Up Misery Canyon on the East Side

 

I am not sure that much could change in a week as fast as it had changed this last week. At the beginning of the week, life was going on as normal. By Tuesday, they had cancelled the NCAA Tournament due to Covid-19. Having tracked every basketball game all year long with a new statistic that I came up with, I was really interested to see what would happen this tournament. Gonzaga was the #2 team in the country, only behind Kansas. Not having the NCAA Tournament in March felt sacrilegious and overall it was sort of depressing.

 Then on Friday morning we all met in the library packed in nicely as a big group to talk about what was going to happen with Covid-19. It seemed likely that the first week back from Spring Break was going to be a transition to online learning. This was unbelievable to me. I never thought that teaching would enter this world. Yes, we are educators, but we are also glorified babysitters. My thoughts were maybe this would last a week, but if they were taking this rash of a step, what was the exit strategy? I had been enjoying this school year. I was feeling very confident in the curriculum. I was all for it, though, as it would give me a new perspective. 

I didn't plan to work too hard on online teaching as a viewed it as a short term deal. Regardless, it was now Spring Break and you bet I was going to head out to one of my favorite hikes. I went somewhere quiet where I was confident that I wouldn't run into any other people. I was right as the East side of Zion never disappointed. It was just so different from anywhere else with so many canyons to explore. Feeling as if I had explored nearly every single one of those canyons, finding something new to explore was going to be difficult. So I picked a place I had already been to get to a place that I had not.

 The canyon between Checkerboard Mesa and Crazy Quilt is one of the quickest ways to access the slick rock plateau of the East side. It takes some hiking and some work to get up and out of the canyon but I had done it numerous times. Then it was continuing on past that to get to somewhere new. The goal was east today. Years ago, Jacqueline, Eric Lassance, and I had come out of the Barracks a little early. At one point, we were going to try to go up another canyon to get out. Rightly so, we decided that wasn't a good idea and made it out fine. Today I was going to go up one of those canyons to see what I could find above rather than down below. 

The rock wasn't in the greatest of shape as it had been raining a lot lately. Still it was nice out, though the vegetation was still a little bare being not quite spring yet. It just always felt so empowering to be on the east side, crossing slick rock wastes that many people never went to. I continued east for some time before I found my canyon. I believe it was the upper part of misery canyon. At first it followed a wash and I had to pick my way around obstacles. Eventually it opened up more and being back there I could really feel I was in a place that was not visited often if ever. What purpose would someone have to come back to this spot unless they were like me where they had visited so many places already. There was no reason for me to be here except curiosity. As I climbed further, I got a workout and saw features like potholes and slickrock bowls. Eventually I followed it far enough where the end was hitting the actual wall. There is a feeling when you are out in new territory that you don't get anywhere else. That is why I kept exploring is to feel this sense of first exploration. Once it is done, I can leave and go back on this journey through many miles of things that I had seen before and think more clearly. The impending decision on staying in Utah or going back to Oregon was still there made ever more complicated by Covid's introduction into our world. I could think clearly out here enjoying a day to myself exploring the east side of Zion. 

The Vortex

 

A route description this is not. I needed one because I saw a Facebook post from Josh Carlson with his kids at the Vortex and thought, I could bring my kids to the Vortex. After looking it up online, I found out it was in Dammeron Valley near Gunlock. This was about a 45 minute drive from our house even though it felt close by. I had not spent much time out in that area, so it was worth the time to just head out to a new spot. Following the route description worked well and eventually it got us to something that represented a trailhead. We had to continue to follow the route description from there. 

From what I knew, we crossed a wash and then went up a slickrock route to a giant hole they call the Vortex. There were some people out and about, but I couldn't really tell if they were headed to the same destination as us. Anyway, we figured, as long as the slickrock was easy walking, there was no reason to do anything different than follow the way that we thought that we were supposed to go. Besides, we had a lot to talk about. Much had happened in the last month and we were now debating whether to return to teach at McKenzie again. 

For the past 2.5 years, we had taught at George Washington Academy. This school was one of the best in the state of Utah and I felt lucky to be a teacher there. The colleagues, staff, and students were all amazing and it had made me grow as a teacher in ways that I could not imagine. Still, there was something missing and I was not sure I was going to find it there. I had come up with so many ideas of what I wanted to do as a teacher and I knew at McKenzie I could make those a reality. Still, why give up our security. Financially we were in a good place. Our kids were happy, though they did not have a ton of friends around. 

