map's trail notes - intermountain west nature and wilderness travelogues

branching off from Moab, UT with something less area-specific.

this weekend: city of rocks national preserve in southern idaho. high sagebrush desert, pinyon/juniper, mountain lowlands, granite.

i like posting this stuff here, a site that looks and feels increasingly stable, sane, and appreciative of writing, in addition to sharing with friends and feeding the social media machine. i don't have any hustle or anything, i just like going to places, running and posting about it.

total tangent, but i love these kinds of one-person-project photo blog sites that you can still find when you're looking up remote areas: https://www.beyondmycouch.com/2015/08/utah-nevada-back-roads-adventure.html

I'll check in on your travels, map!

At some point I'd like to take a month or two to roam around the west again. About twenty years ago I quit a miserable job and rode my little 250cc honda motorbike all over, up to Alturas CA, through Nevada, down to the Salton Sea.. mostly camping with an occasional cheap motel room to shower and clean my clothes. It was a real revelation and I met some great people... discovered some petroglyphs near Pyramid Lake, coyotes howling while I sat by my little fire up some gravel road. I even went to Gerlach, home of Black Rock City which is a cool place to visit when there's no on there

sounds great! there are so many petroglyphs in nevada.

i would like to one day make it to western nevada and the sierras. have to find the right spot. ideally the high sierras, somewhere a little less well-traveled. it's a long drive from here.

high on my list as far as wilderness goes: jarbidge in northeast nevada, the wind river range in wyoming.

East Sierras around Bishop/Big Pine etc are where to go... it's like looking at the Himalayas or something, and far less tourism... there's ever places you can just park on BLM land and stay for a week for free. There's also the White Mountains on the other side of valley, which are massive peaks in their own right, and where the oldest bristlecone pines are found

awesome, thanks! yeah that's around where i've been looking.

Awlright! Eastern Sierras & White Mountains are kinda my territory. I've camped up there a lot, been up to the research station at the top of White Mountain Peak.

If you get up to Jarbidge, set aside a couple of days for Great Basin NP and the ranges between NV-318 and US-93 south of Ely. Great backcountry that's relatively unvisited.

i love great basin np.

lotta mileage between there and jarbidge though. big area.

i'm getting ready for city of rocks tomorrow. new running shoes and hydration belt. trader joe's trip. i'll have a whole cabin with full kitchen to myself (splurged a little on an airbnb after getting a decent tax return), so bringing all my own food. they say the mountain behind it is private access only and included.

it's gonna be windy. probably some smoke from an oregon wildfire, hopefully not too bad. almo idaho has a little hot springs pool i'm hoping to spend a good amount of time in on saturday after the run. sunday and monday are going to be warm, mid-80s highs.

trails i'm excited about: circle creek loop in city of rocks, castle rocks trail in castle rocks state park, independence lakes trail in the range there.

I really wanted to go to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in Oregon before I left, but it will have to wait

The Kalmiopsis leachiana plant was discovered in 1930 by Lilla Leach in the Gold Basin area. The plant is a relict of the pre-ice age and the oldest member of the Ericaceae Family, and is the namesake of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.[1

that looks like a very beautiful place. speaking of beautiful places, are you out of the u.s. yet sleeve?

lol we were delayed for a day, leaving for LA very very early tomorrow - will be gone on the 11th and on the island on the 15th I think

safe travels - looking forward to hearing more about it!

Quoting from Wikipedia, the Biscuit Fire in 2000 "burned most of the 180,000-acre (730 km2) Kalmiopsis Wilderness". That was 26 years ago, but Biscuit was a hot-burning megafire that didn't leave much behind but dead and burned snags. The Kalmiopsis Wilderness is still very much in recovery mode, with a lot of brushy thicket and young trees where there used to be mature forest. :-(

that's too bad. a lot more of that coming unfortunately. looks like there is a fire southeast of bend that started as a prescribed burn and is now a wildfire. wnw flow bringing some smoke down here. i have a feeling this summer is going to be nutso :(.

Biscuit was a hot-burning megafire that didn't leave much behind but dead and burned snags.

yes I am aware of this, it remains true that the Kalmiopsis is a unique biological/geological region that is actually a separate continental plate from the rest of the PNW which is why it has dinosaur ferns.

i.e. I don't necessarily want to go there for "mature forest", I want to soak in the vibe

same with the Rogue River last time I hiked it, watching the recovery in process is fascinating

so City of Rocks.. this place is a fuckin fairyland! it is seriously magic. i'm at a loss for how to describe it. i guess just try and hack through the basics. it's basically a big drainage amphitheater carved out of the side of a range, revealing massive spires, slabs, and blocks of granite. the overall tree population is pinyon/juniper mixed in with aspen groves. much of the flora is familiar to me from utah but how it is mixing together is different - for lack of something more solid to say it just feels like it's further north. everything up here (southern idaho) feels like it's a shade darker or something.

the reserve itself is interesting, i've never been on federal land that feels quite like it. the main crowd it draws is climbers, but there is a fairly sizeable and complicated network of trails that run from the higher parts of the land tucked up behind the granite down into the basin, rushing through slightly different zones. a few creeks still have a trickle of water. the wildflowers, folks - they are wild and they are flowering, everywhere. instant happy shots for me. one of my favorite blooms, cliff rose, is flowering everywhere. smells like liquorice. there are big black birds of prey circling everywhere. i think they're turkey vultures.

there's a big trail loop that runs up one creek, through a lot of rocks, and down another creek. one of the best trails i've ever been on. magic! couldn't have asked for a better trail running vacation. the cabin i'm staying in is very nice. red drapes and a giant metal sawblade on the wall give it a lynchian feel and indeed i had a dream last night wherein laura dern was lighting the bathroom on fire lol. this spot is one of the quietest places i've ever been. there is a town two miles up the road with a few farms and a little store. the climbing areas up in the park can feel a little busy but everything outside of that is very quiet. this morning i only saw one other group of two runners.

i'll have to post a pic or two when i get back. wifi here isn't letting me upload anything.

