Dave and I had a great first two days on the Hayduke Trail! We hiked through Arches National Park with cool breezes and sunny skies after a first night lit by a full moon.

We are writing from Moab, where we had Mexican food for dinner, long hot showers, and our last rest in a real bed for a while. We leave this morning heading toward Canyonlands with warmer tempuratures on the way.

Dave’s Dad took some great starting pictures (see  below) so you can get an idea of what our first chilly day looked like. I also took a few snapshots with my Blackberry and and sent them up to Flickr, which at the moment is easier to connect to via the phone than this website. Here’s the address to see my snapshots – check it now and then because I’ll send up photos whenever I have cell service: www.flickr.com/photos/outsideforever.

Photos by Rich Snowberg

(Photo by Rich Snowberg)

Yesterday Dave’s parents (Mother and Father Snowberg!) drove us from Golden to Moab over snowy passes after a spring storm. The drive was beautiful, with bright blue skies emphasizing crisp white peaks on the passes and red rocky bluffs down near Arches. We camped last night in the Devil’s Campground in Arches National Park, dressed in all our layers in our sleeping bags. The low temp was in the low 20s, but we’ll be hiking in 50 degrees today.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

After two bike tours and a sea kayak tour, we’ve decided it’s time to lace up our boots and go for a walk. Our next adventure will be to hike the Hayduke Trail in Southern Utah, in the beautiful canyons and deserts that make the Southwest U.S. a magical place! We’ll start in early or mid-March. The plan is coming together now, and soon we’ll post our estimated schedule.

This is a fairly new and still mostly unknown through-hike mapped out by Joe Mitchell and Mike Coronella, who published a guide in 2005 called The Hayduke Trail. The base mileage for the route is 812 miles, though additional off-route hiking for re-supplies brings it up to around 930 miles.

In the next few weeks I’ll be adding information about the hike and our particular plans. For now, take a look at the route and the beautiful places we’ll get to see:

www.hayduketrail.org