San Rafael River backpack

Sweetbabyjebus, I love fall.  It seems like we spend all summer running away from the bone-dry, scorching-hot desert.  Don't get me wrong, I love summer vacations to far-away places, weekends up in the mountains, and splashing around in the kayak.  But as summer winds down and there's a break in the relentless heat, I fall in love with southern Utah all over again.  THIS is why I live out here.  I love feeling my feet move over grippy slickrock as I gaze up at soaring red cliffs.  I love tucking into hidden canyons to find 2,000-year old rock art.  I love epic sunsets followed by inky black, star-peppered skies.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is what it's all about.

Whoa.  Sorry about the melodramatic preamble.  Anyway, we backpacked the San Rafael River Gorge this weekend.  It was neat.

View from the top -- we backpacked down in the gorge.

San Rafael River

The San Rafael River is a beautiful little river that meanders through a gigantic uplift in the earth's crust.  We hiked the 16.6 mile hunk known as the "Little Grand Canyon," where the canyon walls rise a thousand feet above the river to form the Wedge Plateau.  There's lots of epic canyons, interesting rock art, and an abandoned mine.  Supercool.

Hiking the San Rafael River is a little logistically funky.  First of all, you have to check the water levels (the USGS updates them here.)  During the hike, you'll ford the river about 15 times, and that's easiest to do when the river is running below 120 cfs.  If it's over 150 cfs you might as well float it in a ducky!  Late summer and early fall have the lowest water levels.  We lucked out -- this has been one of the driest years on record, so the river was only 13 cfs.  No problemo.

13 cfs = superlow water

Next, you have to do the shuttle BS.  Take two cars, then drop one off at the San Rafael swinging bridge, where you'll finish the hike.  After that, drive together 18.3 miles (about 1 hour) to Fuller Bottom and drop your other car here.  A 2WD can make it, but it's pretty sandy, so keep the speed up!  We did all the shuttling business the night before so we could start at a decent time.

At long last, it's time to hike!  Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.  The trail isn't really marked, but there's a decent path you can follow most of the way.  There are a couple places that are choked with tamarisk and some annoying river crossing with steep muddy banks, but don't get discouraged -- for the most part it's flat and easy to follow.  The silty water is pretty murky and would probably clog your filter in a couple pumps, but it's fun to slosh through!  And the hike is wonderful.  The red-rock canyon walls are steep and impressive.  You pass a little copper mind from the late 1800s that burrows 2,000 feet into the mountain.  After 7.2 miles, you'll get to Virgin Spring Canyon.  It's one of the few places that isn't heavily grazed by cattle, and there's a reliable spring not too far from its entrance.  There's also a pictograph panel about 1/4 mile from the mouth of the canyon.  We set up camp here and spent the night being serenading by frogs.  :)

Virgin Spring Canyon rock art

The next day, we hiked 9.4 miles back to the Swinging Bridge.  On this day, we entered the deepest section of the canyon that lies just below the Wedge Overlook.  People can drive to an overlook on the cliff's edge, and we saw an ant-sized guy waving at us from the top!  The trail was gorgeous, the rabbit brush were blooming yellow, and we saw a bighorn sheep.  It rained a little bit in the afternoon, but not enough to make us worry about flash floods.

RAIN!?!?

desert bighorn

All in all, it was a great trip.  It feels good to be out in the desert again.  I'm pretty obsessed with the northern San Rafael Swell right now and I'm itching to explore more places up there.

Half Marathon Training

Keep on keeping on ...

Our half marathon ("The Other Half - Moab Half Marathon") is exactly a month away, and we keep chugging along.  This week, the long training run was 8 miles, which felt long but manageable.  We'll bump up the long runs for one mile every week until we're ready for the entire 13.1.  So far the knees have been cooperating (knock on wood!) and the legs feel solid.  The brutal summer heat is finally fading, and running in the morning in 60-degree weather feels amazing.

