May 20-24 Moab, Utah

Wed, May 20 – I had a headache when I woke up around 10am. I was expecting this, but didn't really remember laying down on the futon. It had been along time since I could sleep without the bother of the sun, so after letting Dazey out, I went back to sleep.

By 11, all three of us had gotten up. We wasted a few hours doing nothing.

Finally, we got our stuff together and made a list of errands that we had to run. Tim took us to thrift store where we bought a can open, new nalgene, bag for my tent, tote to sew into the van, new bathing suit and a cooler. Then we went to the grocery store and got a lot of groceries we needed.

Tim headed into work around 4 o'clock. We stayed at his house while he was there and did laundry, writing, charged batteries and made a dinner of hash browns, eggs and corn on the cob.

After dinner, I wrote some more then we put in a movie. We made popcorn and watched "Renegade" which was a pretty stupid new age western movie. I passed out when it was done at around 11pm.

Thurs, May 21 – My alarm woke me at 445am. We were up and in the van before 5. Tim, Tyne and I drove a couple of miles out of town and into Arches National Park. After a mile and a half hike in the brightening sky, we reached Delicate Arch, which is one of the most famous arches and can be seen on the Utah license plate. About 5 minutes after we got there, the sun poked over the horizon. It wasn't visible THROUGH the arch, but it was pretty sweet regardless.

By 7am, we were back to the car. We stopped at the gas station and to the grocery store for bagels and cheese. Back at Tim's house, we finished our eggs by making egg and cheese sandwiches. We relaxed around the house all morning, and at noon went downtown to get Free Lunch. This was a program that volunteers run where they would collect food wastes from grocery stores, restaurants and gas stations, and serve a lunch to anyone who wanted it in the center of town. There were a lot of bums and tweekers there to eat, but also kids, young travelers and single parents. It was a really nice thing to see people from all walks of life lining up together for a bite to eat.

None of us really slept much the night before, so we cat napped through the early afternoon. Tim had to go into work in the afternoon, and we planned on going out and seeing canyon lands, but by the time he left and we got some errands done in town it was getting late. Instead we just hung out at the house and enjoyed the easy life. Some Latkes for dinner and we were asleep by a decent hour.

Fri, May 22 – The day earlier, Tim's roommate Joe had asked us if we could babysit his son for a few hours that evening for some extra cash. We gladly accepted the job, but then Tim found out he had the day off. No matter though, we still had until 4pm.

We got out around noon, stopped down at the free lunch again for some good grub, then hit the Colorado river canyon. We had a list of geocaches loaded, and the first stop was Negro Bill's Canyon to see a Natural bridge and hike the canyon. After finding the one cache and seeing the natural bridge, we were already almost out of time. We weren't able to even go down the side canyon to another cache because it was getting so late.

We pulled in at 2 minutes after four. Joe was a little worried, but very happy that we showed up. He was soon out the door and we were alone with Little Joe, age 3. We asked him if he wanted to go to a couple parks and do some "treasure hunting." Of course he said yes.

We went to the Moab Rottery park, which was a really amazing park with a big section of it devoted to xylophones. A dozen or more were set up, each made of different materials. We played some music for a while, then found a cache in the park. Walking a half mile along a bike trail, we found two more. Joe was loving the hunt!

One last stop at another park for a final find, the rain had started to pick up. After quickly signing the log, we headed to the grocery store for some supper ingredients and went back to the house to cook Joe something. We made some delcious chicken salad and more Latkes, even better than the first round the night before. After dinner, Joe played some video games and put himself to bed.

His mom came to get him by 10 pm, and we stayed up til around midnight having just a couple more rounds of drinks.

Sat, May 23 – We had spent our time great in Moab. The town is so chill and revitalizing after spending so much time in the desert. We hadn't done much, but knew we had to make at least one trip into Canyonlands for a good hike. Tim had to work today, but was going to try to get Sunday off so we could do something good.

We all got up at a decent hour and decided to go do the caches we had missed the day before down the river. We spent the next few hours going on short hikes along the river, climbing rocks and geocaches all the way to Castle Valley.

