Ok, that's cheesy, but I saw it on a bumper sticker on my drive from Moab back to Salt Lake City and found it to be true. What can I say? Moab, I am in love. This was one of the most magical adventure trips I've ever been on. I always enjoy pushing the limits to see what's physically/mentally possible and I definitely had a few challenging situations. This morning, as I'm sitting here at the airport waiting for my flight home, my body feels strong. I really don't even feel sore. After Thursday's big climb, my upper body was sore for a couple of days, but today, I feel fresh, ready to hop back into my normal running routine in the morning.
Outside of the climb and the race, I had quite an adventure hike yesterday. I knew that the hike at Devil's Garden in Arches National Park would be challenging, but it was definitely more adventure than I had anticipated. I started off the hike seeing another beautiful desert sunrise, this time with the light hitting Landscape Arch at the perfect time.
Desert sunrises are the best
The iconic Landscape Arch
Breathtaking view of the fins on the Primitive Loop
My plan was to do the full Primitive Loop. I was very lucky that I went in the counter-clockwise direction. This allowed me to beat the crowds and get to Double O Arch and Black Angel well before many people showed up.
Double O Arch
Black Angel
I did run into 2 hikers at Double O and they helped me navigate my way back the right direction. My big mistake was not peeling off to follow them to see Private Arch. Instead, at that point, I was a little hungry and thought, oh, if I head back to the car now, I can pop back into town and grab some nachos from the Rainbow Bowls food truck. So, I continued on, thinking I'd be back to the car in 45 minutes tops. That's when I veered off course. To my credit, the trail was poorly marked. There was an arrow and then there was nothing. I went down a steep slab, but it looked polished, as if many others had done the same, so I moseyed on down, only to be lost in a canyon for the next 80 minutes or so. Thankfully, I never really felt panicked. I could see and hear hikers up above me, so I knew if I needed to, I could shout for help. Plus I had plenty of water and snacks with me. After wandering for awhile on trails that looked like trails, but weren't the way out, I ran into a couple of hikers from Wyoming who were also lost. I got AllTrails to work, so I knew what direction we needed to go, but it wasn't simple getting up over the cliffs. Beau, one of the hikers, climbed his way up a steep slab and his wife, Tara followed, but she had a scary slide down the slab. Thankfully, she walked away with just a few scrapes. After that, we decided we needed to just backtrack where we came from. And as luck would have it, we bumped into a runner who led us back to the trail. On my way back to the car, I ran into a ranger, so I know I would eventually have been found wandering around down there. I think many people make the same mistake that we made.
A view only a lost hiker would see down in the canyon. Beau said it reminded him of Elvis.
In total, my mistake only added about 1.5 miles to the loop. I ended up hiking about 8 miles. By the time I drove the 40 minutes back to the visitor's center, it was time to change my socks, put a dry shirt on, grab some water and head back to Salt Lake City. Car snacks would have to do for lunch. When I finally arrived in Salt Lake City, it was culture shock. I immediately wished I was still back in Moab. Moab, I will be back, hopefully, in the not too distant future.
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