3/10/16 – 3/13/16

~2500 miles driven

The theme of this trip is “doing all the things” and in the spirit of that, Bubbles and I packed up my car and left Portland on Tuesday. 

  
After a cold and rainy/snowy night in Idaho, we warmed up at a seemingly little known hot spring just off I-15 in Utah.  

Next we dropped off our bikes at a storage unit near the end of the Hayduke Trail, which we will retrieve in about 2 months and then ride back toward the start.  

  
After that, we headed to Arizona to cache some buckets of food along the trail, hopping a barbed wire fence with a shovel at dusk. 

With so much crap in the car, we couldn’t follow our usual road trip protocol of sleeping in the back of the Matrix, and had to find places to camp. Thankfully, Utah has lots of BLM land so finding a spot to cowboy next to the car was fairly easy. 

It was fun to drive through the general area we’ll be hiking and get the lay of the land. It also got us both even more excited to get started!  

 
  
But first, with all our Hayduke setup complete, we took a side trip to Golden, CO (Denver area) to go to the ALDHA-West/CDTC Rockies Ruck. On the day we drove to CO, LoveNote tipped me off that Burly Whites was in town for the weekend to ski with his brother. SURPRISE!! We were able to meet up with Burly, his brother and niece for a beer and short visit. Wee!!!

The Ruck was, as always, a fun time. This was my first Colorado Ruck and it was great to meet a whole new group of experienced and aspiring hikers. Also, Bubs and I totally cleaned up at the raffle! A Montbell umbrella, a pair of Leki poles, a Purple Rain Adventure skirt, a Vargo titanium bottle pot, 2 pairs of Darn Tough socks, a subscription to TrailGroove magazine and a Mountainsmith beer carrier thingy. What’s so great about this is that it’s all gear we will actually use! Except the beer thingy, we have no idea what to do with that. 

  
Sunday we said goodbye to our friends and drove back to Moab, finishing last minute chores such as repairing tutus along the way. 

  
In town, we got to have dinner with one of the co-creators of the trail, Mike Coronella and his wife! Mike has such passion and excitement for the area and it was great to meet him in person and hear his story. 
We are staying the night at a friend of a friend’s house in Moab. Kim and Jason are wonderful hosts – thank you!!
In the morning, we start hiking!!