Worst Christmas Ever?

Those were my daughter’s words, and I can understand how she feels.  I haven’t blogged recently because we are going through a bit of a tough time.  Julia’s Dad had a stroke last weekend, and we’ve been spending a lot of time at the Intensive Care Unit at UW Hospital.  Christmas is also Julia’s birthday, so I’m sure this won’t go down as one of the best birthdays either.  Gene is in critical condition, and a lot of bad things can still happen. He did open his eyes this morning and gave a small thumbs up, so we are cautiously optimistic.


I’m going to focus on some of the fun stuff we have done together.  I’m not much of a fisherman, but Gene taught me how to ice fish.  This wasn’t the setting up the fishing shack with the gas heater and portable tv type of fishing.  This was drill your hole with a manual auger and plop your butt on a plastic bucket kind of fishing.  We usually caught fish, which is the only kind of fishing that I enjoy.

Gene also hiked part of the Appalachian Trail with me.  After my diagnosis and treatment with Lyme’s Disease, I headed back to the trail with Gene.  He was no backpacker, although he has been an oudoorsman all of his life  We hiked for three days together: 10 miles, 9 miles and 8 miles. Gene’s trail name was Tag-Along.   At the end of the third day, he declared that the A.T. wasn’t for him and hitched a ride back to the nearest airport.  For a nearly 60-year-old man with no backpacking experience, he did quite well.

Hug the ones you love (if you can; I’m not a hugger).  There are no guarantees, and life can change in an instant.  In Gene’s honor, I will go out of order today and post the end of his hike with me on the A.T. in 1996.

Something Missing

My wife Julia and I try to have a date night every week. This week, we wanted to do something festive, consistent with the season. Even Callie has the holiday spirit.

We both looked at the weekly Madison newspaper, and I saw that the Vilas zoo was having an event called “Zoo Lights” featuring holiday lights, activities, vendors, and pictures with Santa.  I thought that it sounded like fun.  It’s been a few years since I’ve been to the zoo.  Combining the holiday festivities with animals sounded like a nice change of pace from our usual eating out, beer, and live music.


The weather turned out to be a bit crappy. There was a light freezing rain, resulted in icy pavement and bridges.  The good news is that it was easy to find parking (frequently a problem at our zoo).  As we walked past the front gates and paid our $7/per person admission, I was struck by the multitude of bright Christmas displays depicting many of the zoo animals.  I’m not a huge fan of Christmas lights, but Julia is, so I was happy to see the smile lighting up her face.  Okay, let’s see some real animals.  Wait, where were the animals?

Oops!  The real animals were all sleeping and locked away in their buildings.  And the buildings that are normally open during the day….closed at night. My small smile turned upside down, Julia reminded me that the “Zoo Lights” was my idea for date night so make the best of it.  Julia had a great time.

The lights weren’t doing it for me.

Julia says that I look like the evil Emperor in Star Wars.  I think that’s a bit harsh, but perhaps there is a resemblance.

An hour later, I was feeling much better dining on Moules-frites and a Great Lakes Christmas Ale at Brasserie V on Monroe Street.

All’s’ well that ends well.

All my Life’s a Circle

The first real date with my wife Julia was at a Harry Chapin concert.  My college roommate Joe and I were big Chapin fans.  It wasn’t so much Chapin’s voice as his lyrics.  The guy had a way with stories.  Joe gave me permission to use his ticket to ask Julia out.  When Julia said yes, Joe gave up his ticket and missed the concert.  Unfortunately, Chapin died a year later at the age of 39.  I don’t think Joe ever got to see him in concert.  Thanks, Joe, for making the sacrifice.

One of my favorite Chapin songs is “All my Life’s a Circle.”  Part of the song goes like this:

“It seems like I’ve been here before;
I can’t remember when;
But I have this funny feeling;
That we’ll all be together again.
No straight lines make up my life;
And all my roads have bends;
There’s no clear-cut beginnings;
And so far no dead-ends.”

