#shoplocal

H and I aren't big spenders, and the current pandemic has curtailed our spending even more.  But small businesses need all our help, especially as we head into winter.  The big boxes and Am@zon don't need our money - the local folks do.  With that in mind, here are just a handful of the locally-owned businesses that H and I like to give our money to - please feel free to do the same.

Grid City Beerworks - Our new favorite regular place, they opened mid-March 2020.  You read that right.  The beer is terrific, the food is very good (lots of vegan options) and when their dog-friendly roof deck finally opens - they're just waiting on permitting right now - Milton can't wait to go make new friends.

Saltfire Brewing - Another new discovery for us, Saltfire has higher octane brews than we usually drink, but we loved their Lupulin Dew Pale Ale.  They've got a brewery cat, a dog-friendly patio AND if you live outside of Utah, you can order their beers to be shipped!  They also sell coffee, available online as well.

Sticks + Stones Design - I got an enameled Utah necklace for my recent birthday and also have a pair of earrings.  Her designs are beautiful and simple and somehow just remind me of Utah's landscape.

The King's English Bookshop - Support your local bookstores, y'all!  I love TKE and have been shopping there for years.  Even pre-pandemic, I could order online and then pick up in the store, without paying for shipping.  Love me a bookstore.

Fishers Cyclery - Road, mountain and e-bikes.  Not open Sundays but they're been in SLC since 1930.  Great service and we've bought all our bikes there.

Salt Peaks Snowboard and Skate Shop - Snow- and skateboards, plus gear and accessories.  They were super-nice when we went in to get H a skateboard helmet, despite the fact that we were way older than anyone else in the shop;

A. Fisher Brewing Co. - Yes, there is a lot of beer on this list.  My heart goes out to all the little breweries.  The Fisher taproom is still closed but their patio is open, plus to-go beer sales. And they've got a full online merch store now too.

Western Nut Company - In business since 1966, Western Nut Company has amazing products - nuts, brittles, candies, chocolates - and I go every year for the holidays.  Their brittles are delicious!

Dancing Cranes Imports - Dancing Cranes Imports reminds me of what Pier 1 used to be, back when it was smaller.  There's jewelry, clothing, home decor, crystals, essential oils, etc.  They have an online store now although it doesn't look like clothing is available that way.

#shoplocal

stay-at-home

 Another weekend spent hunkered down.  Some of Utah's ski resorts have opened: Brighton, Brian Head and Park City Mountain Resort opened Friday 11/20, while Alta is due to open Monday 11/23, Snowbasin on 11/27 and Snowbird on 11/30.  We did go up to Alta Saturday morning to pick up our season passes; mountain employees were busy at Wildcat base, practicing setting up the corrals with "ghost lanes" to help with social distancing.  We got our passes but continue to fret about skiing: whether it's safe, whether it will be fun at all with all the necessary restrictions, how to get up there, etc.

Other than that, we stuck around home, staying distant and safe while Utah's coronavirus numbers climb ever higher.  Milton and I took a couple of long walks - although it got down into the low 20s, Saturday was especially gorgeous with clear skies and sunshine.  I baked socca and lemon blueberry breakfast cookies, plus a vegetable soup and black-eyed peas and collards.  I even vacuumed, whether it needed it or not (it did).

With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, we'll have a few days to get out and do something more interesting than soup-making and laundry, I promise.  Until then, stay safe!

keeping the home fires burning

I haven't posted ... because we didn't do much of anything last weekend.  We had hoped to do our annual Sol-Bright hike, which we usually do after the first snowfall but before the ski areas open up; the weather was not all that great, plus the storms earlier in the week had brought a fair amount of snow, so we weren't all that inclined to go hiking.  We also weren't that inclined to rake the leaves but it was windy enough that most of that problem solved itself.

We stayed put: Milton and I went on lots of walks; did a bunch of laundry (and even put it away!); we made two kinds of soup - a green chile stew and a Moroccan harira - as well as two batches of pumpkin cranberry walnut muffins; and finished up this year's holiday cards.  Pretty standard, boring stuff.

This coming weekend looks to be more of the same, although the weather should be a wee dite better.  We'll see if we can't motivate a little more for this one.

change in the weather

 The wind on Saturday continued through the afternoon and, around 5 p.m., brought rain in with it.  It was blustery all night, sometimes raining hard for brief periods, and we were happy not to be out in a tent.  In the morning the storm had largely moved through (on its way up to northern Utah, where it would park itself in the mountains for several more days) but it was cloudy, still breezy and much, much colder without any sunshine.

