We like to take advantage of our regular long weekend outings with the gift of time.
Our truck gets pre-packed, we plan out where we wish to go, and then we spend the first night out with a quick camping trip, enjoy the sunset, have our customary evening nightcap of cider and rum, and then enjoy the glorious Utah sunrise the following day.
Morning coffee before we pack up and go backpacking. PCO Joan.
Life, as they say, is good.
And then we go backpacking.
We don’t worry about mileage or how extreme the trip might be. We walk, see, and see what we see.
And with spring here, we often see the first wildflowers and the riparian areas in the middle of the desert canyons teeming with life.
We connect our steps from previous visits, make notes for future trips, and continue to walk in and out of the nooks and crannies of our desert home.
That evening in our canyon camp we could hear owls and the soothing sound of poorwills lulling us to sleep.
But because we have the gift of time we can often have different types of trips on the same weekend.
Our quick camping and then backpacking trip also meant a weekend of seeing friends.
When friends visited Moab on their way to other places, we hosted them for an evening after their Arches visit.
Naomi, Mike, and Whitney (Allgood) are friends I’ve known in our small thru-hiking community, and it’s always a pleasure to see them again.
With our new home very close to Arches and downtown, and the space to host friends more comfortably, Joan and I enjoyed playing local tour guide both at night and during the day.
In particular, we showed them one of our favorite local hikes with its fantastic views, importance as a travel corridor, and the area’s history.
Spring is upon us here in Moab despite the snow flurries as I write this post.
As I told our friends, they’ll have to come again when we have more time to show off the local sites a bit more. Living in Moab, I’m sure we’ll see them again!
On to the next gift of time.