8-27-06
Start: Forest Rd. 088, UT
Destination: Woodenshoe Rd., UT
Elevation: 8450 ft.
Miles: 22.7
Weather: Great! Sunny, breezy, and we had lots of shade.
It was actually cold last night and this morning. We slept with our hats and gloves on, even. It was hard getting up because it was hard falling asleep with the critters cracking twigs all night - actually, I think it was one squirrel dropping pine cones from high up in a tree - I caught him dropping one this morning and the sound was similar. But we eventually got rolling.
We started out hiking on a sandy road, and we were admiring the lizard tracks. There was a squiggly line with little foot prints alternating along side of it, and each little print had long claw marks. It was pretty neat. Then we saw turkey tracks and deer tracks. And cow tracks. And bear tracks. And tire tracks, coyote tracks, and our tracks... lots of tracks. Gerbil.
I might be losing it! But that's funny! Now I need to see Gerbil tracks! :)
We saw some really amazing canyons. There's this spot called "The Notch," and it's where the road connects N and S Elk Ridges. It drops down on both sides 3,000 ft. It really makes for some gorgeous, wide open scenery views. You can see forever - until the sky blends in with the land. And so many colors! The canyon walls are striped with red, gray, white and brown, and then spotted with green from trees and brush. And the depth of it all seems infinite.
We had a lot of trees to shade us. When we hiked Lockhart Basin Rd, I thought that that's what Utah was going to be like - desert. Hot. Waterless. But where we are now, is 4,000 feet higher, and we're in the mountains. There's water, although it's nasty as can be - cow poo, mud, silt... but if the need was there, we've got three different types of purification. Anyway, we have nice hiking terrain, and perfect weather. We're happy campers!
We got to our water drop spot, and nothing was there. We were nervous, and I was flipping out a little bit, so we decided to chill out and eat our lunch. Just as we relaxed, in pulled a Quest vehicle - water was on its way! Sweet! A little bit later, Chris pulled in and brought out a huge jug of spring water. We were going to make him coffee, but he had to quickly head out. We took the rest of our break and then hiked on.
We saw so many turkeys this morning! Probably 50 of them! During the day we had cows. I don't remember seeing any bulls, though. Then the afternoon brought a LOT of deer. In fact, just a couple minutes ago I was poking my head outside the tent door. Two deer were walking right by us. I suppose they don't see movement, so they don't freak out. But I think they could smell us - they were certainly being cautious.
46 more miles to Granny's Diner! Onward! Tomorrow, after we sleep!
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