It didn’t take long before I decided to attend a rendezvous of sorts sponsored by Out-N-Back in Moab. It was a loosely organized activity allowing people to do the activity of their choice.  Numerous people were present and we all stayed at the Gold Bar Campground.  Out-N-Back even provided us with a BBQ on Friday night.

Clear skies ushered in Saturday morning.  After breakfast, the group fractured. Some went biking, some went climbing and some went hiking to a nearby waterfall.  My friends and I decided to do a canyoneering route inside of Arches called U-Turn.  After that we headed to Hittle Bottom to run the Daily on the Colorado River.

U-Turn is a short route that takes you up on top of one of the buttes that tower high above the valley floor.  There are a couple assisted-downclimbs and one mandatory rappel along the route. At the very top there are opportunites for some great photos.  I think I will come here to watch the sunrise.  The only downside was the “no dogs on the trail” policy. We had to leave Disco, my red heeler, in the car.

Our next adventure was a float down the Daily on the Colorado River. The Daily is a stretch of 13 miles that carries you close to some of the redrock buttes.  With several stretchs of class 3 rapids, this is a pretty amazing trip.  Several miles of flat water separate the rapids.  The flat stretchs allow for a lot of social interaction.  This was a great trip for a dog and a 3 year old.

It was a great adventure and opportunity that was put together by the staff of Out-N-Back and the administrators of the Out-N-Back Meet-up group. I had such a good time on both of the trips that I will add them to the Rockrunner website.

The Moab Daily

On the mirror lake highway just past mirror lake itself is the highline trailhead. The highline trail eventually follows the ridgeline of some of Utahs great peaks and eventually will dump you out somewhere over by Vernal. From the mirror lake side to the Vernal side it is about 1oo mile trip. But for the less ambitious there are many short versions and destinations along the way.

Our destination for the day was Blue lake in the Naturalist Basin area. Roughly somewhere between 10-12 miles round trip from the parking lot. Following a snaking trail down through the pines we passed Scudder lake off to our right, and finally found the fork in the trail to Natural Basin. From the fork the trail winds up the mountain into a great little basin. The streams is about 4 feet wide and crystal clear. We saw little minnows enjoying the slow flowing water. Meadows with tons of wildflowers, and knee high grass that is still green, green, green. At Blue lake you sit in a pine forest with the lake backed up against Mount Agassiz and know that this is definitely worth skipping work for. At this point I was wishing that I had planned for an overnight trip.

We had left the truck at 3:30 and were back in the truck and headed home that night by 8:30. Had a nice little down pour on the way home to clean the windshield and almost ran over a biker in the dark with no reflectors and no lights during the rain. I have no idea what he was thinking. Scared the crap out of me and my heart still hurts. Probably him too.

As part of our weekly “Meetup” hikes, http://www.meetup.com/Out-N-Back-Events/, we took a few new friends, some old ugly ones, and my boy Jesse on an overnight trip to the basin. We camped just off of Betsy lake, and then explored the trail on over to Mohawk lake. People were catching fish and the weather was perfect. Once the sun went down we had deer running all over the place and had a good time spotlighting them with our headlamps.

Grand Daddy basin is part of the southern high Uinta’s. It is accessed by traveling up to Francis, up past Woodland, on your way to Tabiona. You are looking for the Grand view basin trailhead and going towards Hades pass. The main trail to Grand Daddy lake is about 4 miles in with an elevation gain of about 1000 feet. A great day hike or overnighter. Once into the basin there are numerous lakes and trails that will keep you entertained for a few days. You can even keep going and intersect with the highline trail and either end up on the mirror lake highway or in Vernal.

I started out Friday, July 15th from the crystal lake trail head just off the mirror lake highway. My goal was notch pass but due to my excitement and hurry to get going missed the first trailhead and ended up going west towards smith and morehouse. I made it to “Island Lake” before turning around.  I can report that the trail is about 65% free of snow. The countryside is beautiful and there were a fair amount of hikers in the area.

After heading up the correct trail I soon past “Wall Lake” stopped for lunch and snapped some pictures. The trail this far was snow free and easy to navigate. After crossing the bridge though the trail played hide and seek with me and I did some bush wacking to get to the notch. 50% of the trail was clear but there are some pretty big drifts of snow hanging around and some pretty soggy bogs. Towards the top of the pass you will feel like a mountaineer trudging up the slope to the top. Well worth the trip as the views are inspiring. Getting down the north side of the pass was a cross between a slippy slide and sledding. I had a good time with it but my butt and clothes were cold and wet. I finally found a trail and meandered down to “Ibantik Lake” and spent the night. The lake was about 80% free of ice and the mountains are GREEN. I was also surprised that I only noticed 1 mosquito the whole trip.

I would imagine that within the next two weeks the snow will have receded to a point that all trails are visible and easy to navigate. It will also give the mosquitoes a chance to build up some numbers and acquire a thirst for hikers.

Spring is just beginning to emerge in the backcountry. I have never seen it so green and the abundace of wild flowers was dazzling. Make sure to check with the local ranger stations and forest services for road closures and trail accessibility. There are a lot of washed out roads and trails. High water flow and snow. Take a buddy and tell someone where you are going.

That afternoon we followed the river up to Coyote bridge. Set up camp in a clearing to the south and endured the wild wind gusts that evening. Mountain House “rice and chicken” for dinner topped off with “chocolate strawberry crunch” for desert. All put together with the help of the jetboil stove. We put to good use the MSR Hubba tent and the Big Agnes Emerald Mountain 1 tent. Both endured the strong winds but didn’t do much to keep out the fine sand that blew in. Mountain Hardwear supplied a phantom 15 bag and a ultra-lamina 0 bag. It was a chilly night but we slept toasty. Hats off to Exped! We got to demo the brand new UL pads and pillows. A one pound pad that provided 5 pounds of comfort! Kylee demoed the Osprey Talon 44 pack and I tried out the Black Diamond Axium 30. Both performed very well.

Saturday we hiked up to Jacob Hamblin Arch and then exited up the cliff behind the million dollar outhouse. A steep climb and Kelly has a few profound scrapes to show off. I would suggest setting a hand line to assist for future trips. I used the gps just to prove I knew how but once again the way was set with enough markers to make a blind man proud. We were back to the truck by noon and sitting down to  pizza at “Escalante Outfitters” by 1. Lets say 1:30 because I drive slow.

This was a great trip. I highly recommend it to anyone. The company was awesome, the gear all worked well, the weather held, and everyone made it home safe and sound.

This week I was lucky to tag along with some of my co-workers to the

Banff Mountain Film Festival.