Thursday early morning

Thursday Morning 8/13

BLM Hatch Campground, near Monticello, UT

This has to be close to quintessential boondocking.  As in, “out in the boondocks.”  The nearest human is probably about 20 miles from here. Dark… I got up in the night and went out and looked at the sky, walking carefully by starlight. Silent … I heard a jackrabbit lope down the path; I heard a hawk fly by to check out my camp.  And a brief coyote chorus, just before first light.

Morning chores.  I washed the few dishes from breakfast, and took the warm soapy water out to the picnic table and had a sponge bath, naked in the morning.  I emptied the wash water into a bucket, used some warm water to rinse myself off, and emptied that clear water into the bucket.  Swept the rig, and mopped the floor with the warm water.  

Reorganized and cleaned one of the kitchen cabinets, and one of the storage compartments under the rig.  Deployed the solar panel, which amounted to pointing it East rather than West.  The sun has just hit it … even at the very low angle of dawn, it’s putting out 3.3 amps, enough to begin topping off the batteries from last night.  

The cell service I was so happy about yesterday turns out to be not so great.   Sometimes the hot spot shows one bar of 4GLTE, sometimes 3G, and yesterday for a while it showed “1,” which is Verizon’s way of saying “no service.”  This post will probably be uploaded from somewhere in Moab. 

Today’s agenda is to visit the Post Office and pick up the packet with my Federal pass, and figure out where to spend the night.   If it’s as late as it might be, I’ll probably head up north of Moab to that boondock spot I used last trip.  If I have some travel time, I might get on with my northering: up to I-70, East to the charmingly-named little Colorado town of Fruita, and thence north to Wyoming.  Up until now, I’ve been in more or less familiar territory, although this campsite is new to me.  Once I head north from Fruita I’m breaking new ground.

Somewhere soon-ish I need to empty the holding tanks and add some fresh water.