Lizard, Snake and Wet Feet, Oh My

My campsite at Sandy Flat has been amazing, but like anything else, positives and negatives are part of life.  It’s been really hot with temperatures around 90 (and warmer in the Brew Hut) until about 7 p.m when it finally starts to cool down. Last night, it only cooled to 74, which was comfortable sleeping weather with just a sheet, but warmer than I’ve experienced for most of this trip.

Hiking is not ideal at Sandy Flats.  While there are many trails for bikes and atv’s hiking consisted of jumping up on the rock and following it to see where it goes.  Today, I stopped in at the Forest Service and Park’s information Center and asked for dog-friendly hikes.  The gentlemen immediately gave me a brochure with several choices but recommended Grandstaff Trailhead for today’s hot weather, based upon the gentle ascent through the canyon and the ample supply of water for Elvis in the creek at the bottom of the canyon.  That was a great recommendation.

Elvis and I hiked about 6.5 miles round trip.  We aren’t sure if we made it to the end because the trail just seemed to vanish in an area of hard flat rock, but we got lost a few times so we figure we made up for the lost mileage if we didn’t make it to the conclusion.
 

The title photo for the hike shows one of the dozen of lizards that we saw crossing the trail.  Elvis was curious about the first couple, but then lost interest.
The snake caught my attention. It didn’t have any rattles.  There were several people around who had checked their guidebooks and couldn’t identify it.  I just knew it was big.

Most of the the hike consisted of crossing the stream dozens of times, which gave Elvis lots of opportunities to drink and cool off.  I kept my feet dry for the trip out, but managed to give myself wet feet on the way back. By noon, the temperatures were hot enough that I didn’t really care about wet feet.  Lots of dogs were off-leashed, some well-behaved, some not.  Elvis received one nip and one pretty good bite on the shoulder from a pit bull.  It didn’t break the skin, but I could see the slobbery indentation.   The owners seemed embarrassed, but not enough to put their dog on a leash.

We are going to lay low this afternoon with cold drinks and do some research about where to go tomorrow. Probably south or west.

Moab–Sandy Flats Recreation Area

When I arrived in the Moab, Utah area, I tried several recommended campgrounds, which turned out to be fully occupied by 1:30 p.m. Moab is a very busy area. Continued efforts paid off though when I scored a really nice campsite in Campground A of the Sand Flats Recreation Area.

The site has views of red rock for 360 degrees. Between campground A and B, there is the world-famous Slickrock Mountain Bike Trail. There is some road noise, but not terrible and it quiets down at night. I have full solar throughout the day, and I finally figured out the art of setting up the Brew Hut so that I get maximum shade in the afternoon when temperatures reach the high 80’s (and 90 in the Brew Hut). With the low humidity, high 80’s is actually very comfortable in the shade, reading a book and drinking a beer.

This campground was also nearly full by dusk. The one empty spot was across from my site. Several rigs passed it by because the site was very small, and the pavement drops off on one side. I’ve told my kids a thousand times that nothing ever good happens in the early morning hours. And that was certainly true last night.

A threesome of twenty somethings arrived at 3 a.m. last night in a small car and figured that spot was just the right size. Unfortunately, they failed to see that the pavement dropped off on one side, and the car fell off into the deep sand. I saw their brake lights flashing for about 30 minutes, and heard the tires spinning. They were still sleeping when I snuck this photo.

They finally woke up an hour later when Elvis and I were hiking high above their campsite on the slick rock. The “amazed that this happened to them” group went from campsite to campsite, looking for help. Ironically, no one who was awakened  at 3 am. was sympathetic. They did find some further-away campers with off-road vehicles and then a big truck with a tow strap to pull them out. The young adults paid for multiple nights, so while they’ve left for the day to go sightseeing, they will be back tonight.

I’ve paid for 3 nights here ($15/night), which includes an outhouse with no door, no hookups, no water, and garbage.

