MOAB, UT: June 5 (Day 14)

We awoke with the sun rising over Independence Pass. It got pretty cold over night; I definitely pushed my 35F sleeping bag to the limit. We packed up camp and headed west.

The first stop was in Aspen, where I had to get my oil changed. It occured to me about 5 min after I gave the keys to the mechanic that I would probably pay a pretty penny for an oil change in Aspen. It turned out to be $56 for a 10 minute oil change. I hustled the guy down to $50, but that still comes out to a $300/hr fee.

We continued on, with the check engine light mysteriously illuminated, to Moab. A few hours later we were in Utah, then traveling down the banks of the Colorado River. This place is a precursor to the Grand Canyon, as the Colorado River has been eroding the same rock here as in the Grand Canyon.






Soon after that we arrived in Moab. The town was much more touristy than I had expected. There was a nice strip of Motel 6's, McDonalds', and Exxon's so all the RV going travelers didn't have to feel to far from civilization.

That totally wasn't our scene, so we traveled down Kane Creek Canyon to try to find some sport climbing routes Nate had discovered online.

We searched for the "Ice Cream Parlor", filled with 5.8 -5.10 sport climbs, for literally 4 hours, and came up totally empty handed. As the sun was setting on the canyon, we decided it was time to find a camp site.





This is where things got shitty. We picked the last available site in Moonflower Canyon, a scenic little area across the dirt road from the CO River. That brought hoards of blood-thirsty mosquitos buzzing for a taste of our delicious blood. Even experienced outdoorsman Nate gave in and put on my bug-spray for the first time. To make things worse, the ground was covered with fine Red Rock sand, which made for a not-so-tasty compliment to our dinner when the Gale-force winds came at sunset. We set up our bohemith tent, and somehow managed to keep it from paragliding us up the canyon wall. We got into bed and tryed to fall asleep and get the hell out of Moab.

That morning we woke up to sunny skies and calm air. Despite the shitty conditions, we acknowledged that Moab is pretty beautiful and took some pictures. Unfortunately it didn't serve well for novice climbers like us so we were happy do bail town as soon as we could.