I love this thread already

I am doing big hikes twice a week to get myself primed to do the Lions hike in July with a couple friends

i hadn't heard of the lions - wow that looks like a huge hike! are you camping or doing it in one day? looks breathtaking - in more ways than one haha.

yesterday i did 4 miles. today was 5 with about 850 ft elevation gain. that's enough in one shot for me at this time lol. i got back around noon and i was pretty baked from the sun so it felt good to hang out in this cabin all afternoon. the endless quiet is nice to fall into. cool dry breeze floating through the window and occasional whistle of a songbird.

from yesterday - you can really see the cliff rose in this one - the shrub with small yellow blooms

https://i.postimg.cc/7YJnHhJq/IMG-0526.jpg

facing the other direction, into the granite amphitheater

https://i.postimg.cc/SRMYhXT9/IMG-0525.jpg

a special juniper

https://i.postimg.cc/XqGdY1JH/IMG-0595.jpg

happy in a high meadow today

https://i.postimg.cc/q71mF75w/IMG-0593.jpg

<3 <3 <3

I love this!!

Lions isn't a camping hike but it is 16km, an all day hike, and there's scrabbling and some "please use the provided rope to get up this rock face" moments. Too dangerous for dogs. My brother is a big hiker and he says it's the best hike he's ever been on. I'm gonna have to work up to it... the Grouse Grind is a famous, shorter-but-punishing warm-up, I'm gonna try that one in June and see how I fare

awesome. love those epic show-stoppers.

i stopped at the general store in almo on my way back and talked to the woman at the register for a few minutes. they have a local history display with photographs and things including some self-published manuscripts from a history keeper who passed on a few years ago. i had a feeling this was the case but that entire region of southeast idaho is mormon settler land. they are a bit of a different breed than the city mormons lol. and the idaho mormons are a little different than the rural utah / southern utah mormons. everyone i talked to was very warm and friendly.

i have my own issues with mormonism but i have to admit that with some perspective it's pretty clear to me that their emphasis on stability and brotherhood / sisterhood is one of the better cultural influences in the area, as far as american expansion goes. obviously they have their bullshit and their darkness like anyone else. but as far as farming/ranching vs mining goes, the mining towns were hell afaict and i have difficulty seeing much good in that element of the west - just raw, brutal capitalist alienation and exploitation.

anyway. amazing trip. really great to see those big expanses of the west that haven't been filled in yet, where things haven't changed much in the last 50 years. i passed by a couple of farmhouses that .. well, they make me want to drop out of the city and start a new life lol. a distant fantasy but maybe i'll live to see the day when i'm living in a farmhouse on open land.

as luck would have it, a few days later i'm in cedar city for a work conference. cedar city sits right at the base of the high plateau in southern utah that drops into zion and has bryce canyon in it. the town is on the west side where it plateau meets the great basin. it's about 5500 feet high.

cedar city is kind of a bad vibe for me for a few reasons. i'm also a little on edge because i didn't like this conference ten years ago, there are a lot of mormons attending, and i'm not sure how i'll do. i'm going to be easy on myself.

i got out for an evening run after i checked in to the motel. cedar city has what looks like a huge network of mountain bike trails in the pinyon / juniper foothills that rise up on the east side of town. there is sort of an insistent and impressive ascent from that elevation into an aspen and spruce basin below the peak, cedar mountain, at 9200 ft., and it looks like some of the trails go all the way up. my run was a 4 mile loop in the pinyon / juniper. there is a lot of dark-colored rock here, which i'm guessing is volcanic. it creates a fun, technical trail. i didn't see anyone the whole time! the ascent was very gentle with long, dipping switchbacks. sort of a classic mountain bike flow type trail. i love running the mountain bike trails. they were my introduction to trail running. it's a pleasure and a rarity to be out there alone on one.

ok so next up is a camping trip, two weekends from now. i bought myself a tent online last night. i looked at campgrounds this afternoon and decided on one.

my criteria were: decent-looking trails, a reservoir or lake for swimming, far enough away from the wasatch front to get a dark sky, nothing below 7,000 feet or so (hot), and sites available for reservation through recreation.gov because i don't really want to gamble on first come first served on a weekend.

i found a good spot at joe's valley reservoir in central utah. it's halfway down the eastern slope of the wasatch plateau. you can follow the drainage into the san rafael swell to the east but it's gonna be hot down there so i'll probably be at the reservoir and in the mountains above it, to the west. hoping for more wildflowers, which i'm sure i'll see, though it hasn't been a big wildflower year here (dry). i'm looking at three nights, the longest i've ever camped. hoping it's the start of a new chapter of these trips for me as motels are expensive and often uncomfortable. i'm sure it will take a few trips for me to dial in my gear and preferences etc. but i think it will be worth it.

