Our sweet boondocking spot on Beas Lewis Flat, ten minutes outside of Capitol Reef National Park.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing to construct a new campground on the famous Beas Lewis Flat dispersed camping site. Honestly, I hate to see this boondock spot come to an end, but it’s probably for the best. We were astonished to see how crowded it was compared to two years ago. It’s kind of out of control. The BLM document states: The need for this action has been identified due to high camping activity and sanitation concerns due to disposal of waste and gray water in the project area. Additionally, the desert environment has endured degradation due to user created camping and foot trails. People! People! People! What a continual source of disappointment.

When we pulled in, our original spot was taken, so we kept on driving until we felt it was an appropriate distance from the nearest unit. There’s an unwritten rule when boondocking about how close you should be to your neighbor. It’s not cool to horn in on a spot. Once we got set up in the wicked cold wind, a guy in a white truck and utility trailer drove by scouting spots. He left, but a few minutes later came back on his e-bike. He politely asked if it would be alright if he set up between us and the fifth wheel. We told him yes, and we all introduced ourselves. His name was Chad from West Virginia.

As dusk set in, a couple of girls and two dogs squeezed in between us and Chad.  And to our east, at least at an appropriate distance, a guy and his TikTok’n woman set up.

We ended up spending two really cold nights and one full day at Beas Lewis. The generator we’d been hauling around came to good use!

Capitol Reef is our favorite National Park in Utah, mostly because it’s the least crowded. It also has an incredible hike in Sulphur Creek. We skipped it this time because of the weather. Instead we opted for the Navajo Knobs hike. A ten mile, five hour hike. If you enjoy hiking, put this one on your list. It was magnificent!

The girls and their dogs who horned in on us.

Beautiful fall color at the Start of Navajo Knobs.

The ascent starts immediately. It ended up being nearly 2,4000 feet of climbing.

Awesome rock everywhere

It’s hard to see, but above the shadow in the middle of the picture is Hickman Bridge.

A video of the Rim Overlook narrated by yours truly. When I start loudly saying god no, god no it’s when the other couple asked us if we were full-timers!

The circled point is the Navajo Knob where we eventually summited.

Straight up

At the top, in the distance you can see the San Rafael Reef.

Relaxing at the peak. We were surprised how warm it got and we lucked out with no wind.

A silent video from the top.

A wardrobe change for the hike back.

And down we go!

If you have a fear of heights you might not want to do this hike, a lot of the trail was on the edge.

Fremont River

Wild Horse Window in the San Rafael Reef

We left Moab on Sunday and drove the short distance to Green River for an overnight stay at the KOA. We did laundry (I guess I should say Amelia did laundry while I rode my bike on Athena Trail), dumped the tanks, filled up on fresh water, took long showers, and had dinner at Ray’s Tavern.

Amelia had been carrying a postcard around she wanted to mail to her mom. It was Columbus Day, and we knew the post office was closed, but on our way out of town we stopped anyways. We were hoping the lobby would be open with a machine selling stamps. We parked across the street in front of the Green River Park. I stayed there and read about the Athena and Pershing missiles they used to launch at the test site outside of town. The target was White Sands Missile Range. This was between 1964-75. It’s quite fascinating.

Anywho, Amelia had a moment that rekindles your faith in mankind. Of course the lobby didn’t sell stamps, but on her way out two ladies were parked outside, clearly traveling. One was at the steering wheel writing.

So Amelia asked, “Would you by chance have a stamp I could buy?”

They laughed, “The post office doesn’t sell stamps?”

Once they realized it was closed, and Amelia said she just wanted to mail a postcard to her mom. The lady held up her writing and told her, “I send postcards to my grandma.” So they gave her a stamp and wouldn’t take money. Maybe there is hope.

This was the hiking portion of our trip. We hiked up to Wild Horse Window, which we did two years ago. Plus two new hikes: Wild Horse Canyon and Bell Canyon…all located in Goblin Valley.

Green River KOA. The weather wasn’t as ominous as it looked.

Goblin Valley State Park dispersed camping area is becoming more popular, but still a great spot to boondock.

