We quickly got chased out of Canyonlands by some serious thunderstorms as that 30% chance of rain blossomed into a non-stop, hearty downpour with tent pole breaking winds. With no signs of the storm breaking, we decided to jump ship and look for calmer weather, with a hostel or motel in Moab our destination in mind. Since it was Memorial Day weekend, there was no room in any inn for these shepherds, so we made our way to Castle Valley where we knew there would be free camping. The weather broke and we were able to stay dry that night. The next morning, we woke up early with the sun shining and decided to spend the day in the Fiery Furnace in Arches. This is the only place in the park where you can hike off trail and is essentially a giant playground for adults of sandstone fins and towers that you can climb all over!
The skies starting to turn grey again while we were immersed in the Furnace so we hedged our bets and made our way to the put in of our white water rafting trip where Mike's Salt Lake friends were starting to gather.
We got to do the Westwater Canyon stretch of the Green River over Memorial Day weekend, which is a short but beautiful stretch of river carved through massive sandstone walls and filled with class 3 and 4 rapids. After all the rain in the past two days, the water level was really high, and the river was flowing rapidly. We floated with a total of 17 people in 5 rafts, and Mike and I were in the 5 person paddle boat.
The first few river miles on Westwater are pretty calm, then all of a sudden you get to the narrow stretch of the canyon where the rapids form, and this is where the real excitement starts. It was a cold and rainy morning, so everyone was pretty cold for the beginning. We stopped right before the rapids to change into warmer gear and have a little safety talk, then into the business! The rapids are so close together that as soon as you get through one, you're right in the meet of another, so that section went by in a flash but was incredibly fun. The waves were enormous, but not one boat flipped and we had a clean and safe run. Since the water was flowing so quickly, we were in camp by noon and had the rest of the day to hang out and play. We couldn't have asked for a better crew to travel the river with!
The next morning, we slept in and took our time breaking camp. The sun finally came out so it was hard to leave the beach, but check out time was 11 at the "Beach Motel", so we shoved off and made for the take out. An hour later, the raft trip was over, and we caravanned with the rest of the group back to SLC! It felt good to come back to Salt Lake and we're really looking forward to revisiting friends and places that we fell in love with when we lived here. Yesterday morning, Mike and I hiked up to the peak of the flagship mountain that overlooks Salt Lake, Mt. Olympus.
We have both done this hike several times, but it's such an iconic trail in the Wasatch range that we had to start there. While we're in Salt Lake, we're staying at Mike's friends' house, Mikey and Krista, who are both away at traveling nurse gigs in Baltimore, and were kind enough to open up their house to us. It's nice to play house and sleep in a bed, take showers on consecutive nights, and cook real dinners for a change! We won't get too spoiled with these luxuries since we're about to relinquish them for 4 months while we're on the PCT, but they sure are nice for now!
We'll be staying in Salt Lake City until Wednesday afternoon when we fly back to Cincinnati, OH to go to my friend Katie's wedding!!! The PCT start date is coming up quickly! Only two and a half more weeks until our first day on the trail. We'll be posting our hiking schedule very soon :-D
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