Day 7: Wednesday, August 4, 2021

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We made our way into Arches National Park suuuuuuuuuuper early. Everything I’d been reading about the western national parks said the same thing: get in as early as possible the parks are Jamaican, as in, they be jammin’. Turns out, though, because we arrived in the middle of the week, the park was surprisingly uncrowded–particularly at 6:30 – 7:00 in the morning.

Our selected hike was to Delicate Arch, about a three-mile out and back hike through challenging terrain, steep climbs, and vertigo-inducing heights. There just aren’t words sufficient enough to describe the breath-taking beauty, so I’ll stop here for now and just share pictures.

Breakfast in RV in Arches while boondocking, hiking to Delicate Arch, Rick, hiking in Devil’s Garden to Pine Arch and Tunnel Arch, getting back to discover we’ve messed up our dates and have to drive to Bryce Canyon four hours away. Supper in great little pizza joint called Tomatoes in Maryville, UT (pop 429).

On the hike up to Delicate Arch where Adam was uncomfortably close to a 350-foot drop to his immediate left.
Good morning, Delicate Arch.
The impossibly huge Delicate Arch, or as I like to call it, The Half Man Posterior.
Ravens atop the arch making fun of us, the flightless humans, below.
The view of the final third of our return hike from Delicate Arch, just before meeting Rick.

When I spotted an older man coming up this steeply angled section of the trail, I knew he was in serious trouble. And the return hike became an object lesson for Evan and Ryan about how not to hike. We didn’t get his last name, but Rick was already in bad shape. He was alone–strike one. He was wearing dark cotton–strike two. He wore Velcro-laced sneakers–strike three. He’d twisted his ankle already–strike four. He had a bad knee; he suffered from COPD; he had diabetes; he was severely out-of-shape–strikes five, six, seven, and eight.

He had brought 8 ounces of water for himself–strike nine. Eight ounces–like, not even a full water bottle: a mini bottle of water stashed in his cargo shorts pocket. By contrast, we had at least 15 liters of water on us, which is almost four gallons total.

There was no way Rick was going to make it back to the trailhead alone, and faced with that situation, there was no way we could leave him. We started down together, Rick holding onto Adam on one side and me on the other, half-steps at a time because it was so steep and so potentially slick. What should have taken our family about 45-minutes to finish ended up taking two, painstaking hours with many stops and water refills along the way. “I guess I was thirstier than I thought,” Rick said, as he took his tenth pull from our reserves. Back at the trailhead, Adam approached a ranger and gave her Rick’s situation. She called for medical assistance. Rick thanked us profusely. We shook hands and parted ways, fingers crossed that Rick would be all right. Our water reserves were almost totally depleted.

Upon reflection, I think a smarter move would have been to radio for a medical rescue, by helicopter most likely. To my more experienced hiking friends, we welcome your insights on this!

And we share this not to belittle Rick, not to virtue signal, and not to denigrate the unbelievable tenacity Rick showed just by getting as far as he did under the conditions that he did. Rather, it’s to point to a simple truth: we are nothing against nature.

—

We continued on to The Devil’s Garden and its hidden gems of arches and vistas. It was early afternoon, dry, dusty, and scorching. This hike was significantly shorter.

Pine Arch in The Devil’s Garden
You’re a handsome devil; what’s your name?

happy travelers
  • goofs
  • ryan’s dry gulch
  • let’s talk about the elephant in the garden
  • back of pine arch
Evan and Ryan pose in front of Balance Rock. Quite frankly, I’ve been disappointed by the vast lack of imagination in how humans have named these fantastical, gravity and physics defying geologic marvels. I mean, “Balance Rock?” Come on, more like Turd on Pyramid.

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