A little over a mile from our campsite up steep rock. This is a new sign. The window wasn’t really a secret, more like relatively unknown. Now the cat’s out of the bag!

The first section within the park boundary now has cairns wrapped in chicken wire.

After that there are various cairns all over as you hike up the slab.

Still a few water pockets from all the rain.

Eventually you arrive at this. The window is in the right arch. The picture makes it look small, it isn’t!

The window

Sometime around 2004 some shitbird drew these fake pictographs.

People being people, have carved the floor with names and dates.

Perspective shot, Amelia standing right outside the arch. We shared the window with another couple for a few minutes then had it all to ourselves. It’s a great place to sit and reflect.

Heading back down

Me and my obsession with reflections.

The next day we drove twenty minutes to the Bell Canyon and Little Wild Horse Trailhead. The two can be combined for an eight mile loop. When we were out here two years ago for the Ring of Fire sun eclipse event the area was packed. It was the busiest day ever for Goblin Valley State Park. I don’t think we were thinking clearly that day, because we thought we would try the Little Wild Horse slot canyon. Big mistake! It was packed with people going both directions, creating multiple log jams. I was still recovering from my Spooky Slot experience and just couldn’t do it. We ended up only doing a small bit of Little Wild Horse.

Two years later, Amelia, in all her wisdom, thought we should do Bell Canyon first because it isn’t a slot, then decide if we wanted to loop it. At the end of Bell I decided I wasn’t up for it. That turned out it was a great decision. At the trailhead when we were leaving people were talking about how there was still ankle deep water in Little Wild Horse that they had to wade through.

The sole remaining Prince’s Plume flower

After going through a wide open wash the landscape began to change.

There were a couple of short slots to walk through…

…they were never long, tight, or scary.

It was a pleasant, uncrowded, five mile hike in Bell Canyon.

This was the surprise hike! Brand new sign, so soon the masses will be on it.

Beautiful little dune at our entry point

Weather changes quickly around these parts. Thankfully we didn’t get rained on.

Tall walls

About as slotty as it got.

Juniper berries and pine nuts at the bottom of a plunge pool.

We turned around a little less than three miles in. It sure seemed like we could have continued forever. We finally saw another couple up high on the rocks. The dude was so geeked! So we went up there too…

Barrier canyon style pictographs! This is the Ochre Alcove, and from what I could ascertain on the internets at least 3,000 years old.😳

Some of the panel was fading.

Some eroding

We were so lucky to see that dude! What an amazing experience.

Panoramic view looking out from the Ochre Alcove.

Up next, the short drive to Capitol Reef!

Water pockets reflecting the clouds on our favorite mountain bike trail, Navajo Rocks.

Here’s a little factoid: There are five counties in Utah where Mormons are in the minority: San Juan, Carbon, surprisingly Salt Lake, Summit, home to Park City, and Grand, home to Moab which makes perfect sense to me.

Our friends Chrissy, Mike, and Marlene joined us. We spent three nights at Utah’s newest state park, Utahraptor and five nights up on the mesa at our favorite BLM primitive pit toilet campground, Horsethief.

Just like last year, we had some crazy wind and rain. I guess we should start expecting it. We finally rode Capt. Ahab. Never again! It was hellish. Overall, there were no mechanicals, no injuries, and just a little blood, so all in all it was a successful six days of riding with one hike thrown in.

I hope you can view the pictures on something other than a phone. I don’t mind saying so myself, some of them are amazing.

Utahraptor, site 303. They did a great job developing this campground…pull throughs, water and power, and tons of room between sites. In the evening when the lighting was just right you could see Turret Arch and the North and South Windows at Arches National Park.

A dark period in American history. There were three Citizen Isolation Areas. Moab was the first. This is where they put the so called “troublemakers” from the internment camps.

Chrissy, Amelia, and Marlene all giddy for the first ride.

Chrissy following Amelia on one of the Klondike Trails.

Marlene all smiles

Perfect form by Amelia

Mike and Marlene reflection

A Great Basin Gopher Snake slithered through our campsite for a sip of water.