Unsure about how the mountain roads would be, we wanted to be back in SLC before it got dark.  This left us plenty of time to go back up to Moab Brand Trails.  Temperatures were in the 40s - which is too cold for me to MTB - so Milton and I walked while H rode.  The dog and I headed out on North 40 and while there were occasional puddles for him to drink from, the trails were pretty much dry.  It must not have rained as much as it seemed to have.

Winter approaches

We planned to be out for 75-90 minutes, and to meet back at the truck.  Milton and I got back first and, after giving him some water and some biscuits, we climbed into the cab to get out of the wind while we waited for H.  He rolled in just ten minutes later, hands and feet cold, but the rest plenty warm since he had been riding non-stop (not having to wait for me).  The clouds shifted just a bit, lifting high enough for us to see the La Sals capped with snow once again.  Although I am not particularly excited about winter this year, those mountains always look good in white.

thar she blows

 Since it was only a matter of time (days, really) before winter arrived in northern Utah, we wanted to get our MTBs down to Moab.  We were on the road well before rush hour on Friday, allowing us to miss the big traffic on I-15 in Utah County, but getting us to Moab just in time for the crush of cars navigating the road work.  That tangle gave us an extra half-hour in the car but there was cold beer waiting for us in the fridge, so it all worked out.

Simply gorgeous day

Saturday looked to be the better of the two weekend days: cool and clear and sunny.  When we got out to the Moab Brand Trails for a late morning ride, we found that it was windy as well.  VERY windy, as the cold front started pushing into the state.  The wind was out of the south, meaning that it was a brutal headwind for the outbound legs on Rusty Spur and Bar M; amazingly, the wind stayed consistent so that we got an awesome push from the tailwind whenever we were heading north.  Love me a tailwind!  Later, we looked it up: it was literally blowing a gale out there.  Well, gusting to it, anyway.

We did our new regular loop: front side of Lazy EZ to Rusty Spur and back to the back side of Lazy EZ, then the front side again, to Bar M out to the Rockin' A/Bar B intersection, then north on Bar M to Circle O (I didn't ride Circle O that well as the wind gusts were making me extra wobbly).  At the north end of Circle O, I went left, to the parking lot cut-off, and H went right, continuing north on Bar M to the North 40 intersection and then back on the sandy jeep road behind the old chuckwagon.  That last bit was both wicked sandy and completely into the wind, so he had to work for it - and I was glad to have bailed out on that part.

what a great day

Even though it's November and it has to start getting cold and wet soon, this past weekend was just glorious.  Completely cloudless skies and temperatures comfortably in the 60s, we couldn't stop exclaiming about how nice it was.

Saturday was sort of a down-shift for us.  H wanted to do a road ride so Milton and I walked/jogged a 3.25 mile loop from our house; it's very nice to have him keep me company (since I don't like running very much) but he's a pain on the leash so it's never the easiest run, even with a downhill finish.  After getting cleaned up, we did some town errands, like dropping off ice cream for a friend who was scheduled to have her tonsils removed on Monday and getting a skateboarding helmet for H.  We tried a couple of different places but most of the shops are skate/board shops and are gearing up for the snowboard season, which means supply was low.  We finally found one that fit at Salty Peaks: we'd never been in that shop before and it was amazing, with tons of old skate- and snowboards in their museum - the ceiling and upper walls are covered with boards.  Very cool.

Of course there's a piano on the Big Easy

Sunday we convinced Ted to go MTBing with us at Round Valley, meeting him at 11 a.m. so as to take advantage of the warmest part of the day.  We decided to give our original loop a go, with some small variations: Matt's Flat/Cammy's to Seventy-101, to PorcUClimb and the top half of Down Dog, to Valderoad to Matt's Flat to Rambler (up the "Sweet Sixteen" side and down the "Sagebrush Switchbacks" side, which was busier than we have ever seen it), out Round Valley Express to the paved bike trail.  It was here that we discovered new trails!  We had no idea they were there but took Bourbon Street up and then left onto Big Easy, which brought us back to Rambler (near the Rambler/Ramble On intersection), which took us back to Ability Way and the trailhead.  Bourbon Street and Big Easy are terrific: easy climbing, nice smooth dirt, not rocky and - best of all - no one on them.  Super-nice.

