Rob's 2013 Year-end report: The Wilderness Vagabond: featuring Bodacious Butte Fault of the Grand Canyon, Aravaipa, LaSal Mountains, PCT Pacific Crest Trail, Utah Flats and Phantom Creek of the Grand Canyon, The Maze of Canyonlands, Fish and Owl Canyons of Cedar Mesa, Kanab Creek of the Grand Canyon, North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Death Valley biking, Backpacking Cottonwood and Marble Canyons of Death Valley


Happy Solstice and New Year! Click the image for the full-size image)

Welcome to - Rob's 2013 Year-end report
The Wilderness Vagabond Summary
by Rob Jones
(Text and Photos © copyright by Rob)


Pano of The Harvest Scene Picto Panel in THE Maze (Image is very wide - scroll to view it (2966 x 900; 641kb) - Click the image for the full-size image)

      The above pano shows The Harvest Scene pictographs in THE Maze District of Canyonlands NP. One of the fine backpacks enjoyed in 2013 was the A-Mazing Maze adventure.
      Click on any and all of the below images to go to a WV report from 2013.
      Not all 2013 excursions will be found here. Several outings, e.g., Winter hiking in Arches NP, day hikes in Canyonlands, hikes off the North and South Rims of The Grand Canyon, and day hikes in Great Basin NP, have yet to be posted. Some might never be posted, yet were enjoyed all the same.
See the entire slate of WV reports here.

Enjoy.

Rob's reports from 2013: Click on the thumbnails below to go to each report.


Death Valley Dreaming, 2013; Biking (Click the image to go to the report)


Death Valley Dreaming, 2013; Backpack Cottonwood-Marble (Click the image to go to the report)


Undulating Utah Flats: Backpacking Into Phantom Canyon (Click the image to go to the report)


Roving The Happy Horsethief and Bodacious Butte Fault; epic backpack (Click the image to go to the report)


Marauding the A-Mazing Marvelous Maze (Click the image to go to the report)


Fantastic Fish and Owl Backpack Loop (Click the image to go to the report)


A PCT Pygmy Promenade (Pacific Crest Trail): Carson Pass to Donner Summit (Click the image to go to the report)


Laccolithic LaSal Mountain Car Camp - A Beary Good Time (Click the image to go to the report)


Aravaipa Ambling (Click the image to go to the report)


Kanab Kaleidoscope Cruise: Backpacking Kanab Creek to Deer Creek (Click the image to go to the report)


Gravitating to Great Basin (Click the image to go to the report)


Salubrious Superstition Wilderness (Click the image to go to the report)


Scenic Toilets of Inner Earth (Click the image to go to the report)


Wilderness Vagabond reports about the Grand Canyon: a compilation (Click the image to go to the report)

Click here, or on the "Trip Reports" button at the bottom of this page, to see all the reports. They are organized chronologically - the 2013 reports are at the bottom of the list (until the 2014 trip reports start piling up).

Here is a sampling of my favorite 2013 videos. You may find more in the above trip reports. Enjoy!


During an unposted backpack in the GC, we encountered these rutsters (Bighorn Sheep; Ovis Canadensis) in Grand Canyon NP - here is the movie (mp4; 9.5mb) here is the movie (mp4; 9.5mb)


During an unposted trip, we encountered this N Rim Grouse (Sooty Grouse; Dendragapus fuliginosus) in Grand Canyon NP - here is the movie (mp4; 12mb) here is the movie (mp4; 12mb)


While on an unposted trip, I found the Four Sisters Natural Bridges in Grand Canyon NP - here is the movie (mp4; 27mb) here is the movie (mp4; 27mb)


Movie of a ranging Coyote (Canis Latrans), Day 1 Bicycling - 6.8mb - from the Death Valley Dreaming report (Click the image to see the short video - 6mb)


Movie - Froggy orchestra from Phantom, Day 6 - 6.7mb - Undulating Utah Flats report (Canyon Tree Frog; Hyla Arenicolor) (Click the image to see the short video)


Movie - Bufous Bear (Ursus Americanus) in the LaSal Mountains - 5.9 MB (Click the image to see the short video - 5.9 MB)


Movie - Slide of Susurrus, Day 4 - 12.0mb - from the Kanab Creek Backpack (Click the image to see the short video)

Hi, Rob here. A Solstice Saturnalia Salutation to you!

I found myself feeling sorry for any man who was not free to abandon whatever futility detained him and walk away into the desert morning with a pack on his back. Colin Fletcher, The Thousand-Mile Summer.

I am writing this note to say Happy Solstice and Happy New Year! I hope you are well and that you greatly enjoyed 2013. This is my traditional year-end report. Rather than bore you with lots of text here - I refer you to lots of boring text and mundane photos and videos via links.

I finally eased out from the last vestiges of work bondage in 2013, realizing I had done so when I sold my testing materials and failed to renew state licenses. However, I am still planning to donate the last of my therapeutic games to a public (certainly not a charter) school - yet seem to have some difficulty getting this done. Ahh, freedom. As noted by Fletcher, and also by Abbey.

A data sketch from 2013 includes:

Hiking - total miles = 1126.6 (ERM* = 1900.4)

of which Backpacking = 404.4 miles (ERM* = 701.8)
and Day Hiking = 722.2 (ERM* = 1198.6)

Bicycling - total miles = 1079.8 (all day tours in 2013)

*ERM - Energy Required Miles. A mile is added for every 500' elevation gain or loss. It's a very serviceable method of estimating energy required miles.

Thanks to co-adventurers who enhanced the fun in the above trips, including Kathleen, Dave R., Dave C., Zig S., Bill F., Ewa B., Bob G., Cheryl S., Chris F., Dennis F., Steve G., Joe R., Earle H., and Darrell A. Thanks one and all.

The adorable Kathleen and I are well, and we plan to continue to enjoy what is left of our public lands in 2014 :-)) We wish you the very best. Finally, please remember, wherever you go there you are. Let's all work for more peace and less repulsican.

Take good care, Rob

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. Jimmy Hendrix.

The wilderness once offered men a plausible way of life, now it functions as a psychiatric refuge. Soon, there will be no wilderness. Soon there will be no place to go. Then the madness becomes universal. And the universe goes mad. Doc Sarvis in "The Monkey Wrench Gang"

We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

May your trails be dim, lonesome, stony, narrow, winding and only slightly uphill. May the wind bring rain for the slickrock potholes fourteen miles on the other side of yonder blue ridge. May God's dog serenade your campfire, may the rattlesnake and the screech owl amuse your reveries, may the Great Sun dazzle your eyes by day and the Great Bear watch over you at night. Edward Abbey, Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside


Happy Solstice and New Year!

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