Start: Double Barrel Arch Trailhead
Finish: Jacob Lake
Daily Mileage: 17.7
Trip Mileage: 659.9
Elevation gain/loss: 2842/1182ft
So I’m reading my Kindle in my sleeping bag while cowboy camping this morning to kill a few minutes before the sun rose. I’ve got one hand holding my Kindle, and all the sudden, something latched on to it hard! It’s dark and I can’t see anything. I shake off whatever it is, and I see a large bird with a tan and black spotted chest flying away from me.
An owl or something had dove in and grabbed my hand with it’s talons for a midnight snack. It was dead silent flying and it was dark, so it must have been an owl.
I cleaned up with alcohol and Neosporin and bandaged it best I could on the trail. I didn’t use that hiking pole today, and my hand is sore. I hope it doesn’t get infected.
How bizarre… I’ve never heard of anything like that before.
After I finally got situated and packed up following my attack, I headed down an old road to Double Barrel Arch. I hadn’t planned to go this way, but looking at my maps and satellite views, it looked like I could cut a corner and see another arch rather than walking the main road. That definitely sounded like a winner to me. I headed down the old track and shortly reached the arch. It was a pretty interesting arch with one arch nested within another. Very unique.
From there, I basically followed the fence line, which had a game trail on it, which led me out to another 4×4 track. I turned onto that track and almost immediately encountered a sign for Pueblo ruins. I had no idea this was here, and I hadn’t seen anything from Pueblo Indians yet on this trip. There were signs with an explanation and some history, and I could see where the old dwellings were partially standing and a bunch of potsherds.
From there, I rejoined the main road that I was avoiding. Just a normal gravel road. I walked on it for a couple of miles to where it met the Navajo Trail trailhead. I needed to get on top of the Kaibab Plateau, and I had found this trail on my maps, which would take me to exactly where I needed to go. The trail was pretty faint but not too difficult to follow. I climbed up a thousand feet to the Plateau, but once on top, it got even fainter. I could see one set of footprints occasionally, and I had to rely on my GPS a bit to follow the trail. From that point, however, I was not on it for all that long.
In this area, the Hayduke Trail follows the Arizona Trail down to the Grand Canyon. However, there was a big forest fire last year, and this section of the Arizona Trail is still closed. The trail was rerouted on some forest service roads on the opposite side of the trail from where I was. There was no need for me to go all the way over there, so I took a forest service road on my side to the Arizona Trail to take me south and eventually intersect with the trail. It worked out perfectly because where my road connected was exactly where the end of the closure was.
I got on the Arizona Trail, and it was a pretty decent treadway, though not as big as some trails. There is nothing really too scenic in here. It was mostly just sparse ponderosa forest. It was pleasant enough but just nothing too jaw dropping. It was a pretty easy stroll to 89A, which is the road that would take me into Jacob Lake.
Before I got to Jacob Lake, I went to grab my cache at the bear box where I’d placed it six days ago. I opened the bear box, and 90% of my cache was gone. Even the garbage bag that I had put everything in and labeled with my name and date of arrival was gone. My stove fuel, all my homemade dehydrated dinners, almost all of my lunches, and all of my electrolytes were gone. In only 6 days, other hikers cleaned me out, even though I had a very clear statement that it was my food and I would be there today to pick it up, and that I need that food for the Grand Canyon. Some jerk was so self-centered that they didn’t care about that and stole all my food. I was obviously really upset. It took me time and money to put all this together and ship it from my home down to Kanab and then drive out here to place the cache. I did that because Jacob Lake doesn’t have a great supply, and will not hold packages even if you are staying there. It’s basically just a camp store with limited supplies and no stove fuel. This really pissed me off, and I was cursing on my way back to the road.
I got to the road, and thankfully the first car that passed me as soon as I got there pulled over and gave me a ride into Jacob Lake. I got there and started looking around the camp store to assess my options. I confirmed that they did not have any stove fuel, so I would definitely have to have some cold meals for this next stretch. As I was considering my options, I ran into another backpacker, The Jesus. He said that there was a big hiker box 25 miles down the road that was going to be pitched, but eventually, I just decided that I would resupply at Jacob Lake because I wanted to make use of my afternoon off since I’ll be hiking the next 15 days straight. That meant that I spent $166 to replace the food that the jerk stole from me. And a lot of it’s not ideal food too, a lot of sugary and highly processed stuff. I’ll do half of my dinners hot and half cold with some replacement bars. Oh joy.
I went to the restaurant to get lunch, and a hiker I ran into at the bear box had hardly touched his burger and offered the rest to me. That was a no-brainer for me, of course I took it, and I ate it. I got a pulled pork sandwich and ate about half of it when I noticed mold on the bun. This just isn’t my day. I complained, and they made me a new sandwich, so basically I had two full sandwiches for lunch. I guess that’s not too bad.
I had a hotel room with two queen beds since that’s all that was available at Jacob Lake. I offered the second bed to The Jesus since it seemed like a waste to just have me in the big room. He accepted and offered to buy me beers and dinner to make up for it. It was great to hang out with another hiker for the night. The Jesus is a double triple crowner. We drank beers, had dinner, watched some TV, and I finished up all my town chores minus laundry since there was no laundry facility here, unfortunately. This really was not my day between the owl attack, stolen food, and moldy sandwich, but at least it finished on a bit of an uptick talking to other hikers.