851. Manila, Daggett County (UT09)

So this Utah county actually has a courthouse?  Is it because it’s so far away that they can do whatever they want as long as they pay their taxes and don’t murder anyone?  I was just trying to understand the hodgepodge in the state.  I got the feeling that their remoteness (it was easier to get here from Green River, Wyoming, than from Vernal, Utah) put them a little behind the curve in some respects when I noticed they were flying both the old and new Utah flags. Everywhere else was flying the new one.  That suspicion was later discarded once I learned that the new one has coequal standing with the old one.  Contrary to popular opinion, I am not an expert on Utahn vexillology.

For the cache, I did something I don’t especially like to do: come dangerously close to the county line.  Other options were deeper into the county, but they involved winding mountain roads and long drives I didn’t want to make.  I headed to GZ on the side of a road dug out of a hilltop and stopped to climb an embankment up to a fence line.  At the top, I took a moment to look out at the valley now that the sun had risen.  The wind and chill sliced through my legs, unprotected by my coat, as I considered the mountains in the not-too-far distance and then walked the barbed wire, looking for my quarry.  Hanging from the fence behind a cedar bush, I found a decon container, an increasingly rare find these days.  A bit of drizzle sprinkled on me as I popped the cache open and signed the log, and with that, I was done with Utah for this trip.  I climbed back down the embankment to the car and set off.  I had forgotten to fill up back in Green River, so I drove back into Manila and gassed up a bit with its crazy expensive fuel lest I run out of gas in the middle of nowhere.  (I like to think I learned my lesson after Sanderson.) Once I made it back to Green River, I filled up with more reasonably priced gas and acquired some breakfast.  Breaking with my tradition, I got out of the car to eat, move, and enjoy a few minutes not behind the wheel before mounting back up for the two-hour drive to…