ok recreation.gov canceled my joe's valley reservation because construction is taking longer than anticipated.

honestly a blessing in disguise because i ended up finding a good spot at a much smaller campground on a lake a little farther south and farther away from civilization.

always nice when serendipity happens (instead of sh*t)

I had to cancel on a Sierras backpacking trip after I picked up a nasty cold in Humboldt last weekend

My hiking partners still went... Bummed I couldn't make it, but glad I didn't try... it just got worse over the weekend, I would have slowed them down, if I could have even made it up there

map, pardon the extremely basic nature of this question, but we're gonna be in Moab for a few nights in July and will see what we can in Arches and Canyonlands. Any recommendations in terms of things to absolutely or absolutely not do?

oh right on. it depends a little on the weather. july is generally hot but the summer forecast this year is saying there is a significantly greater chance of a wet monsoon. on a dry sunny hot july day i would recommend a colorado river float. the river will be very low this year but i think floating will still be an option. i don't have any particular outfit to recommend.

there are two hikes next to running water i'd recommend: mill creek and onion creek.

mill creek is 1.6 miles and mellow with pools at the end (people like to jump in from above). it is very, very popular. it can get slammed on weekends so if you don't want to deal with crowds, best to avoid. but a lovely hike nonetheless if you're looking for something a little more mellow, still beautiful, with water fun involved.

onion creek is much less frequented. it's in a very beautiful area. the drive there is equal to the hike. it's in an area called castle valley. crazy beautiful, very unique. terry tempest williams lives there. anyway the trail runs along a creek that runs year-long though it will probably just be a trickle in july. it goes forever and there isn't really a "destination". but it is still largely undisturbed desert wilderness and very beautiful for that. if you're looking for quiet contemplative beauty with the chance to get your feet wet i'd recommend this one.

n.b. if there's a chance of thunderstorms in the forecast, AVOID BOTH OF THESE HIKES.

i know arches is a must-do for visitors but if it were me i would avoid. always a huge line of cars to get in. they used to do timed entry but apparently they got rid of it this year. i hear it's even more of a mess. not worth it for me.

canyonlands, however. the island in the sky district - the area of the park that is close to moab - is at about 7,000 feet, so it's cooler. the drive up there is stunning. many trail options there. most tour buses just stop at the overlook. so you can get some quiet depending on the trail. mesa arch is probably the busiest one.

all of the hikes in arches and canyonlands are all exposed all the time. i would not recommend hiking or being outside from 11:30 to 5:30 if the highs are 95+. 100+ and you're just asking for trouble.

a fun local dirtbag thing to do is to pull up at a "beach" along the colorado and chill for a few hours. lmk if that appeals and i can share a spot or two.

a few food notes:

there are a lot of burgers / pizza / pasta. most are ok. some are newish and i haven't tried.

burgers: milt's is one of those famous little shacks, pretty good burger. proper burger is good, they're a bit "newer generation" and started in slc.

mexican: Giliberto's for a solid, satisfying, relatively cheap, authentic workmanlike dinner. also the food truck right next to back of beyond books for a good quesadilla lunch (i forget the name). there's a food truck park right there too.

highly recommend moonflower co-op, specifically the deli in the back. deli food, you say? how exciting. but for real. they are delicious. i often go there for both breakfast and lunch. it is probably the most high-quality food you can get in moab.

98 center. good "gentrifier white" vietnamese. it's really good tbh. also a good drinks menu.

i don't know anything about getting a good drink in moab though, you're on your own there.

Awesome, thanks for that! We’re looking forward to it.

i don't have any particular outfit to recommend.

xp sure thing! hope you have a great time.

ok some additional thoughts.

re: arches. if you go, go early. like leave your hotel before sunrise. go straight to the delicate arch trail. it's at the end of the road and it's the best thing in arches imo. the hype is real. the hike is on the tougher side, especially if you aren't used to hiking on slickrock, which you probably aren't. it gets crowded. the earlier the better, because of the heat and crowds. then on your drive back stop as desired. this is how i would recommend doing arches.

corona arch. it's a big, impressive one. NOT in the park and much less crowded. similar hike to delicate arch - about 3 miles round trip on slickrock, moderately challenging.

grandstaff canyon. lovely hike along the bottom of a canyon with high rock walls. probably alternating between intense heat in sandy areas and some cooler riparian spots with light shade. canyon overhangs and alcoves offer respite from the heat. maybe a good one to do in the evening. not as narrow so i probably wouldn't freak out about flash flood danger if there are some thunderheads but i'm not the last word on that.

check out back of beyond books. it's a cool store. freak them out by asking if you can see their mein kampf. tell andy the owner matt said fuck you. j/k don't do that.

Cool, thanks! I was just looking at Corona Arch actually. And will definitely check out the bookstore.