Such a great day

On our way back through SLC, we stopped by a new-to-us brewery: Saltfire Brewing Co., not too far from Grid City on West Temple.  Their beer is available to go or to drink on site; it's only in cans because it's higher point, which meant we had to choose carefully.  Luckily, their Lupulin Dew pale ale is very, very tasty.  They have a nice, west-facing patio, which would be too hot in the summer but was perfect this late fall day.  We enjoyed our beer and enjoyed talking with the table of girls sitting next to us, all fairly recent transplants to SLC from the east coast who had hiked to Lake Blanche earlier.  Best part: the patio is dog-friendly so we will definitely be going back and bringing Milton along to work the crowd.

rocky roads

A cold front was due to move in midday on Sunday and we wanted to get some trail time in before it happened. We also wanted to stay south of town, knowing we'd be ensnared in traffic when it was time to head back to SLC, so we headed out to the Sand Flats Recreation Area, avoiding that line of vehicles waiting to get in by parking at the Hell's Revenge exit lot.  It was a bit cloudy but the sun was breaking through in spots, highlighting cliffs in the distance.

The cliffs lit right up

As we walked in the out-door and started climbing on the sandy, rocky 4x4 trail up to the level of the sandstone fins, we had the place to ourselves, other than a few ravens playing in the increasing winds, doing barrel rolls and dive-bombing each other.

Enlarged so you can see that Domino's delivers

We did much of the same route we had done last Thanksgiving weekend by following Hell's Revenge in reverse, then hopping onto the Slickrock trail for a bit.  Then we got back onto the HR trail in time to watch a bunch of vehicles coming down (and going up) some really steep sections.  The winds really started to pick up as we headed for the HR entrance, whipping stinging sand into our faces.  Milton hates to wear his goggles but I think they would have helped in this situation.  We exited the trail, coming out on the Sand Flats road by the entrance station, and walked back along the road to where we had parked the car.

Domino's goes where no delivery has gone before 

The skies were darkening quickly so we opted for a speedy pack-up and departure, driving through heavy winds (I felt bad for anyone tent-camping at that moment) and sprinkles of rain until we got to Green River.  A quick burger and fries at Ray's marked the end of our weekend as we got back on the highway, drove through very light snow at Soldier's Summit and finally arrived back in SLC to temperatures in the 30s.  The taste of winter wouldn't last long (temperatures warmed up throughout the week) but it did remind us that it's on its way.

This is actually so steep - the photo doesn't do it justice

Hike stats:  5.27 miles; moving 1:56 hours/2.7 m.p.h.; overall 2:18/2.3 m.p.h

strolling steelbender

 We got caught in traffic last Friday night as we came into Moab: traffic backed up starting at the bridge and extending past Potash Road, costing us an extra 45 minutes.  Because of this, when it came time Saturday morning to decide on a hike, we knew we wanted to stay south of town to avoid the hoi polloi.  I thought it might be a good time to revisit Steelbender.

Love the aesthetic

The last time we did this trail (which was also the first time we did it) was this past April.  Then, we'd explored all the short hiking trails at Ken's Lake first before checking out the 4X4 road about Faux Falls.  It had been sunny and warm and we didn't get too far before Milton started overheating.  This time we drove up the dirt access road and parked before the cattle guard, just up the hill from where Steelbender officially starts.  It was sunny but not hot, even cool in the shade.

Desert boys

Since this is a 4x4 trail, the hiking is easy, if loose, sandy and rocky in places.  It crosses Millcreek first thing, then continues up over rolling ridges before dropping back down into a sandy valley.  We had it to ourselves for the first bit.

Blue skies and dirt roads

After a while, we did hear engines coming up behind us: six side-by-sides.  We stepped to the side to watch them come up over an obstacle, then passed them shortly thereafter when they pulled over to regroup.  They weren't driving like idiots or blasting their music, and a couple of them made a point of petting Milton, so we liked them.

Road to nowhere

We kept going for a while until the trail looked like it was coming out of the rocky section into that sandy valley that would - eventually - lead to the exit in a Spanish Valley neighborhood.  We decided to turn around there, so we still don't know exactly where the trail comes out.  On our way back out, we again passed that group of side-by-sides, plus four MTBers (brave on such a sandy trail!), one jeep and a herd of about eight old-school 4-wheelers.  We saw two more MTBers and a small group of side-by-sides back at the creek, so people were definitely out and about, even south of town.

Hike stats:  6.04 miles; moving 2:15/2.7 m.p.h.; overall: 2:57/2.0 m.p.h.

mt. wire

 After eleven years, H and I have learned a lot about the hiking trails along the Wasatch Front.  We haven't nearly done all of them, however, and when our friend Ted suggested Mt. Wire for last Saturday - because it isn't ten miles and is off-leash dog-friendly - we readily agreed.  Mt. Wire is basically downtown, behind the University and Red Butte Garden.  Ted has discovered one of my favorite hiking blogs, Girl on a Hike, and he thought the south ridge sounded good.  (Apparently you can also ascend Mt. Wire from a trail above the Living Room.)