Still the views have been priceless.  I love walking in the pre-dawn  until the sun is up when it’s still cool, and the air is so clean.

Price, Utah

After discovering low air pressure in my problem tire while camped at Tibble Fork, Google recommended Burt Brothers Tire and Service in Highland, Utah.  Google isn’t always right, but that turned out to be a good one.


Service was polite, fast and cheap–it doesn’t usually work that way.  They found a screw in the problem tire, did a full synthetic oil change, and replaced my wiper blades for about $100.  I needed the oil change anyway, and now I should be set until I get back home in November.

Feeling much better, I drove to Price Utah and filled out the paperwork to stay at the Legacy Motel and RV Park for $38/night.  It had everything I needed:  hot showers, laundry, sweet tasting water (I had last filled in Thermopolis, and the water was horrible), electric and wireless.  A week had passed since a real shower, so I took several of them, and the hot water felt great.  I downloaded a bunch of Netflix shows, caught up on blogs and comments, and took a night to recharge.

For supper, I went to Grogg’s Pinnacle Brewing Company.  It was ok.  The Hefeweizen was thin, without flavor and served with a slice of orange.  Next, I had a black lager that was pretty good, but maybe that was in comparison to the hefe.  They do not brew their own beer, but offered others’ brews.  My Baja burger was messy and just ok.  The homemade chicken noodle soup was really good and saved the meal.  Service was prompt, but if you are going to call yourself a brewery (really a craft beer bar), the staff should understand the styles of beer. Not the case, but a helpful customer steered me to the black lager.

After doing laundry, dumping tanks, and refilling with water,  I drove to Moab, Utah, where I plan to stay for a few days in a Bureau of Land Management Campground.  There will be photos from the Moab area.  I considered taking photos in Price, but no wants to see a parking lot or a laundry room, I hope.

Tibble Fork, Utah

After leaving Rock Springs, I made several changes in plans. Once I left Wyoming and entered Utah, I started looking for places to camp. Rockport State Park looked interesting and close to Interstate 80. Unfortunately, the State of Utah wanted $30 for a crappy little site without showers. If I can’t take a real shower, I’m not willingly paying $30.


I was now in prime T-mobile country, so I pulled over to look at my options. Antelope State Park had showers and a camping fee of $20. Unfortunately, as I approached Salt Lake City, the realization hit that I was going to have to drive north through Salt Lake and backtrack when I left the park. I’ve driven in a lot of big cities, but I was not having fun driving with a trailer in five lanes of interstate when they kept deleting my lane as the exit lane. When I should have gone north, I opted to go south.

After driving through most of Salt Lake, I pulled over for gas and looked at my choices. If I headed straight east from Lehi, I could drive into the Unita Wasatch-Cache National Forest, where there were several public campgrounds. I set my sights on the Mt. Timpanogos campground. As was getting close, the road started to steepen and narrow. A sign said not recommended for vehicles over 30 feet. I figured that neither my Scamp nor my truck was over 30 feet individually,but it was getting a little hairy. Rocks slides leaving debris in the middle of the road weren’t making it any easier.

When I arrived at the campground, they wanted $34 or some ridiculous amount, and it was for dry camping. I didn’t see any good campsites available so I drove up into a trailhead parking lot and talked with a young Forest Service employee who was writing tickets to people without user fee permits. She was apologetic about it, but she was still writing tickets. I had my America the Beautiful Pass so I wasn’t going to get a ticket.

I told her that it was my first trip up into her forest, and did she have any recommendations for campsites. She asked did I need a campground or was I looking for dispersed camping. I said that dispersed camping would work fine, especially given the camping fees. She explained that the campgrounds are run my an outside private company, and that they set the rates. She then offered two suggestions for dispersed camping; one was higher elevation and close; the other was lower elevation and a few miles away. Given that our conversation was taking place at 75000 feet in elevation, and that there was a crispness in the air that promised freezing temperatures that night, I chose the lower elevation.

