Vacation Plans...

We made huge plans to go to the Grand Canyon and Escalante this past week and last minute our car decides to have a melt down. It's funny how that works. We have a finicky car, it's like having a sick child that you think is getting better, but last minute gets sick, again.

We had no back up plans and a week of freedom from all obligations. What would you do? Cancun, oh yeah, that's what we were thinking. Why not go out of the country for our one year anniversary? We started checking out hotels and if it wasn't ridiculously expensive it was booked. 

We finally found a beach front hotel in Playa del Carmen. All the stand by flights were in the green and we were ready to go. Even though we were ready to leave the Mexico cards were against us. Our ride to the airport became unbearably sick the night before our departure and then our stand by flights became overbooked to the point where our trip was looking more like a dream. So we canceled those plans, we're still waiting for our refund.

Next plan: We started checking out all the stand by flights to see where we could go. We looked at Washington, Chicago, California, Boston, and everything was overbooked. So much for any where but Utah. Don't get me wrong, I love Utah, but sometimes I want to see more than just mountains.

Plan A, B, and C fell through, now what? When all else fails go backpacking and backpacking we did. We went and bought some gear and headed up to the Uintas. Luckily, it was close enough so that our sick car wasn't unhappy.

We were 10,000 feet up and could hike anywhere. We ended up finding a random lake (it was more like a pond) off the beaten path. Set up camp and checked out the surroundings. There was still plenty of snow despite the fact that it was the middle of July.

Next day we decided to hike around the area. We ended up finding an abandoned boy scout camp. Naturally, we took advantage of this and found a nice lean to, which we slept in, thank you boy scout camp. A random guy told us that the camp normally would be open at this point in the season, but the extensive snow fall kept the roads closed until last week and the camp would be opening next week. We made it right in time to have the camp to ourselves.

We didn't have any crazy adventures this time around. We basically relaxed and read our books when we weren't exploring. I read a lot of Walden by Thoreau. I'm not sure I would want to live so secluded. The book is about his experience of living next to Walden pond. He built a house there and lived off the land. It was a surreal experience, sitting next to a random pond in the Uintas while I read a book about a man who decided to live next to a pond for years.

I was fascinated by lines in the book such as, "There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted." Or "Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind. Nay, it is greatly overrated; and it is our selfishness which overrates it."

So far I really like the book. I'm half way through. 

A deer!