in which a couple of pertinant conversations are had and the true extent of our laziness is revealed.

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we left our couple sitting on a small hill, enjoying the view and pretending that they were actually looking at lamanite arch when the male of the party told the female that he thought she was pretty cool. “indeed?” she inquired, or something similarly eloquent. “yup,” he agreed, “five, why-don’t-we-see-what-is-around-this-next-bends later and you are still up for more. i think that is pretty cool. so cool, in fact, that i think i might ask you to marry me.”
“hmm…” said the female. “were to ask, i think i might actually say yes.”
“alright,” the male smiled.
“so,” the female inquired after a pause. “are you asking?”
“yes, i believe i am,” the male reflected. “in fact,” as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cloth bag, “i am pretty sure of it.”

he then gave her an engagement necklace, which he had made from a broken concretion they had found in the desert last year, a raw piece of azurite, and fine silver.

after agreeing that being ‘engaged’ felt pretty weird, they enjoyed their butterscotch disk snack and headed back to camp. along the way, the male – oh hell, sop – contemplated that he might not have locked the side window on his truck. the female – lmmh – agreed that she had not seen him lock said portal. they decided that they would bike back to the truck, as it was only 9 miles away, and lock the window after they got back to camp.

the first of the ride was a hill, an UPhill. the wind, which had been blowing all day to the extent that lmmh was worried that the tent might not still be there, picked up and made even the flat sections thereafter a struggle. “ugh! no!” emerged from lmmh’s lips more than once, it must be admitted.

about 6 miles later, sop said, “you know, i wouldn’t be adverse to driving the truck back”. ”
“cool,” replied lmmh.

they got the truck, which did have an unlocked window with sop’s toolbox inside, and headed back to the camping spot under the cottonwood, where they had spent the last night (as well as a night the previous year). The wind was still howling, but they made dinner and then retired to lmmh’s tent. The wind had picked up by then and was scooping sand in under the rainfly and through the fine mesh of the tent, creating a sand haze throughout while pressing the tent this way and that. finally, sop and lmmh looked at each other and declared their plan of moving to the back of the truck.

the bikes were parked outside, the tent stakes checked, and sop slept deeply while lmmh kept peeking outside to see if the tent was still there.

we started out with a hike – searching for lamanite arch. why? not sure. this was the trip of me taking pictures of every flower i could so that when we got back to slc we could look them up in our wildflowers of the desert book. so be prepared for quite a few flowers over the next few posts.

this, however, is not a flower:

what it is is not known to me. the catepillars seem to be creating multiple layers of webbing and so perhaps this is something like a multi-plex coccoon? anyone know?

this is, though. in fact, it is one of my favorites: sand verbena. one of the most sweetly and tantalizingly fragrant blooms in the desert, i feel.

though the grape holly is not far behind on the fragrance scale, not quite as sweet, but still amazing. the grape holly was blooming like CRAZY this year:

and an uncategorized bloom (i still have to get the book out and find its name):

and this is where we stopped looking for lamanite arch:

nine miles, or so, in with no arch in sight and wishing that we had brought the map with us, we decided to stop. besides, sop had something he wanted to ask me.

tbc…

the first descent:

first campsite, where we stayed for all of two hours and then got antsey and decided to move on.

on the road again:

gotta enjoy the view now and then:

yes, last week was time for the desert trip. this year, we set out to bike the burr trail from boulder town to the notom road in capitol reef and then back to torrey, where we hoped to hitch a ride back to boulder town.

ah, plans…

anyway, the photo essay begins:

it ain’t a road trip without licorice laces!

so, the moose i saw yesterday made it to the news – and the newspaper. according to the salt lake tribune, the moose was caught after “wondering [sic] into the area”
read the excellent writing here.