While cleaning up some files I found this 4/5ths written trip report realizing I had not posted this yet. Better late than never.
A while ago I took the “Buffalo in my hammock” boy (see thread by similar name) (12 years old on this trip) hammocking as a reward for meeting a major life milestone. He had chosen Goblin Valley and surrounding slot canyons as his reward. We intended to hang on stands as there are few easy hanging spots available.
We realized early on that setting up stands in winds gusting from 0 to 25 knots is ridiculous. Even with all our pre-preparation the wind would catch our hammocks or tarps and rip the stakes out from under boulders and leave us in my imagination looking like Don Quixote fighting the wind mill. We gave up on our first site choice after a couple of failed attempts and went to the map in search of something more natural.
We located a spring on the map that turned out to be a great choice but required a little hiking. We found a large 4 foot in diameter sprawling and twisted cottonwood that was prefect to hang in above the flashflood zone.* This tree had obviously taken the worst the desert could throw at it for centuries and weathered it well. Normally I don’t like to hang from or in big trees as they like to drop things like branches at the most inopportune times. Nor am I about to teach my son some of my bad habits, he can learn those on his own. But this tree was perfect. There were two large branches 8-12 inches in diameter, spaced perfectly, running horizontally to the ground, at the right height, nearly parallel to each other, with no other branches above us. If one of these branches decided it was done the worst that would happen is the two of us would hit the ground from a couple of feet up. So we hung side by side between them, pitching our diamond tarps sharing a stake in the middle by tying the two corners together and tied to bushes on the outsides. It also allowed use of a stick in the middle to put the two tarps in porch mode creating a nice little spot for the two of us. This became our hammock base for the remainder of our trip.
Early the next morning we went into the park and spent the entire day exploring the Hoodoos. I had him working on navigation using terrain association and natural means to determine location and routes, only verifying his judgment with a compass on a rare occasion. It was an amazing day of learning beauty and fun.
We encountered a huge bull snake at least 6 feet long who could have cared less that we were there and a very aggressive young rattle snake. The thing was too young to have a working rattle, less than a foot long and about as big around as a pencil.* Once again the buffalo kid saw the hazard before I did. It struck at but missed my boot as I unknowingly went past. The snake showing no intention of yielding ground and obviously bearing some sort of grudge was stuck in the middle of us. This left us having to figure a way past without getting bit. Before we successfully navigated around him he had wildly struck at me several times, mostly from way too far away to get me. I was distracting it by keeping its attention with my camera, keeping a stick between it and me never getting closer than 8 or 10 feet, as my son moved past giving it as wide a berth as possible in the terrain.* The pic is not real clear as I had to zoom in as much as I could and try to get the focus to work with all of the motion involved and the main goal was to get both of us away without getting bit which worked. No harm to the three of us as my son and I went on our way leaving the snake to hunt something more digestible.
The next day we had planned on hiking the slot canyons after a good night’s rest in our ancient cottonwood tree. However the weather report did not seem conducive to entering a slot canyon as a large system was heading our way. So we hiked the higher ground around our hammock site watching the weather as we went along. My son, being the little geologist that he is, left with eight pounds of water and came back with 40 pounds of rocks, which came in handy as midday rolled around.
The squall line hit us around 1 p.m. and came with gusto. We headed to the hammocks as the wind began to pick up. The storm gaining momentum blew so hard the center tarp stake under a 30 pound rock was ripped out of the sand, the two tarps ballooning up like a giant kite. As a solution to the problem I anchored the corners down with my mass while he tied his bag of rocks to the two tarps.* He then added the original rock with a few others to the bag making a floating anchor point. We jumped back into our blown open and awaiting kite like hammocks, pulling them around us as the wind whipped up blasting us with sand. Our floating anchor worked like a charm. The tarps protecting us mostly form the sand storm would lift the big bag of rocks 18 inches off the ground but it always came back down keeping everything together nicely. I thought to myself that the tarps had seen their last trip but they held just fine with our rigging.
When big gusts would come, us in our hammocks cocoons would swing with the wind sometimes at what seemed like more than a 60 degree angle. The branches of the old cottonwood would unpredictably bounce and buck the hammocks like a pissed off bull as the tree battled the sand storm.* Early on as the blasting sand and bucking hammocks began I saw the look on my kids face....elation... as he rode it all out next to me. Once we realized the tarps were likely to hold it began to be a ton of fun as our cottonwood friend tossed us around hootin’ and holerin’ as everything received a good blasting by the wind and sand.
Mother Nature was not done with us yet though. Just as I thought the storm had reached its climax it proved me just a little premature, a loud thunderclap and then rain…..well mud….. because it picked up the dry sand in the air as it fell. About the time enough rain had fallen to keep the sand from blowing, the whole thing blew out leaving everything that got wet covered in mud.* Just what I always wanted… mud covered everything! Well mostly… the hammocks were dry as well as my pack albeit full of sand.
We spent the remaining couple of hours till dusk cleaning, cooking and eating…..SAND. It had penetrated just about everything.
Sleeping well that night we awoke early and hiked a slot canyon.
After hiking all day we retired to the hammocks for a restful night and headed home the next day. I asked him on the way home how he enjoyed the trip.
His response was can we turn around right now and do it again?*
Oh how Tempting! I thought to myself.
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