Go put your head in the clouds....

Day 221
10-14-2006
Started: Wah Wah Valley, Utah
Finished: Pine Valley, Utah
Today's Miles: 29.5
Total Miles: 3331.5

Another solitary day of us and Utah. Seriously, if you ever need any alone time Utah is your place! We didn't have interaction with any other humans all day long. Well, we did wave at a couple of drivers that passed by us, but literally only a couple passed by us. The west side of Utah is full of plenty of wide open spaces. This morning we woke up to the sound of raindrops hitting the tent so it wasn't very difficult to lay around until the showers passed over. Once the rain had stopped we slowly packed up and enjoyed a rather casual morning around camp. When we finally had everything stowed away and were ready to head west we realized that our already late start was about to become a little later. Flat tire! Our water cart had picked up a cactus, or sand spur, or goat head, or some other type of sharp desert vegetation that covers the ground all around us. So, we reached for the repair kit and after a quick tube replacement we were on our way. Today was a tough day of hiking from a mental standpoint. Physically it was a long day, twenty nine and a half miles and all, but mentally it seemed like we were moving in slow motion. The mental battle was due to the fact that we could see so far away. When we woke up we could see the spot where we took our lunch break, and from the spot where we took our lunch break we could see well beyond where we ended up for the night. It's all about the wide open spaces. The terrain we are hiking in western Utah is what we like to think of as the ripple effect. The landscape goes from long and wide valley to thin mountain range to long and wide valley to thin mountain range and so on and so on. We started this morning at the edge of the San Francisco Mountains and the Wah Wah Valley. From there we could see the trail going from where we were standing, up and over the next range of mountains. So, the first fifteen miles of the day we crossed the Wah Wah Valley and climbed up the east side of the Wah Wah Mountains. From the top of the Wah Wah Mountains we could see the trail go from where we were standing, down the west side of the range and into the next valley and all the way across it until it turned behind the next range of mountains. So, we spent the next fourteen and a half miles hiking down the west side of the Wah Wah Mountains and into and the across the Pine Valley. Both huge valleys had one significant landmark. The Wah Wah had a group of trees and the Pine had a single tree. The mental challenge was influenced by the fact that we could see the trees and we were walking for hours and yet the trees didn't seem to be getting any closer. Once we did reach the landmark trees we played the same game with the edge of the next range of mountains. The vastness and nothingness is actually very beautiful and even somewhat comforting. You can actually have a feeling of great security knowing that it's you and only you out here in the wide open spaces. Our secure feelings were tested slightly today when we had a sighting of an animal we had never seen in the wild before, our first scorpion sighting. As a shiver ran up Sheri's spine she declared, "we're shaking the tent out good tonight!" It was just a small little thing, but we wouldn't want to find out if it has a big bite. The clouds that filled the sky all day made the scenery have an ever-changing appeal that the desert environment doesn't on it's own. There were dark and threatening clouds, big fluffy and bright white clouds, small solitary clouds and chains of clouds that seemed to go on forever. Our favorite clouds to watch were the clouds that hung low enough in the sky to run into the mountains. The front edge of the cloud would slam into the back side of the mountain and be thrown upward. As the back half of the cloud continued to push toward the mountain the front half would climb and climb until it couldn't take it anymore. At that point the front half would collapse over the peak, swallowing it, causing the top third of the mountain to disappear. As you can tell when you have lots of time and plenty of space it's easy to have your head in the clouds. We thoroughly enjoyed having our heads in the clouds most of the day today. We would actually encourage others to walk around with their head in the clouds. Think about it, we've all had a moment in our life when someone of authority has asked us to get our head out of the clouds, and usually it was because we were thinking about something we wanted to be thinking about and not the something that they wanted us to be thinking about. When is the last time someone told you to go put your head in the clouds? Probably never. So we would like to be the first to say, "go put your head in the clouds!" We know first hand, thanks to the wide open spaces of Utah, that spending an unlimited amount of time in a huge space with your head in the clouds is actually quite healthy. Be careful though, you will have to spend time searching the depths of your mind and that might just cause you to discover what you really think!


Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
Follow our Journey at www.treckusa.com