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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

A Hike To The Crags…A Retrospective


After a long morning of whittling down carefully prepared checklists, Dump,  Flush,  Winterize,  Pack Car,  Stow Bikes  … Take Goldie to the "pound," we spent yester-day driving east—my least favorite direction—and woke up in a suite big enough to fit three Goldie-sized RVs. The irony of spending our last night away from "home" at The Grand Vista Hotel... after spending a month in Capital Reef and a month in Zion... is befitting, don't you think? Henceforth, further posts from Utah are moist-eyed retrospectives (sniff).

The core of our RV Gang had been slowly shrinking due to occasional cold fronts and prior commitments, but the remaining hardy hikers trouped on…and on…and on and on and on. I blame our new friends, The Souvas and newly addicted-to-hiking Suzanne for this. A little rest on the sabbath isn't in their "Bibles," apparently :). 

But legs will generally do what they're told if one feeds them enough, and their memory grows short after the first mile or so. So they resigned themselves to their daily task and bitched only occasionally. 

After a Thanksgiving morning walk, we had the Souva's, Second John, Third John, and Ellen, and Take To The Highway Suzanne over to Goldie's Lounge for pre-feast drinks. Yes, all six of us…and there was even room for one or two more! We toasted our Adventures and Acquaintance, bowed heads in memory of those who moved on (prematurely, I might add), and then watched a slide show I prepared, complete with Muzak, of the previous day's glorious hike into the Subway. 



Then it was on to the annual Thanksgiving Day buffet that the RV park hosts. No one left hungry. Then, back to Goldie's Lounge to share a lemon meringue pie that Suzanne brought. Football and napping rounded out the rest of my day; I don't know what everyone else did. 

Chatting by the pool after a Thanksgiving feast
    
Friday was another beautiful day and so we decided to finally cross the Crag hike off our list. The trailhead is a few miles out of Rockville, up a decent dirt road for a change. The rest unfolds in the form of Postcards. Bobbie and I will be home in a couple hours, probably shoveling snow.
















12 comments:

  1. Glad you and the remaining gang had a nice Thanksgiving. Looks like a another amazing hike!!

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  2. Thanks for finally taking us to the Crags. Unfortunately we had more pressing issues to deal with:-(

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    1. Don't you just hate issues. Good thing you left when you did.

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  3. Gee, that beautiful hike looks almost normal...no cliffs or ropes or cold wet canyon bottoms...Lovely views. Wishing you easy travels and light snows.

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  4. Beautiful hike and loved seeing the camaraderie of all of you ... what fun you all have had together ...

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  5. Yes, we prematurely departed Virgin. Your postcards have done an excellent job of reminding us of that fact. Next year we resolve to be less schedule driven and to quit doing stuff because we've always done it that way. Have a good trip back to the land of ice and snow.

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  6. Hope your winter season isn't too long. The cold started early again this year, hope it doesn't linger too long like last spring as well. I'm in Kentucky now, where the arches aren't red and you still need gloves but it's still better than Wisconsin!

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  7. I know what you mean about Utah...I had teary eyes when we left Moab.
    Beautiful pictures Mark...

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  8. Room for one or two more? Count me in next year!

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  9. Have enjoyed your post and photos from Zion. Have to share a story with you. Today while Steve and I were out doing our volunteer work in Lake Mead Recreation Area we ran into a young guy planning to camp out on one of the approved roads that we drive. He began to tell us about hiking in Zion over the last week or so. I told him how much I love that place and that I follow blogs of people who write about hikes and post beautiful pictures. He asked if we knew Bobbie and Mark. I said boxcanyonblog! He happend to be Third John! Small world!

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    1. Funny…we have some great small world stories, too…some that really make you shake your head and say, "What were the chances of THAT happening…"

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  10. This looks SO much better than snow.

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