Balloons, Angels, and The Virgin

Now that we have your attention..... We thought we should update everyone at home on what we have been up to since arriving in Panguitch.

The first weekend we arrived the town of Panguitch (including our campground) was full of people eagerly anticipating  a large balloon festival.  Interestingly, we found that bikers, the kind that travel to Sturgis every year on their Harleys, also travel throughout the west to see hot air balloons take off.

Eagerly anticipating the launch of these balloons, we dragged ourselves out of bed early in the morning on Friday, and walked about 3/4 of a mile to the launch field. Too windy. No balloons. No problem....we will try again tomorrow.

Repeat the early rising, and don our road racing clothes to see if we can fit in a 5K road race. Drive to the field this time, see some balloons beginning to inflate and decide to skip the race to see balloons.  We'll run dozens of road races in the future, but how many balloon launches will we see?   Walk in and hear that they are just inflating, not launching, still too windy.

 Plan B...run the road race. Back in the car, drive to the high school for the race. We met the local cross-country team coach, and were glad the proceeds from the race were going to support the team. Glen found out that they meet at the high school to run each morning at 7:00 a.m. and is invited to run with them anytime. (So is Terry, but she is too chicken until Glen scouts out the team and sees if there are any slow runners) Small races are fun, and we both left with age group medals.  Altitude isn't fun to race in. 

We did some socializing with our fellow campground workers and some people we have met in the campground. Glen made some dessert in the dutch oven, and it was a big hit. That evening, the town shut down the main street for "Balloon Glow". The hot air balloons inflate in the dark, and then pulse the flames at times, making the balloons glow. There were some live bands, lots of glow-in-the-dark toys and jewelry, cotton candy, adult beverages, and more. It was a really unique kind of a street festival.  Glen fought off the urge to join in the karaoke contest.

Would the third early morning be the charm? We decided to give it one last shot at seeing balloons launched. Got up,drove over, waited a bit, saw two balloons inflating, waited some more, and saw no other action. We decided to drive back to the campground and get some more sleep, figuring nothing else was happening. As it turned out, they did launch a few, but didn't go far because winds were coming in soon. It would have been nice to see 35 or so balloons launch and fly, but the weather just didn't cooperate.

 After the big balloon festival, things calmed down a bit in the campground, and we had five days off! Planning to take advantage of it, we decided to head to Zion National Park. We have visited here three times before, but it is one of our favorite places, and there were things left undone.

One of the most famous hikes in Zion is called the Angels Landing Trail. It climbs from the canyon floor to the rim and the last 3/4 of a mile is on a very narrow ridge trail. It has chains to hold so you supposedly won't fall over 1400 feet to the canyon floor. (Although there have been 6 deaths here since 2004) There are warning signs everywhere telling you not to do this trail if it is windy, during thunderstorms, or if it is covered in snow and ice. (DUH!)

For information junkies (like one of us) here is a link to more information on the trail.
Angels Landing Trail

We had previously hiked with our big backpacks and spent the night on Plateau Point with the intent of hiking up Angels Landing on our return to the canyon floor. That time, we only made it to Scout's Lookout before deciding not to continue that last 3/4 mile on Angels Landing because of crowds, fatigue, and generally chickening out.

This time, we got up at 5:15 in order to beat the predicted 103 degree temperature, and were some of the first people on the trail. We climbed up the trail on some switchbacks called "Walter's Wiggles" after the man who designed and built them. Dropping Glen's big pack at Scout's Lookout (more on that later) we took Terry's small pack for water and continued on Angels Landing and the first section of chains before we could think about it too much.

All of the literature on this hike contains the warning "don't attempt if you have a fear of heights."  In spite of these warnings, we started out onto the ridge.  I guess the warnings were trumped by an old Brewer saying:  "You can always tell a Holyoke, but you can't tell em much." 

It was a bit windy, but it wasn't crowded. We were able to take our time, and focus on the trail. When we stopped, we could look at the view...a little. We both faced some fears along the way. (Terry fears losing her footing and falling,thus walks like a ninety-year-old woman afraid of breaking a bone. Glen fears heights and is afraid of freezing up,thus wants to walk faster than Terry).  Glen put up with the pace on the way out, but on the way back he looked at Terry and said "I'll see you when we get finished", and charged back down the ridge.

Completing this hike put us both in a very happy and proud mood. We headed back to Scout's Lookout and anticipated eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a location where there is enough clifftop to relax and not worry about falling off.