I thought of that song this week when I ran into Jeff, a guy I knew in high school and played a lot of sports with–mainly one-on-one basketball.  He was much better than I was in the team sport of basketball and later played college ball. I could compete with him in one-on-one playground ball.  I’ve run into Jeff every five or ten years–mostly randomly.  This week, Jeff spotted me at a poetry and art presentation at my favorite brewpub, Working Draft.  I think it’s probably been ten years since I last saw Jeff.  We’ve both aged and it took us each a while to do the recognition thing.  We both have a disabled adult child in college, and we joked a bit about the challenges of that.  I don’t have many friends from high school that I’ve stayed in touch with. It was good to see Jeff and strange to reflect how our lives keep circling on back.

I’ve spent the last few days hiking the Ice Age Trail with Callie, my new border heeler.  She loves our hikes, especially when we go fast downhill.  Hiking fast downhill (a/k/a running) was something that I did a lot of during my Appalachian Trail hike with a fully loaded pack.  With no pack at all, it’s fairly easy although I’m not getting any younger.

Growing older:   I’ve been doing some reflecting on the A.T. hike.  Over the years, different people have asked to borrow my trail journal, which I gladly loaned out.  But due to the miracle of the internet, I think it would be fairly easy to photograph an entry of the journal and put it at the end of my posts. Some people might find that interesting, and those who don’t can just skip over the end. I haven’t read it in over twenty years, so it might even be interesting to me.  There would  be some minor editing to partially preserve family privacy.

The thru-hike represented a huge shift in my life.  “No straight lines make up my life; And all my roads have bends.”  I went from being a fairly well-respected young trial lawyer, practicing on the civil defense side of things, to an unemployed guy living in the woods putting one foot ahead of the other for 2159 miles.  This all started in the spring of 1996. The original journal was scrawled in a small spiral notebook.  Pages were ripped out and sent home, where my wife Julia typed them up, best as she could, because my handwriting isn’t very good, especially when laying down in a sleeping bag. 

Quite a bit of the journal went into a local weekly newspaper.  A few excerpts appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal in a story entitled “Trail Attorney.”  A customer/psychologist/part time artist borrowed the journal to read at home and returned it to the coffee shop with an amazing hand-carved leather cover.   The photo inside the cover was taken by Julia near Front Royal, Virginia, a little less than half-way on the hike.

The first page is my wife’s introduction to the journal:

New Canine Companion

Towards the end of October, my son Justin called and said, “Dad, I want Elvis back.”  This summer, Justin decided to go to his summer transition semester without Elvis.  He made the same decision about the fall semester.  Clearly, however, he began missing Elvis.  Many of the students at Justin’s college go home on the weekends, and Elvis is a great compa-nion.  Plus, as a service dog, he can do some handy stuff for someone in a power wheelchair. Picking things up and delivering them is Elvis’ specialty.

So, of course, I said, “yes, when were you thinking?”  Justin replied, “Now, or asap.”  Julia, Elvis and I were in Utah, so “now” wasn’t practical.  However, I delivered Elvis back to his boy right after I returned from my trip out West.  Elvis has been with Justin ever since. Our concerns about Elvis fitting in at college and having Justin’s caregivers do the daily doggie chores have so far been misplaced.   That isn’t to say there won’t be challenges.  Justin managed to break his leg during the fall semester (fell out of his power wheelchair), and had one other trip in the middle of the night by ambulance.  Still, within the limitations of a young adult with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, Justin seems to be  managing things. He and Elvis will return home for a month at semester break. My daughter Allie will take over his caregiving responsibilities to earn a few extra bucks for a car that she is saving up for.

