able to pick H out from the other (I do not know how he does it at that distance) and then took off like a bat out of hell, leaping and bounding until he had caught up with him.  H waved to me and then the two of them headed out, back to Bar M, around the now-posted far end and then down the hill by the North 40 to catch the sandy double-track back to the car.  I had gotten there first and had snacks/beers ready and waiting.  The parking lot had filled in somewhat: Milton was tired but not so tired that he couldn't introduce himself to the folks on either side of us.

Ride stats: 13.26 miles (H on MTB)

monitor and merrimac

The Mill Canyon area north of Moab is becoming one of my favorite off-season places to explore: it's easy walking, there are tons of trails and it doesn't see much winter visitation.  In the spring, it will start getting very busy with trail riders and horse campers but right about now, it seems to be just us and the occasional dinosaur fan, with a random MTBer now and again.  And cows - quite a lot of range cows, now beginning to be accompanied by adorable spring calves.

Not entirely sure how they picked just this one spot for this sign

Since we don't have reliable 4WD right now, we prefer not to go too deep into the dirt roads that will get us out towards the Bartlett slickrock (which is on my list tho').  Instead, this time we revisted a trail we'd done in 2012, on one of our earliest desert expeditions: the Monitor and Merrimac MTB trail.  Back then, we did it as a lollipop; this time, we did it more like this trail description from Utahmountainbiking.com.  Either way, it doesn't actually take you out to those two monoliths, it just has terrific views of them.  If you really want to get out there, you can find connecting jeep roads.

H in a little side wash

The trail starts just past the halfway stage station and is limited here to hikers and MTBers.  I didn't remember much about this stretch of the trail as it follows an occasional creek bed, other than it had been really, frustratingly sandy in spots when we tried to ride it.  This first bit doesn't take long, however, and soon enough we were out on the slickrock.  This is great walking (and riding), smooth and non-technical, although it does climb steadily all the way out to the far end of a smaller butte.  

This one weird little sand dune

The weather was magnificent, with clear skies and cool enough temperatures that we weren't overheating in long sleeves and trousers.  Occasional ravens called to us as Milton stretched his legs, seeking out critters.  At the far end of the butte, there are options.  When we rode this trail before, we did a lollipop, circling the butte but going back in the way we came.  The trail link up above says that the white-blazed trail actually goes back via Mill Canyon, keeping to the slickrock until it joins the trail in the wash at the mouth of the canyon.

Formations to inspect

We were heading to Mill Canyon so as to make a loop out of it, but as soon as we could dive into the wash straight from the rock, we did.  There weren't any impassable pour-offs and only a couple of choked spots, so we managed to keep to the wash all the way down to the dinosaur bones trail.  As we got closer to the mouth of the canyon, natural springs started popping up: these reliable sources of water explain why they built mills in this canyon.  Milton enjoyed splashing although he was a little confused by the ice a couple of times.

Love me some wash hiking

There were a couple of people checking out the dinosaur bone trail as we went by and then, back at the car for beers/snacks, we talked with some more tourists who had come out on a dinosaur hunt.  They were there for the tracksite by the parking lot (currently closed while the BLM repairs the boardwalk) but were excited to learn about the bones trail.

Hike stats:  6.53 miles; moving 2:21 hours/2.8 m.p.h.; overall 2:37/2.5; 620' elevation

spring is springing

 Although Utah needs more winter - and a LOT more winter, given the current state of the snowpack - it is apparent that spring is starting to spring up.  There are crocuses (crocii?) poking their cheery heads up in some locations while in southern Utah, the cacti (cactuses?) are getting fuzzy.  I think they're just adorable.

Lil fuzzy nodes

We spent a long weekend in Moab last weekend and have a couple of hikes to share.  More to come!

decisions were made

 After the driest January and February on record (for Utah - and wow, is that not good), the state finally got a bit of snow.  Everyone got excited about it, with the possibility of 2+ feet, and a substantial drop in the very mild temperatures we've been having.  It was supposed to snow both Saturday and Sunday: warmer and wetter on Saturday, quite cold on Sunday.  I was only planning to ski one day and I was waffling: should I go Saturday, with the warmer temperatures but the likelihood of getting soaked - my ski gear is all rather old and not so much waterproof anymore, although I did hit it with a waterproofing spray - or go Sunday with forecasted negative windchills and very cold feet.

