desert dawdling

 The weather turned out much better than forecasted for our Presidents' Day long weekend in Moab: the low 40s and partly sunny were quite enjoyable.  There was a decent amount of snow in the higher elevations, however, and it was even sticking around in the north- and east-facing aspects in town.  We got out for some short hikes but tried to stay where it would be less snow-covered.

Friday's jaunt was an out-and-back along the Pipedream Trail, accessing the trail from the Jackson Street trailhead, going south to the Hidden Valley trailhead and then retracing our steps.  We started around 10 a.m. and, with the morning's temperatures in the 20s, everything was frozen.  By the time we turned around and came back, the top layer of wet mud had thawed and some spots were messing and slick.  It was actually better walking on the snow because there was no chance of leaving footprints and it was less slippery than the mud.  There were tons of critter tracks whenever the trail crossed a small wash and Milton ran a LOT, out and back and up and down.  Although there were five cars down in the Hidden Valley trailhead parking lot, we had Pipedream pretty much to ourselves, only meeting two solo hikers, including one young guy who patted Milton and asked lots of questions about him.

The LaSals look so good with snow

Saturday was a Slickrock Trail day.  We got the same sort of start timing-wise but it was sunnier and a little warmer.  February notwithstanding, the holiday weekend had brought out some recreationers: there were some side-by-sides heading out on Hell's Revenge and a fair number of MTBers milling around in the Slickrock parking lot.  We did the Practice Loop - and met a nice young family who patted Milton and asked lots of questions about him - and then went out along the main Slickrock Trail to the Abyss overlook.  There was a little bit of action (jeeps and MTBers) out there to watch, so that was our entertainment while I dug a catcus thorn out of one of Milton's paws.

Post-thorn extraction

On Sunday, we went out to the Moab Brand Trails to do what I think of as the "winter hike loop": across to Bar M on the parking lot cutoff, right (south) onto Bar M, left onto Circle O, left back onto Bar M and right onto the cutoff back to the parking lot.  There were twelve or so vehicles in the parking lot but we only saw a handful of MTBers out there, including one guy who called out, "That's a happy dog!"  And when I replied, "I wish I had his life," he laughed, "You kind of do!"

Wide open spaces