With Julia at work, the kids at college,and no dog at home, the empty nest has been too quiet, even for an introvert and silence-lover like myself.  I’ve been on the hunt for a new dog to hike and sit by the fire with.  Julia requested a smaller dog this time and a female.  She also didn’t want a purebred or a puppy and preferred a rescue or humane society dog.  Some of those criteria would not have been mine, but I could live with those guidelines.  This week, we narrowed the search down to Callie, a mix of Blue Heeler and Border Collie, sometimes referred to as a Border Heeler.

Callie was found as a stray in Indiana, spent some time in an Indiana shelter, and was rescued by a dog trainer in Wisconsin with Indiana connections.  She comes to us with basic skills and a sweet disposition.  I think she’ll fit right in.

Callie is about a year old, loves to hike, and was looking for a forever home.  Seems like a perfect match.

Transitions and Gratitude

The transition from living a sticks-and-bricks existence to mobile life is much easier to blog about than vice-versa. When moving about the country in the Brew Hut, I was experiencing lots of new things, including challenges that weren’t always fun.  Back at home, it’s easy to go back to the familiar and the taken-for-granted.  However, after living on the road for more than two months, I am grateful for a few things in Wisconsin that I missed while on-the-road..  Contrary to some bloggers’ assertions, the West is not always best.

• Plentiful, delicious water.  In large numbers, people have relocated from areas of ample water to areas where water is scarce and becoming scarcer.  I can’t think of a time when we’ve ever had a water shortage or rationing at home.  I live on a private well that draws great-tasting water from a deep aquifer 155 feet under the surface. The only water treatment has been provided by nature–years of filtering down through clay, gravel and rock.
•  Clean air.  Fire and smoke are part of life in the West.  Air quality can be bad.  The sky is often hazy even in the mountains and desert. Where I live in Wisconsin, we might have days where burning is banned due to dry conditions of the forests and/or grasslands.  But when folks talk about bad stuff in the air, they are usually talking about pollen/allergies, not smoke.  I’ve never woken up at home to the smell of smoke from a forest fire.  I’ve never had to wonder whether a hiking or camping trip might be interrupted or cancelled due to fire danger.
• Grass and other foliage.  Now that it’s November, there isn’t much green here either.  But we still have grass (even if it’s buried under the snow).  I missed grass when I traveled this fall.  Elvis the dog actually had to learn to poop on sand out West.  He thought that he was doing something wrong at first.  During the few times where grass was plentiful, he would roll in it like the greenery was a long-lost friend.  Having grass to bind together the soil means that there isn’t blowing sand everywhere too.

There are many other things in Wisconsin to be thankful for, but these three items jumped out at me since my return.  Obviously, I missed out on some family stuff while I was gone.  I am enjoying catching up and renewing daily life with my wife and adult kids. My days are filled with heating the house with the wood stove, baking bread and making yogurt, stacking and cutting wood, hiking nearby trails, and reading books and blogs.  It’s a different routine than traveling in the Brew Hut, but still satisfying.

For Thanksgiving, we made a quick trip to Lexington, Kentucky for a  get-together with Julia’s sister’s family.  It felt weird driving the wheelchair van instead of the truck/Brew Hut combination.  The header photo shows Justin (and Elvis),  along with my nephew and niece in their lovely Lexington home.

I have no big trips planned until mid-January.  That trip will bring me to a new country with old friends. Until then, the blog will mostly focus upon beer, coffee and local trails. The main deer hunting/gun season ended on Sunday, so the woods will soon be safer to hike in.

Back to Wisconsin

I arrived home yesterday after slogging through Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois for several days.  (Slog:  to plod one’s way through difficulty). Thankfully, I didn’t have any flat tires or mechanical problems, but the driving days were long without much time for exercise or enjoyment of visual beauty.

Texas was interesting for its cotton fields.  I had no idea that there were still places in this country where cotton is grown in fields as far as one can see.  In fact, although I didn’t see any harvesting, the harvest must have been in progress because there was cotton all over the shoulders and roadways of the two lane “harvest to market” highways that I was traveling.

