Stories from the Road – Moab, Utah
Moonflower Canyon is spectacularly situated against deep-red cliffs streaked with black vertical lines called desert varnish. Since it’s on land that’s part of the Bureau of Land Management and not actually a national park, dogs can roam and kids can climb freely. We’re on the outskirts of Moab down Kane Creek Road, a popular route for mountain bikers and four-wheelers on their way to Amasa Back and Captain Ahab, two of the area’s iconic trailheads.
We park in the lot and walk a few hundred feet to where campsites are nestled in the hillside or tucked under trees. We claim a flat site in the shade of a statuesque cottonwood, leave a couple of camp chairs, then head back out to get on our bikes. We never make it. Johnny is sucked into a vortex of youth—five kids ages six to fifteen are sitting at a picnic table, busily unwinding utility 550-gauge paracord in colors like hot pink, Day-Glo yellow, lime green, purple, and black. They are making DIY survival bracelets. Johnny slides right into the circle, and they show him how to measure the length, loop the paracord, and knot it to create a bracelet. The kids demonstrate how to fasten the finished bracelet and burn the ends to prevent fraying. Johnny picks his colors and gets to work with ten eyes and fifty fingers showing him the way.
This impromptu pod of traveling kiddos sits together for over an hour. Their finished bracelets, knotted with six feet of paracord, would be long enough when uncoiled to tie up a tarp, fix a snowshoe, hang a bag of food, make a sling, or lash some branches. One bracelet would be strong enough to hold 550 pounds of static weight.
On the way out of town, we stop at Walkers Hardware to pick up several yards of paracord. Johnny is over the moon for having made new friends and acquiring a new survival skill, and handsome Max gets a new orange-and-yellow survival dog collar!
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