Today and a lot of good and a fair amount of bad. I’ll start with the more unfortunate, to get it out of the way.
- Ellie’s glasses broke. We’re trying the Gorilla Glue method of fixing them, but I’m not very hopeful. We’re heading to Salt Lake City in a couple of days where there is a Warby Parker, the brand of glasses she has. I don’t know what do to. I imagine it will take a few weeks to get replacements shipped to us. She can’t go that long without being able to see. Any suggestions?
- I slipped on steep slick rock and scraped up my whole left leg. It’s fine. But Zak tried to grab my pack to prevent me from falling father and got pretty scraped up too. His scrapes are extremely swollen, and have been since the fall. We’re keeping an eye on it all.
- I lost my Yo! Colorado hat. I’ve loved this hat so much for so many hikes. It was strapped to my pack one second and not the next. The absolute worse part of it is knowing that I left a trace in a National Park. I feel sick that I littered and can’t fix it.
- We packed 18 liters of water with us yesterday and had about 10 left this morning. We were afraid that would be cutting it a bit close if we used some to make coffee. To know me is to know my addiction to coffee. I think this was the first morning since before the girls were born that I haven’t had any.
- The last “bad” thing of the day is that the line at the Wendy’s in Moab is always waaay too long.
Now on to the good.
The day was fabulous! I woke several times during the night and made the conscious decision to open my eyes and look out the tent. The moon was so bright and I watched it travel overhead as the night progressed. Waking up to the sun rising was really delightful.
After packing up camp, we started the hike out, about 6 miles to finish the loop we had started yesterday. Although challenging with our packs, the hike was perfect. The terrain is so much fun. We mostly hiked in a wash and on slick rock, climbing up and down, over and under. We had a nice chat with a ranger whose tasks of the day seemed to be to check camping permits and enjoy the scenery. He even knew Ranger Mike which made me feel cool. 🙂 We also ran into a couple from Gary who Zak and I saw ourselves in once we retire. Other than the three of them, we saw no one.
We finished the two days of hiking feeling accomplished and proud. Every now and then, I pause to think how awesome our hikes are. This one will be near the top of the list for a long time.
We stopped at a little outpost in the hopes of finding lunch, but walked away with cold drinks and a bag of Ruffles. 🤷 At the hotel, we jumped in the pool, hoping to clean off a few layers of grime, sunscreen, and stink. Eventually, we all took proper showers and are off to find dinner shortly.
