We carried full packs for all but the first day of this week, including a five day “wilderness” stretch that started without wilderness. We had only five miles to hike from our Otter Creek State Park campsite through Antimony but we never quite reached the trail on the other side of town. In fact, we did the unthinkable for a long distance hiker, backtracked two miles even though we knew we were on the correct route.
We first stopped at the Antimony Community Center, where the director there explained how the center provides Internet access for townsfolk. Far off the beaten track, electricity reached Antimony last in Utah and Internet access was similarly difficult. By providing Internet access the Community Center offered a means for telecommuting in this remote place. These were the types of community benefit stories I loved to gather.
We stopped next at the Antimony Merc, a combined RV park, gas station, cafe, store and local hangout. We mixed well with the locals, with one of them giving us some helpful details of the route ahead. We also learned that Barrett and Buster had passed through town the morning before. We had not seen them since our first day in Utah and now we did not expect to see them again until Moab.
Despite our lollygagging through Antimony we might have entered the wilderness that evening had not a car pulled over, when we reached the southern outskirts of town, to ask us what we were doing. This same car had passed us going back and forth into Antimony a couple times. We told the driver, Burns Black, about our journey and he invited us to stay at his Rockin’ R Ranch on the northern side of Antimony. Staying at a dude ranch for free was an offer too good to refuse and we backtracked two miles.
We had planned for four relaxing days through Dixie National Forest, with the first day being the hardest. Before ascending all day we took a wrong turn and had to backtrack. Fortunately, this enabled us to encounter Randy, the Otter Creek campground manager who also owned a ranch in the area, driving his ATV with Ky riding on the back! News travels fast in a small town, alerting Randy and Ky to our delay in reaching Dixie National Forest. Randy also used his ATV to bring soda to our campsite that evening. Though we followed jeep roads all day Randy’s arrival amazed me because the route was as rocky and steep as mountain trails in the Northeast.
Once again the most memorable parts of this stretch were the camps. A ferocious thunderstorm accompanied by a deluge held off until nighttime for us. Safely tucked away in a perfectly pitched tent kept us dry, providing the luxury of enjoying the sounds of pelting rain and thunder. We no longer talked like we used to do under these conditions, but the night would become a special memory along with the other severe storms we weathered over the years.
A photo of my left foot hanging in traction that night confirmed my ongoing problem. I found that the swelling went down during the day while hiking, but would return at night. I resorted to ibuprofen and elevated traction for my foot in order to get some sleep.
Another campsite on this stretch ranked in the top five for the journey. After crossing Dixie National Forest a campground host tipped us off to what he described as an oasis in Sheets Draw. We found this to be accurate. A small, flat, grassy area by a clear flowing stream over red clay, with a lone cottonwood tree as a standing sentry, provided a stark, green garden contrast to the surrounding canyon walls of red sandstone. A little sputtering of rain interrupted the cooking of supper, but even that intrusion upon our tranquility left us with a rainbow that further enhanced the setting.
At one point within the Dixie National Forest we were to follow the Great Western Trail, but within the first few hundred yards we encountered a few blockades of blowdowns, no doubt another casualty of the extraordinary snowpack and avalanche season. We followed instead the recommended alternative ADT for cyclists, which brought us through the canyonlands known as Hell’s Backbone. The spectacular scenery made our detour a preferred option to even a cleared trail.
All in all, this stretch of full packing through wilderness melted much of our cares away. These were the best of times, when Cindy and I were off by ourselves in what might be considered our natural habitat as veteran long distance hikers. Unfortunately, more stressors loomed in the future which were immediate to our situation.
