On the Dirty Devil...

This is a crayon drawing based on a photo--

That's me, dragging my boat along the shallow water of the Dirty Devil River in Utah... I've just about reached a portion of the river that will float my boat, in all senses of that phrase. These sections of the river that had sufficient flow were, unfortunately, somewhat rare..

In fact, we took to saying that the water was "a foot deep" -- meaning that it was JUST enough water to reach up to your ankles--precisely one human's foot deep.

Today, on this cold snowy day in February, I got to remembering this cold snowy outing on the Dirty Devil... We were told that the temperature would hover the 80s at the coolest, so I brought shorts and t-shirts and sandals. To the surprise of us all, it snowed with a horrific headwind for almost ALL of our multi-day camping adventure..... I learned on that trip that I am a trooper! I would shake the snow off of my sandals in the morning, and get out there and brave it again.

Did we love the trip? Hell, yeah! Spectacular red-rock beauty abounding, including wild hikes through Robber's Roost (google that), wildlife, camaraderie.... all in exquisite wilderness.

(Note: JUST as I was tearing this drawing out of the book--the dang thing ripped in half.... you can see the tear. Part of the charm... I guess.)