Any thoughts on Arches at sunset vs. early in the day? We'll be getting into town late afternoonish and were thinking it might be not as bad to go there toward evening. But maybe that's wishful thinking.

totally worth a shot, i feel like i've seen it start to clear out around sunset before, and there is still plenty to see on a drive through the park even if you don't want to commit to a longer hike.

feel like i just spent way too much on groceries. did i really need breakfast bars AND granola? slow-roasted tomatoes AND olives for the sandwiches? ham AND beef braseole? two kinds of cashews? the thought of being away from easy food access turns me into a pig. i also bought water when i probably could have rustled up enough empty containers and filled them with tap water. i guess i'll just keep the containers and do that next time.

it's gonna be chilly, highs barely scraping the 70s. the lake is at ... 9600 feet lol. i doubt i'm going to see a lot of snow though.

one of the towns on the way has a mtb trail system up in the hills. i'm gonna hit that on the way for a run.

i bought the uco candle lantern. unreasonably excited about it. also a little hatchet, which i didn't have. and a book because why not (black elk speaks).

two weeks ago i did a 4 day solo bike pack from montrose co to moab. so great- from 7500’ in montrose over 9k in uncompahgre, down to like 4500 at dolores river then blammo to 10500 at geyser pass in la sals, then to 4k or whatever at moab.

very minimalist, saw very few or no people for hours. i made a tremendous error in electing not to burden my load with long finger gloves based in forecast. starting at 9k on day three temp plummeted to 32.6°F and just dumped snow. my body was dressed fine— but my hands fuuuuuck. non functional.
what an outing.

wow, way cool. it's always some little thing that ends up being a big deal amirite?

i am back from 3 days camping on the wasatch plateau. overall a good trip and a "success". i wanted to see if i could camp and still run, which i kinda did. i will definitely be doing more of this kind of trip in the future. probably not in this particular area though. it definitely has its beauty - high west mountain country with flat-top "peaks" circling basins that drain into rock canyons. but two things - lack of inviting trails and prevalence of cattle grazing - mean i won't be coming back.

cattle grazing. jesus. i can't think of anything that destroys the land more than grazing, no matter what a century of cattleman / government propaganda would have you believe. just based on feeling and having been outside a lot, mountain bike trail systems or even ski resorts do less damage to the land than cattle grazing does. every time i see cattle in the desert it just boggles my mind, but it is very entrenched. i actually found a really good piece on it here just now: https://andthewest.stanford.edu/2019/cattle-or-tourists-utahns-debate-which-is-harder-on-public-lands/. pretty much everything said on the side of the cattleman had me rolling my eyes.

Cattle “is what the country lent itself to,” said Troy Forrest, a program manager focusing on grazing for the state of Utah. Instead of grazing, Forrest points at another culprit behind damage to the land. “The footprint of recreation,” he said, “is much bigger.”

that, tex, is a massive pile of bull-shito

Edward Abbey to thread:

https://harpers.org/archive/2015/02/cowburnt/

the camping itself was, idk 3 stars or something. the campground was next to a lake. it had about 10 sites in it. it felt like an afterthought, more for cars pulling campers than for tent camping. it was only $7 a night and with no one else there the whole time except for a few people passing through to fish or check out the lake it sure was quiet.

the birds. when you're alone out in the forest with nothing to do you can just listen to the birds. constant entertainment.

by the third day i was basically trying to find shade all the time. then getting cold. felt like 30 degrees difference between sun and shade! the second the sun emerged from a cloud, boom, baked potato time. it was a little exhausting. i'm sure there's a great shade structure worth paying for to take on car camping trips but my bare minimum of setting up and taking down already feels taxing lol.

xp oh of course ed abbey has some piece about that. i read the first paragraph and it's a mistake to try to turn cattle into vile creatures imo. as always there's a good point somewhere in what ed abbey writes but he sabotages himself with his vast terrain of hangups.

yeah, was gonna say - we have a lot of hiking areas in the Bay Area that are 'mixed use' - meaning that we share them with cattle, generally black angus. It's been like this forever, they terrace hillsides with their grazing - but I *expect* to see water tanks and cattle on these hikes; we generally steer clear of cows (though I've been charged a couple times when they were close to the trail)

These have been ranchos since the Spanish arrived, I don't see them as pristine lands anymore so the cows don't bother me

nice trip map. yeah, i just cannot w abbey, regardless the areas in which he was correct. after finishing monkeywrench my takeaway was “gross” lol. i could recommend it to gen z as a great way to understand the mindset of the postwar era i guess.

i love great-basin-tales americana, and i really like stegner’s style, i kind of shorthand him as a non-emotionally-disabled hemingway.

a distant family friend wrote a book comparing abbey and stegner, i thought it was good. https://a.co/d/2Vc0YQe

i keep meaning to explore the wasatch and uintahs more, but not til after escalante.

i've been recovering from strep (when i was younger, amoxicillin used to work fast. this time i needed the whole round, and even now i'm not at 100%).

thus it's been a week since i ran outside. feeling pretty good this morning so i decided to drive up to park city to a trail that has been staring me in the face for years. for whatever reason, i hadn't tried it. park city trails can be a little daunting because parking is often a challenge and a steady stream of downhill mountain bikers is something i'd like to avoid.

this one is mostly uphill traffic though, and no downhill allowed at a certain point. i passed a few hikers, a few runners, a few mountain bikers coming up. it is single-track but with a little extra on the sides. it also moves in long straight lines. all of this makes passing a piece of cake. the incline is right at my sweet spot, which it maintains for the first two miles, and it's just technical enough to bring up the adrenaline. it starts just outside the bounds of canyons ski resort and does a few long switchbacks up through old-growth pine and aspen forest. at about two miles it reaches a meadow along an open side of slope. at this point, i stopped. a red-tailed hawk circled my way. i have ambitions now to push up the second big slope and arrive at the ridgeline on top, where the wasatch crest trail is.

