Start: Hotel in Escalante
Finish: Right Hand Collet Canyon
Daily Mileage: 14.6
Trip Mileage: 404.3
Elevation gain/loss: 1166/637ft
I continued working on rewriting my journal entries this morning. I wasn’t in a rush to get back on the trail because I came up with a plan to do the next section in six days instead of five, as I planned, to wipe out one of the days that I was ahead of schedule. I stayed in my hotel until nearly 10 when it was checkout time. I got some food for the trail, fresh breakfast and lunch and hiked to the edge of town to stick out my thumb.
It didn’t take too long to get a hitch with Daryl from Escalante to Hole-in-the-Rock Road. It sounded like he wanted to take me to where I was going, but he had other things to do, and I do not want people to go out of their way to help me when I’m hitching. Hole-in-the-Rock Road is a gravel road, but it’s frequently traveled. However, it did take me about an hour to get a hitch down it. There was not as much traffic as I was expecting, especially for a weekend. Eventually, Joe picked me up and took me 10 miles down the road. Great conversation. My starting point was 15 miles total down the road, so I just started walking the last five miles while sticking up my thumb at passing cars. Only three cars passed in the five miles that I ended up walking to reconnect with my path. Glad that I started walking instead of just waiting for a hitch.
I started out going down a road for a couple of miles before I turned off to hit another road. Turns out that road didn’t exist, so I did a little bit of cross country, but it was very easy anyway. My route took me past some multi-colored sandstone features with wind caves that were really cool looking. Then I started following another wash with intermittent cow trails and ancient 4×4 tracks to follow. The wash cut through a gap in 50 Mile Mountain which I had seen approaching for a few days.
I was going to be heading up the wash for the rest of the day. I just didn’t have a lot of energy today, though, and I felt tired. I didn’t get the best night’s sleep the last two nights. The hotel had an overly soft bed that was a bit disconcerting to me, and I just couldn’t sleep well on it. I slept better on the sand and rock! But anyway, I was just a bit exhausted, and I had to stop and take a few breaks to restore my energy.
Continuing up the wash, canyon walls grew on either side of me. At first, the canyon was a wide valley, but then it closed in, though the walls never got too high. It wound around quite a bit, and flowing water even quickly appeared in it. When I first saw the water, I thought about getting some, but then I thought that since I’m walking upstream, if I see it stop, I can grab some then instead of carrying it. The running water, though, made me weave around, and there was a lot of mud in the stream to avoid, but not a big deal.
The canyon looped back and forth quite a bit, and with the running water, I was constantly jumping sides to keep my feet dry, which I was fortunately successful at. The canyon got pretty cool towards the end where 50 ft. walls were incredibly sculpted by the elements with ornate features jutting out from the walls. It was creepy and quite spectacular at the same time.
There was a ton of indications of cow along the wash, and towards the end, I found myself exactly following the path that a cow had recently taken walking downstream. Interesting how both of us found the same path to be most efficient. He was definitely doing some off-roading in some rough terrain.
I didn’t want to go too far today since I’m trying to do this section in six days, so I made it to my notional goal and found a campsite not too much later. I had been looking for a campsite for a bit, but there weren’t many spots where it was possible. It can just be hard to find a spot out here that’s flat and clear and above the flood line (and relatively free of cow shit). I ended up seeing a rock in a tree obviously put there by a person. I took that as a sign that I should go up on the bank and check out what was up there and found a campsite or at least a spot to set up my tent. The nice thing about my camp tonight is I have water right next to me which is rare out here. I’ll just have to figure out how much water to carry out tomorrow morning.
It was a bit windy going down the canyon, but it settled down towards night. Unfortunately, I broke my plastic spoon eating dinner, and it has to be the first night out of town. Oh well, I’ll make do.