I'd hoped to go on a long drive through the mountains last weekend but there was nobody who could go with me, and I was too chicken shit to go alone. It would have been well over 100 miles on dirt roads, mostly 4x4 or high-clearance roads with a couple of short jaunts on gravel. If all goes according to plan, I'll be making the drive this Saturday instead.

Since I didn't do much last Saturday, I decided to take the long way to pick Traci up from her family reunion on Sunday. It would normally have taken me half an hour to get to where they were camped in Huntington Canyon, but I took a four hour detour around Desert Lake, through Buckhorn Wash, and to another area southeast of Castle Dale to do some geocaching. Getting to a couple of the geocaches required a short hike, and it was the first time I'd walked with Torrey off-leash for any great distance. She did well, sticking fairly close to me without wandering off out of my sight, but it was just too damned hot to be out in the desert.

It will be nice to get outdoors this weekend and be out of the heat of the valleys, but the drive will only top out at just over 10,000 feet. According to the National Weather Service forecast it will be 18° cooler at that elevation, so it will surely be worth the effort getting there.