Skip to main content

Day 46 - Moab

Today was a maintenance day. I had a list of tasks to complete, like one would at work. I dislike maintenance days but this one was well-timed as I was exhausted from a 15 mile sandy hiking day yesterday, I hadn't showered in a week and felt a bit grimey, I needed a haircut badly, the sheets in the van had accumulated dirt toward the end where I get in and out after sandy trails, my clothes had been only hand-washed for the last three weeks, I had run out of ibuprofen-- an essential drug for swollen muscles, I needed to check on my Cobra health insurance payment, and I needed to call my roommate back home and make sure the Internet was working, and most importantly I had four episodes of Game of Thrones to watch. 

Just like a normal person having a lazy morning, I lingered in bed until noon, moving from laying on my left side to back to right side as aches instructed. All while watching an episode of Game of Thrones (so good) and reading. I finally got motivated and headed to town at noon and completed my task list. Shower at pool, lovely. Haircut, businessman cut as described by barber, refreshing. Laundry, clean. A 550 pill bottle of ibuprofen and a hand brush to clean off dirt purchased and phone calls made, I had a turkey sandwich and fries and drove back to camp for a relaxing, rainy evening. 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 82 - Yellowstone to Montana

My alarm sounded at 5:30am, a time early enough for me to arise before someone found me secretly camping. The geyser prediction said Grand at 6:15am so I set out toward it.  I ran into geyser gazer Jim there and he said it likely erupted at 4:30-- missed it. Early morning eruptions are hard to predict as someone needed to have seen the previous overnight eruption in order to make a prediction. I walked on toward Artemesia, an unpredictable geyser at the far corner of the basin. I had seen her erupt from a mile away and wanted a closer inspection. The early morning setting was momentous, yet I didn't see a geyser erupt up close until Grand at 10:30.  Then Sawmill erupted with its twirling thirty foot action (pic).   The only remaining geyser left to experience on my mental list was Beehive up close. With a predicted window of 810 to 1210, I arrived at 1030 and waited until 1pm, before giving up. The sun was hot, I had read the geyser book cover to cover, and while seeing e...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 78 - Yellowstone Old Faithul Geysers

See Old Faithful, Grand, Lion and Beehive geysers erupt in 60 seconds:   http://youtu.be/tv7BPXW4x5g This morning was one of the most exciting mornings of my trip. It started off when I decided to take a long solo hike through the geyser field, leaving at 630am. Mist was still covering this dense geyser field as I walked from geyser to hot spring (20% of the world's active geysers reside here in this one square mile area).   Following a boardwalk, so not to get burned, I saw a man sitting on the boardwalk staring at an empty geyser hole. I asked him if he worked for the park service and he responded no-- he was an amateur geyser gazer-- he watched the geysers and recorded eruption times. He mentioned that we were quote "entering the window for Grand" -- geyser gazer speak for Grand geyser is about to go off. I walked a short ways to Grand and waited, one of a few at first and then one of a few dozen as a quick hour passed. The Geizer Gazer, Jim, instructed me on how to wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 104 - Glacier to Vancouver

The hike up Balu Pass was supposed to be fairly easy, beautiful and dotted with waterfalls, but when I talked to the park ranger and learned that Vancouver was an eight hour drive away, I decided to skip Balu and drive west.  I left behind this pretty view.  And drove many hours through pristine mountains, fewer and fewer snow-capped ones the further west I drove. Some of the valleys were flooded to make reservoirs, leaving scenic sights.  I eventually made it to Vancouver and drove right on through to Point Roberts USA, a five mile by five mile coastal land just below the 49th parallel and thus in the USA. The park ranger had suggested this as a good place to camp but being late of the Thursday night before the Fourth of July there were no spots available. I drove around instead and stopped at a forested coastal park. After ten minutes of walking I came to my first grand Pacific view with Mount Baker 60 miles east.  The San Juan Islands and Orca Islands could also b...
Post a Comment
Read more