Apparently they don’t want you crapping in the desert anymore.

Morning at Utahraptor

Harvest moon at Utahraptor

Site #46 at Horsethief Campground, same site as last year!

Chrissy on Rodeo, one of the trails right from the campground.

Mike climbing the incredible rock.

San Diego riding partners

Mike and Chrissy

A little too much for this old guy. Marlene and Amelia are better technical riders than me, but the double black diamond rating had them doing a lot of hike a bike. Mike nearly rode all of it! Chrissy was smart and didn’t ride it! The views were amazing, I’ll give it that.

Capt. Ahab

You can only ride so many days in a row. After one of the big rain nights we hiked the West Rim at Dead Horse Point State Park. It was awe inspiring.

Walking along the edge

The clouds were drifting up from the bottom and changing by the minute.

It truly was one of those hikes we won’t ever forget.

Heart shaped water pocket

I really dig the reflections.

Rising clouds

It was an amazing five mile hike.

Spectacular

We timed it well, this is the end of the hike.

Our first Navajo Rocks ride it started raining hard so we aborted. On Saturday we went back and rode the half we missed.

Beautiful ridable rock

I’m running out adjectives to describe the beauty and enendorphins from being this close to the rock wall.

Mike and Chrissy dwarfed by the rock.

Adios Moab, see you in April when we do the White Rim Trail!

A downhiller’s delight

Our first stop in Utah was Richfield to ride Spinal Tap. There’s been a lot of chatter in mountain bike circles about Spinal Tap. It’s on our way to Moab, so why not stop and give it a go. When we arrived at Venture RV Park we were greeted with 40 mph winds, not fun. Sometimes the iPhone weather is correct: it said the wind would die down in the evening and it did.

While taking my evening stroll through the campground an old codger started chewing my ear off. He was telling me a storm was brewing and he expected it to hit at 4am. I told him where we were going to ride in the morning, he said, “Good luck partner, it’s 9,600 feet at the start.” Then I had to hear the tale of him trying to cross the Pahvant Range in his side by side last May, only to get snowed out. The old codger liked talking.

I was finally able to escape, got back to Opal and told Amelia the old timer’s weather report. The iPhone had no indication of rain. So we went to our go to site, noaa.gov, duh, it was shutdown…

Sure as shit it started raining at 4am! And up in the Pahvant Range where Spinal Tap is located the lightning was going off.

At 8am, when nine guys, Amelia, and myself got into the shuttle van it was cold and cloudy. Amelia was stoked because the driver was a chick, so she wouldn’t be the only one on the van. Her name was Karlie, and also happened to be co-owner of Richmond Bike Shuttle.  Amelia called shotgun and the two chicks talked non stop for the hour long ride. I was two rows back, between two groups that were also talking non stop. I didn’t utter a word the entire trip. We were both happy!

Spinal Tap is an expert level one-way trail with 4,000 feet of elevation loss. If you plan on riding it we suggest using Richfield Bike Shuttle.

We had a beer handoff at the San Diego/Riverside county line on our way out of town. My buddy Acomb’s kid works at Mother Road Brewing in Flagstaff. Whenever he visits he brings beer and Acomb always shares the booty.

Site 12 at the windy Venture RV Park. It’s new and plenty of space between sites, unlike most RV Parks.

Loading up at the bottom. Karlie was quick and efficient loading the bikes. She told us there was no precipitation in the forecast.

Brrr…at the top it started snowing! Karlie couldn’t believe it. She kept on saying, “It isn’t even November yet!”

Stoked to still have some fall color.

Hairpin turns amongst the aspens.

Endorphin fueled happiness with flurries. It was pretty cold and we had to stop multiple times to warm our hands.

Gorgeous fall colors

On the second leg, we finally got out of the flurries, hail and rain into a cycle of dark clouds, blue skies, and puffy white clouds.

Amelia shredding the corner.

Looking down on Richfield.

On to Moab!

Sharon and Mark’s neighborhood.

