***
“Where are you heading?”, asked the nice waitress at the
Little A’le’Inn Café as I was paying my tab, “East, toward the storm”, I
replied, as I looked out the windows toward the darkening sky and watched a
tumbleweed cross the highway—unimpeded you know, because THERE ARE NO CARS ON
THAT ROAD.
And so we headed out, confident in my route and knowing the
end point; the Cedar Canyon RV Park in Cedar City, Utah. Thankfully the night before I had thought to
call the RV park, turns out everyone in the area was filling up fast; the
National Forest campgrounds had all closed on October 1 (note to self) and the
weather was questionable so folks were flocking to the RV parks.
I asked for two nights but Tom could only promise one. After that he offered his overflow parking
area since I didn’t need any hook-ups. I
took the one night still hoping that something more interesting would turn up.
With a known stop for the night, I decided to do my best to
explore the area as I drove along, take time off the route, enjoy the space
between.
We quickly entered the storm and enjoyed the rain pounding on
the windshield, washing away all the dirt and dust that had accumulated over
the last, what? Eleven days? Time has lost all meaning once again.
As luck would have it, the rain took a break right when we
needed one and I saw a sign for a State Park with camping two miles outside of
Caliente. Obviously, I didn’t need to
camp, but the camping sign let me know that I would be able to (a) drive to the
State Park despite it being down a narrow road, and (b) park Beagle somewhere
for an hour or so.
We parked just outside the campground and immediately found a
nice trail heading up into the valley, far enough from the road so the dogs
could be off leash. After River had her
fill, we plopped her back in the car and Opus and I set off for a longer
hike. It felt so good to be out
hiking! It had only been one day without
hiking but I still missed it. We ended
up taking a ridge hike which afforded this picture back down to the valley:
On the way back it began to rain again causing us to run—mostly with joy. The rain hitting my face, the smell of wet dirt and sage brush, and the clean, crisp air made me literally whoop with happiness.
The rain continued right up until we reached Cedar City,
then it broke off for a few minutes allowing me to park Beagle in site #11; a narrow
back-in spot surrounded by rocks. It was
a bit tricky particularly considering that the road was mostly dirt quickly turning
into mud and I had to back her up a hill.
It also wasn’t level so, as the rain began again, I laid
down a few leveling blocks and reposition Beagle. Unbeknownst to me, while I was adjusting the
left side up, the right side was sinking into the mud. I did not double check the balance, the rain
was pouring down by then, so ended up sleeping with my feet slightly higher
than my head. Not the end of the world.
Thankfully, with my lithium batteries (have I mentioned how
much I love them?) I did not need to plug into the electrical system but I did
have to take on some fresh water. So I
sloshed through the mud with rain pouring off my hood in front of my face and
filled her up--difficult with cold fingers; the temperature was nearing 40. The noses were dry and
toasty inside Wurzig.
But they had to come out and get into Beagle.
Now, there is the joy of getting wet dogs into Beagle and the
immense jubilation of getting wet and muddy dogs into Beagle; we clearly had immense jubilation.
We hunkered down for a couple of hours and around 6:00 PM,
there was a break in the rain so I Ieashed them up for their evening constitutional. We headed out one of the short hiking trails
which just so happened to leave from the overflow parking area. It was a mud pit. I knew right then I would not stay another
night.
The path seemed to have a lot of gravel until squish! Down went Opus’ legs into about three inches
of sticky red mud. He jumped forward
which pulled me into the mud and then, of course, River. We all three jumped out of there but not
before all ten feet were covered in mud.
But I can take off my shoes.
The rain was picking up again so we were wet and muddy when
we returned to Beagle. Some experiences
you just simply have to get through.
I spent a lot of time that evening trying to figure out
where I would spend the next night.
Frustrating with no cell service and minimal WIFI at the park—but I knew
I wasn’t going to spend another night in the mud pit. My last line in my journal that night was, “I
am tired of thinking about where I am going to sleep tomorrow.”
You know how much I love to sit in Beagle, but after
fourteen hours (albeit lovely hours listening to the rain on Beagle’s roof—one of
my favorite things in the world) we were ready to get out. The sun was up, the blue sky clear, the air
crisp. I was dying to hike but realized
the trails would all be muddy plus I had to check-out by 11. Then I remembered seeing a paved path along
the river as we drove up Highway 14. So
I threw the noses in the car and headed to that spot.
What a lovely path! It
wound along the river and there was a breast cancer walk happening so there
were a bunch of happy, pink-clad people with whom to exchange “good
mornings.” Opus and I eventually did
four miles (after returning River to the car.)
Back at Beagle, I hurriedly packed up, made a plan to drive
up Highway 14 toward Brian Head and Bryce Canyon, then skirt over and catch
Highway 89. For some reason I was
completely calm about not having a place to stay which allowed me to enjoy the gorgeous
drive—pictures do not do it justice—up the canyon and into the mountains
freshly covered with at least a foot of snow.
We came down the other side of the pass and when I stopped
for gas at 1:00, I thought I should try and figure out where we would rest for
the night. I had some cell service so called
the KOA in Richfield who had spots available.
Another hour should have gotten us there but, as we were driving along
the beautiful Highway 89, I noticed another paved path that ran for miles on
the other side of the river. I kept my
eye out for access and found a spot to pull off the road, grabbed the dogs, scampered
up a small rise and onto the path. River did almost two miles and she rarely
does that any more.
-K
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