Cathedral Wash and Spencer Trail

 

Still Spring Break and with the coronavirus sickness derailing everyone's plans, we were not looking to travel very far. Still, my dad was in Grand Canyon staying with his wife, Laura, who was working there. Since we were only 5 hours away from each other, I thought we could meet up for the day and do a hike together. He was probably hoping to see the kids also, but Jacqueline did not feel like making the trip. Instead, it was just me taking off early in the morning. We made a plan to meet at the Cathedral Wash Trailhead in Lee's Ferry. The drive was not too bad taking through Jacob Lake. 

It seemed pretty quiet. I got to the trailhead right on time, but it seemed as if they had been there for a while. The hike was down a wash to the Colorado River. The wash was interesting with a different kind of sandstone than was in Southern Utah. It would narrow up and have drop offs that we had to negotiate and mudholes to avoid. We would pick our way around the ledges and slowly maneuver our way downstream. Mostly it was good to just see my Dad and Laura. It was a good time for us to converse about the ongoing situation and decide how to deal with it. I know that they were taking it seriously since they were older. 

Me, being still in my late 30s, it was not as big of deal, but I knew I needed to keep other people safe around me. We were all adjusting to the newness of it. There would be a lot of changes in my life given that school was not quite the safest place during a pandemic. Laura worked at the Grand Canyon and a lot of major services were shutting down there also. The newness of the situation kept for some good conversation as we found ourselves picking our way down the wash. Eventually the wash popped out to a more open area and we continued on down until we came to the river. 

The river gave us a natural stopping point and there was nowhere really to go, but back up the wash. We met a few other people coming down, but it was probably still quieter than it likely would have been during a Spring Break in Arizona. After making it back up the wash, we still had a bit of time. My dad suggested that we go out to Lee's Ferry. They had hiked the Spencer Trail in the past and suggested that I do it. We decided that could work so we went there. They parked and walked the first bit with me through the ruins of Lee's Ferry. The trail went by the river for a short time and then started charging up the hill. 

Eventually they had their fill and we said our goodbyes. It was good to see them and I was happy I had a day at least to spend some time with family. The hike continued, though, and I was able to let loose. It was nice to just be burning some energy and finding my way to the top of the hill. Up and up it went with sweeping views of the river and surrounding country at all times. There was nowhere on this trail that I would have described as having big dropoffs, but still I am not sure if Jacqueline would have wanted the kids to be on it. Eventually after a lot of exertion, I found myself at the top of the cliff. From the other side, I could see the city of Page. It was definitely worth the effort to make the trek up there. I took some pictures and then it was time to go back down. After the hike back and the drive home, it was evening before I returned to settle in for the long haul at home with the family.

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.