Start: Unnamed 4×4 track in Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument
Finish: Hotel in Escalante
Daily Mileage: 9.8
Trip Mileage: 389.7
Elevation gain/loss: 489/728ft
I was up and ready to hike as soon as it was just light enough since I was headed into town today. I had about 10 miles to go and was ready for a break. I continued briefly down the 4×4 track I was on and almost immediately came upon a water tank that I didn’t know about where I could have gotten water. Oh well, as I’ve learned, you have to be safe vs sorry out here with water. I did have a good sunrise behind me with a wide-open view since I was in a high area.
I wound around some mud hills picking my way across them in the approach to a wash that I would follow. Wasn’t difficult, just took a little bit of time to figure out how to get through them. I got down to the wash, and it was a bit muddy in places. I slowed my progress a bit as I tried to stay on the dry spots but occasionally missed and got a heavy shoe in exchange. The wash wasn’t all that exciting, and I was mentally done hiking for the day (already due to the pending town stop) so I put on an audiobook to help me along. I found this a good crutch for less exciting pieces of trail. I’ve been listening to audiobooks more and more on hikes back home, and I was afraid that I was going to be listening to them a lot on this hike. I’ve managed to rarely listen, though. Maybe every other day for an hour or two. I don’t want to get too zoned out in a book; I want to focus on the terrain and the hike as long as it’s engaging enough.
I continued in the wash and took a couple breaks to break up the monotony of the hike. It just really was not an exciting area. I kept checking my GPS, seeing myself closer and closer to my end at a road. When I got near the endpoint, it got brushy, my favorite! In addition to that, there was a barbed wire fence across the wash completely blocking my progress. I couldn’t find a way through the fence, so I ended up getting to a long span and pushing it down to go over. Still caught on my pants and gave me a couple of small holes. Then I was shortly at the road!
It was a Friday midday, and most traffic was coming into the area, not going out to town. I had to wait a bit for a hitch, maybe an hour or a little less. The third vehicle in my direction picked me up. Katie in a pickup truck. She took me down to the end of the gravel road where she was going the other way. Shortly thereafter, Fred took me the rest of the way to town. I do like hitching in a way since you meet friendly people and share your stories. It speaks to the kindness and generosity of others, which is a good thing these days.
I got into Escalante and was dropped off at a burger place. They had a half-pound burger, which was a good start to my town eat-a-thon. Then I started on my town chores. I went to the outfitter, and there was Fred and his friends, and they immediately just handed me a piece of pizza! They know what a long-distance hiker wants.
I filled up on food and beer and got settled into my hotel room and had the typical hiker pack explosion with gear spread about for me to work on. I’m not going to write much about my town stops; they’re about taking a break and doing all the stuff hikers need to do to stay on the trail. Consume massive calories, resupply with food, do laundry, take a shower, charge electronics, etc.