I stayed overnight in Lubbock, Texas at a nondescript RV park, which had this sign posted in each bathroom stall.

On Thursday, I drove the Tollway/Turnpike to Guthrie, Oklahoma.  A bad accident had occurred in front of the Cedar Valley RV park where I had made reservations–just before I arrived.  Passport America membership provides 50% off RV park fees, and this park was well-run, clean, and appreciated.  Unfortunately, I’ve run into some really poorly managed rv parks by Passport America, so it’s unlikely I’ll renew that membership.

On Friday morning, I drove through Oklahoma and into Missouri.  I found myself a day ahead of schedule (hitting myself for not staying another day in the mountains outside Las Cruces), and stayed overnight in Joplin, Missouri.  My initial plan was to stay for free at the Downstream Casino, but the electric utility post kept shutting off every time I plugged in, and I tried three different poles.   With temps in the 20’s at night, I fled to my first KOA and plugged in opsuccessfully, staying warm with my small electric heater.

On Saturday morning, I killed time by walking with Elvis on the downtown streets of Joplin, which has beautiful buildings.  Sadly, many of them are empty, and there were quite a few destitute people on the streets.  One woman asked if she could pet Elvis.  She ended up hugging Elvis and breaking down to cry, “I don’t know where my family is.”  I couldn’t help her with that, but she said that her day was already better, having spent time with Elvis.

My cousin Tim was due to arrive home from his trucking job mid-afternoon Saturday, so I still had a couple of hours to kill.  To my surprise, the George Washington Carver National Monument is only a short distance from Tim’s place.  Much of what I knew about Carver had been forgotten, so I appreciated the opportunity to refresh my recollection.

Carver and his mother were purchased and took on the name of his master.  While Carver was young, he and his mother were stolen from slave raiders.  The young boy was recovered, but his mother was not.  Carver’s father, a slave on another farm, was killed in an accident.  Carver found solace in education.  He believed that worldly goods can be stolen away, but an education belongs to you forever.

I left the monument with a great deal of respect for this man.

That afternoon, Tim and I renewed our long friendship by drinking mead from a local establishment.  I’ve known Tim since I was a young boy and spent many summers on his family’s Iowa farm, walking soybeans, making hay, and having a lot of fun when we weren’t working. I spent the night inside Tim’s house under a warm electric blanket.  Elvis seemed ecstatic to be inside a house and around people again.


On Sunday morning, Tim was heading off with his sons to a Kansas City Chief’s football game, and I was on the road.  I drove to East St. Louis, where the Passport America selection did not pass muster.  I continued on to East Peoria, arriving just after dark but before 6 p.m.  I had called to make a reservation at this Passport America park, and the owner assured me that he would either be there or come check me in when I called.  However, when I called, he told me that check-in would be self-serve.  I could set up anywhere .  No access to the advertised wifi,  showers, or bathroom, and the site was hard as heck to set up in.  But I made it through a cold night with my little heater.

When I went to drop off my check on Monday morning, a sign indicated that the office was closed and that he would be in at 9, 10, 11 or later.  I checked for a dropbox to set my check, but couldn’t find anywhere safe to put it.  The owner has my number, and I have a scathing review to write if he asks for the amenity-based full price.  We’ll see what happens on that one.  I doubt I’ll hear from him.

I drove through scattered snow and flurries, making it home by Monday at noon.  Since then, I’ve been enjoying the amenities of home and doing some home chores.  I mowed the lawn yesterday, which was covered in oak leaves but hadn’t been mowed for two months.  The temps are in the 30’s during the day, and colder at night.  I miss the warm temperatures of the southwest, but it was time to come home.  As soon as I clean the chimneys, I’ll be back to tending the home fires for the winter.

Eastward Bound to Texas

I woke early on Tuesday morning and drove from Tucson to Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Las Cruces is on the list of places that Julia and I want to check out to see if we want to live there someday.  It ticks a lot of boxes:  university town, close to the mountains, diverse population and culture, no snow in the city but winter sports available only a few hours away in the mountains.

