17th April: Lake Powell

From Wd

Gavin's diary—6.25pm Tuesday 17th April 2007, still at the Campsite somewhere in Utah between Bryce Canyon and Lake Powell

Everyone reaches a point where they are maxed out, hiking-wise. We may not have reached it yet, but seven of us decided to chill out in the sun on the shore of Lake Powell anyway.

There was no-one else on the beach. But there was a red ant and a pair of ducks. Lake Powell was out-of-season, so everywhere was closed except for the hotel restaurant, which charged the five of us $85 for a burger-and-two-beer lunch. Not bad at all.

On our return, we did the so-called Toadstool Trail, but frankly it seemed more like the Willy Trail when we saw the natural stone formations at the end of the walk.

Jinny's Blog

The camp where stayed was literally in the middle on nowhere. There was a highway nearby with a passing car every few minutes if we were lucky. I kept thinking of the film Fargo. The nearest town, Page, is 35 miles away. That night we went into the clubhouse at camp playing pool, reading, they even had a strobe light in there!

The next day, I woke up at a lazy 8.30am for a 10am departure. Chris, Peta and I decided to do the slot canyon, and everybody else headed for the beach area of Lake Powell hotel. The slot canyon tour meeting point was in a plaza called Dam Plaza (how imaginative, they even had a Dam Bar and Grill). Slot canyon was the second-best sight so far after Bryce. Horizontally curved canyon walls and amazing colors due to the well defined sun beams coming down on the canyon floor and in many cases bouncing off the walls. The sand flowed smoothly and beautifully off the rocks. My camera battery dies just as I warming up to the pictures. Darn it! I took some pictures with my phone camera, which pretty much sucks. By the way, it is best to see the slot canyons between 11 and 1 when the sun is at its strongest and you get the most well defined beams. Jen was very sorry she didn’t go after she saw the lovely pictures.

We went back to Lake Powell, by then the party had moved to poolside since the beach was shaded and too cold. Got to see some skin that day. I swam a bit, read a bit and made general chit chat with the group. I landed up talking to my boss on the phone about an upcoming project opportunity in Australia and told the group about it. Gavin rebuked me for taking a business phone call. Jenny was absolutely determined I should go since she had just visited and loved it there. I was to be encouraged the rest of the trip to move to Australia pronto! Even Gary who said very little kept asking me if I had decided to go.

That night, after the steak dinner prepared by the campsite owners, everybody, except me, started (or rather resumed) drinking and James confided in us that he had been controlling his use of slang with this group. At this we all wanted him to use his slang and in fact could he please teach us a few? Here’s what I can remember:

• If it’s too much effort you say it's long. Do you want to set up tent by yourself, "Naw, it's long."
• Bear means a lot of—as in "I had bear beer."
• Allow it means not interested. "Do you want to hike Angel’s Landing again?" "Allow it." (This was most interesting since it means the exact opposite of what you’d expect.)
• Bullsack is for when you are annoyed.