There were so many ins and outs to deciding if we wanted to make the move, that we could spend a ton of time talking about it and not come to a conclusion. Still, the opportunity was there with a math teacher opening and an elementary teacher opening. On top of that idea was the looming threat of coronavirus. I could not see how they could shut down school due to a virus, but the questions were still out there. So as we plodded up the slickrock, we discussed these topics. I was impressed with our kids as they did not seem to have any issues with the uphill. 

Conrad was turning into a pretty good hiker and Zyla never seemed to have too many complaints. Once they were out there, they always enjoyed it. We got to what we thought was the top of the slickrock expanse. There were a ton of cairns built in one spot. We continued a bit farther, but it seemed we had gone too far. I consulted my watch and route description, and eventually we came back to the Vortex. The Vortex was one of a series of slickrock depressions created by water. I wouldn't say it was anything out of the ordinary, just larger than most that you come across. This pothole would be a difficult scramble in and out of.

 There was one pothole filled with water, but another that was dry. Everyone enjoyed it and we took a bunch of pictures. What was more impressive was just being out on the slick rock. It doesn't matter how often that you go, there is just something about bare red rock that makes it worthwhile to explore. You are always searching for that one unique view. We had the whole thing to ourselves, which was great and after we were done, we headed back down. Now we were the ones with the advice for the people going up as most people were trying to find this feature the same way that we were. Definitely worth a trip there for the experience and a good trip for the whole family. 

An Easy Day after a Race

 

I had been focusing a lot of my extra time into training for a half marathon. Having run the Zion Half Marathon last February, I was feeling inspired to keep running races. I trained on weekends with trail runs and long runs around the neighborhood. Then the time came on Saturday morning of February 1. It was the Washington City Half Marathon which was the local half marathon for where I lived. The starting line was only a few miles from my house and the race went right through my neighborhood. I drove down early in the morning to the finish line at Staheli Farms and grabbed a shuttle bus back to the start line.

 It was chilly at the start and I had to wait what seemed like too long of a time. When the starting gun went off, I was ready to go. I had never really trained for a race before, but this race I was trained for. I could tell because for the first couple miles, I still had the leaders in my view. The first four miles saw us take on the only significant hills the entire race. After that I knew it was smooth sailing with much flat terrain and even some downhill. I found myself in a comfortable pace as I went through Coral Canyon and waved at Jacqueline and the kids as I passed. I think they were surprised to see that I was still near enough the leaders and definitely near the top of the pack.

 I crossed Telegraph Rd. onto the Landfill Rd. and I was feeling good. Down the Cottonwood Wash Trail and into Hell Hole, I was just cruising. When I came out at the Sullivan Virgin River Soccer Park, I was feeling good enough to just pass right by the water stop. The road flattened out along Washington Fields and this is where I was starting to feel it. I knew I only had a couple of miles left to go, so I had to keep the juices flowing. My miles were increasing from 7:17 to 7:28, then 7:47, finally I had an 8:11 and I knew I had to pick up the pace. Not many people were passing me, but a few started to catch me. I dropped it down to 7:53, then I came down the last hill. It was only going around one big block, so I gave it all I had. The last mile was 7:34 and I even had the footsteps of another runner behind me to inspire me. In the end, I finished with 1:36:04 and in 20th place overall, first in my age group. I waited around and got my medal, though, no one I knew was there to cheer me on.

 That was fine because my family was proud of me when I returned home. That meant that the next day I was due a rest day. The best day to have a rest day is to for a hike with the kids. I decided to take them to one of my favorite spots with lots of iron concretions. This was near Cottonwood Wash with a turnoff on the Heath Trail. It had open vistas and narrow canyons. For the most part a non-descript hike out in red cliffs with just a few obstacles to negotiate. The kids enjoyed the little climbs and the narrow canyons. Our destination was just a couple of miles in where we were able to find many interesting iron concretions in various different shapes. 

The canyon continued for many miles more, but this sandy wash was the final destination on this day. We found a few rocks that we couldn't live without and then headed back down the trail feeling lucky that Red Cliffs was so close to us so that we could enjoy it any weekend we felt like going. The bonus on this day was that it was Groundhog Day. I would say if I had to relive a weekend over and over and over again, this would be a pretty good weekend to relive. You have to love Southern Utah in February.