I wasn’t going to have time to do much more than drive around, walk around and stay at an RV park in town, so I bailed on that plan.  I drove through town via Hwy 70 and then kept on going until I reached a road sign for Aguirre Springs, a BLM campground.

The road in was steep and windy, but the payoff was amazing. Why would I want to stay at an RV park when I could stay here for $7/night.  The place was practically deserted without any generators and no lights to mar the night sky.

I listened to the early election results on NPR and then went to bed early.  This morning, I drove to Lubbock, Texas, passing steep snow-capped mountains in New Mexico, and then cotton fields/oil wells in Texas.  I’m using my Passport America at an RV park in Lubbock for half the regular rate.  I’m also taking the time to start winterizing the Brew Hut with hard freezes and snow expected where I am headed for the weekend.

Roadrunner Dispersed Camping

After dropping Julia off at the Las Vegas airport, I hitched up and started driving south on Hwy 95 with Yuma as a potential destination.  I clipped the state of California long enough to buy some gas at $4.55/gallon and some figs for $8/package.  I preferred the figs. They were tasty but not overly sweet.  The figs were purchased from a roadside stand that also sold unfiltered honey.  The woman asked me to try a couple of samples.  The clover honey was similar to what I’ve had before, but the Desert Wildflower honey was very different–almost spicy and with a pleasant finish. A small container was $20, so I satisfied myself with just the figs.

Hwy 95 was very crooked and dippy.  By the time I reached Parker, I had reconsidered Yuma as my destination.  By the time I reached Quartzsite, I was ready to be done driving.  Just south of Quartzsite, I passed several Long Term Visitor areas that I recognized.  I kept driving until I passed what looked like another LTVA, but was nearly deserted.  The sign said Roadrunner–14 day camping limit.  I pulled in and  talked to the campground host (who waved off registration since I was only staying one night).  I found a quiet spot that would allow for an early morning quick getaway and parked without unhitching.

The time was about 2 pm., and the afternoon quickly heated up to the mid-80’s inside the Scamp.  There were no services or hookups here, but the price was right (free).   By early evening, the temperatures cooled off to the very pleasant lower 70’s. Elvis and I took a long walk out into the desert.  Roadrunner was practically empty; the camp host assured me that it would be packed by January. Clouds moved in to prevent a viewing of the sunset, but the colors in the clouds were amazing.

The night was cool, comfortable and quiet.  Elvis woke up at 5:45 a.m., shook and placed his paws impatiently on my bed, demanding to be fed.

Today, I needed to start making better time and mileage in order to get to my cousin’s place in Missouri  by Saturday.  I drove the interstate through Phoenix and then to Tucson. I’m camped tonight at the Prima County Fairgrounds RV Park, which has blazing WiFi, showers and hookups for $30/night.
Tomorrow, I’ll head for New Mexico.

Drop-Off

This is just a quick update without photos.

After leaving Monument Valley, we needed to make a half-circle back to Las Vegas to get Julia to her flight home. We stopped overnight at Pipe Springs National Monument and the RV park nearby, so that Julia could hear the story herself of the history of the spring.

Yesterday, we drove to Vegas where Julia had found the Las Vegas RV Resort, which was an easy drive to the airport early this morning.With moving from Mountain Time to Pacific Time, plus the Dayight Savings time shift, we woke up quite early to get her to the airport for an early morning flight home.

I will be meandering south and east today to start my way home. Thanksgiving isn’t far away, and I won’t be able to stop for lengthy stays anywhere at this point. There are a few places I want to see, so I’m estimating a two-week drive back home.

Night and Day

Julia is reading “The End of Night” by Paul Bogard, which is described as a hymn to vanished darkness. Between the full moon at Bryce, light pollution at rv parks, and cloudy nights, she hasn’t had much success in viewing the Milky Way.After leaving Moab, we went to Dead Horse State Park, which is about 45 minutes west of Moab and next to Canyonlands National Park.

