on repeat

 We finally got back down to Moab, making a long weekend out of July 4th.  We were a little anxious to see the aftermath from the two floods plus wind and hail but the storms were so localized that our little place didn't have any damage.  Just a few blocks away, however, our friend Chris got quarter-sized hail that punched holes in his fence and stripped the paint off the siding on his house.  Location, location, location, I guess.

Tiny tracks

We had brought our MTBs down with us but when it came right down to it, we really didn't feel like driving out to any MTB trailheads.  So our activities went on repeat for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Early in the mornings, Milton and A drove to Millcreek Canyon so the dog could run.  We hiked out along the top on the Rim trail, then dropped into the canyon and walked out along the creek.  The water was definitely down from the last time we'd done it (when it was over my knees) but the flow still looked healthy.  Milton loved wading and splashing and even did a little bit of "swimming."

There used to be some trees here

The canyon itself was pretty beaten up from the recent floods.  Lots of bushes and smaller trees were bent flat; a number of larger trees had been felled; and the banks of the creek had been resculpted.  In town, we were amazed at all the cobblestones that had been left behind and it was obvious where they'd come from: under the sand in Millcreek there's nothing but cobbles.  The flotsam and jetsam were piled way over my head against the still standing trees; in town, it was higher than H's head.  There had been a lot of water moving through.  Maybe not as much as in 2022 but still.

All cobbles under the sand

After M and A got back from their hikes, H and A got on their bikes.  Road bikes, that is, although we couldn't get on the bike path until the west side of Main Street as the eastern bit of the path mostly impassable due to debris - or the bit by the vet's office that was dangerously undercut by the flooding creek.  We rode those few blocks through town then (not my favorite) and picked up the bike path when we could.  We did the same distance/route each day: from our house out to the end of the path along the river, then back and over the river and up to Arches, then back and over the river and out to the end of the path along the river again, then home (right about 21 miles).

H is standing about five feet above

the creek bottom and the debris is

way over his head

The stretch of bike path along the river had several places that were covered in sand.  Some of it was rideable but other parts weren't, and we joked that it was like riding cyclocross since we had to keep jumping off our bikes, carrying them across and then jumping back on.  We did this ride on Sunday morning too - Milton didn't get a hike that day - bringing our riding mileage to over eighty miles.  There were lots of e-bikes out there with us - at one point, as we rode by a jogger, he shouted out, "Yay! Real bikes!" and laughed.

Got flood?

What else did we do?  Had beers at Dewey's and Woody's (Josie Wyatt's PBR tap was out), watched some soccer, read a bunch, weeded, the usual.  Oh! And we also watched Moab's little (tiny little) Fourth of July parade - only because it goes right by our house.  It took about half an hour and mostly consisted of either emergency services vehicles wailing their sirens or people up for election throwing candy at the crowd.  Gotta love a small town.