loopy

 While J and S headed south to climb North Six Shooter in Indian Creek (Bears Ears National Monument) with Bo, one of J's close friends from college, H, Milton and I aimed to show off the scenery closer to home by taking V on one of my favorite loops: Jackson's Trail across Cliffhanger and down through Amasa Back.  Seeing as it was Monday, we didn't get a super early start; there was still plenty of parking at the Amasa Back MTB trailhead.

The boys, waiting for the girls

It was still cool in the shade as we walked back up Kane Creek Road to the OHV trailhead to pick up Jackson's Trail.  V had never been in Moab before (her last trip to Utah was for the 2013 Lake Powell excursion) but has been doing a good amount of hiking in Maine and New Hampshire, and she wanted to do some of the trails we do - those northern New England trails don't tend to have trails perched on the edge of Colorado River cliffs, however, and she was stoked about the views.  

Finishing Cliffhanger

At the top of Jackson's Trail, we took the short side spur out to peek into Jackson's Hole, then continued across Cliffhanger to the viewpoint where Hymasa and Captain Ahab intersect.  We watched several jeeps go by and there were a good number of MTBers riding through on that Captain Ahab climb.  After snacks, we started down the 4x4 trail, hoping to catch some jeeps in action.  If we hadn't stopped for snacks (stupid snacks!), we would have been able to watch a jeep and a custom rockcrawler on one of the biggest obstacles.  Regardless, V was very impressed and made the driver's day by taking a picture of the rockcrawler.

V and A

Those darn snacks cursed us a second time when we just missed a couple of BASE jumpers back at the Amasa Back parking lot: we heard the chutes open but by the time we got to where we could see, they were already on the ground.  We consoled ourselves with sandwiches and beers.  

And then V said she was ready to do more!

We quickly regrouped, stopping by the house to drop a tired Milton off, reapply sunscreen and grab our season pass, and then drove up to the Sand Flats Recreation Area.  Since we'd already been out in the sun for hours, we opted to just do the Slickrock Practice Loop: giving us some more miles and some stunning, and yet very different, scenery.  There were more dirtbikes than MTBs out there, it seemed, but even fewer hikers as we only saw two others out where we were.  It's such a gift to have such a popular trail to yourself in high season.

Crossing Kane Creek

After that, we scooted home to clean up and then met J and Bo at Woody's: as we traded stories about our days, and about days in years gone by, we were the loudest table in the bar for a change.  (Bo, looking around at the space and clientele, declared that there was no way that we were too loud for Woody's).  We picked up some pizzas at Zak's and then went back to the AirBnb for dinner with S and another one of J's buddies, Eph (this time from high school).  As the climbers made plans for the next day, H, V and I headed home.  We had plans of our own.

Hike stats:  Jackson's et als. 6.95 miles; Practice Loop 2.66 miles