9-7-06
Start: Circleville, UT
Destination: FR 008, UT
Elevation: 7423 ft.
Miles: 16.8
Weather: Too hot - too cold - always "too" something :)
Bert and Marta got us going with a huge, great breakfast. Fried eggs, bacon, pancakes, coffee, orange juice, and fruit. We first stuffed our tummies, then stuffed our packs. We packed extra water because we were unsure of what was going to be out there for the next two days. We were probably pushing 50 pounds with that extra water. Yuck!
Bert and Marta wanted to hike with us today for a stretch, so we were really excited about that! Bert even downloaded the route from Circleville to Beaver onto both of our GPS’s, so we were going to compare as we went.
Marta dropped mom, Bert and me off at our starting intersection (ADT sticker compliments of Ken & Marcia :) ). So we hiked while Marta drove ahead a couple miles at a time. We walked by a yard with a goat standing there. It looked fake, and mom even made a comment about how it would be neat to get one for her yard. It was bright white with some brown, and even had its leg bent up like he was in mid-stride. It was completely still. Imagine our faces when he suddenly turned his head! It made for a good laugh!
When we got to the campground where the road ends, Marta put on a daypack, and the four of us headed out on the trail. It was really fun scrambling through with our GPS’s running, finding the trail. Bert's and my GPS were really close to being right on. And the waypoints were usually within 20 ft., so that was cool.
Bert and Marta wanted to get to the high point of this section with us, so they hiked until almost 3:00 to get there - and we made it! It was really a lot of fun hiking with them. Marta and mom picked up rocks while Bert and I played with the route on our GPS. (I picked up a few rocks, though, too.) When we got to the top, over 9,500 ft, we said our good-byes. I sure hope to meet up with them again!
Mom and I sat down and made a rain cover in the tree with a poncho. It was really cold, too! When we started out this morning, we were stripping layers because it was warm. We started hiking and had some perfect hiking weather, and then it started to rain. We all put on ponchos, and the higher we got, the chillier it got. If anyone's going to get frozen toes in Utah, leave it to us! When we sat down for our break, in the rain, we had three shirts on, our pants, balaclavas, and gloves! The hot coffee really did wonders.
After that we had a beautiful hike through lush mountainous terrain downhill. It was a great hike all day. Oh - we dumped our extra water about 15 min. into the hike because we observed the amount of water in the creek - Bert and Marta said the area must've gotten a lot of rain yesterday, because it was rushing a lot faster than normal. They were right. And we're SO glad we got to dump that extra weight. Now we are camped along the river, with all the water we can drink, and a lullaby of water trickles, gurgles, and soft splatters to put us to sleep.
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