the mountain is in such good shape. flora and wildflowers looking so big and juicy. bees everywhere. trees struggling a bit like everywhere but still remarkably healthy. the area has seen a lot of development adjacent to it - houses, resorts, etc. the ski resort begins one ridge over. comparing this experience with last weekend - where i thought that remoteness would create environmental health - is instructive. the cattle range was like a nuclear blast or something. while the kind of human development that happens "at the top of the human food chain" so to speak, in this particular instance in park city, is... remarkably good for the environment.

file this under "sucks but unsurprising." yesterday i learned that the push for utah government agencies to create databases of mine sites isn't for safety or conservation or anything like that. it's to identify places where minerals that are currently of interest might be located. potentially piling more extraction on top of abandoned extraction.

the cattle range was like a nuclear blast or something. while the kind of human development that happens "at the top of the human food chain" so to speak, in this particular instance in park city, is... remarkably good for the environment.

one of the aspects of the part of utah i went to last week is that... the towns are struggling. they give off an air of desperation. these are the places that county and state social services target. it has always been a bit of a mystery to me as to why. i know that a lot of those towns originally appeared because of coal mining on the eastern slope of the wasatch plateau. coal mining is still a job source for the area. here is what i'm starting to understand: the land-destroying industries, mining and ranching, aren't just about siphoning wealth somewhere else, they also completely drain the land of its life. this isn't just some economic data point - that poor, decimated land leads to poor, decimated people - though i think that also tracks. i think that when people know nothing but destruction when it comes to land stewardship - destruction for dollars - they undergo a deep spiritual crisis. this is what i sense in some of these places. full-range sickness.

i think the best economic decision an area like that could make would be to stop the fucking cattle ranching and start building a big ole mountain bike trail system. buy into the utah tourist economy as much as it sucks and is its own greedy machine. at least the land itself - the land that the people are living on - will start to regenerate. there is just nothing quite like the problem of unhealthy land.

it is a crazy cycle. here much mountain space is incredibly community-destroying, immiserating, resort capitalist real estate bullshit. companies like vail resorts import young labor from afar, it’s seasonal and temporary, and they build dormitory settlements. huge portions of prime space is go to mansions for real wealth, mcmansions for fake wealth, and homes and condos for norms who are DYING FOR A MOUNTAIN HOME but which are empty the 80% of the time they aren’t filled by vrbo shites. it’s mostly a real estate play.

a friend of mine who has lived in a front range mountain town since 92 is leaving the mountains to go back to maine. she has no good words, and the communities have been eviscerated by the resort. the middle has been scooped out.

yeah it's way bad out here. no storybook "best mountain town as featured in outside magazine" is exempt. ironic that "the east" - starting with the plains and moving east - is starting to look like it has more opportunities and less expense, depending on where you look. not to mention water. mountains are overrated imo. from a trail running pov some of the best / most fun trails i've run were in rock creek park in d.c.

to everyone with that cute "mountains, please" bumper sticker: bitch, please.

MAP YOU RULE KEEP POSTING

i had an afternoon off yesterday so decided to do a longer hike in the wasatch. i drove up big cottonwood canyon to days fork, a smaller canyon that branches off from the south and eventually ends on the ridge that separates big from little cottonwood canyons. the map showed about 4 miles from head to ridge. just before the upper cirque, the trail forks at an unsigned junction. the left path makes its way up to a gap in the east ridge and eventually gets to the top ridge. i didn't see the fork and ended up in the cirque where the right trail ends. i really wanted to get to the ridge, saw a coulouir that seemed like i could scramble up it, and started. this was not the best idea. it got very steep and messy. slow, deliberate moves on all fours between solid rock and scree with tons of poky thistle and biting bugs for comfort. eventually i made it to the top. about 600-700 feet. i'm never raw-dogging a coulouir again lol. once i reached the top, the trail was there to follow back down in a much more roundabout way.

i didn't see a soul for about 5 hours of hiking, not until the last half mile of the descent when a few after-work people were coming up. mostly because it was a weekday afternoon, i'm sure, but i also feel like because it's been hot as fuck in slc and people got their hike on earlier in the month the mountain crowds have dwindled slightly. i did almost 9 miles. definitely an endurance challenge on the way down. near the bottom i ran across a moose cow and baby. took it slow and gentle passing them. they seemed fairly unbothered. wildflowers still great and plentiful. i've seen more wildflowers this year than any other, i think. supposedly a "bad" year for them overall but not for me.

i've been daydreaming about my next trip. i'm thinking about the wind rivers at the end of august. i've never seen them in-person. they look incredible. lesser-known than the tetons but just as insane as far as i can see. anyone who has been says it's their favorite place in the world. pinedale, a town at the base, is relatively affordable for a motel stay. i looked at jackson and forget about it, that place is expensive as shit, even compared to other resort towns! even the campgrounds - i looked at gros ventre campground and it's huge with 350 spots at $50 a night. the whole jackson area looks like a tourist wallet drain.

That adventure scramble sounds really great!

