Where Water Buffalo Roam

Up in La Sal Mountains. Watchin' the clouds roll in and we'll watch 'em roll away again. Truckee Trails Nasty grade. Good views. You're awake. You're alive. Live like it. Opening day at Whitmore Pool. Really good to catch up with some amazing folks. First big day in Moab.  Came out of the pool around 7am and it was 75 degrees; started out on the La Sal loop with the Moab Fondo. By 12noon there'd been rain, then hail, then sun, then crazy winds on the decent back into the valley.  Feeling that weather worked and heading out for a run off the bike along the Colorado river. Best part of about the mountains? They're not predictable. Canyon Lands Salad mixed in a bag for dinner again? Time for an ice float. Mountain Dew in Mammoth. Giant TCR = heightened experience  Time for a snow melt shower.  June Lake June Lake Alpenglow. Fashion and sanity go down hill the lo...

Scuba divers talk about micro diving in areas otherwise referred to as “muddy.” Similarly the desert is “dry” but that doesn’t mean it’s not dynamic. As a climber I used to load up my car in the northwest and head down to Utah every March, it was a cheap way to get dry rock and sun.  My climbing mentor, Ryan, would have a tick list, I would carry the heavy pack and get on routes I otherwise had no business being on.  Before climbing there was the family Spring Break drive to Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef, likely for the same reason--the desert is dry and has a lot more sun than the Pacific Northwest in early spring.   Inch worm. Time marches on. For some reason I’ve continued to find excuses to justify the need to see lavender bloom, an owl build it’s home in cacti, and hear the old coyote howl at a full moon year after year; that reason is soul. The purest stuff on earth: standing on top of an 800 foot sand castle with it’s own little ecosyst...