You can't tell but this is so steep

We met at the Rotary Park lot, at the mouth of Emigration Canyon, and were amazed at how many road cyclists were out and about - way more than we ever see on the roads down where we live.  Between the trail guide I printed out and the map on Ted's phone, we made our way through the myriad of trails crisscrossing the foothills until we reached the ridgeline trail.

Downtown SLC with Stansbury Island in the distance

Let me be clear here: this trail goes up over 2,000 feet in 2.5 miles.  That is a LOT of up.  This trail is mostly very steep, with no shade whatsoever and loose gravel often under foot.  I would certainly not take a dog on it in the summer time but in the middle of October, with a cool wind blowing, Milton had no problem.  He even stuck to the trail most of the time instead of running further afield; I think the scrub oaks hemmed him in.

Happy tails/trails

Mt. Wire is topped with an old tower, which will add even more elevation if you climb it.  Neither Ted nor I was tempted; H went about two-thirds of the way up.  The wind was stronger here and we all quickly put layers on so we wouldn't get chilled.  There are 360-degree views, all across the Salt Lake valley, to Antelope and Stansbury Islands and up Emigration Canyon.

Summit

When we headed back down on the same trail, I was glad I had brought my hiking poles.  It was, for the most part, less slippery than we had expected but it was (as previously mentioned) very, very steep.  We got down quickly, however, and when our feet hit the mostly-flat Bonneville Shoreline Trail, it felt great.  We said good-bye to Ted, vowing that the next hike would be not-too-long but also not-too-steep.

Up, up and away

I knew my quads were going to be sore and sure enough, when we got up Sunday, I knew that MTBing wasn't in the cards for me: I would be even slower than I normally am.  So while H had a great ride at Round Valley, not stopping and doing a lot of climbing with Rusty Shovel, Happy Gilmor/Tin Man, Rambler and PorcUClimb, Milton and I walked, meeting lots of very friendly dogs along the way.

catching up and getting out

A couple of friends, Erica and Kylie, joined us (safely distanced and/or masked as necessary) for the last bit of our vacation week.  On Saturday morning, after breakfast and coffee, we headed out to hike Jeep Arch, which they didn't know about.  The day was sunny, completely clear and warm.  There were already numerous vehicles at the trailhead by the time we pulled in - although only a fraction of what was parked at the Corona Arch trailhead - but, amazingly, we timed it just right to have the arch to ourselves.

A, H and M

(all photos: Kylie)

We did the loop portion clockwise.  I think that's a better way to go as the steepest bit is short, plus you actually can get some shade on the final uphill approach (if you go in the morning).  Erica and Kylie are rock climbers and they were eyeing the hardware left in the slabs with interest.  On our way out, we picked up the fainter trail leading down into the wash.  E and K really liked this section: mostly shaded and some scrambling required.  We passed a dude out scouting locations and light to shoot an indie music video, then made our way back through the culvert to the truck.

"Do you guys see this view?"

Our stomachs were all growling at this point and H had the fantastic idea of having lunch in Middle Earth (this Middle Earth, not the Navajo Rocks trail), figuring it would be shady in there.  Once again, our timing was perfect as we passed a family coming out as we were heading in with our cooler.  We had the whole grotto to ourselves as we hydrated with beer and munched our sandwiches.

We three

That evening, we met up with another friend who was in town, off-roading with his family and friends.  They all had their trailers circled up at the Old Spanish Trail Arena, just south of Moab.  It was kind of a weird spot for camping - they had made reservations for the group site almost a year ago - but there was plenty of room for everyone to spread out, distanced safely around the campfire.

Heading down the wash

The next morning, Erica and Kylie hit the road early, heading back to SLC.  We dithered around for a little while, then decided that we didn't know what traffic would be like and maybe we should think about heading north ourselves.  We cleaned and packed and then went up to the Millcreek overlook for a quick walk (just over an hour) for Milton to burn off some energy.  There were a few other folks there as well with their dogs but not many.  It seemed like everyone else was queuing up to get into the Sand Flats Recreation Area - we could see the huge line of jeeps and 4x4s winding its way up the hill above us.  

It's like a portal to another dimension

After our walk, as the clouds rolled in, we loaded up and got on our way, stopping at Ray's in Green River for lunch.  As we continued up Highway 6, the storm that was at that moment delivering to Alta its first snow of the season brought clouds, high winds, blowing sand and rain sprinkles to us.  We soon enough drove out of it, however, and even though we had left our vacation a little earlier than we had intended, with the fast weather change, wrapping things up seemed like the right thing to do.

Hike stats: 5.56 miles; 2:28 time; 2.2 m.p.h. average speed