Distance = 22 Miles; People Met = 4
We made our way back up to the Great Western Trail. This time we found a trailhead and a trail that was maintained. We decided it was “safe” to follow the Great Western at this point, but after a few miles the maintenance started to slack and there were no signs after about the first mile.
We came to an unmarked T junction. Our small scale Forest Service map indicated a right turn to be more in the proper direction than the left turn. Furthermore, if we took the left turn and were wrong I could not guess where we might end up. If we took the right turn and were wrong I knew we would end up on a Forest Service road again that would bring us to Utah 12, our eventual destination. Of course, we took the right turn. Of course, we were wrong.
That mean 8 extra miles than would have been planned for this day had we stayed on the Great Western the whole time. We did not even mind. We knew where we were. We could think and/or observe the marvelous scenery rather than worry about blow downs or finding trails.
Through much practice we have become accomplished at waiting out afternoon thunderstorms, using the rain fly from our tents. Today was the third straight day of afternoon or evening storms and seven out of fifteen days while we’ve been in Utah.
The combination of extra mileage and storms made it late by the time we got to Utah 12, a spectacular scenic highway, where we were to hike up to Oak Creek Campground to meet Ky. Instead, we flagged down an Aussie family driving a subcompact car to deliver a message for Ky to come pick us up. The woman came out with a piece of paper for me to write down the message with no mistake. As I was doing that the man made an offer to just drive us up there. You could see the woman suppress her shocked reaction at her husband offering to squeeze two smelly backpackers with full packs into a subcompact already carrying a family of four. I told him we had to hike 5,000 continuous miles and the woman’s sudden relief was palpable.
Sometimes us guys can be magnanimously clueless.
