Day 20

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States: Utah
Miles driven: 53
Miles hiked: 3
Slept: In the abandoned camper of the owners of the B&B Sandro and Claudia stayed in.
10 words or less: Rain threatened Subway attempt. Flash flood trapped 14 hikers yesterday.

A Trial Run is Better Than No Run

Word of the flooding and those trapped in the canyon overnight along with the building clouds had us on edge as we took off at 6am for the Wildcat Canyon trailhead. By the time we reached the trailhead it was clear we were not going to complete the hike today. Sandro, our leader knew it was too risky and me and Claudia felt really nervous about going in after the stories of the flash flood the day before. It just didn’t feel right at all – we all agreed. Sometimes a hiking party can become disjointed based on decisions like this. I was so glad I didn’t have to feel like my concerns were unwarranted or that I was being a wimp. We decided to start the hike and watch the weather, but we’d only go to a point a short distance in where we’d be well above any risk of floods.

It was a nice 3 mile hike and had some fun terrain to traverse. It was also nice to get to know Sandro and Claudia a little better. Claudia got to work on her English and I got to learn a little Italian. Well, I only learned one word “lento” – slow. I told her if I talked to fast she should just tell me to slow down. We ended up using that word a lot over the next few days: hiking up the steep slickrock was lento, my driving was lento, our waiter at dinner was lento…you get the idea.

When we shuttled in my car back to pick up their car, we found out the folks trapped from the night before were STILL trying to get out. It was 10am. That would ruin a vacation.

That night I asked the owner of the B & B my new Italian friends were staying at if he had any recommendations for a quieter campground since I’d been kept up pretty late at the South campground in Zion the night before.

“It’s just you? Well, hell. I got a camper out back that’s clean. You can sleep in there.”

“Oh really? Oh my gosh! I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much!”

Totally scored with my feminine wiles. I might have to try that tactic again. After all, I was on a pretty severe budget.