What did I do to deserve this?

My friend Brendan and I just spent all weekend trying to come up with an answer to this question. It seems that no matter how hard we tried we could not screw anything up, only to end up with an all around excellent three day weekend in Moab.

Brendan arrived from LA (Los Alamos for those who think that LA is a city in California) on Friday night. We spent a few beers (yes I am using beers as a unit of time) trying to solve the ultimate dilemma, what do we do this weekend? Finally on Saturday morning, after looking at the weather and determining that it looked crappy everywhere, we decided to head to Moab and brave the rain. It does not rain much in the desert so a good storm could be very entertaining, and we had nothing better to do. We packed up the truck and took off.

On the way out of town the weather was terrible—cold, snowy, no visibility, the roads were making progress slow. It was turning into a pretty dreary trip and things were not looking too good. At one point I said “Last time I left town in weather like this bound for Moab the weather was perfect” I was just trying to be optimistic. As we roll into Moab the rain cleared and the clouds began to dissipate. Things were starting to look up.

We started off by trying to wreck my truck by doing some four-wheeling. Once again the thing amazes me. We did the same trail that I did last time because I knew I could do it.





After getting off scratch-free (well, sort-of) we attempted another frequent failure for my trips to Moab: we went to the outdoor gear store. In the last tree trips I have never walked out of that place without a receipt for less than $100. You always can find something else you “need.” Not only did we leave with only essentials (a can opener and a few bundles of firewood $7.95 total), but we did so with everything in the store 15-40% off. It was close though—I really “needed” a new $60 hatchet.

The next possible failing point was the fact that it was Presidents weekend, most three-day weekends are packed in Moab. We were fully expecting to have to search pretty hard to find a mediocre camping spot. Our good karma paid off again. We went up the road to Gemini Bridges because for the last ten years going to Moab with my dad he has always told me of some great campsites up there but I have never been able to stay because I am meeting people somewhere, I have a car that wont make it up, or it is full (there are only 4 spots). Not only did we find a spot right away, we did not see another person near it or any of the other spots the whole time. We had the entire canyon to ourselves!




I knew of a climbing spot just up the road from our camp called “Crack House”, and because the weather was so good we decided to give it a shot. Luckily we had decided to bring at least the essentials of our climbing gear. (Again we were expecting a lot of rain.) The “Crack House” is neat little cave with a perfect hand-sized crack all the way from one entrance to the other—very fun to climb but VERY difficult. Crack climbing is something that I have never learned to do because it is hard and it really hurts (I don’t like pain.) Brendan, on the other hand, is one of those guys that gets a rush when things hurt, so he gave it a legitimate attempt and I stood by and took lots off pictures.

Doesnt this look like it hurts?

Just hanging around.

I got to do some bouldering around the cave.


Later we headed to Gemini Bridges, a very cool set of arches a little farther down the road. We got the spot to park and began heading down the trail (or at least what we thought was a trail.) On the canyon edge we ran into a family that looked rather lost. “Do you know where the arches are? We can’t seem to find them.” “Nope” we replied because we had never been there as well. They can’t be that hard to find—they are two giant arches right next to each other. We just kept running around on the slickrock admiring the view, by running I mean really running—we were having a good time being kids and running and jumping from rock to rock. Suddenly we came across this giant hole… It was the arches, they were below us. No wonder you can’t see them! Cool stuff, that natural architecture.





Heading back to camp, we decided to attempt another failure. Let’s try to get lost! I know I saw a road down below the arches, let’s try to find that. Off we went on 4x4 trails that we had now idea where they went or how difficult they would be. Right on par with the way thing had gone so far (after a couple of tight sections where I was really worried about denting the truck) we turned a corner and there they were: Gemini Bridges right above us, exactly on the road we had spotted from above. We snapped a few pics and headed back.



For dinner that night we had decided to attempt “Fajita Surprise”. What this consisted of was some fajita steak that I had been marinating for a day and a half now, peppers and onions. We combined them all in some aluminum foil, drowned it in the marinade, wrapped it up in about 6 more layers of foils and tossed it into the fire. That is where the surprise comes in, what will you get when you open it all up? You only get one chance for once you have opened it, it becomes very difficult to re-wrap. “Do you think they are ready?” gets said over and over again until finally we build up the courage to open them up. I pulled mine off the fire, oh man it smelled good, but as I began unwrapping it became apparent that we had kept them on for too long and it seemed that there was only a solid mass of charred marinade in the middle. The thought of that sucked, we were so looking forward to them, they had smelled so good and the anticipation was so high while they were cooking that we would not except failure. I took my knife, jabbed it right in the middle and began prying it apart, suddenly a glint of a pepper then some steam, and finally a whole pile of slightly well done steak and perfect looking vegetables. The meat was a bit over cooked bit it was SOOO good. We put it on some tortillas, added some cheese and chowed down. That was the low point of the weekend.

During the night it began to rain. We were already in the tent so it did not matter, but I began to worry about tomorrow, the weather still called for rain all day. We woke up, unzipped the tent to reveal a bluebird morning, not a cloud in the sky. Wouldn’t it be cool to stay another day? We decided to try. The only thing I was worried about was my friend Andy wanted me to give his friend from out of town a ride to Albuquerque. I had told him that I would, depending on what Brendan and I decided to do. I had to call him so we went into town for breakfast and to make phone calls to arrange staying another day. I got ahold of Andy, and he didn’t seem too thrilled so I felt bad, but I really didn’t want to leave (sorry Andy). Anyway we began planning the new day and all the ways we could try to wreck it. To the Outdoor Gear shop! I really “need” that hatchet now because of all the trouble we had with the fire last night (not really, I just was generating excuses to buy stuff), ended up getting out of that one for less than 10 bucks again. Let’s go wreck the truck some more! Once again the truck goes beyond the call of duty and makes it through unscathed (I did get some scratches from trees, but I should be able to buff those out.) We need some beer for tonight now because we drank all we had last night. Now that is going to be a tough one. We are in Utah and it is Sunday meaning we may have just been stopped dead in our tracks on an otherwise perfect weekend. Maybe we can get growlers (1/2 gallon jugs of beer) at the Moab Brewery? Score!! We now had beer for the night—yet another disaster averted!

The weather stayed perfect all night again and the next morning was beautiful as well. Not a person around, you can’t ask for much better. We finally packed up the camp and headed home. The only thing left that could ruin a perfect weekend was a speeding ticket or something stupid like that on the way home. Nope, made it home safe and sound. What else can you ask for?

Here are some other good Pics of the Gemini Bridges area:

This one is from Camp on the second night, we are the only ones in that whole canyon.


A cool view on our way back to camp from Gemini Bridges.


The only question that remains is, What did I do to deserve this?