I just did a weekend in this remote area called 'Jackson State Forest' in Northern California... mostly hiking on logging roads, and camping in an old-school $20 first come/first serve campground with no running water

My campsite had some baby chipmunks living in a redwood stump. Saw a deer, fox, lizard & snake, ravens, and also two crawdads fighting underwater

Your walk sounds awesome, map

ah that sounds great!

i'm interviewing for a job tomorrow located in helena, montana. it's a long shot but i'm open to it.

my last run was in park city. tuesday morning sunrise. for those not familiar with the wasatch, approaching from the west is very steep and gnarly. from the east is more mellow. park city is located on the eastern slope. of course it sees a fair amount of tourism and increasingly commuter traffic, but that mountain is still very beautiful. aspen. douglas and white fir. little patches of sagebrush. the smell of sagebrush is very powerful to me. crush some leaves in my fingers and immediately i'm transported back to childhood and a sense of endless adventure.

i have a trip booked to my old friend moab at the end of the month. just doing the usual rounds and getting a sense of the state of things there.

i keep seeing photos of the wind rivers appear in my facebook feed and i'm blown away. i was looking at a trip there at the end of august. but i've been craving the desert. and i found a really good motel deal lol. moab enters a heat hangover in august when tourism dwindles slightly. it surges back in september-october especially on weekends. there are so many motels there that when demand drops you can still find good deals.

A buddy's son (from Sonoma County) is a member of the Helena Fire Dept... he's become a deer hunter which I think slightly horrifies his wine country NorCal parents

I've only been there once, stopping for a meal on a road trip, but I thought it was pretty cool

i would totally try hunting if i lived in helena. i don't know if it's for me but i would try it. with someone knowledgeable and not an asshole.

i've also been once... around 2004-2005 when i tagged along with some friends who were in a post-rock band. they were doing a mini tour in the northwest. i remember the valley being pretty epic and beautiful and the downtown being charming. they have nice architecture leftover from their late 19th century gold rush. we stayed with this kid who was in the local band that played that night. at his parent's house in the basement lol. they were very nice people.

not sure about those winters though. and it's a very small town. also not in a great place to move somewhere like that in the near-term. but maybe i could make it happen? they have to like me though and i don't feel like i'm a very polished candidate. i'm approaching it as a low-stakes practice kinda thing. just getting back out into the job market. one step at a time.

If you ever decide to explore the Wind River range trails, I can unreservedly recommend this trail guide by Nancy Palliser:

https://www.mcreynoldscpa.com/beyondtrails

very cool, thanks for the tip!

i have no good advice but cannot wait to learn.

driving down to moab this afternoon :)

i shouldn't jinx it but i applied for an outdoor recreation archivist position at the u of u. i'm really excited about the potential of it. this trip is going to be a nice comforting treat i think. reward for getting my job application in and doing a better than usual job on it. i was originally staying friday through monday but i added tonight at the last minute. only $75 extra. a little moab tip for anyone on a budget - bowen motel is right downtown in a great location, it's cheap and the rooms are decent.

alright, i'm here. it's been about six months since the last time and i've forgotten what an exhilarating place it can be. i jumped into the river after i checked in to the motel, and it's low but not as bad as i feared. main street and city market are hopping. it's definitely still high season. there is a lot of sexual energy in this town - i don't think i'm imagining this, i notice it every time. something in the air here. very clear air by the way. i've gotten somewhat used to salt lake city air so when i come here i have to adjust to the depth and clarity of it. it's almost like my body doesn't know what to do with it all. tomorrow is hot so i'm thinking about a trip up into the la sal mountains. there is this sublime little trail i've done once on the south end. if trailforks is to be believed it's called "burlfriends trail" lol. if anyone is ever referencing this - highly doubtful i know - DO NOT APPROACH la sal pass from the west up pack creek road. that road is a nightmare that requires some serious 4x4 and clearance. google maps still lists it as the primary route. nope. go the other way that circles around the south of the range and approaches from the southeast. the dirt road is graded all the way to the pass. i hope to give a scene report tomorrow.

ha there's a redwood carving place on the road from OR to Crescent City called "It's A Burl"

i went over geyser pass in la sals when i came from CO (in a late may bliz, so it was sort awful). i’m aware that the burro pass/trailhead to “whole enchilada” mtb is there, so likely it’s super busy now. still, there’s GOTTA be good la sal shit there and south for run/hike? the access from moab to there was like a dirt superhiway. keep sharing what you discover dude.

and past that burro pass, to the east, it was just so rando and deserted, and wonderful seeming. without gps it was difficult, and i had dece topo but still got lost. on that land to east, over the CO border to the… i think it was pine flats or something? was just ideal dry high country, very broad and open. the host at buckeye state park (CO) named mike was a really nice man (“hey— i have starlink, you need to call anyone?”). and sorry, there were traces of cattle there, maps.

and between, several jimbobs with their hounds and 4xs dint like my accidental trespasses higher up— there might be a hunting ranch there?— but with positive joking spectfullness in the bliz, they came around and pointed me back to public space. yah, i know not all can get good treatment. probly i look like them to them— grey hair , white, big stache, but just also a bike weirdo.

keep going maps

that is a fantastic story, thank you for sharing! navigating from burro pass into colorado sounds thrilling. and very challenging. i wonder how on earth you cross the dolores river. unless i'm mistaken on the direction you went in. i love a good guy helping out kind of story. wild to hear about the guys on 4x4s with hounds.

