Fast Eddie: World Tour
Southern Utah, at breakneck speed
At this juncture, I’m pretty numb to days of long driving. A six hour jaunt from SoCal to St. George, UT to pick up my friend Lucas passed in a blink. Capped by last summer’s trip to France, Spain, and Portugal, Lucas and I have traveled to so many places together over the last 5 years that we more or less expect an invitation whenever the other person is going anywhere notable.
Any Lucas x Nick journey is marked by an avoidance of over-planning. We enjoy stumbling into spontaneous activities: the goofier, the better. Within 30 minutes of departing the airport, we found ourselves swimming in a lake within Sand Hollow State Park, a place we did not know existed until we drove past (and then through) it.
So much for going right to Zion. We arrived later in the evening; too late to do any real hikes because of the way the park conducts the shuttle schedule. I have thoughts about not being able to move freely through a park in a personal vehicle and will document them as a part of my National Park Power Rankings at the conclusion of my trip.
Within Zion, Lucas and I had hiked Angels Landing a few years ago with several friends. Zion’s most popular and most precarious hike has a section where climbers ascend a spiny cliff and hold on to a chain link secured to the rock to avoid 300-foot drops on either side. When I showed my parents a video of that part upon my return, Dad said he didn’t sleep well for a week knowing I had been on that trail. We opted not to repeat.
Lucas and I pivoted to own schedule of events when many of the hikes we’d planned to walk were closed for the season. At one point, we opted to cross a river via a downed tree trunk. It was neither a graceful nor an athletic feat.
Two hours north, we encountered some new topography at Bryce Canyon National Park. The hoodoos erode at a rate of 1-4 feet per century by a process in which ice forms at night and thaws in the morning. This cycle repeats upwards of 200 times per year at Bryce Canyon.
At the dispersed camp site near Bryce, our spot had a fire pit. We had no choice but to find wood, hack it to size, and light it up.
A play in three acts:
I. The Gathering
II. The Cutting
Sunglasses for eye protection, of course!
III. The Burning
Y’all know what time it is. @Ford, sponsor me!
Lucas and I try to surf every time we’re near an ocean. We’ve tried our hand at the waves in South Carolina, Portugal, and California over the last 4 summers. Seeing as Utah is landlocked, we sought out the next closest thing: dune surfing.
I hadn’t fallen off the board all day (sample size: roughly 15 runs). The next logical step was to surf the biggest dune, which did not SEEM to be much steeper than the hills I had aced, only longer. I was wrong. By my estimate, I had clocked at least 30 MPH and made it about halfway down the hill before things got ugly. I am told that after going airborne I flipped head over heels twice and completed two cartwheels. My ear and neck are pretty sore and I am still finding sand where it doesn’t belong, but otherwise we had a good excursion.
Later that evening we stumbled across a cover band playing live music in Kanab, UT. Fast Eddie was composed of 4 gentlemen playing the heck out of some Crosby Stills & Nash, Led Zeppelin, and Neil Young. Another win for leaving plenty of unstructured space on the schedule! Lucas made a comment to the point of, “If you over-plan, you don’t get to see Fast Eddie!”: a mantra I will keep in mind when planning future travel.
On to solo travel! My first evening alone, I was treated to a 20 degree night. It might seem frigid, but I’d prefer a 20 degree night to a 50 degree night any day of the week while I’m car camping or else it gets too hot inside while I’m asleep.
Though it was not something I expected to become comfortable with, I’ve grown a lot less finicky about needing to find a campsite before sunset. I have yet to feel unsafe at night. It’s become a bit of a game for me; I get a kick out of finding a spot at night and waking up to a beautiful new view every morning. Here’s one of them!
Moab, UT is within 30 minutes of 5 different points of interest from my list. I’ve been hitting the trails in the morning and retreating to the public library in the afternoons to catch up with reading, writing, and emails.
It was time to explore the local cuisine; I took a break from the library to eat lunch. The chicken sandwich pictured below put me in a blender and caused unimaginable pain and discomfort. Historically, I have had no problems with spicy food (4 out of 5 is my typical order), but I should have been required to sign a waiver for this thing.
I knew I was in trouble when I started hiccupping. This sandwich had me fighting to breathe. My hair was plastered to my forehead and I sweat through my hat after a few bites. 15 minutes later, my lips were buzzing. After several hours and a panicked call with my parents, I gathered enough strength to crawl out of the library to down some antacids and chocolate milk for my chest pain. Never again.
Leery of a long hike the morning after the Sandwich Incident, I opted for a quick out-and-back trek to see the Corona Arch. All of my research alluded to it being a VERY busy trail. To beat the rush, I arrived at the trailhead before 7AM to begin the route, aided by my headlamp. I must have went on a strange day, because my car was the only vehicle in the lot and I was the only human within miles for 2 hours.
Canyonlands National Park has a number of distinct sections, of which I visited only one. The “Island in the Sky” area of the park is littered with tiers of canyons that recede deeper and deeper into the earth.
It brings me much joy to share that I have been accepted by the wild lizards. My scaly friend (pictured below) can attest. At this rate, I am one animal interaction away from becoming a full-fledged Disney princess.
One more week of solo travel before picking up my friend Tim in Denver!
On the aux this past week: Ms. Lauryn Hill, Frank Ocean, The Who, Erykah Badu, Carlos Santana, The Surfing Magazines, Stevie Wonder, and live tunes from Fast Eddie.
My favorite part was you and Lucas carrying the log out of the woods together
We have FIRE! Neither naked nor afraid, but I loved the video sequence! Good job!