Saturday, March 21, 2009

Moab, Utah

I couldn't fall asleep last night for a long time . . . first time camping in so long and all.  I was a little nervous, I guess.  I thought I heard something outside the tent - - nothing big - - just something . . . unknown.  This morning I thought I found some fresh deer tracks nearby.

We had breakfast and hot chocolate, and then car pooled to the hiking area with Ted and Marcia.  Today we went to the Devil's Garden area of Arches National Park.  First we start out on a well worn path, with a lot of up and down hills on it.  I'm huffing and puffing at the top of each of the hills.  What gave me some satisfaction, though, is that I'm walking this stretch with Ted, who is super fit, and he is also huffing and puffing.  Although when I mention it to him later, he looks like he doesn't agree!

Although the hike is much easier than yesterday's, it does have its moments.  There are several places where it feels like we're going to fall off the side of a rock.  Bill says to trust your boots.  That advice helped me, but I was still scared on those spots!  At another place dubbed Walter's Rock because Walter had problems with it at some point in the past, we had to climb up using a rope.  When Walter had the problems, there was no rope!  Some of the more experienced of this group didn't use the rope, either.  I did, and I was glad to do so!

There was another spot where we had to walk across a "fin."  But, we were told in advance that it was wide and not scary.  Well, it wouldn't have been if it hadn't been for the strong wind gusts that made it feel like it was going to blow me over.  There was another fin earlier on, and every time the wind blew, I had to kneel down.  So, when we got to the main fin, I started out hesitantly.  Bill came to my rescue, and basically balanced me the whole way . . . and the wind did give me a couple shoves here and there.

Later in the day, we finally came to a sign that said, "Parking Lot, 1.1 mile."  Hallelujah!  But, just down the path was an option to go to two other arches, and surprisingly, I went!  I couldn't believe myself.  I guess I'm in better shape than I thought!  One was Navajo Arch, and the other was Partition Arch (pic above), which was really cool.  Then back to the crossroads, where we met up with everyone else, and we headed toward the parking lot.

Somewhere either right before this or right after (I can't remember!), we passed Wall Arch which was cool, because it had fallen down!  We still had to walk those infernal hills toward the end of the path.  After a long day's hike, they just about killed me!  But, we all made it safely back to the parking lot.  I went about 6.2 miles.  Some of the group went 7.2 miles, but I had earlier skipped Dark Angel.  It looked too far and not cool enough to go the extra mile for.

Back at the camping area, we sat around the fire, and relaxed after a hard day's hike!