The weather was so lousy last weekend that the boys and I just stayed home the entire time, while Traci spent the weekend scrapbooking at her aunt’s cabin in Joe’s Valley. As the rain kept coming down on Saturday, I felt glad that I’d decided not to go hiking or 4-wheeling. Since there was bad weather forecast for Sunday as well, I didn’t even consider doing anything that day. Sunday turned out to be a nice day, although it was cooler than usual and breezy. Still, I was kicking myself for not going out on Sunday. It didn’t help seeing that Summit42 had gone down to the Temple Wash area and had a good time. That helped me decide what I wanted to do this weekend.
This weekend’s forecast calls for rain and snow beginning Friday night and continuing through at least Saturday, but screw it. I’m planning on hiking in the San Rafael Reef all day Saturday and finding four geocaches (1–2–3–4) that I’ve wanted to find for a couple of years. I’m not sure I’ll get to all four caches–two of them require 5-mile hikes–but I’ll try to find them all before I run out of daylight.
I’m a bit nervous about the rain because I’ll be in and around some canyons that have large drainages, namely Ernie Canyon, Eardley Canyon/Straight Wash, and Uneva Mine Canyon. None of these canyons slot up enough to trap me in a flash flood (at least not in the areas I’ll be hiking in), but it’s possible that I may have to cross running water either on foot or in my truck if it rains enough. Luckily the roads are sandy rather than clay, so I should be able to get in and out of the area without getting the truck stuck. I’ll just keep an eye on the canyon bottoms and the sky, and I’m fully prepared to cancel my plans if it gets wet enough.