Remember the part about dropping Glen's big pack at Scout's Lookout before tackling the narrow part of the trail? Well, evidently squirrels like that tendency of hikers. While we were gone, a squirrel decided to eat his(or her) way into the pack in search of treats. In so doing, it chose to chew up the places where the zippers meet to keep the pockets closed. Some fellow hikers chased it away, but too late to save the pack. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich was fine, however. We ate, figured out a way to jury-rig the pack closed for the return hike, and cursed squirrels.

Take a moment and inject some of Glen's attitude into the situation here.  A squirrel, trying to eat OUR food, managed to find the way to do the most possible damage to the backpack.  The hikers who chased it away were helpful, but they also had those young kid smirks on their faces, the ones that say "I wish something like that would happen to MY dad some day, now THAT would be pay back."  You know the look.

The hike down was nice, and we shared a sense of accomplishment. It was fun to greet the hikers coming up, and because there were so many of them, we were extra happy that we started early. The chains and skinny trail would not have been so fun with all those people on them. And we beat the heat!

After stopping for an ice cream at Zion Lodge, we went back to the campground where we were tenting for a few nights, and rested with our feet in the river. We read books and stayed in the shade for most of the day.

Treating ourselves to dinner at "The Spotted Dog" was fun. We had eaten there once on a previous visit to Zion, and remembered it fondly. It didn't disappoint....Glen had wild meatloaf made from bison and elk meat, while Terry had a homemade pasta filled with pear and ricotta cheese. Fine dining, that you can do in casual hiking attire. Not fussy..just fabulous.

The campground we stayed in was on the banks of the Virgin River. There is an outdoor adventure company across the street where you can rent tubes, float down the river, and they will pick you up downstream and bus you back. Our campsite happened to be two sites away from the river access, so we got to see a steady stream of people heading out on their raft adventures. Many people have interesting ideas of what they should wear for bathing suits...and no idea of campground etiquette. They would walk directly on our site, between us and the picnic table, bring a camera, holler to their children playing in the river, and never acknowledge we were there.  Glen wondered what would happen if he walked over to their r.v. sites and trooped around their picnic table a time or two. 

 One of the best conversations we overheard in our time near the river went like this:

 "MOM! DAD! We found a watermelon! It was just laying in the river! Can we keep it? Come see!"

 "What? You found a what in the river?"

 "A watermelon! It must have just grown there? Can we have it?"

 Now, having placed a few watermelons in the lake over the years, and "enhancing" a few watermelon before placing them in said lake, we surely hope the parents said no. Our evil selves might have thought about what would happen if they decided to steal someone else's watermelon and fed it to the kids....

The Virgin River is the site for another of Zion's most famous hikes. The trail is called "The Narrows" and is actually in the river. For more information, click the link.
The Narrows

The canyon walls stretch thousands of feet above you on either side, and it winds around giving you limited views of the sky. The sandstone changes colors from orange to brown, to white, and back. It is like being in the bottom of a giant's sand art bottle. If the river levels are too high, or there is any threat of rain in the area, you shouldn't do this hike. There is no way out if a flash flood comes roaring down the canyon. Fortunately, water levels are low right now, and the deepest part we were in was just over waist high.

 On our two previous trips, we had never made it as far upstream as the actual "narrows", and we wouldn't this time either. That part is close to the trailhead, many miles upstream. We didn't have a permit, or the desire to camp out overnight on this walk. We walked upstream for two hours,  and found a great little picnic spot. Then, we walked downstream for two hours. That kind of a hike uses muscles we didn't know we even had. Thank goodness for hiking poles. (Terry still fell in once...and not gracefully) Rocks are slippery when wet.

 It's always interesting to people-watch on this hike.  Hundreds of people per day start the hike, many of them in flip-flops and whatever clothing they'd worn to the park.  EVERY step you take in the water is a challenge, and a couple of hundred yards into the hike there is a section of belly to chest deep water that you have to walk through -- there's no way around it.  That's the section that usually sorts out the real hikers from the "I heard that it's a cool hike" wannabees. 

 After three days of temperatures hovering just over 100, and tenting out sleeping in our backpacking tent on the ground, we opted to leave in the late afternoon and drive back to Panguitch. The RV felt like a castle. Air conditioning, and a Queen sized bed!

Today we washed the car, did the laundry, updated this blog, and are planning the next Dutch oven get together for Saturday. We are doing chili and dessert, others are bringing cornbread, and we are looking forward to sharing a nice evening with friends. We must have done something right, because the campground owners bought us some pie filling, cake mixes, and chocolate chips to keep the desserts coming!  The bag of chocolate chips weighs almost 5 pounds, so unless Terry goes crazy on the next dessert, we've got a lot of Dutch oven treats ahead of us.