Weekends are out for me. And holidays are the worst. I used to tube the Provo with my friends in the 70s and it was ideal. Provo Canyon’s South Fork had zero cyclists. It wasn’t a thing then.

Fortunately the mountains and Heber Valley will be peaceful places again tomorrow, so I’ll return. But the evidence of weekend slobs will be everywhere.

Back in the 70s and 80s the Church tried to tell us the world wasn’t overpopulated since it could produce enough food to feed everyone. That was sort of the standard for whether the earth was overpopulated. (A few GAs were worried about LDS families having fewer children due to overpopulation.)

Your experience today demonstrates a different overpopulation standard. If you can’t find solitude four miles off the highway, Utah is definitely overpopulated. The quality of life, if you need regular solitude in the canyons, isn’t very good anymore—at least on weekends.