Backhoe Drivers Are Assholes

A few weeks ago I went hiking with my group up Parleys Canyon. We took 3 shuttle cars to the top of Parleys summit, drove down a dirt road and hiked the Alexander Spring Trail - a leisurely 5.3 mile which is mainly downhill.

The hike was beautiful, but then again, there are not many hikes in Utah that are NOT beautiful. We saw a lot of moose tracks and enjoyed each others company.

Here I am in my typical "Happy Hiker" pose.

When you are in the middle of such a beautiful valley, what can you possibly have to NOT smile about...?

We get to the bottom of the trail where 2 other cars had been dropped off. The first car loads up the shuttle car drivers and heads back up to the top. A few minutes later we get a call from one of the drivers saying that someone had driven their backhoe onto the middle of the dirt road so that it is blocking the trail. Going around it is not an option because on one side there is a steep cliff and the other side there is thick vegetation. There is no company name on the tractor or phone number.

Freaking-fabulous, right?

Fortunately we still had one other car with us at the bottom. Unfortunately we had around 12 people show up for this hike so 3 of us had to wait while the car ran a load of passengers to their cars a the mouth of the canyon.

As confused and annoyed as we were for our fellow hikers who were going to have to leave their cars for the night, and even though we were having to huddle together to avoid freezing to death (that may be a slight exaggeration), we still found reasons to smile.

Maybe it was the trail mix... but more likely it was knowing an ice cold beer (or two... or three) was waiting to reward our patience when we got to the bottom.

Blogfully yours,

Summer