that la sal pass area is great! the most dramatic peak there is Mt Tukuhnikivatz - it shoots upward like the wedge of a cone. there is a way to the top that i bet is a doozy. i headed out on what turned out to be .. not the trail i was planning on, but it was still great. most of it was really serene singletrack through little aspen glades and meadows. there was a fair amount of running water up there, it seemed - i crossed probably 4 streams, one more of a creek. it was 2.5 miles of ascent through meadows and the next ridge, skirting mt. peale in a counterclockwise direction, until i reached a junction, then back. the trail has seen use as a motorbike trail, so it was rutted out and difficult in spots, but overall very good. the land up there is like its own little universe.

i drove up the road to the trailhead i was supposed to start from afterward. and i heard what i'm pretty sure is my first elk bugle. what a sound!! so loud oh my god. just stunning.

like the shareability of strava os weird but

https://strava.app.link/nqG25P65Y

mile 17 is the cross point. it is a site with kind, recreational gold miners. lol. my filter broke day 1, so i begged 3L of water from them and they were like “sure dude, yr mental!” rly nice throttle twisters.

I always carry backup iodine tablets. Is that being too prepared or no?

But so many folks are willing to help. This spring, a black bear tore open one of the tents in our group. Another couple was hiking out that day and loaned us theirs then we met up with them a few days later and returned it.

most ppl are nicer than i expect.

i’ve got tablets but i’ve never used them.

the day my sawyer was stripping/failing i was sourcing by lying spread eagle 20 feet from the dirt farm road, reaching under a thorn bush and a barb wire, scooping water from the tens of thousands of gallons gushing from an irrigation spigot into the field canal runs. it was late may, so all the irrigation lines were just blasting on high. it was amusing except for the stripped out sawyer. i reached the rec gold camp like i dunno an hour or two later, and it wasn’t hot at all, like 80°F

was anyone in the tent, or was it a daytime raid when you were away?

Thankfully no one was in the tent. It was an experienced backpacker, so it doesn't seem likely to me they left anything in the tent.

It was evening (Aravaipa Canyon), and I think it was roughly like this:

- We hung up our bear hang (probably too low)
- We saw a bear near our bear hang
- We scared it away and moved the bear hang
- While we were doing this, the bear came back to camp and shredded an empty tent

So it seemed like the bear just was mad at us. But maybe we were just anthropomorphizing?

i go sorta nutty places alone, i shld get more srs about my bear hangs. like i fall asleep with food in my hands lol

You take care of yourself Hunt3r!

(I also have a bear box, which Yosemite and some other places require, but of course this causes it's own set of logistical challenges)

i'm not really camping so i don't worry about bears. maybe i should since i'm running more in the mountains than i used to. there are some black bears in the wasatch. i want to say mountain lions are probably more of an issue. one basically ate someone's kid a few years ago. also people run into rattlesnakes quite frequently especially may through june but i haven't had the pleasure yet.

the rest of the moab trip was grand. i did an early morning run at amasa back on saturday, 7 miles. and then sunday i waited until the afternoon when there were storms forecast and they delivered a pretty good rain storm for about an hour. it let up right as i got to klondike bluffs and the sun in the west struck up a rainbow. 4.5 miles on that one. i wanted to go longer but didn't want to risk getting rained on as i had no jacket and i was lucky with the weather as it was. being in the desert when it rains is a good omen imho.

on my way back i couldn't resist another short trot in the brand trail system - really beautiful views of arches np and the la sals in the distance if you head out back to the slickrock - circle o trail, which is all rock for several miles and much less strenuous than the og slickrock trail up in sand flats.

moab itself was cool. everyone was nice and i had a few brief conversations. i saw a few likely gay couples walking around and at the motel. this morning i walked to swanny park and had a sit and said goodbye for now. an old man walking past gave me a polite "good morning" which i found unreasonably moving.

i'm not sure about the exact details of this but i have the impression that critters are more abundant in the sonora desert and arizona in general than they are in the higher colorado plateau deserts. i think it has to do with the cold winters and maybe a little less precip overall.

one of the climate change predictions i saw for southern utah many years ago was basically "warmer and wetter". which i think has borne out. but the issue is that "warm" makes the "wet" much more transitory and more potentially damaging with erosion and flooding. so you get stormy weather and a drought. the "wet" is rendered useless and potentially damaging by the "warm". in any case there are still big overlapping ecosystems out there adapting to it all now - some parts like it while other parts don't - the earth stays alive through change, even dramatic change, and who knows the outcome here but my suspicion is that in spite of our main character syndrome humanity plays a bit part and has no real way of destroying life on the planet. i get a little miffed when i see messages like "save the planet". crazy egotistical perspective imo. the planet doesn't need saving, it'll definitely chew us up and spit us out if we keep fucking with it though.

all that being said, i thought the level of the colorado was going to be completely dire on this trip but it was about the same as i remember it this time of year in 2018 and a few times subsequently.

have you ever had to filter the colorado to drink? hilarious. i had alum for my bucket, my more serious bike bro friends did not. boy were we all amazed by alum.

similar rec for san rafael swell, which is 1) cool as fuck and quite remote to traffic, and 2) can run pretty high for water in april may, but will clog yr filter instantly.

