regrouping

 After the Murphy Hogback hike, we took a rest day.  Sort of: while H MTBed back out at Moab Brand Trails, Milton and I did the northern section of Pipe Dream (from Jackson Street to the northern terminus).  Then, we packed a cooler, grabbed our books and drove out to the new picnic spot along the Colorado River.  We hung out there for a couple of hours, reading and people-watching.

The next day, we headed to Pritchett Canyon.  We'd seen some videos showing that the canyon had been hit hard by one of the August floods.  As we were driving out there, we realized that this was the first day of the Moab 240 as there were lots of runners coming down off of the Moab Rim and running out along Kane Creek Road.  We had intended to park in the OHV-trailer lot, right next to Pritchett Canyon, but that lot had been taken over as a base camp for the race so we parked at the Amasa Back  lot instead, which meant we got to see three BASE jumpers launching off the cliffs.  We checked out the base camp as we walked past - breakfast (including multiple vegan options), gear exchange, medical tent, portopotties, water - and cheered with the other fans as the runners headed out on Jackson's.

Ravaged by the floods

Pritchett got hit pretty hard.  The cute canvas tents at the mouth of the canyon had been swept away - although one set of bunkbeds was still standing - and the trees and vegetation in the wash had been scoured clean.  We also immediately noticed that the floods had drastically changed the 4x4 obstacles, completely changing the lines.  This canyon was already one of the most difficult 4x4 routes in the area; now everyone is going to have learn the new routes.

Much, much, much more precarious in real life

We had only planned to be out for a couple of hours, but when we met three Michigan jeeps, we stopped to watch them winch themselves down into the wash before Chewy Hill.  Usually this is "driveable" but the flood had taken all the sand and dirt out of the wash bottom, leaving behind massive boulders to navigate.  We turned around here but we could only imagine what the rest of the trail looked like.

After getting cleaned up, we walked over to Josie Wyatt's to see Crystal before her shift ended.  This place is considerably more upscale than our usual haunts, given that it is the bar at the Hoodoo, but the best kept secret in town is that they have draft PBR pints for $2.00 and extremely reasonable sandwiches on the lunch menu.  Shhhhhh - don't tell anybody.

Hike stats: 5.98 miles; 1:58 hr/3.0 m.p.h walking; 2:19/2.6 m.p.h. overall; 680' elevation