Well, on the long Memorial Day weekend of 26 May 07, I had a tough time deciding what to do. Tracy
was going to be out of town and couldn't find anyone else to go backpacking with me. The snow was
still too deep in the mountains. The weather was already too hot in the southern canyons. And I didn't
feel like spring hiking in the grizzly country of Yellowstone by myself. So I didn't know where to go. I
finally settled in South Cedar Ridge Canyon (Google Map) about halfway between Salina and Richfield
in the Fishlake National Forest. I figured this was halfway between the heat of the south and the snow
of the north, so it would be a good compromise. I got to the trail on Saturday morning, and there was
no one else there...this was a good start. But then I immediately had to cross the snow melt swollen
river. But it wasn't too bad...yet. The trail was flat, and that was nice. But the canyon was pretty
uninteresting, consisting primarily of pinon and juniper trees. I learned that those trees irritate me the
most. Typically in the desert when you don't have any shade, it means that you can at least see
forever. Or in the woods, when you can't see far, at least you have shade. Pinon and juniper trees,
however, are like the worst of both worlds: too short for shade, but too tall for views. So I was hot. But
the heat was broken up by LOTS of river crossings. I hiked in 3 miles and crossed the river 14 times.
And remember it was typically about 2 feet deep, which meant I was getting wet. Well, eventually the
sky started to cloud up and I was worried that if it rained the river would swell a lot more, and I would
never be able to make it out. After 3 miles I was only about halfway up, and I had already made 14
crossings. I didn't feel good about. Not only that, in that 3 miles I hadn't found one decent campsite,
so I didn't know how far I would have to go for a campsite, either. So I chickened out and turned
around. I wasn't really enjoying the views or heat of the hike, anyway. I made it back to the truck, and
there still wasn't anybody out there. I did find two geocaches out there, and that was cool. I even
found one of them with no GPS signal...that was a first for me. After getting back to the truck, I
decided t find a trail in the mountains and just deal with the snow. So I drove up through the mountains
west of Price. There were some nice mountains back in there, but the requisite Memorial Day family
camp out rednecks had already overrun everything. I eventually headed back home is disgust. But I
woke up Sunday morning and said, screw it, I'm heading to the Uintas, screw the snow and the people.
I got two miles down the road and my check engine light came on. Well, my plan called for driving four
hours, an hour of which would be on a dirt road. I didn't feel good about doing that by myself when my
truck might die on me. So I turned around to wait for something to open so I could figure out what was
wrong with my truck. But this was a Sunday in Mormon country, and Memorial Day weekend on top of
that, so by 1 pm I realized nothing was going to open. So I headed up to the Great Western Trail on the
edge of town to dayhike it some. I was actually pleasantly surprised. The trail was nicer than I
expected, and there weren't many people around. I found another geocache, and just enjoyed the
sunset. I went back home, spent that night in the emergency room (don't worry, I didn't die), and then
spent Memorial Day trying to recover from my crappy weekend. So, what did I learn? Stick to
Yellowstone on Memorial Day. The northern end is usually snow free, and there aren't crowds in the
backcountry.