Start: Showerbath Spring
Finish: Robinson Wash
Daily Mileage: 24.2
Trip Mileage: 887.6
Elevation gain/loss: 3892/2273ft
I finally got my timing right and was ready to hit the trail as soon as it was light enough. I still kept my headlamp on briefly to peer into the dark water, but it wasn’t really needed. I got my shoes and pants and everything dry last night, so I could get them wet again within one minute of starting to hike, crossing Kanab Creek yet again.
I continued upstream for a couple of miles before the creek disappeared on me. I got eight liters of water at the last point it was flowing since I’ve got to go about 40 miles before I next see water. My pack was considerably heavier after that. Since I’ve been walking next to so much water the last couple of days, I have carried very little. However, I’ve been working on my food load, so it’s still not as bad as my first stretch out of the North Rim. It seemed like I had passed most of the big boulder obstacles yesterday by the time I got to Shower Bath, so it was much easier going today. Sometimes it was small rocks that I could just walk over, and sometimes it was bigger, and I had to rock hop, but still way quicker and easier than yesterday.
As I progressed up the canyon, the walls started to widen and become shallower. You could tell that this section of the canyon was more traveled since there were some well-defined paths that would bypass some of the loops of the wash. Those are easier to travel, and these ones didn’t tend to peter out like on some previous washes with cow trails. There were several campsites not too far from where I camped, so I could have gone a little bit further yesterday, but I didn’t know that, so I still made the right decision.
I passed the mouth of Jump Up Canyon, which officially marks the border of Grand Canyon National Park. Leaving Grand Canyon behind, I have now completed five of the six parks on this trail, and I’m headed north to tag Zion.
About 5 miles after I got water, Kanab Creek started flowing again. I didn’t know about this from talking to other hikers, so I still had to get water where I did, but it would have been nice not to have to carry it the extra 5 miles! The load wasn’t too bad, and it wasn’t bothering me like out of the North Rim. I did chug some extra since I had a source though.
The miles flew by today compared to my progress yesterday, and soon I was at the mouth of Hack Canyon, where I left Kanab Creek. Hack Canyon started off with lower walls that rapidly disappeared as I climbed, but the walls were a lot more rounded in nature with weathered balls and shapes on the top of the rim.
Hack Canyon was much easier to travel. There was technically a trail going up it, but at first, the trail was harder since tumbleweed had gathered and grown in the depression of the trail. I decided just to stick with the wash, my desert highway, like most of my traveling on this trip. The wash was relatively straight anyway with small stones that made travel quick. I made more good progress up Hack Canyon, and when the rounded walls disappeared, much larger walls further back became visible. There were a couple of different rock bands on these walls, so it was still going up through the layers of the Grand Canyon. However, between yesterday and today, the climbing was so gradual that it was hardly noticeable, which is nice, especially with my water weight.
The day got warm, but I had plenty of water with my eight liters. I just took a couple more quick breaks to cool off in the shade. After a while, the tumbleweed disappeared from stretches of trail, so I began taking those when I could. One of those led to the Hack Canyon trailhead where the Hayduke joins a 4×4 track most of the way from here across the Arizona strip for many miles.
I don’t know what it was, but once I hit the road, feelings of excitement and accomplishment hit me. This section of the trail has been pretty challenging, though some of the hard parts were fun. I’ve come through a lot of challenges on this trip, and it’s been a very difficult trail logistically and physically, but hitting the road and knowing that there’s only one harder section of the trail left at the very end made me think about what I’ve accomplished. I’ve done pretty well on this trail so far, and it’s gone better than I expected it too. I expected to have more physical challenges, but I’ve been lucky in that regard. It also hasn’t really bothered me to do the whole thing alone, which surprised me a bit. I really enjoyed the last few miles of my day just hiking along the road and reflecting on my trip.
It was windy in the canyon, so as I was approaching my goal for the day, I was just looking for a somewhat sheltered camp spot. It was hard enough to find a flat spot with no thorn bushes or tumbleweeds, let alone a sheltered spot, but eventually, I found a big rock that I could pitch my tent behind. The rock confused the winds and they swirled around a bit, blowing up behind it, but I think it’ll work well enough. I ate everything I could from my food supply, though I still might finish the section with a couple of extra Snickers. The wind is dying down with the sunset, so I’ll see what it does overnight.