I decided to be a homebody with Milton on Saturday (long walk, laundry, changing burned out lightbulbs, chocolate chip cookies, prepping for chili on Sunday and making a new tofu schwarma with roasted za'atar broccoli for dinner) while H went up to Alta.  It was very busy, with everyone just ravenous at the idea of new snow: the bus was SRO but since the roads weren't snow-covered, the drive up only took 15-20 minutes longer than usual.  It barely snowed while he was up there, just a couple of inches, and it was so warm that it was basically raining down low.  Notable quote: H was skiing singles and on one lift ride, the lifty added him to a group of three, saying, "You guys get to ride up with the best mustache on the mountain," and once on the chair, one of the guys said to H, "You must be a local with that mustache!"

Now locked into my decision to ski Sunday, I checked the forecast which was now saying, 6"+ overnight and possibly 7"+ during the day, high 18 F, windchills around -4.  I was waffling: I figured out what to wear but then brought my powder skis up from the basement, figuring that if they got a foot, I'd take those, but eight or under would go with my Salomons since that amount would get churned up quickly.  In the morning, Alta had only gotten six inches in the last 24 hours, and the daytime amount was dropped to no more than 3-4 inches; we'd only gotten enough at the house to cover the grass while in town got a whopping ten inches, knocking out power in some spots.

We got on the 7:20 bus and it was the busiest it has been all year; we hit the red snake of slowed/stopped traffic well before reaching the mouth of the canyon; with so many people getting off at Snowbird, we were about forty minutes behind schedule.  We were still ahead of the game, however, as a vehicle behind us slid and blocked canyon traffic: it took some people 2.5 hours to get up the canyon while those of us who had gotten off early were THRILLED at having no lift lines until well after 11 a.m.  That was fantastic.

So fluffy here

The new snow was fantastic too - super light and fluffy - although it really was fluff on crust, as you quickly cut through it to the hard, scratchy old snow below.  When we went into Catherine's, the top part skied great - H thinks it was the deepest he's skied all year (sad) - but we had to work our way around giant, frozen bumps towards the run out.  We did a couple of low tree runs through a couple of the gates on Rock N' Roll (pretty nice), then transitioned to Sugarloaf.  I went in to warm up for fifteen minutes, then we did a run down Chartreuse (fluff on crusty bumps) and moved over to Collins.  The visibility was worse there, as it was snowing slightly harder, so I retreated to Sugarloaf while H stuck it out on the front side for several runs.

We found each other at the Sugarloaf base just before 1 p.m.  I skied out with very cold feet and a crick in my neck from bouncing off a bump wrong while H did two more runs.  We caught the 1:30 p.m. bus down and, the road being clear and even dry towards the bottom, got delivered back to the park-n-ride a couple minutes ahead of schedule.  I had been regretting deciding to ski Sunday until I actually skied: it turned out to be warmer than I expected and the snow was fun - no regrets required.

not quite spring skiing, not yet

The perils of not posting within days of the activity (or at least writing some notes shortly thereafter) are that all the details get forgotten, especially when it's skiing during a[nother] low snow year.  All the days run together without anything to differentiate them - it's been all blue skies and beaten down snow.  

In the Ballroom

On the last weekend in February, H skied by himself on Saturday, while Milton and I did a long walk, vacuumed, baked cookies, tried a new curry recipe and folded mounds of clean laundry.  He reported a full bus ride up, the usual lift line incompetencies and, for something new and fun, nearly getting hit by other skiers three different times.  He's got quick reflexes, however, and managed to avoid all of them; one impressed bystander even commented, "Dude! Nice moves!"

I went up with him on Sunday.  The bus was full enough that we opted to stand, rather than squeezing into seats, but we were the only ones standing and the 7:20 bus got us to the Albion lodge right around 8 a.m.  It seemed pretty busy to me: the Sugarloaf lines were quite long, so we only skied a few runs there, instead sticking to Supreme and Collins where things seemed to be moving quickly.  The snow was "chalky," which is Western-speak for New England's "packed powder," and I think the reason that it felt busy was that most people were sticking to the groomers as the off-piste stuff was pretty firm.  We did one run through the Ballroom (pictured above), however, and that was decent.

We kept at it until a little after 1 p.m., catching the 1:29 bus down canyon.  My feet were pretty frozen by then although it was partly sunny and had been steadily warming since the morning; once my toes get cold, they just don't warm up regardless of how balmy it gets later.  And it was getting balmy, being March already and all.  When did that happen?  Where did the winter go?  Hopefully we'll get some more storms before the season is over - the snowpack is looking awfully thin for water reasons.

On Sunday,

echo and abyss

When H proposed going to Grandstaff Canyon and exploring the righthand fork on Sunday, I thought he was crazy.  Go to Grandstaff Canyon on a gorgeous Sunday in the middle of a holiday weekend?  It'll be packed!  It was pretty busy, once we finished up, but we got there early enough to snag a parking spot in the trailhead lot plus we didn't see anybody once we got off the main trail.  The creek was running well, with plenty of water for all the on- and off-leash dogs, but it was cold enough when we started that there was a fair amount of ice around the many seeping springs, so we did have to watch our footing in places.

