Sylva Florence

From high on the slopes of the Veyo Volcano (or somewhere nearby) Sargent T$ guides in the troops. The troops = my parents, heading over to us via the best possible route, thanks to Sarge. Where exactly, you might postulate? About 20 miles outside of St. George, UT in a beautiful area called the Maze. We’re just a mile or two from my parents’ new casa near Veyo, UT. The Arapahoe Cafe closed for a week and the temperatures slid towards winter like a freshly waxed ski down the white ribbon of death at Arapahoe Basin. It was time to escape. Again.

Back to the hike, which began near a reservoir and an area battered by constant car camping (a “sacrifice zone,” one might call it). From there, we hiked up over a ridge in cactus/pinion juniper country and into a rocky labyrinth of valleys. We wandered up one way and back down the other as the sun shone gloriously above.

Before we get into the meat and taters, I have an announcement to make:

The Sylva Lining is getting a makeover! At least once a week, I will *try* my darndest to bring you two features I feel inclined to blather on about:

1. There’s a Sylva Lining in Every Adventure (ski/bike/travel tales + lots of pictures)
2. Sylva’s Restau-Rant (everything serving/restaurant industry-related)

For those of you living in cave (just joshin’ ya), I am also publishing my largely completed comic fantasy mystery novel one chapter at a time on Wattpad. Please share shamelessly and comment freely.

And now back to the regularly scheduled program…

After a night of on-screen entertainment with the ‘rents (the Florences always have been a motion-picture loving crew), we tried to wake up early (yeah right… sorry Dado). Mid-morning found us driving towards the Pine Valley Mountains. Wait a minute… is it a valley? Is it a mountain? Are there pines? It’s hard to tell.

Anyway, once there we hopped out into weather that tapped the low 70s on the shoulder. An 8-mile round-trip hike took us up Water Canyon, into the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness (wait… I’m confused… is it a wilderness, then?).

As my father would say, “That’s all folks!”

In the next “There’s a Sylva Lining in Every Adventure:” hold onto your hipster jeans, ’cause Sylva and Tyler arrive in San Fran in the final installment of the Northern Cali bike tour!