We have been on the road for a month. After the accident, we continued south with a sense of hurry, eager to leave the cold and snow behind. It was also imperative to get further south so that we could find more favorable climates to camp. As it were, it took us 3 full days to get from Grand Prairie, Alberta to my brother’s place in Salt Lake City. With temperatures in the negatives and single digits in southern Alberta and Montana, we opted for a couple hotel stays en route. After staying with my brother for a night, we finally set off for the canyons and desert.
Our schedule has largely been the same, generally following the route I planned prior to our trip. We stay in one location usually from 4 days to a week. Each day we go hiking somewhere within the area, averaging about 4 hours or so of walking per day then return and hang around camp/eat potatoes. Since we are carrying baby animal with us wherever we go, I get the benefit of the added ~25 lbs to carry around. Baby animal is at the 99th percentile for weight, so she is doing her part to ensure I stay fit. Who needs a GoRuck plate when you have a baby?
As of today we have now been in Utah/Northern Arizona for 3 weeks. San Rafael Swell was our first stop and we spent a week there, splitting our time between the rim of the Little Grand Canyon and Buckskin Draw.
We then went further south to Capitol Reef, where I would learn that National Parks in the lower 48 are a bit different than Alaska. Here they are much smaller, closer to large population centers, more rules and more infrastructure to improve access. Alaska’s parks are almost the exact opposite. So after a day around Capitol Reef, we realized it wasn’t really what we were looking for and decided to leave early and go to Hole in the Rock Road to explore Grand Staircase Escalante. We had one more day in Capitol Reef after our decision and checked out the more remote southeast portion of the park on Notom Road. That was our type of place! We really enjoyed that area and decided if we were to do a similar style trip again we would spend a week out there.
Hole in the Rock proved to be an excellent time. Some of our best hikes to date happened there, with unique hikes through wetlands, to remote geological features and through very narrow slot canyons.
We then planned on spending ~5 days hiking around Zion, but after driving through the park we vowed not to return and carry on. The place was beyond crowded, and ironically I think it gave me a better understanding of what Jacob means by the Anthropocene. Every single pullout was packed with cars, we were part of traffic in the main road and people were walking up and down the sides as well as absentmindedly into traffic. It didn’t seem much different than an amusement park. This is all in the 2nd least visited month of the year! I can’t imagine what it is like during peak season. I’m sure the views are nice, but we have seen a lot of nice places and are more interested in wilder intact ecosystems, rather than just scenery. No views are worth that hassle.
So, we continued on to a spot in relative isolation above the Grand Canyon and Colorado River near the Vermillion Cliffs, where we have been for the past week. I first learned about the spot from @c40(who was a massive help with some route info, many thanks!) and then had a friend in Kanab independently recommend the same exact spot. It really is an excellent location. Stunning vistas. Diverse and excellent hiking. Very little traffic.
If we were to do the same trip over, we would spend our time in Capitol Reef on the Notom Road, a week around Grand Staircase Escalante and skip Zion. We would ideally do this trip with bikes as well and think it is feasible. Once baby animal’s neck is strong enough (~1 year) perhaps we will try it, here or elsewhere. That will cut down on almost all the costs associated with the trip as our only costs beyond food are gas and car related expenses.
A couple things miscellanceous things that have stood out to us on the trip.
-Small town Utah appears to be very well put together. I imagine this has something to do with the Mormons but I can't figure out how. Buildings are new, there are very few yards full of junk cars and there appears to be a good bit of economic activity. The exact opposite from most small towns throughout rural America.
-We have a 100% hit rate with determining if someone is from CA (likely LA). We do the customary greetings when you pass others on the trail. I started noticing that there were some that would just stare back without saying anything like you were an alien. On trails, especially remote trails this is a very common practice. Well, I eventually had a hunch they were Californians, later confirmed by trail registers and license plates. Very odd, but perhaps a result of just being around too many people and seeing strangers as inanimate objects?
Three more weeks on the road for us and we will begin to slowly make our way east. Next up is Valley of the Gods for a couple days, Grand Gulch/Dark Canyon for a week and a half, then Chaco Canyon and from there more or less northeast to Chicago. We have a few days to play with due to skipping some sections that we had planned and may check out other areas or extend our stays if anything piques our interest.
I wrote a few essays on my blog about the trip if anyone is interested in reading about our travels in more detail. animaltreks.wordpress.com
Miscellaneous household things
We have finally received all the bills for the birth of baby animal. We will end up paying ~$10k out of a billed $35k. Mrs. Animal requested an itemized bill for the bulk of the charges, so we had the joy of reading through ridiculous charges like individual pills of ibuprofen costing $10 each. What a joke.
It is very unlikely that we will have another kid next year though and combined with Mrs. Animal not likely working, our health care premiums and overall costs are about to fall off a cliff. For next year, I have a selection of plans from the marketplace for $1/month for the entire family. Thanks, Obama!
With the trailer totaled, I am kind of in limbo with regards to housing during my time doing the woodworking course. Before the accident, I/we were planning on living in the Scamp in town. With the trailer out of the question, I have been kind of scrambling to find another option. I first looked at rentals, both from a list the school provided and also on Craigslist. Damn, renting is expensive. The minimum for a studio seems to be about $1k, often much higher. Mrs. Animal and I are not interested in paying that and started looking for other options. We considered just living in our tent, but so far the nearest place where it seems we can camp is 45 minutes away from the school. Too far. I floated the idea of buying and living on a sailboat to Mrs. Animal but she shot that down. A minivan? She was more on board. Then I had the idea of checking out Workaway. Sure enough, there are a few hosts in town looking for people. So far we are still working things out but seems likely that we have at least 1 months’ worth of stays lined up. Mrs. Animal and baby animal will not be with me for the first month, so I am planning on either finding somewhere to camp, or living out of my car for the interim. One month still unaccounted for.
We very rarely go to restaurants, usually only at the insistence of family a few times a year. However, every so often Mrs. Animal gets a hankering for something and will pester me to go somewhere if she sees something she likes on a menu. Well, there is a small lodge with a restaurant not far from where we are camped. Inevitably, Mrs. Animal found something she liked and after a week’s worth of persuading, we went last night. We walked inside and began talking with a guy sitting by himself at one of the tables. Turns out, his friends had just bought the lodge a month ago and asked him to come up from Phoenix to help out and manage it in the interim (owners are in Arkansas), while working on some improvements/expansions. We keep chatting and he mentions how they are looking for a couple to run the place and ends up more or less offering us the opportunity to be that couple. The job would be managing the lodge, restaurant, store with gas station, boat rentals and Grand Canyon raft outfitting among other things. High salary with free 3 bedroom house and more or less 0 expenses. Mrs. Animal and I have been talking it over. She is on board, but I am unsure. It would be a very large change and prevent us from doing some of the things we are interested in doing in the near future like hiking the PCT and building the cabin addition in the Arctic. However, it would be a heck of a learning experience and challenge with 0 downside risk to us. Hmm..