Frozen waterfall, within and without

This trail is funny, I think, because they have improved the trailhead (maps and a pit toilet and dog waste disposal) but they are so reluctant to put directional signs out on the actual trail.  There are a couple of flappoles with arrows at creek crossings, but there are a lot of newbie hikers out there and it would certainly help folks to give them some more direction.  For example, when we turned right (after the last creek crossing, when the main trail heads up a long, wide hill), we followed a faint trail up that branch of the creek to an impassable pour-off and a very confused couple.  They turned away from the frozen waterfall and asked us, "Is this it [Morning Glory Arch]?!?"  We laughed and told them no, and sent them back to the main trail with better directions.  The fact that there's a faint trail up to this point shows that they are far from the only folks who make that mistake.

Echo Canyon

After checking out the very cool frozen waterfall, we bushwhacked through a thicket of scrub oaks up a level to where we could continue up the canyon.  Once up there, we laughed because there was a trail - no additional bushwhacking required.  We were in the full sun now and could hear the trilling tones of a canyon wren.  When this canyon split, we went left into Echo Canyon.  The trail faded in and out but we could mostly follow it, up just a short ways to the rounded head of the canyon.  There were quite a few old dried up cow patties but otherwise no evidence of people - except for a hiker way up on the rim, hiking the Slickrock Trail, no doubt, who raised his hands above his head and shouted WOOHOO!

The rim of the Abyss

We backtracked out of Echo Canyon and tried to find our way up to the Abyss, which had really been our goal all along.  Whereas there was a followable trail up Echo, there really wasn't one up Abyss Canyon so we bushwhacked a little, sticking to rocks and under trees until we could get down into the wash.  From there, we just hiked up the mostly dry wash - the water that would end up cascading over the frozen waterfall was flowing underground until surfacing a little ways before the falls - climbing up and around a couple more impassable pour-offs.

In the Abyss

As we neared the Abyss, we started to hear engines and, looking up, could see people on foot, MTBers and 4x4 vehicles up on the Slickrock Trail.  We didn't think anyone saw us, though, and we kept an eye out for errant loose rocks coming over the edge.  

From here, the water was all underground

until we got near the frozen waterfall again

We retraced our route back to the frozen waterfall, then followed that trail - and we could hear voices below us from more confused hikers - until it turned into an old road, which joined the main Grandstaff Canyon trail.  Milton had stuck close to us all day, especially when we were bushwhacking and he didn't know the trail, and he continued to do so on the way out, although he very much enjoyed greeting the many friendly dogs who were just making their way in.  

Working around an impassable pour-off

Grandstaff Canyon is super-popular and over-visited, at least for us.  But in the winter, taking the canyon less traveled turned out to be solitudinous and enjoyable.

Hike stats:  7.95 miles; 2:54 hours / 2.7 m.p.h. moving; 3;28 / 2.3 overall; 1,010 feet of elevation

a family affair

 Saturday was the most glorious day of the weekend - well into the 50s with abundant sunshine - and all three of us took advantage by MTBing at Moab Brand Trails.  This was by far the earliest in the year that I've ever been MTBing because I tend to get too cold, and yet it was still cool enough that we didn't have to worry about Milton overheating.  We weren't alone in our enthusiasm as there were around twenty vehicles in the lot when we started and 50+ when we finished up.  The trails themselves weren't too crowded, however, as we really only dealt with people on the front half of Lazy EZ, and then there was a big group milling about at an intersection.

Our route was: Lazy EZ to Rusty Spur, to Bar M for the climb, out to the Arches National Park boundary and back on Bar B, then Bar M to the cut off, to the back half of Lazy EZ, up and over the parking lot cut off back to Bar M, around the north end of Bar M (where there are new Private Property / No Trespassing signs up, unfortunately) and then down the hill near the North Forty to go back on the sandy, range cow-trodden doubletrack.  The range cows are really tearing up the terrain there and along Lazy EZ; I know the local trails crews have been out doing mitigation work to address it.

Tailgating

Milton did great.  He's such a good boy and is learning how to be a better MTB dog.  He does prefer to be out in front - he likes to lead, plus he tends to get sand in his eyes from running too close to H's wheels - so he is constantly checking back over his shoulder to confirm he's going the right way on the singletrack.  On more open terrain, like the Bar M doubletrack, he'll run a little wider, but he doesn't stray too far.  We did just over twelve miles (12.64 mi., actually) and he was happy to jump up on the tailgate with me afterwards for some sun-bathing and a snack.  I was just really stoked that the whole family got to ride together.