where the new content at?

 Ooh boy, we have been in a veritable content desert here, despite a recent sojourn in the actual desert.  Winter has arrived, in SLC and Moab (less so in St. George, which is much lower in elevation), and when we were in Moab last, it was 20s F overnight and barely reaching to 40 F during the day.

Remnants of recent rains

This is far too cold for me to MTB - my hands and feet get too cold under 50 F - but H can still do it, so we all went to Moab Brand Trails so Milton and I could hike whilst H rode.  We each did our usual routes but apparently the chilly temperatures encouraged Milt and me to walk much quicker than we've been doing, so we were already heading back to the truck via the parking lot cut-off when H met us.  There were a fair number of people there, heading out, coming back, puttering around, and we realized it wasn't too cold for a beer while we chatted with people.  Including a young Quebecois couple who were van-camping and thought they might head south to warmer locations (re above re St. George/Hurricane).

Desert lichen

The next day we three did a short hike, checking out an out-and-back, hiking-only trail just off the start of Poison Spider.  This is an easy walk on an old road under the Poison Spider Mesa cliffs and just goes out a little ways to a view of the Colorado River (about 3.5 miles RT total).  Because we were just above the river, there were lots of smooth cobblestones and former river rocks.  Afterwards, we again found it not too chilly for a parking lot beer and chatted with folks as Milton went up and introduced himself.

Overcast on Poison Spider Mesa

And that was about it - hopefully we'll be able to get out on some more interesting trails soon.