This area is supposed to be a great spot for looking at darkness.  Unfortunately, even though it was clear for most of the day, clouds moved in at sunset, leaving no stars to be seen.  Then when Julia got up before sunrise, the half-moon spoiled the view.

Fortunately, the trails and daytime sights at Dead Horse State Park made up for the lack of true darkness. We hiked the East and West Rim Trails, along with a few shorter side trails.

This morning, we were off to points south.  My plan was to take Julia to Navajo National Monument, but she opted for someplace new.  We ended up at Monument Valley in the Navajo Nation.  We were going to stay at the View Campground, but no dogs were allowed.  Instead, we went to Goulding’s Campground.  Julia appreciated the hot showers and electrical hookups.  It’s been getting colder, and my $15 ceramic heater has been keeping us toasty when we have electric.  Solar doesn’t work for producing heat–at least not my 100 watt suitcase solar kit.

I had low expectations for Monument Valley, especially after the $20 entrance fee, but it was a very beautiful place.  We drove part of the gravel loop road before deciding that was enough potholes for one day.  Then we hiked the Wildcat Trail (about 4 miles looping around West Mitten). Despite the crowded parking lot and visitors’ center, we saw only a couple of hikers past the first mile.  It turned into a great afternoon.

Julia has one more chance for dark skies before we return to Vegas for her very early morning flight on Sunday.  We have no reservations but will making our way west.

Arches National Park

After Zion, Julia decided that she wanted to see Arches National Park.  We did the tow/drive in one day, and it was a very long day, pulling into Moab Valley RV Park($42/night) just north of Moab on Sunday night.  The RV park is well-run with nice showers, swimming pool, hookups, dump station, and conveniently located.

The entrance to Arches is only five miles from the rv park, but the drive through Arches to get to the trails that we wanted to hike was about 40 minutes.  We rose early Monday morning and were at Devil’s Garden Trail by 8:30 a.m.

I’ve given Julia the new trail name “See it All” because she is dragging me to every arch she can find in the park.

Devil’s Garden was an 8.3 mile hike after taking into account all of the side trails to named arches and completing the entire primitive trail loop, which had some really ice arches, including my favorite “Private Arch.”
On Tuesday, we hiked a series of smaller hikes including the Delicate Arch trail, the Park Avenue trail, the Windows trail, and assorted viewpoints.

Tuesday afternoon, Julia went shopping in Moab, while I attended to a few things in the Brew Hut and took Elvis for a walk.  Tonight, we’re going out to dinner, and then we’ll be offline for a bit, heading to Dead Horse State Park and points south.

Zion National Park

On Thursday morning, we hitched up at Bryce National Park and drove to Zion National Park.  After camping in the cold without hookups at Bryce, Julia figured that we deserved three days of full hook-ups at Zion Canyon Campground a private RV park within walking distance of the visitors’ center inside Zion.  I’m not crazy about spending $54/night for camping but it was really convenient; the sites had great views of the canyon; and it was a really well-run RV park.

We didn’t get into our site until early afternoon, so we spent the rest of the day walking up and down the streets of Springdale, eating pizza at Zion Pizza and Noodle Company, and having a bonfire at the campsite  We turned in early because a big hike was planned for the next day.

We rose at 5:30 a.m., took care of the dog (I walked him down to the visitor’s center and back), and walked down to the visitor’s center (again) to board the Zion Park shuttle bus at 7:45 a.m.  We made it to the Angels’ Landing Trailhead by about 8:15 a.m., well ahead of the rush that would occur throughout the day.  Julia called Angels’ Landing her death march, but the first half of the hike was just a cardiovascular exercise of switchbacks on mostly paved trail.  At that point, the pavement ended, and about a third of the people either returned to the trailhead and waited for family and friends to make the final ascent.