I've been following the training schedule in the Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer, which got me through my first two half marathons.  The book works for me because it's geared towards people who aren't naturally talented runners and aren't shooting for a particular time.  Exactly.  I'm not going to break any land speed records here, but it's nice to feel solid and progressively stronger.

Wish me luck!

La Sal Mountains -- Warner Lake

Fall is here!  It's still toasty down in the desert, but when we drove up to the La Sal Mountains this weekend it was a yellow aspen extravaganza.  I'm the world's biggest sucker for aspens -- everything was crisp and golden and perfect.

Warner Lake aspen grove

The Loop Road up to the LaSals has been closed for a couple months (construction?) so we drove up through the Sand Flats Recreation Area.  We'd never taken this route before, but I think it's going to be the new standard!  As you climb 5,000 feet up into the mountains, the terrain changes from red slickrock to lush pines.  It's a gravel road, but it's only about 36 miles from Moab, so the trip didn't take much longer than going past Ken's Lake. 

Warner Lake + Haystack Mountain

 

We set up the teardrop at Warner Lake campground (9,200.')  I love seeing Haystack Mountain reflected in the little reed-lined lake.  There's loads of hiking trails, aspen groves, and a perfect little white cabin that makes my heart skip a beat.  Can I live here one day?

We didn't really have a specific trail in mind -- we just tooled around on our mountain bikes and hiked wherever it looked pretty.  We found a couple sections of trail that were fun on the bikes, but I think the real draw is the Whole Enchilada Trail.  I can't wait until I'm pro enough to tackle this monster.  A shuttle vehicle takes you to the top of Burro Pass (11,200',) then you bomb down 26.5 miles and 7,000 vertical feet to the Colorado River!  One day.  Patience, grasshopper.

Instead, we opted for a hike towards Beaver Basin.  It was one of those hikes that was supposed to be short and quick, but the scenery kept pulling us in.  Eventually, we made it to the saddle between Mount Waas and Manns Peak.  Jordan scurried up to the top of one of the mini-summits, then we hobbled back down.  Great weekend.  Fall is definitely my favorite season!

Beaver Basin Trail

Ridgway

Ridgway, Colorado is one of my favorite places in the world.  Our friends, Jerry and Diana, have a house there, and during the summer we love to visit them and escape the desert heat.  It's pretty much perfect -- gorgeous mountains, cool temperatures, loads of aspens, and nearby hot springs.  It's always amazing to start driving after work, get there in the dark, and wake up to an unbelievable view of the Sneffels Range.

Sneffels Range

The view from the porch was gorgeous as always, but it was a little disconcerting this time around.  Usually there's a layer of snow coating the uppermost peaks, even in summer.  But now the peaks look totally bare!  Jerry has been in the San Juans for decades, and he's never seen a year with no snow.  Spooky.  This year has been so ridiculously dry.

The next morning we took the quads up to the Uncompahgre National Forest to hike around and have lunch.  We rode through endless aspen groves, then built a little fire.  A storm rolled through, but we all ducked under a patch of trees and munched away.  By now a little rain is sort of a nice novelty!

Uncompahgre National Forest

lunch!

Jordan and I spent the rest of the rainy afternoon at Orvis Hot Springs.  Orvis is a natural hot springs resort near Ouray with water that ranges from 98-112 degrees.  It also naturally contains lithium, which makes you feel super relaxed and loopy.  There's a couple big pools, the "lobster pop," a sauna, and two massage yurts. Ahh ...

We spent Monday at the Ridgway Rodeo, which was a blast.  I haven't been to a rodeo since I was a little kid, and we had a great time downing beers and watching crazy people ride bronchos and bulls.  Seriously, who was the first guy to decide that riding a pissed off bull was a great idea?  It was fun to bask in a bunch of balls-out Labor Day Americana, although I feel like I should eat some granola or tie-dye a shirt to maintain my hippie credentials...

Ridgway Rodeo

Jerry and Diana