I swear we still have an Airstream. In a few weeks she’s going on an adventure to Utah. This was a quick three night jaunt south of the border to visit our expat friends Sharon and Mark. They’ve been living in Mexico for four years. We left our truck at Amelia’s mom’s house. She drove us to the border and Sharon drove us across.

We’ve known Sharon for years and just recently met Mark. Here’s a little story you can file under it’s a small world. Sharon and Mark were coming to our place for dinner. It had been awhile since we’d seen Sharon and it was an opportunity to meet Mark. Sharon said Mark was a big fan of my book and really wanted to talk about it. So of course that pleased me. It turns out he is from Idaho Falls! Just a year older than me. We didn’t know any of the same people, but still had a lot to talk about, it was an instant bond.

Playa Santa Monica is part of Rosarito Beach, an easy 30 minutes south of the border. The population is 120,000, of which 15,000 are expats. Buying a home in Mexico has always been somewhat of a mystery to me. How it’s done depends on various factors. Sharon and Mark’s neighborhood is a campo. The land has been owned by a Mexican family for generations. Currently four siblings have split the property in equal quadrants.  They own their home, but not the land. They pay one of the siblings $500 per month to lease the land. It’s a 10 year lease with incremental increases. They bought their sweet little two story home for just a little over 100k and it’s only 120 paces from the beach! The neighborhood has 80 homes, less than half are full timers. It’s is a mix of expats and Mexicans. Not all expats are retired. Their neighbor is a young gringo family with two kids. He’s a longshoreman and commutes to National City on his Harley. The oldest kid attends a Waldorf school a few miles away.

We ate and drank a lot, swam in the ocean, and were able to work in a siesta everyday! Sharon and Mark were the consummate hosts. Night times were peaceful. Laying in bed the sound of the waves put us right to sleep. No need whatsoever to use the evening crickets on my Calm app. A couple of things from all our conversations really struck me. Mark said he feels safer walking around Rosarito Beach than he did in Escondido, where he used to live. And I think this perfectly sums up Sharon: she brings all her recyclables north across the border instead of throwing them away.

A view of Coronado Islands and the breakers from their deck.

Downstairs, most of their living is upstairs.

Our first stop was Sonja’s for lunch. One of the specialties is a burrito with napolito pieces inside. That’s Sonja working the flat grill.

Highlight of every Baja trip is the 75 foot Jesus at Kilometer 38 between Rosarito and Ensenada. The second pic I stole from the internet.

Sharon knows the proprietor of the Black Cross Winery in Cantamar. It’s out in the sticks. We navigated dirt roads and farm land and had to have Amelia ask a farm worker where the winery was, of course it was just another quarter mile down the road. We had a delightful private afternoon tasting.

Sharon, Mark, and Amelia

A couple of their offerings

Evening stroll on the beach

The most shell-crusted sea anemones we’ve ever seen.

Heading north, the pristine shoreline of Baja is really starting to be developed with high-rise condos. We got a little carried away and stayed out until it was dark, next thing we knew we were locked out of the neighborhood! Around 8pm they lock all the gates to the beach. It was quite a predicament. Sharon eventually got hold of a neighbor by texting. The neighbor got security to come unlock the gate.

I was up early the first morning and went for a stroll. This is a fancy Little Free Library.

On the main drag there’s a cinderblock wall with inspirational murals. Amelia translated for the folks who aren’t bilingual.

The greatest inheritance we can leave our children is: love, knowledge and a planet on which they can live.

Teach your children to put trash in its place.

Education begins in the family.                                               Sterilize your pets.

Mark and Sharon believe in giving back to the community. They contribute to Friends of the Rosarito Library, Baja Scholarship Foundation, and Baja Spay and Neuter where they help the veterinarians, mostly observing the animals while in recovery. 

Flock of Brown Pelicans, affectionally known as Mexico’s Air Force.

We must’ve hit five or six taco stands. Tacos Daniela was my favorite.

Playa Santa Monica walkway

They have nice art work in their home. This piece called The Queen by Vincent Wray was my favorite. Vincent is a Brit living in Valle de Guadalupe. He uses metal, fabric, discarded farm stuff, and wine barrels in his art. The queen’s headdress utilizes old plastic cap nails and roofing paper.