At that point, the pavement ended, and it became a rock scramble ascending a knife-edge and hanging on to dear life to the guide chains that led the way to the top.

A 1200 foot drop awaited anyone who wandered too far from either side on the narrow trail up.

We made it to the top and also back down.  To celebrate, I bought a t-shirt and coffee mug commemorating the hike.   Julia celebrated by taking us out to dinner at Meme’s Cafe where we ate burgers, fries (for me), salad (for Julia), and strong beers for both (double IPA and double bock).

On the next morning, we repeated our early shuttle ride to the end of the line at the Narrows.  The water was frigid, and I vetoed a nine mile hike up the river.  Still, Julia took off her shoes and managed to taste the experience for awhile going upstream.

Later, we hiked the Watchman Trail, which delivers views of the Canyon below and Springdale.

On Sunday morning, we hitched up and made the long drive to Moab.  We are headed to Arches National Park.

A Bryce Canyon Adventure

When we left Valley of Fire, I had a pretty good idea that our weather would be changing because Bryce is at 8000 feet of elevation.  The weather forecast was for lows in the mid-40’s.  We could deal with that.

In St. George, Utah, we stopped at an information center, and the nice lady at the desk suggested that we take a scenic route to Bryce by taking Hwy 14 out of Cedar City and then getting on Hwy 148 to Cedar Breaks National Monument and then Hwy 143 to Panguitch Lake and eventually connecting up with Hwy 89 and then Hwy 9 into Bryce Canyon National Park.

She promised that it would be scenic, and she knew that we were towing a trailer.  I didn’t think to ask her about elevation or snow, but it turned out to be quite relevant.  We climbed all the way up to 10,500 feet in elevation on our route, and we saw snow along the road and in the parking lots and occasional ice on the road. Julia says that the route was quite scenic.

I’m pretty sure that my steering wheel has permanent marks from my fingers holding on for dear life.  The road was basically empty for the entire route until Hwy 89.  We didn’t see another vehicle towing a travel trailer.  I was very glad to make it to Hwy 89.  I just noticed on google maps that part of the road is closed from November until spring.

We drove the rest of the way without event and then easily found a campsite at Sunset Campground within the park.  From our campsite we could walk to the canyon rim and the Sunset Point viewing area.  From there, we could walk hike along the rim or down into the canyon.

On the first day, we took long walks along the rim with Elvis (hiking with dogs is permitted between Sunrise Point and Sunset Point.  That night we built a fire, but retreated to the Brew Hut when temperatures began dropping rapidly.  We were prepared with a heavy zero bag and a comforter, but it got cold that night.  With the body heat from the humans and dog, the BrewHut only dropped to 34 degrees, but a hard frost was occurring outside.  I was glad that we didn’t freeze our water or waste tanks.

On our second day, we hiked down into the canyon in the morning via the Navajo Loop Trail and then back up via the Queen’s Garden Trail. On that afternoon, we entered the lottery for the Full Moon hike.  Over 100 people were in the room, and only 35 were selected.  With Julia’s good luck, there was no doubt we were going to be winners.  The moonlight hike was interesting, but I probably wouldn’t do it again.  The ranger-led tour provided lots of information about the formation of the moon(s), the interdependence between the moon and the earth, the protection that the moon has provided over the years to the earth in absorbing asteroids and planetary debris, and much, much more.

But the bottom line is that we were hiking in the dark most of the time, even though the full moon provided light in places.  The trail was challenging especially going down, and we were both glad after we made it to the top after the 2-plus hour hike. The highlight of the hike was at the beginning when we watched the moon rise.  Although the low lighting prevented decent photos from our limited cameras, it was spectacular!

On the second night, the temperatures only dipped to about 40 degrees inside the Brew Hut.  We were much more comfortable.  After a tortilla omelette, we hurried to catch the sunrise at Sunrise Point on the rim.

Then we hitched up and headed for Zion National Park.