Greetings from the world of unemployment!  With nearly 3 months between my last day of work and the start of the CDT, I couldn’t just sit around Portland.  Actually, I could’ve.  I had a chaotic February fitting making arrangements for my departure into my hiker family social life, which included such endeavors as this important film about the Pacific Crest Trail.

I also had to find homes for my kitties.  In the end, Scarfy got shipped off to stay with a very nice woman who answered my craigslist ad, and fellow 2011 PCTer and Portlandian, Goodness, took on Fred.  Many thanks!

Finally, on March 4, I left for a grand Colorado Plateau rubber tramping trip.  But first a quick stop at Crater Lake.  I snowshoed out the west rim about 3 miles to the same campsite I slept at on the PCT.  When it was almost dark, a dude on skis came by.  Turns out he’s a pro photographer from Bend and was out to shoot some night time lapse video.  While his camera was recording, he very kindly showed me a bunch of tips on shooting long exposures. Then he was ready to head back and discovered his headlamp batteries were dead.  So I lent him mine, thinking I wouldn’t need it.  Around 9pm, as I lay already cold in my sleeping bag, the wind picked up and I became paranoid that the wind would blow me, inside my tent, over the cornice to my death in Crater Lake.  I knew I was not going to get any sleep there, but silly me, I gave my headlamp away.  I probably should’ve just moved back to a more protected area off the rim, but instead I used my iphone in flashlight mode and dashed back to Rim Village and slept in my car.  Perfect start to my adventure!

Beautiful day at Crater Lake!

My “campsite”

Night photo of the lake and Wizard Island

Milky Way

Playing with night photos

Unfortunately, most of the “adventure” ended there.  After Crater Lake, I headed down Utah, where I’ve done a bunch of day-hikes and seen some cool things, but nothing has lived up to “adventure”, and I’m feeling restless.  A combination of things led to this situation: bad weather throwing off my plans; many miles of dirt roads to some trailheads are still impassable with my 2WD Pontiac Vibe this time of year; and spring break brats flooding into the area and taking up all the backcountry permits.  All of those could’ve been avoided with better research, which leads to the real cause of my floundering:  I started out with only the vaguest of plans.  I just headed to Utah with 8 guidebooks (read: information overland).  Trying to sift through all that on the fly is difficult.  Many of these books are more geared towards thorough exploration of an area – things you’d check out if you were living in the area and had exhausted all the more popular attractions.  I started out trying to thoroughly cover an area of 130,000 square miles in 3.5 weeks.   I now realize I need to compromise either area or depth.  Given the short time left, I’m going to just hit up the major areas I’ve never been to (Capitol Reef and Cedar Breaks), with a couple key off-the-beaten-path destinations I’ve been eyeing up for a few years (slot canyons in the Escalante region).

I also have come to realize I need some new challenges to keep things interesting.  Hiking on trails is getting kinda boring.  I need to get into activities like off trail hiking, climbing, and mountaineering, which will require me to develop new skills.  The CDT should take care of the off trail hiking, and I’m going to actively pursue the others post thru-hike.

Looking back at photos, I guess I still made something of the past 2 weeks.  A quick rundown of the sites I’ve visited:  Goblin Valley State Park; Canyonlands: Horseshoe Canyon, Island in the Sky, The Needles; Natural Bridges National Park; Valley of the Gods; Gooseneck State Park; Monument Valley; Moab area trails: Amasa Back, Fisher Towers; Colorado National Monument.

Eastern Oregon looks a lot like Nevada!

morning view from my urban campsite in Salt Lake City

Goblin Valley State Park

camped at the trailhead – all to myself!

sunset at Horseshoe Canyon trailhead

frozen Barrier creek in Horseshoe Canyon

Holy Ghost in the Great Gallery, Horseshoe Canyon

Great Gallery, Horseshoe Canyon

evening in Canyonlands, Island in the Sky district

The weather up in Canyonlands was cold and wet, so I went south thinking I’d escape it. Oops.

on the trail to Sipapu bridge at Natural Bridges National Monument.

Looking down at Sipapu bridge at Natural Bridges National Monument.

trail to Sipapu bridge at Natural Bridges National Monument

Valley of the Gods, “little monument valley”

Valley of the Gods, “little monument valley”

view of San Juan River from my camp. — at Goosenecks State Park.

day hike in the Needles because NO backcountry permits were available

Canyonlands NP, Needles

entrance to “the joint” in Canyonlands NP Needles

Canyonlands NP, Needles

Canyonlands NP, Needles

I finally found False Kiva in Canyonlands NP, Island in the Sky

sunrise at Mesa Arch, Canyonlands NP Island in the Sky

Murphy Hogback in Canyonlands NP, Island in the Sky

Island in the Sky from Murphy Hogback, Canyonlands NP

found this sweet hat on the trail. Canyonlands NP, Island in the Sky

I’ll be leaving Moab area tomorrow (March 16) after I finish something I signed up for on a whim in my desire for something new and exciting.  Details to follow!