Lonely In Loa

2/1/2011

The hospitality and chicken of Cedar City were an unexpected escape from the reality that this trip had been budgeted with the pretense of preparing for a wilderness job by camping and trekking about. However, with impending weather, I decided to bypass the fridged truck stops of  Beaver, Monroe, and Richfield in pursuit of the low lands of Wayne County, Utah. Wayne County has a population of 3000, a supermarket, a bank, and "if you want something to eat on Sunday, go down to the cafe....they're Catholic." Phone conversations with my future employer had been strained from my inability to understand how anyone could reasonably be expected to participate in a 7  day interview with no assurance of employment or reimbursement for travel. So I stopped off in Loa to chat with the bearded wookie that would be my future boss and then proceed to a nearby campsite wonder what was wrong with my decision making process. 

 Feeling a bit zen and, simultaneously, nervous about the dead-quiet, red rock canyon, I proceed onwards to Capitol Reef National Park that charges $15 dollars a night to camp... when the bathrooms are in order. Capitol Reef is one of the lesser noticed gems of the national park system that receives much of it's business from the Euros on summer holiday. In January it is cold, dry, and desolate. 

Saturday

  The novelty of cold camping and photographing rocks is beginning to wear off. Most of my time is spend killing taste buds with pipe smoke. I wander into the visitor center to find out if there there is any other points of interest in the surrounding area, such as sandy beach or a tropical forest. The ranger on duty is especially helpful as I am the only guest in the past 36 hours. She's really sweet and offers to guide me to some dinosaur fossils provided that I refrain from asking too many dumb tourist questions. With a bachelors in land management and a few years of park service, her experience is best used at directing people to the restroom. It turns out that we have mutual friends and are both Couch Surfers, so Crystal offers up her couch and an invitation to a Super Bowl party the following evening... provided I wash the campfire out of my clothes. 

  This is all an incredible piece of luck. It had been my incredible agitation and anxiety with 5-months of joblessness, that made me travel early to Loa seeking peace and solidarity before starting with Aspen. The end result was a night of chili, beer, and football while the rest of interviewees were nervously sleeping in the back of their trucks or the dusty Aspen basement. Moreover, Crystal would end up being the only friend I made in Wayne County.

   But a bit of caution when drinking with people in isolated environments.... especially park rangers.