wow so i went to nine mile canyon for the first time. crazy that i've never been in spite of it being about 3 hours away for most of my life. i think there is an echo of a reason why, culturally speaking. i think the basic deal is that the canyon bottom and much of the land around it is privately owned and not everyone wants to advertise that it's one of the longest galleries of indigenous art in the world. so i think the interests that are at odds with each other mean that fewer people know about it even today. i'm not really complaining honestly. it means that there are few paths, informational signs, or barriers put in after the fact (other than fences) for the vast majority of what's there. the only barrier to access is the one that is intrinsic to the graphics - placement in very lofty, hard-to-reach places along the layers of cliff faces that make up the canyon walls. we scrambled to a few, but there are so many more. i do not have very good knowledge of the subject area of fremont petroglyphs (i get the impression that no one really does - except possibly for descendants).

anyway, i floated through a succession of images and symbols flecked into the rock with a mixture of delight at the expressive gestures of the shapes, wonder at the images - especially of humanoid figures who were apparently transformable in breathtaking variety in the imagination of the time - and curiosity at how the symbols may have communicated concepts or language.

the first day and night it rained, hard. remnants of tropical storms. yellow, yellow everywhere - rabbit brush and cottonwood leaves. a stunning trickle of clear water over rock terraces in daddy canyon. just warm enough to get in a cowboy jacuzzi :)

sounds rad

Years ago, I was motorcycle camping in western Nevada and just randomly went up a dirt road to find somewhere to camp... I was drawn to these big rocks, which were covered with petroglyphs of all kinds... animal shapes but also a lot of cryptic squiggles. Such a rad discovery in a completely random place, right off an old jeep trail

(oh, I see I already told this tale up thread)

inspiring stuff, to you both, thx.

i love that story andy!

it's wonderful to lose yourself a little bit to the mystery of it all.

the path reveals itself if you're watching...

although the experience of spirit in that place is far more interesting, i had a few other thoughts about the land ownership situation. the famous red-painted (likely) deer that looks kinda like a whale with the black "NO TRESSPASSING PRIVATE PROPERTY" letters painted in black over it basically sums up in one image the recent colonial history of the west along with the racism that coalesced around it. another interesting thing is that the great hunt panel is on utah trust land, which as far as i know is used for income generation and loan collateral for public schools and hospitals. it feels grotesque and surreal to me.

tropical storm rachel forecast to make a beeline roughly following i-15 from cali to montana. i guess we'll see how wet she is.

i'm seeing a lot on this phenomenon of 'fake towns' lately. basically developers and out-of-state money interests creating townships out of empty land in counties in order to do whatever they want to make money (lots of cheaply built empty timeshares etc), bypassing the people who live in the area. somewhat related to the data center thing in that the people who live in these places, i.e. normal people not lizards with money camouflage, are hugely against it.

wild, would love to read something if u have a link

https://www.kpcw.org/summit-county/2026-10-08/summit-county-joins-call-to-repeal-law-allowing-developer-towns

ty!

the "preliminary municipalities" law passed in 2024. i drive out to the uinta mountains on occasion and there is a big stretch of land around jordanelle reservoir with new development on it that i'm pretty sure was organized as "preliminary municipalities" with names like "hideout" and "deer mountain". the whole area has the vibe of investment properties for mormon-adjacent slc corporate types.

anyway it's been raining. lots of 4-5"+ totals in the southwest over the weekend. 2" up here. and a base of snow in the wasatch that, last year, we probably didn't reach until january.

i haven't been anywhere "real" (i.e. wilderness) in weeks. fraying a little bit under the thisisfine.jpg vibes of slc. i have another trip planned in two weekends to moab, this time with my partner since he now doesn't have to work on weekends. always fun with him though i have to dial back my ambitions a bit.

yeah looking gnarly out there: From drought to deluge: disastrous Four Corners flooding

never thought i'd tire of clips of red rock cliff face waterfalls and huge volumes of chocolate-colored water washing out roads but here we are.

went up to one of my new favorite regular trails in park city today. right out of the gate i stumbled onto a cow moose lying on the trail. she gave me an annoyed look and a snort. her two kids were close by. i managed to bypass them without disturbing too much. the first two miles of the trail are long switchbacks through aspen then pine forest at a gradual ascent. at the top of a little pass there's a nice spot with a bench that always gives me a good feeling. i went a little further, along an exposed slope, to another little landing spot, where i usually stop and turn around. about 2.2 miles.

it was stormy and cold. very light flurries. no one else at the trailhead and i didn't see anyone the entire time. most leaves have fallen. snow starting to accumulate above about 9,000 feet, but this stretch is at about 7-8,000, so just a little mud here and there. the air was good and clean. first inversion day here in the slc valley, car pollution creating that plasticky feeling in the body, the headache and nausea, the clammy cold like being stuck at the bottom of a vapor sea. when you pass the turnoff for east canyon going up i-80 in parley's canyon, that's usually about when you clear the surface of the inversion and start to feel better.

I've only once been hiking just as it started to snow (other than some light mountaineering years ago) and I got very worried because I wasn't prepared for it. But it was quite beautiful.

the first 30-45 minutes while you’re still dry are fucking magic. after that the sogged hypothermia risk is actually dangerous. you may need luck. or rescue. ask me how i know.

jk but truss— i know— more an once. cause damn i’m fuckin dumb