Hiking To Jeep Arch (BLM) With Kala 26Sep18

Personal matters kept K&K from heading out early so Kala & I took a gr8 and challenging hike on BLM land near Moab to Jeep Arch. Unlike the NP trails, up Culvert Canyon we saw no one for hours and then just as we exited the area. The canyon was spectacular and wild with our trail marked only by some cairns - we usually found them after working it a bit. There were a few technical/sketchy moves at the base of a monster spire along the route but the 1200 ft climb over 2.5 miles was doable, especially with our early departure. It was a gr8 hike and a blast finding routes, doing free climbing in a quiet and remote canyon along the Colorado, observing lots of bio-mechanical dirt (don't Google it - that's my term) and reaching the interesting objective in a box canyon. Bio-mechanical earth is dirt in which bacteria grows and ultimately forms a fairly hard crust - the whole system collects and holds water for surrounding plants - systems are cool - I was careful throughout my hiking in S Utah as this crust is critical to the ecosystem. The hike started pretty strangely with the path starting through a large culvert beneath the train tracks - and led up a tough canyon of slickrock and rocks.