Cedar Mesa Madness

Black Hawk Down/ Bad day to be a government vehicle

The ipod is random playing through the reggae songs as we travel down
C470 south. The northbound lanes are a gigantic parking lot as crews
clean up accidents left over from the blizzard the day before. As we
travel up 285, we see a tow truck towing a fire truck. "That's not
something you see every day." I say and Steve murmurs his assent. A
mile down the road and we see a cop car getting towed as well. It's
beat up pretty good, I'd hate to be the guy who caused that. As we
approach the top of Monarch pass, the cars are all stopped. "Must be
doing avalanche control or something." I said. A few minutes later a
great cloud of snow blows around farther up the road and a huge
Chinook helicopter lumbers over the valley flying east. "Well, I
didn't expect to see THAT!". We wait for another ten minutes or so
and a truck comes down the road slowly. People are asking him what's
up and we overhear that a Black Hawk helicopter has crashed farther up
the road. When they finally let the traffic through, I catch a
glimpse of a tail rotor sticking up between the trees as we drive by.

The Mesa

We spend the night at the Log Hill bed and breakfast, catching up with
friends and enjoying the traditional potion known as the One True
Margarita. Slightly hung over, we hit the road the next day and stock
up on beef jerky from Ray's (not bad actually). Fueled by jerky,
salty snack foods and high fructose corn syrup we make our way to
Cedar Mesa, stopping by the Kane Gulch ranger station to check
conditions. We camp that night down the Snow Flat road and in the
morning drive to the overlook for the Moon House ruin. It's cool, but
we didn't feel like hiking down to it and instead get our permits and
hit the trail head for the 3 night backpacking trip we planned. We
park at Bullet canyon, the plan is to go down Bullet and out Sheiks,
taking our time and poking around inside the canyons. We tried to do
this same loop 2 years ago but our camp stove broke and after a Gorp
dinner and a cold oatmeal breakfast we bailed and went to some hot
springs.

I Lost Steve

We camped Sunday night in Bullet, near Jailhouse ruin. It's a nice
day but as evening progresses , menacing looking clouds swirl around
above us. Steve had never really noticed what virga looks like when
it's right over your head before. That night it snows a couple of
inches and my twenty degree bag isn't quite up to the task of keeping
me warm. The morning is clear and nice though, and the snow melts
quickly. We pack up and head down canyon. The plan is to drop our
packs at the mouth of the canyon and head down Grand Gulch but we miss
the the actual mouth and head down a good half a mile with our packs
on before we break out the map and figure out our mistake. It's
getting a little late by this point and we decide to just head back up
canyon to the Green Mask spring, where there's good water and camping.
Steve takes off ahead of me, he's a very fast hiker and usually just
walks ahead of me and waits for me from time to time. As I get to the
turnoff we missed, I don't see Steve waiting for me. I yelled out a
couple of times for him but didn't get a reply so I start hiking
towards Green Mask. I still don't notice Steve and I was concerned
that he might have missed the turn off. I dropped my pack and hike up
a spit of land in between the two canyons where I can look down into
both, but I don't see him. I yell a couple more times but no reply. I
put my pack on and double time it to Sheik's, trying to catch up to
him. He isn't at Sheik's so I go a mile or so farther up, thinking he
might have overshot it. By this point the sun is sinking low and I'm
in the shadows as I walk back to where we were planning on camping.
Steve has not showed up there and I figure he must have hiked back up
Bullet. It's too late to go there so I just set up my tent and camp
there that night, sipping tequila to assuage my worry.

The next morning I pack my day pack and head down to where I last saw
Steve. I head back up Bullet to where we camped the night before,
then back to where I was camped. No Steve. I break camp and head up
Sheik's canyon to the mesa top and head across Sheik's flat when I see
Steve's 4runner driving towards me. We celebrate our reuniting with
cold beer and talk about what happened. Steve missed the turnoff to
Sheik's and went up Bullet all the way to where we camped the night
before, then the next morning took off up and out Bullet, went to the
ranger station and filed a missing persons report on me on me just in
case before going back to the trail head to wait for me. We head to
the Ranger station and let them know I'm ok before going into town for
beer and steaks.

Hands and Caves

Wednesday we take it easy, driving along the Butler Wash road and
hiking up into a couple of shallow caves on Comb Ridge. Fish Mouth
cave is interesting, a very large deep arch shaped cave but no ruins
in it, presumably they've been torn down from all the people that can
go there. There's tons of graffiti on the walls but a few genuine hand
prints and other rock art. The next one is better, Monarch cave has
some good ruins in it and it looks like not as many people go there.
There's also hand prints on the walls here. We camp that night at the
Recapture Lodge on account of the icky weather forecast.

Thursday is a gorgeous bluebird Utah day. We drive up the Snow Flat
road from the east, this is not for a low clearance vehicle. We park
and hike down into Moon House ruin and spend the afternoon poking
around and taking pictures. That night we camp near a drill site and
enjoy a juniper fire beneath the clear starry night.

San Juan Blow

Friday morning the sky is hazy with dust and the wind is kicking up
again. We go to the Ranger station, let them know I'm still alive,
and check the forecast. Not good. We do a car day, drive to Natural
Bridges monument (Steve had never been there) and drive from spot to
spot, doing a little hiking but not much. Afterwords we drive to the
Edge of the Cedars museum and check that out. I get a new book: River
Flowing from the Sun, an Environmental History of the Lower San Juan.

We camp that night at the Recapture Lodge in Bluff and enjoy dinner
across the street at the San Juan River Kitchen, a new place that has
some tasty grub. Saturday morning looks nice and we head out, driving
along the John's canyon road looking for rock art. We see some nice
anthromorphs with duck heads (cool) and as we head back four fighter
jets buzz just off the top of the river gorge past us. I flipped them
off for harshing my mellow.

Moab Mike's Bed and Breakfast

We drove up to Muley point and noticed a wall of weather coming
towards us. I checked my voice mail and Mike says it's snowing in
Moab, he needs to rescue a friend on Deadhorse point and won't make
it. I'm glad because I really wasn't wanting to camp in those
conditions. We decide to to head to Moab instead of camping on Muley.
As we drive north on Cedar Mesa, the snow is thick and visibility
poor. All the way to Moab it's snowing. As we get into town I see a
guy in a Jeep, all bundled up and driving down the road. They're
right, I don't get that Jeep thing. Maybe some antibiotics will clear
that Jeep thing up? I hope so.

We spend the night at Moab Mike's Bed and Breakfast after dinner at
the Moab brewery. We tell stories and drink, until late in the night.
The next morning Mike made the breakfast he was planning on serving
up on Muley. It was an uneventful trip home, we got stuck in the ski
traffic on the eastbound I-70 but still managed to keep the whole trip
to about a 7 hour drive from Moab to Fort Collins. It was a good week
other than the weather and a great trip, we just scratched the surface
of Cedar Mesa, there's so much more to see there and I plan on
returning. Check pictures at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timloco/tags/409cedarmesatrip/