To get to my site, I backtracked on Hwy 92 and turned off on Hwy 144 north to Tibble Fork. Where the pavement ends, the gravel begins. A short time later, a sign was posted indicated that dispersed camping for up to 14 days was permitted. I found my creekside campsite almost immediately after the sign. Normally, I would have driven further in, and I did walk the road later to see if there were better sites. However, this site ticked all the boxes for me. I could hear running water from the Brew Hut, and it wasn’t from my faucet. A beautiful mountain stream was less than 20 steps from my front door. The site was so level that I didn’t even need to unhook. I put up my rear stabilizers and was good to go.

I spent the afternoon taking walks, collecting solar power, reading, and preparing supper of leftovers (beef curry with noodles). Because my campsite is in the bottom of a narrow canyon, the sun set quickly behind the mountains, and the temperatures plummeted. I watched some downloaded Netflix after supper and had a glass of port. By nine pm, I was buried underneath my heavy sleeping bag, which kept me quite warm. The one negative to the campsite is that I am close to an atv and dirt bike road. I was amazed that they kept driving by well after dark. But by ten pm, they had either stopped or I simply fell asleep.

I woke at 7 am to the sound of Elvis doing his early morning shake to awake. 35 degrees in the Brew Hut. Not cold enough to freeze the water tanks, but that set a new record for this trip. After eating hot oatmeal and making coffee, Elvis and I took to the trails. A trailhead for the Mill Canyon Trail (#040) was less than 100 yards from our campsite. We ended up hiking beyond the end of the Trail on part of the Ridge Trail for a total of 8.5 miles and an elevation gain of 1500 feet. At 7500 feet in elevation, we found patches of frost. At the beginning of the hike, I had several layers of clothing on and wished for a hat and gloves (that I didn’t bring). But the steep ascent quickly warmed things up, and I was back to a t-shirt by the time we arrived back around noon. We saw deer, turkeys, and vultures.

We passed the afternoon blogging, reading, and enjoying the sound of the creek. I could easily stay here for a week. But there is so much to see and do in Utah.  In the morning, our problem tire was giving us more problems.  We are headed for tire service and an oil change.

Rock Springs Walmart

When I hitched up at Flaming Gorge to leave, I received a “low tire air” warning light. Sure enough, my rear driver’s side tire was down 20 percent. This was a good opportunity to use my portable air compressor for the first time. Actually, a better opportunity would have been to use it before leaving Wisconsin so that I knew how it worked.


Anyway, after a few struggles and tries, I figured out that the compressor’s tire fitting was threaded, which once screwed on to the tire valve, actually allowed air to enter the low tire. Once that was completed, I drove to the Walmart in Rock Springs to resupply and see if the tire air was holding. I suspected a slow leak. That same tire had been repaired about six months ago for a nail hole.

Now my wife and I have never been very big supporters of Walmart, which has driven many small independent businesses out of business. One nice thing that Walmart does do (sometimes) is to let recreational vehicle users stay overnight. Walmart figures they will spend some money resupplying, and it’s a cheap overnight for people on the road. Many Walmarts, in response to pressure from private campgrounds and local city councils , have stopped offering the service as ordinances are passed prohibiting overnight stays in parking lots.

Some of this is understandable, as there are always people who take advantage of the situation: staying for weeks, taking prime parking spots, leaving trash and worse behind, and generally treating the parking lot as their personal free campsite instead of just an overnight sleepover.

Thankfully, the Walmart in Rocks Springs, Wyoming, still allows overnight stays. When I asked for permission, the manager, seeing my shopping cart full of provisions, told me that it was ok to stay overnight but to park in the back of the parking lot (which I had already done). Knowing that I was going to Utah (where watered down beer happens), I stocked on beer, food, toiletries, and miscella-neous items (including ice cream). I took Elvis on long walks to make up for leaving him alone while I shopped, read, caught up on email and the blogs, and generally relaxed. That was the good part.

