A Top 10 Hike

We agree that today’s hike is in our top 10 favorite hikes.  This makes it in pretty exclusive company since we have taken over 350 hikes in the past 4 ½ years (a hike being generally defined as “needing a backpack,” which excludes walks we might take in town, etc.)

Several things made it special.  One is that we created it ourselves.  During our first year our hikes were usually on established trails, with clearly delineated trail heads.  Increasingly, however, they have become more off-trail hikes, create your own adventures.  Currently we rarely hike on a trail, preferring to go our own way where we will not run into other hikers and where we don’t know what is around the next bend.

Another special part of the hike was that it was a loop, not an in and back hike.

And, finally, and most important, the views were breathtaking.  

Briefly, the hike left out campsite in the Pahoong Springs area around St. George Utah, and climbed steeply on an old road to the top of a ridge.  We walked this ridge for about a mile and then descended, by boulder scrambling, into a canyon of red rocks.  We got to the bottom and then, also by boulder scrambling, climbed out of the canyon on the other side to another ridge that went for about a mile back to our campsite.  

Our campsite.

The route we took to the top of the ridge:

On that steep old road:

View from the top of the ridge, down toward our camper

View to the other side of the ridge:

There was a fence line on the top, so we followed it.  According to our maps (from the BLM office) both sides of the fence appeared to be public BLM areas, but we stayed to our side nevertheless.  

I held onto the fence poles at times for support.  Vicky used her poles:

At the top, we got a cell signal.  How weird is that?  So I made an important call to our home security service, and Vicky sent a thank you note to Stella and Marina and threw them a kiss.   This was unexpected.  A cell signal?  Here?

We walked for about a mile high on this ridge.  It was beautiful.  You could see 360 degrees for miles and miles:

Then we descended into the canyon.  We knew we had to make it clear across to the ridge on the far side:

Here is the general route we took:

Here is a photo from the other ridge, once we had made it.  It shows our general route from the ridge far away to our current ridge:

View through the canyon to our camper far below.  It’s really there.  Honest.

Photos of our trip along this second ridge back “home.”

View of the ridge we walked from our camper.  In the foreground is an abandoned or stolen vehicle that we will report when we get to another signal.

What a thrill.  For most of the hike we did not know if we could make a loop.  So we were always cognizant of being able to retrace our steps.    Our rule is we never go down unless we can go back up, and we never go up unless we can get back down.  We had to pick our way down and out of the canyon.  Another rule has to do with falling.  Our guideline is that it is OK to fall if all you do is bruise your bum, but it’s not OK to hurt yourself enough that you can’t keep hiking.  There is plenty of fun to be had in the outdoors without taking chances.  Lots of adventure without risking harm to anyone.  

We always turn back if one of us invokes the “safety rule.”  All that is needed is that one of us says “safety rule” and the other immediately gives that person full authority to implement it without discussion.  Basically, we are more likely to injure ourselves on the stairs into our camper than when hiking.

All alone today.  We could see “civilization,” but it was too far away to have an impact on us.  A beautiful day.  We created a hike that possibly no one else has ever taken.  And now that memory belongs to just the two of us.