Moab, UT

the vanlife meme of the past 5-10 has made a shitton of people blee they can do that from what i can tell. i think i'm better suited for it than most and i still say that's way too big and costly a step for not a lot of satisfaction. i do think i could dig a decent minimalist teardrop thing though.

Escalante area is amazing. I am far from experienced in exploring the deserts of the west but a life highlight was a 4 night backpacking trip down Coyote Gulch in Escalante Nat Monument, about 15 years ago. I think it is one of the most popular routes in that area and we didn't see more than a couple dozen other people over that full time period. Not even sure what the rock running you're describing looks like but there were many wide open bowls and lots of scampering opportunities. Just breathtaking scenery. I am in New England now for the past 8 years and the foreseeable future but dream of getting back out there for a trip.

Last May I went through Escalante, to some of the narrows south down Hole in the Rock Rd, then back up rt 12 through Boulder to Torrey, then rt 24 to Capitol Reef. Def TONS of cool natural areas to explore, many relatively unvisited. I car-camped just off the highway outside of Escalante one night and outside of Boulder another. Cool to have some alpine type environment (near Boulder) so close to all the more typical Utah rock desert scenery. Capitol Reef is pretty unpopular as far as a national park goes and it is AMAZING if you're a fan of slickrock deaert, I'm sure you can find some solitude there on certain routes.

Not even sure what the rock running you're describing looks like

literally just doing a slow jog on the rock avoiding the sand as much as i can, picking lines, up and down, trying not to trip, pretty casual. i'm not a serious trail runner or anything, i got a few miles and i'm good. spencer flats road outside of escalante has some good stuff. (check out the cosmic ashtray on google maps - would love to run in that area). the other areas that are good for this are on the cliffs above the green river, south of the town of green river. bull bottom, june's bottom (there's a charmingly homegrown and exhaustive website called utahmountainbiking dot com with detailed information about these areas, because mountain bikers also like to free-ride on sandstone, but apparently some of this is now blm wilderness [june's bottom] so bikes aren't allowed).

fwiw i want to go running here (42 miles south of green river)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eu4EGWUVIAA7atq?format=jpg&name=900x900

and here (20 miles se of escalante)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eu4E69yVIAceIfD?format=jpg&name=medium

The blue pin is the mars lander “cosmic ashtray,” after its recent touchdown. “It’s a godawful huge affair,” observed one viewer.

i was not aware of the cosmic ashtray until doing these google maps scroll-and-zooms. google maps has pretty profoundly changed humanity's relationship with their world and wilderness in a short amount of time imo. anyway, here's the cosmic ashtray:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-giant-cosmic-navel-formed-utah-180955188/

the la sals are burning :(

Is it bad? Human caused I assume?

got back from a weekend, hadn't been there in a year and a half. more new development etc. very busy for january. from one (1) dinner out at the thai place, i definitely get the sense that the mountain bikers / visitors have more money than they did 10-15 years ago. beautiful-looking people tbh. handsome young men with camper hair. plenty of locals out and about with that pinched mormon look. they're so insular and miserable-seeming. the weird mash of different eras of settler colonialism on display, different from the city in that it's more strident and unapologetic. american flags on the hotel keys. cottonwoods are so beautiful in the winter, hairy masses of black-brown-grey life. i wonder exactly what the water shortage is going to do to this place. there won't be anyone to work the service jobs, maybe a few severe masochists. i wonder if the worker shortage in places like sun valley has actually raised wages or not. seems like the rich people just have kids who can afford to work these jobs.

“different eras of settler colonialism” is a nice analysis, i have long understood the feeling of it without an efficient description.

the petroglyphs, to me, sorta say “we know this place and are of it and mean to stay.” but the current main strip, so overburdened, has nothing— is mute but simultaneously cacophonous. the overladen lot at sandflats— nothing to say. all the rzrs everywhere, too.

i guess the 4x4s creeping up lionsback at least left all that rubber and some wheel trenches behind.

weird place to behold.

yeah, there is definitely a strong impression of emptiness there. i think it's right to look at the original inhabitants for the only real semblance of balance the place has ever seen from a human pov. and i mean it's shocking how much i don't know about that and how much i'd like to know, but iirc the people moved elsewhere when drought set in.

even the wilderness conservationists and national park stans derive their thinking from settler colonialism. sometimes i'm tempted to favor the recreationists in my mind because at least there's some honest enjoyment they get from what they do, like they engage with the land in a way that feels more authentic and less pious somehow. though to be honest i despise the rzrs as much as anyone. and without the conservationists, it would be really really trashed, so ultimately i'm on their side.

i don't know if i've said this before or not, but there is a lot of masculine energy in moab, for better or for worse.

it's wild how displaced that kind of energy has become. like drive is now about one's place in an entanglement of globalized capital and everything else becomes an accessory to that, to the point where every biker that passes me is talking endlessly about gear and the market for gear and like... why? because that is identification now.

even as a person deeply enmeshed in gear, the gear is not the experience and in most ways alienates you from it and diminishes or destroys the natural matrix to it.

i am reading a 1960ish book _The Great Gates_ about the histories of the high mtn passes of the Rockies, and the vibe off it is so similar to me to the utah desert. the extractive and military and social dominance based roots of all human exploration— human conquest— is so fundamental.

i can’t even get to a balanced place on the issue.

this said, my first post cancer bikepack in april will be to visit the san rafael swell area for a quick overnight. i wanna see some petroglyphs and canyon rock

Here for the weekend. It abides. Cold but not freezing and no snow anywhere below 5500 feet. Deep fresh air giving me a detox from salt lake. The air thing is such a big deal for me I always talk to my boyfriend about living here again, or at least grand junction, which I hear is more affordable than anywhere else in Colorado.

