A pleasant morning met us as we packed up and drove out to our trailhead. Our overnight backpacking trip should be a nice steep decent for the first mile or two before turning relatively flat for another ten miles to our back country camping spot.  When we bought the back country hiking permit, I had two surprised. The first was that Canyon lands only allows four back country permits for the zones we were hiking in. The second was that it wasn’t free, but costs $30. Not a problem, but I am counting all my dollars spent after April first.

We missed our trailhead and had to backtrack. Even with that backtrack, we managed to get on the trail at 9am. When I did the CT, I was usually on the trail around 9… or later… so it was a good start. 
Right away, I was thankful for trekking poles. The first mile was a steep decent of 1000 or so vertical feet.  Very rough on the knee

s

.

I’m glad we made it down without hurting ourselves. I already told Jason j would not carry him

back up.

The long flat desert hike was welcoming. The 5 or so miles to a trail junction was littered with stunning cliffs faces and interesting rock

formations.

At the trail junction we could see Moses and Zeus a set of

amazing  pillars.

With our goals on mind, we opted not to add an

y miles to our hike.

The 5 mile trail to the Green River was very doable, but both Jason and I started experiencing feet issues. It seems I laced my boots too tight and started straining my ankles while Jason started the wonderful process of collecting blisters.  We thought about hiking further in, but after about a half mile past the river, we

stopped and made camp.

This beautiful hike was very exposed to the elements. The sun is as hot, but the cool wind would build and start sand blasting us while we walked.  The trail followed river bottoms and washes that were difficult to follow.  Worse of all. Sand. Loose sand wears a person out quickly! I attribute the loose sand to my ankle woes.  That said, the sand was soft to lay in as a nap cried out my name.  With my shoes off, I fell asleep and later woke to sunburned feet and ankles.  Wonderful…

It was a great day to have a great day and we did just that! Good food and good company makes for a good trip.