I started my walk this morning, Monday, June 17, 2013. I started the walk at the This Is the Place Monument on the east edge of Salt Lake City, Utah. The site commemorates the July 24, 1847 entry of Brigham Young with the first company of Mormon Pioneers into the valley of the Great Salt Lake. I walked 15 miles.
I had a beautiful spot for my first campsite on the thousand mile walk. The grass was more than waist high and thick. I manhandled my cart through a ditch to get off the frontage road of the freeway. I was the only camper to have used the spot maybe this year. There was a trail runner out for a training run through the mountains who was surprised to come across me. He gave me several granola bars that he wasn’t going to need that day. If I looked away from the road and ignored the freeway noise, it seemed like a pristine spot.
It was not an official campsite, but what is commonly referred to as a rough camp. No culinary water, toilets or picnic table, but just the natural beauty of being in the mountains in early summer. It made me a little nervous not knowing who owned the property. I had not gotten anyone’s permission to camp here. I cheated on this campsite in that I had driven my car up a few days before to scout out a camping spot. This is only camping spot on the walk with which I had that luxury.
