Hike.

5:47 a.m. wake up on the lawn of a picnic area in an RV park in Moab. on a slight slope. with no air mattress. fully clothed.

6:08 a.m. completely packed and ready to go.

6:10 a.m. ... attempt to drive through the entrance back out, before they open back up for fees ...

6:11 a.m. even though the sign says that the place doesn't open until 8 a.m. - sure enough there is an old-timer there already awake and moving - who is more than ready to take our money.

6:16 a.m. nice little chat with the gent, wherein several great quotes were taken: "That'll be 16 dollars ... plus 'nother 1.40 for the damn gov'nor" , "Lookin for breakfast? There's a little diner down th' road three lights, on th' left hand side, across from the Ramada. They've got great service, really friendly people waiting tables, nice atmosphere ... hell ... you might even enjoy their food"

6:38 a.m. gas and breakfast snacks.

7:02 a.m. Arches N.P. - visitor's center to fill the water cube.

7:12 a.m. stopped to see the sunrise.

7:37 a.m. sun actually rose. frozen fingers. lesson for the future: the sun rises later if you're in the canyons ... stay in the car until the last minute.

8:02 a.m. Balanced Rock. discussion about the concept that really all of these rocks are balancing ... who decided this one was balancing better than the rest?

8:34 a.m. began a hiking loop to see several of the more famous arches in Arches N.P. easy end, it could be a 2 mi/1.5 hour hike, hard end, a 6 mi/3.5 hour hike.

11:14 a.m. after losing all signs of a trail (including any trail markers, consistent footprint path, or groups of similar hikers) I left the group to go on a scouting mission. nearly 45 minutes later, and over a mile of looping over, in, and out of fingers, narrows, and slopes, I found an arch that looked like it should be on the map. It wasn't. But I hiked everyone up to it, and subsequently found the trail while they rested.

4:04 p.m. end. over six hours of hiking, climbing, actual running, and nearly dying in the heat. 10 miles of sand, rock, cliff, arches, and ftrail (fake trail ... like fleather).

4:05 p.m. noticed that the hike is named the Devil's Trial. good call. next time, a few trail markings within a 15 minute radius of any given point on the map would be nice ... if you wanted to stay on the trail that is. Or is that not the point of a trail?

4:10 p.m. decision to screw Canyonlands. let's sit in the car with AC for a while.

6:48 p.m. Bridges N.M. looks cool. oh. what's that? the campground is full? right. of course it is. Overflow camping is 25 miles down an old dirt road into the wilderness, and all human waste must be disposed of in a 6inch or deeper hole, no fires, and it's mostly covered in large loose gravel? sounds peachy.

7:24 p.m. camp. yep. gravel pit.

7:53 p.m. total darkness. fun with at flashlight.

8:23 p.m. where did I put the shovel?