Hunter if you see this how was your april trip?

fuckin rad, san rafael is cool space. objective achieved. my little escapade got wonderfully friended/transformed into a 6 person rodeo posse.

and weirdly, we were pretty far in the back of beyond near the end of day one and we went through an uncommon and random campsite near muddy creek (which campsite looked v grand, with sand bocce going and kiddos and dogs around). days later after the trip, i got pinged by a close pal from grand junction who asked me "how was your outing over the wknd, i saw you and your crew buzz by our camp/bocce setup? i couldn't yell to you in time." damn, you think you got away from everything, but nope. wish i'd seen him and stopped tho.

still, that buddy of mine knows that space well, and he noted that the increase in traffic at san rafael generally is p significant, lots of bikepacking and hiking. at our trailhead post-ride we met two separate sprinter van couples from outide of usa (uk and germany). both were bikepacking extensively in the rockies and further west.

the pack route we took was the standard one you can find in bikepacking.com, nothing novel. scenic.

(advisory-- if you find muddy crk tranquil and filterable, filter and store it immediately. creek can mysteriously become turbid and unfilterable while youre not looking, and it can wreck your breakfast and your hydration).

oh and also since my jan post i've read _west of the 100th meridian_, by stegner. it's basically about the great basin, j. wesley powell, and the region's exploration by euroculture and the mess and destruction we cannot stop making in and around it. generally recommended if that's your kind of thing. cool to consider in relation to like, _cadillac desert_. or abbey.

the swell is no longer a secret i guess. it's been a few years since i've been anywhere deeper than the reef, not a soul to be seen at the time but it's probably a little different now. i have a friend who is a super outdoor adventure guy, also very kind and very gay, who rafted the muddy a few years ago, i think he said they saw a handful of people the whole trip.

i've been having a long running conversation with my partner about why we love the utah desert. it's generally the quiet, the visible time, and the clean air, tho i have fun on my short little trail runs (shuffles really). my partner takes photos of small plants, leaves, sand eddies, that kind of thing. occasionally we hit the mtn bike trails because they're good running. my partner drifts off trail because he doesn't like the bikers. i have to concur generally, i've certainly met good souls who are bikers but more often than not whenever they pass me there's a lot of nervous energy on display... people are fuckin loud out there for no good reason.. also packs of men with something to prove to each other and male gear acquisition bonding rituals to engage in. it's fucking tedious. i don't want to hear anything human when i'm out there except for the sound of my breath and nervous system. anyway, rant over.

it was quiet this weekend. moab was pretty dead. the winter dark at night and the quiet have such a depth to them.

ayup, i hope u can keep finding peace.

i def understand the disruption u feel, i fear we may be rowdy enough to annoy. fwiw none of my set are gravity types who yip or yowl “spontaneously.”

i rode the lake city alpine 50 this year in CO, and i’ll say this— several circles of hell are navigated almost entirely by RZRs, and they’re now overspilling into the rockies/grt basin in astonishing abundance.

i try to stop and remember that slickrock was “founded” by throttle twisters and then just think about serenity and shit.

ha here was day one of the swell, good sense of the space
https://www.relive.cc/view/vPOpZ1NyrRq

mlk weekend scene report

a few out-of-towners for the holiday weekend but mostly empty. snow level at about 5000 feet, snow free in the valley and blessedly snow free at klondike bluffs when we stopped in on saturday. the entire desert south of price was blanketed in snow, almost all the way to green river. i've never seen that before. looks like tons of snow in the san rafael swell. it's going to be an explosive spring. boyfriend noticed a lovely little plant with large flower stalk at klondike, ided it as winged buckwheat.

we've been down 3x per year over the past 3 years. still dream about owning a piece of land with a cottage or trailer on it in the area. have this idea that it should be in thompson springs.

Dream it do it.

And yeah the Lower Green and Jordan and Weber basins are all 200%+ and are just getting hammered over and over. My friend in the Wasatch is already wore out by snow.

down for another mlk weekend! this trip was so so good. i went with an incredibly beautiful boy who i love. we hiked horseshoe canyon to the great gallery. the art was overwhelmingly sublime. that canyon is glorious. no one else the entire time.

nice and so appealing. front range is tucked under that below 0°F zone and i’m like dreaming of even 40° desert skies.

a grand cottonwood and me

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kjWnV6xpyOIEtGS83wsmCZrQ0tsY0lNd/view?usp=drive_link

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/drive-viewer/AEYmBYSbTTde6mQi28NbKb5eLKdIO89AZgcbOy1dCHVkfRAdVsDBJKit4NJ9dSms-VzIhnyN-Onp17XU9P8_beEeQsaJU1abrQ=s1600