Bob, the neighborhood cat.

A dramatic evening sky

I never thought I’d say this, but we all got tired of Mexican food, so we went to Manny’s Place for Italian. Calling Manny a character is an understatement.

I don’t remember what I said, but it sure got the girls laughing! Mark makes a perfect margarita. When he offered us one last one for the road before we heading into TJ, how could we say no?

TJ is a completely different vibe than Rosarito Beach. A big congested city. This tattooed, dreadlocked, ear gauge wearing dude spent over five hours on his chalk art with only a handful of pesos in his tip tray.

Our last meal was old school cool Caesar’s Hotel in Tijuana.  The dude in the big frame gets credit for inventing the Caesar salad in 1927. Back in the day Amelia’s grandparents ate here often after watching  jai alai games.

We knew Mexican Independence Day is September 16th, what we didn’t know was the celebration begins the night before. Roads were closed, traffic was complete hell, instead of minutes to get to the border crossing after dinner it took over an hour and a half. We’ve never seen or been in that kind of gridlock. It was stressful as all hell. Mark was extremely patient. We said our goodbyes at the Ped East crossing entrance. A quick walk and we were back in the United States. Amelia ordered up an Uber (we are fairly new to this stuff), it was dark and we had a hard time locating the driver. When we finally did, we loaded the luggage in the trunk and jumped in the back. The Uber car wouldn’t start. It was completely dead. We just laughed and ordered up another one.

It’s easy to take things for granted and even grumble a little. Traveling is enlightening and always reinforces how blessed we really are with our life in San Diego.

Sitting at home one evening, we stumbled upon “Bono: Stories of Surrender” on Apple TV. The film is an adaption of Bono’s one-man show and best selling memoir. It was captivating, personal and intense. Watching it brought back the memory of the first panic attack I remember having.

It’s funny and strange the little things our minds remember that people tell us. Oftentimes our friends can’t even recall saying it, but it impacts us. Sometimes it’s criticism, or a nice complement, or nothing important at all. Yet, our minds, even decades later just won’t let it go.

I remember a college friend, William F., in early 1981 adamantly claiming U2 was going to be the next big thing. I always thought of myself as being musically savvy. I had no idea who U2 was and I thought it was a stupid name. William F. is Irish so I assumed that was one of the reasons he was selling them so hard. Their fifth album, Joshua Tree, came out March 7, 1987. William F. was correct, U2 had become big.

That was the era of AIDS. It was a scary time to be in your twenties and single. Disinformation was rampant, which just elevated the fear factor. I remember being at a social gathering and some of the more ignorant being afraid to open a sliding glass door because my buddy, a known womanizer, had just touched it. The hysteria was so bad some people no longer hugged. Then there was the theory that if you had unprotected sex with someone it was the same as sleeping with everyone they had ever slept with. If you let that get into your head, the number became huge. 

I wasn’t the most promiscuous guy. I’d say my reputation was worse than the reality, but still…I’m a worrier by nature. I’ve been told I buy worry by the truckload. I had myself convinced I had contracted AIDS.

According to the Google machine, U2 played the San Diego Sports Arena on April 13 and 14, 1987. I don’t know which date Kim and I attended. This was the tail end of our five years or so relationship. The last couple of years were more off than on. We both cared deeply about each other, it just wasn’t to be.

I was so worked up about thinking I had AIDS that I experienced a full on panic attack and we had to leave the concert. To be honest, I don’t remember if we even made it through the first song. Kim was very understanding.

Soon after that, we all started getting tested for AIDS. It was agonizing waiting multiple days for the test results. 

Sometime after we finally ended our relationship, Kim said to me when she hears the Pretenders song Back on the Chain Gang it reminds her of me. I like to think it’s the verse:

I found a picture of you, o-o-oh, o-o-oh

Those were the happiest days of my life

Like a break in the battle was your part, o-o-oh, o-o-oh

In the wretched life of a lonely heart 

Long, long time ago…

Myself, Kim, and House heading to some wedding in 1987.