Week in Moab

I visited my father last week in Moab, where he owns a townhouse. He is planning on moving there permanently any month now, which is fine with me. I spent the week doing what I loved: running, hiking and mountain biking. Kathy came with me. She had to work a few of the mornings, so I spent those mornings running up to the Porcupine Rim trailhead and back.
Sunday we started slow, going for an afternoon walk along The Wall, with picturesque views of the Moab Landfill (apparently the second most beautiful landfill in the country). On the way back, my father and I explored some of the fins of sandstone and wandered along the ledges.

On Monday, Kathy I went for a run, ending up at the Red Rock Bakery where we arrived every morning to get a latte and muffin. Then I ran with my father while Kathy worked. He and I would run a little bit together, then at some point I would speed up and continue while he went on a shorter and slower run. Our Monday run was to drive up to Slickrock trailhead, then run from there up Sand Flats road, which slowly increases in elevation all the way to the Porcupine Rim. It snowed lightly for a half hour up there, not exactly the spring weather I was looking for. On the way back, I ran all the way home, so I caught an additional steep downhill back from Slickrock to my dad's house at the base of Sand Flats road.
In the afternoon, we all (Kathy, Karen, my dad and I) all rode up to Klondike Bluffs. Karen does not like to mountain bike on sand or on uphills or some steep downhills, so she pushes her bike a lot on any mountain bike excursion; however, she gets around a lot more than most other senior citizens, so I have to give her points for trying. In order to get to the view from the bluffs, we had to hike 1/4 mile or so (no bikes allowed in Arches National Park), but it was well worth it.


On Tuesday, Kathy, Warren and I went down Schafer Road to the White Rim trail and biked along it for a couple hours, before retracing our steps. On our way down the steep switchbacks down the initial cliff to get to the White Rim, one of my shocks exploded (I was borrowing my dad's old mountain bike). I was hit in the neck by a slug, to discover that the cap had popped off the shock and its internals (including a nasty looking spring) had been launched directly at me while I was careening down the steep hill. For the rest of the day, I winced whenever I heard unusual noises. The shocks reminded me of a double-barreled shotgun which had already launched one barrel at me. The rest of the ride was fine, however. The White Rim Trail is a wide jeep road that meanders along the rim of white rock that is about halfway between the uplands of Canyonlands and the Colorado River. After the nice ride today, it's time to head to the Moab Brewery and refill our growler with some more Derailleur Ale.

On Wednesday, I went for a run again up to Porcupine Rim and back. Then my dad shuttled Kathy and me up to Canyonlands with our bikes so that we could ride the Gemini Bridges trail. Kathy and I decided to do some additional exploration along the Gold Bar loop, and trying not to look at the map too much, I got us a little off course. We ended up in a sandy wash where we pushed our bikes for a while, and then the wash ended at an overlooking looking down from a 200 foot cliff. We had been following jeep tracks, and were quite surprised at the sudden end to our trail. I later discovered that we had come to the aptly named "Surprise Overlook". We doubled back and followed Gemini Bridges trail (which was well-marked) to the end, where our dad had left a car for us. Kathy returned the bike that she had rented for three days from Poison Spider, so we'll go hiking tomorrow.

On Thursday, Kathy, Warren, Karen and I all went for a hike down Negro Bill Canyon. We started up on top of Sand Flats at the radio tower, then took a jeep road over to a side canyon from which we could drop down into the canyon. From there, we wandered back down Negro Bill Canyon, eventually picking up the tourist trail that goes partway up it from the trailhead at its lower end. We also took a side excursion up Abyss Canyon to its upper end, where we were surrounded by hundred foot tall cliffs. Off in the distance we could hear ATVs buzzing around on top somewhere. The Slickrock trail has an overlook into this canyon. At the bottom were sheltered pools full of newts or salamanders.

On Friday, Kathy was busy working again, so I ran down Kane Creek Road for a ways, towards Hurrah Pass. It was 53 degrees when I woke up, maybe 20 degrees warmer than some of the mornings earlier in the week (I was definitely not expecting to get snowed on later today!). On my way back I saw 40 to 50 ATVs and motorcycles heading down the road in the other direction. It pays to get out early. In the afternoon, Kathy decided to relax in town, so Warren, Karen and I went for a hike up Hidden Valley trail and explore looking for petroglyphs. We hiked up one ridge/peak which required a 20 foot shimmy across a one foot wide ledge at one point. Karen did really well keeping up with us. On our way back, the thunderstorms came in and dumped grappel and rain on us, though. By Saturday morning, Moab itself had a thin layer of snow on the ground. Saturday was a good time to leave, but we'll definitely be back for more!