Friday we did Sandslide Canyon. Neither of us had heard of it before. We chose it because it only had one rappel at the end, and we needed something we could do with George. Also, it was rated a PG slot, which means "Pretty Good"- you're going to need some stemming skills to get through the canyon.
I love the wide washes around Escalante...
That night, we watched The Philadelphia Story on my Kindle. (Bernie loves Jimmy Stewart, and I love Cary Grant.) There was quite a bit of arguing over who Katharine Hepburn should end up with.
On Saturday, we hiked to Upper Calf Creek Falls. When I saw how far down we had to hike. I was reluctant. I knew the hike back up would be brutal. But Bernie gave me a pep talk, and he was right- I'd regret not doing it.
I turned on RunKeeper on the hike out to keep track of our distance. It's synced to my running playlist, and as soon as that music came on, I kicked it into high gear, passing up Bernie (who made race car noises and pretended I was Danica Patrick zooming by him).
"How high do you think we climbed?" I asked when we got to the top, gasping for breath.
"Oh, at least a 1,000 feet," he replied, equally winded. We Googled it. It's 600 feet. So embarrassing.
Luckily, our next planned activity required little effort. We went for a drive from my Utah Backcountry Adventures book on a road called Hell's Backbone. It was so beautiful. You gain a lot of elevation; the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. The leaves were all changing, and I thought of that quote from Anne of Green Gables: "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."
I love the wide washes around Escalante...
Sandslide was funny because we did it in such a convoluted way. First, Bernie walked up from the bottom of the canyon as far as he could until he got to the rappel. Meanwhile, I slowly climbed the enormous sand dune that gave Sandslide its name. It was brutal. I was just a little envious when Bernie and George ran up it like it was nothing.
Next, we hiked along the canyon, looking for a good place to drop in. The walls were pretty shallow for most of it, so we dropped in halfway up it, in between the two slots.
Since Bernie could hold George while stemming, we had to take turns exploring up and down canyon. George did NOT like being left behind. He cried the whole time one of us left.
That night, we watched The Philadelphia Story on my Kindle. (Bernie loves Jimmy Stewart, and I love Cary Grant.) There was quite a bit of arguing over who Katharine Hepburn should end up with.
On Saturday, we hiked to Upper Calf Creek Falls. When I saw how far down we had to hike. I was reluctant. I knew the hike back up would be brutal. But Bernie gave me a pep talk, and he was right- I'd regret not doing it.
I turned on RunKeeper on the hike out to keep track of our distance. It's synced to my running playlist, and as soon as that music came on, I kicked it into high gear, passing up Bernie (who made race car noises and pretended I was Danica Patrick zooming by him).
"How high do you think we climbed?" I asked when we got to the top, gasping for breath.
"Oh, at least a 1,000 feet," he replied, equally winded. We Googled it. It's 600 feet. So embarrassing.
Luckily, our next planned activity required little effort. We went for a drive from my Utah Backcountry Adventures book on a road called Hell's Backbone. It was so beautiful. You gain a lot of elevation; the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. The leaves were all changing, and I thought of that quote from Anne of Green Gables: "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."
We had a long, relaxing dinner at the Outfitters, then stayed up till 2:00 a.m. talking.
I didn't want to leave the next day. It was so hard to get in the car and drive away, leaving Bernie at our campsite. He's staying up there for a while, maybe a month. But I left feeling happy and hopeful. As always, Utah was exactly what I needed.
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