The bad part is personal to me. I need darkness to sleep. The security lights at Walmart make it seem like broad daylight at 3 am. I slept quite poorly. I know that I should have black-out curtains or an eye mask or something, but I think that I will make my overnight trips to Walmart infrequent. In the morning, I was glad to see that the tire was holding it’s pressure at 35 psi. I also checked the trailer tires which also were holding pressure. All good for the next adventure. To Salt Lake and beyond!

Flaming Gorge, Days Two and Three

My campsite has been so quiet until this morning that I’ve almost felt like I’m not supposed to be here. There is a gate leading down to the beach road that can be closed and locked. I hope that someone lets me know if the beach season suddenly ended without locking me inside this little corner of paradise.

I discovered a boat launch about a mile away by road walk and about one-half mile by a little-used trail. There are heated bathrooms with flush toilets here, along with a fish cleaning station with the water still on. I haven’t seen any boats launch from here, but there was a bit of boat traffic on the water late yesterday afternoon.

After our early morning hike, coffee and breakfast, blogging, and reading, the temperatures gradually rose throughout the day. I took a sirloin steak out of the freezer to defrost and decided to take Elvis to the water to cool off. Now, Elvis is 75% golden retriever and 25% poodle. You would think such a dog would be a natural swimmer., but that’s not the case. Elvis will sniff at the water like it’s some kind of trap, trying to get him. Because he was so hot, I was going to force the issue a bit. I started throwing sticks into the edge of the water, and he would tentatively go out and retrieve them—only realizing after he got back to shore that his legs were wet. How did that happen?

Finally, I started throwing the sticks out further in the water. He refused to go completely under, letting those sticks float away. But he did get in far enough to get his legs, underside and chest wet, which cooled him off and reinvigorated Elvis. He started running up and down the beach like a greyhound, shaking the water off and acting reborn.

After that excitement, I returned to the Brew Hut for my last beer (we didn’t bring much with us), reading on my Kindle, and then feeding Elvis. It was too hot to cook inside and too windy to cook outside, so I prepared a late dinner after the sun went down, cooling things off. I dined on sautéed spinach with garlic, mushrooms in butter, and one-third of a large sirloin steak. I saved the remainder for two more meals.

Early the next day, Elvis was primed to hike. We made a big circle around the area before coming back to the Brew Hut to brew coffee. As I went outside with my cup of steaming Brazilian, I walked around the other side of the Brew Hut and discovered an old, beater car parked less than 50 yards away. It was parked on a steep angle, and there was no evidence of condensation on the windows (which would mean someone was probably sleeping inside. My mind started racing. Stolen car? Hidden dead bodies? I walked closer, took a quick photo of the license plate, and then looked inside.

“What the F do you think you are looking at?” shouted a male voice. I turned around and discovered a young man fishing just below the cliff on which the Brew Hut was parked. “Oh, sorry, sorry,” I said retreating. “I didn’t notice you drive up and was surprised that someone parked so close to my camp.”
He didn’t respond or necessarily seem accepting of my explanation. The fisherman apparently caught no fish and moved on about twenty minutes later.

When your closest camping neighbor is one-half mile away, the sight of a strange car and a profane encounter leaves one a bit off-balance. Another cup of coffee and morning views of my herd of pronghorns provided the antidote.

The rest of the day went without incident, and we enjoyed a very quiet evening.  On the next morning, my original plans to drive to Moab shifted when I discovered one of the truck tires was low.  This gave me a chance to try out the new portable air compressor which attaches to the battery and reaches long enough for any of the truck’s tires.  After a some trial and error, the small machine worked the way it was supposed to, although it did heat up markedly. I decided to return to Rock Springs to resupply at Wal-Mart and do my first Wal-Mart stay-over in the parking lot.  I checked with the manager and he pointed out the proper part of the lot to park the Brew Hut.

Resupplied with beer, food, and toiletries, we are ready for the next part of the journey.  Hopefully, the truck tire cooperates.