Tim went to work, and we told him that we would probably go hiking the next morning, but we would check in before we left to see if he got the time off. He went off to work and we headed to see Tyne's friend Adam we was randomly in town biking. We drove down to his condo to see him, and I soon left to go and pick up a Storage unit for the top of the Van that I had found on Craigslist.

I got all lost and annoyed while trying to find the place, and I finally gave up. Not wanting to come all the way back out to Adams place and endure small talk with strangers while being pissed off, I parked behind a Days Inn and passed out.

Sun, May 24 – I woke up in a pretty bad mood, but did all I could (and succeeded) to make it better. I stopped at the Days Inn lobby for some coffee and breakfast, then drove down to the library for internet access and shade. I did some writing and thinking and started to plug in a couple of nearby geocaches when Tyne called. Adam and his friends were going on a 24 mile bike ride and they were leaving then, so where should she get dropped off at.

She came to the library and we tried to plan the day. I wanted to do an 8.4 mile loop in Canyonlands and do a couple other shorter hikes. Before leaving, we went back to Tim's house to see if we could leave Dazey there for the day and woke up Tim to see if he had the day off. By a stroke of god, he did have it off! The three of us were driving into the National Park by about noon.

After passing Arches and seeing a half mile line to get in, we got a little worried. It was Memorial day weekend, and as we pulled into the parking lot there wasn't a single spot open. We had to drive back nearly a quarter mile down the road to find a spot on the shoulder. Walking to the trailhead, the sign read, "Upheaval Overlook - 0.3 mile. Upheaval loop 8.4 miles. After turning onto the longer trail, there wasn't a single person. Everyone was there to see the overlook, not experience it fully.

The trail started by descending almost 2000 feet sharply, dropping us into a huge canyon about halfway down to the Green River. At the base of the cliffs, the trail followed a sandy wash gently downhill until we reached the halfway point. There was another trail intersection here, and we stopped for some fruit and water. A couple hikers passed us, proving that we weren't ALONE out here, but nearly. Under the ledge we sat on was some mud, a rarity in the desert. The past couple of days had given enough rain for the washes to run down some of the canyons.

We continued up another sandy wash, slowly rising into a vertical walled canyon. There was actually a little running water in the canyon here, and pools began to get bigger and more appealing as we went up. Finally the temptation was too much to take. We had found a perfect pool and proceeded to strip down and dip into it. Amazing! The sweat washed right off, cooling us instantly. A couple of there hikers walked by with a surprised look on their face. Haven't you ever seen someone swim before?

After drying off, we continued up the increasingly difficult trail. We were really headed uphill now, and took a minute to try to climb up a crack running up a wall. We made it most of the way, but soon realized that following it more would put us just over a big cliff edge. We quickly gave up on that side adventure.

The skies had been getting more and more dark all day, and now hell was letting loose. The wind picked up, the rain started falling and before long, hail was also in the mix. We jogged a quarter mile until we found an overhang, where we stopped for some food and to wait out the storm. After a couple cold Latkes and pretzel rods, we watched the rain slowly stop, then continued on our way.

We had a cold beer waiting for us at the car. We sat on the side of the road and rubbed our feet and drank the beer. It was starting to get late, but not dark yet, so we stopped at one more short hike. Mesa Arch is a half mile loop taking you to an amazing arch perched at the edge of a cliff. The view was amazing, but don't get too close to the arch because you can drop off the cliff on this side. We climbed over the arch and took some pictures. There were a lot of tourists hanging out and coming by, so we quickly moved on.

Coming back into town, Tim pointed out that you could see "The Windows," in Arches National Park a dozen miles across the desert. The Windows are matching arches nearby each other, and I could easily see why they called them the Windows.

We stopped at the market for some dinner, chicken wings, potato salad and cheese and went back to Tim's house to eat. Little Joe was there, and kept stealing and eating my wings. After we ate, we said goodbye to Tim's housemates and the three of us headed over to Adams condo. They were having a party on their last night in Moab. Just as we arrived, the rain started coming down lightly again. We put a couple logs in the fire and said screw it. We stayed up a couple hours, talking around the fire and drinking. Eventually, I got tired and went back to the van with Dazey for the night.

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