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Hayduke Trail Day 54

Yeti — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 02:18:04 +0000

Start: East Fork Virgin River

Finish: ZION!

Daily Mileage: 9.1

Trip Mileage: 952.4

Elevation gain/loss: 2293/1383ft

It was a cold night; definitely my coldest night on this trail. I awoke to a good coating of frost inside my tent, probably because I was camped next to the river. Due to the cold, I was a little more hesitant to get going this morning since I would have to immediately plunge into the river. I fueled myself with leftover steak and potatoes from last night and an egg from Kristi. So much better than my oatmeal, even my homemade oatmeal.

I packed up and even considered wearing my down puffy, which I never do as a rule while hiking. However, since this is the last day of my trip, I can throw some caution to the wind since I do not need to manage my gear for future days. I ultimately decided to just use an upper thermal layer, my shirt, and my hard shell. I could put on the puffy if I needed it.

I hiked over to the river and stood next to it for about a minute, steeling my resolve before and wondering what I was doing out here ready to walk miles down a river in 20 degrees. I worked up the courage to step out into the river. The water was obviously cold but warmer than the air, and I quickly crossed to the other side.

I followed a series of game trails down the river where I could. The trails were often good and led to decent shallow crossing points for the river. The river would wind back and forth between the walls of its canyon, causing me to have to cross it often.

As expected, the crossings left me cold, and I moved as quickly as I could between them to stay warm enough. My fingers and toes were the coldest, but I knew my body well enough to know that I would be able to keep this up for the time being.

The canyon was beautiful, and there were lots of side canyons with slots and petroglyphs and such to explore, but I rushed past all of that to stay warm and in the drive of my last day.

About halfway through the river, I entered some narrow sections where I even had to just wade straight down the river for a few hundred yards to add to the cold. When I took out my water bottle for a drink, it was slushy and starting to freeze up while I was wading through the water. I slept next to the water bottle, so the ice had definitely formed during the day. Proof that I’m serious that it was cold out. Let me repeat, my water bottle was turning to ice while I was constantly wading down a flowing river.

There were a couple of obstacles in the river. I came to some falls at a boulder jam and managed to work my way over the boulders and drop down after some time scoping it out. The grip on my shoes is already shot after 24 days, so I just had to be careful. Immediately after that was a bigger log jam and waterfall that consumed the width of the canyon. I had read that this could be down climbed, but definitely not with the amount of water that was flowing. There was an alternate to go around the falls by scrambling through some boulders, so that’s definitely what I had to do.

I scrambled up a bit, then had to take off my pack to squeeze through and down a crack into a void below a big slab of rock. Then I had to downclimb a vertical drop, which turned into an overhang, but thankfully there was a rope there to help with that. Then just a little more scrambling down before I got back to the river.

As I went downstream, more side streams came in to join the flow of the river. I got as much as knee-deep in it by choosing my path carefully, and it ranged from calm to whitewater crossings. Shortly after the waterfalls, I reached the Hayduke exit of the canyon. There was supposed to be an easier exit a little further downstream, but it looked like I could manage the Hayduke exit, so I opted for that to get out of the water as quickly as possible.

The scramble up from the river was a good Hayduke-style scramble, being steep, rocky, and brushy. It went through, but I definitely had to study a few spots for how to continue up. I made it to a saddle at the top of the climb with a campsite and took a well-deserved break in the sun to warm up and wolf down some more food. The sun never hit me in the canyon, which is half the reason I didn’t just wait till later in the day to go into the river. It was much warmer on top, and I was able to take off my layers and quickly warm up.

There were a fair amount of footprints now, and I was able to follow a cairned way trail for the rest of the day. It was fairly sandy, which made climbing a bit harder, but there were also stretches of slickrock to break it up. I shortly entered Zion National Park proper and was presented with the famous mesas of mostly white rock that towered above me. The mesas were fantastic and amazing scenery. I climbed up to the base of them, then circled around to come up the narrow gully next to Checkerboard Mesa, the icon of Zion.

It was scenic between the mesas, but my thoughts were shifting to the end of the trail only a mile off now. I was reliving my trip and thinking about how long ago it seems when I started 53 days ago. It seemed like a different life!

I powered towards the end of the trail until I could see cars passing on the road. This was it! I waited for some cars to pass then stepped out onto the road to complete the trail! I got a bit emotional since this was a very tough trail and I had just successfully completed it. I wandered over to a road pullout and sat on a rock to process my thoughts. After a few minutes, a woman who was there with some children asked how far I hiked. Boy, did I have an answer for her! She then told one of her kids to go get me a beer! She apologized that it was water beer (Keystone Light), but I still gladly accepted. She and her kids were amazed at what I had done and asked me a bunch of questions before they left.

After I had collected myself, I went to the road and stuck out my thumb. It took about 20 minutes before a couple picked me up and took me to the visitor center where I caught a bus to Springdale. I mailed as much home as I could fit in a large flat rate box, the stuff I can’t carry on, and had shrimp tacos and a margarita to celebrate. I was killing some time before a bus was scheduled to St. George. I went to the visitor center and asked about the bus, and they said it was no longer running. Apparently Google and the bus website were wrong. That left me a bit stranded. All I could do was stick out my thumb again and hope for the best.

After about 15 minutes, Rob stopped and said he lived in St. George and could take me right there! We had a great conversation in the car, and he dropped me off right at the hotel I reserved. An amazing person, and much better than a bus ride! I strategically finished today to make it to Salt Lake City tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, in time to have dinner with family, so everything worked out.

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Hayduke Trail Day 53

Yeti — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 02:18:04 +0000

Start: Colorado City, Zion’s Backyard B&B

Finish: East Fork Virgin River

Daily Mileage: 19.6

Trip Mileage: 943.3

Elevation gain/loss: 2700/2975ft

It was a bed and breakfast that I stayed at, so obviously, there was breakfast: biscuits with sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, fruit, and orange juice. Way better than my normal backpacking breakfast. The eggs came from the chickens in their backyard too. They also gave me four boiled eggs for the road. That’ll do it.

Kristi offered to drop me off at the trailhead instead of walking through town, and I took her up on that. I decided to take one last alternate from the Hayduke. The usual route stays on roads all day through BLM land, and they looked pretty flat and straight. That didn’t look too exciting to me considering my past couple of days across the Arizona Strip. However, I noticed that there was a wilderness area directly north of Colorado City with some trails and tracks that would take me back to the Hayduke. That looked much more appealing than road walking, so I opted to do that instead.

The trail started off as an ATV track, which was interesting considering it was through a wilderness area. The trail is definitely well-used by ATVs, which is pretty illegal in wilderness areas. I started up a stream on the ATV track and into the wilderness. I was immediately surrounded by sandstone cliffs with lots of different colors: red, white, pink, and orange. There were different shapes and swirls in the formations, which was very scenic, and I stopped pretty often to take pictures. The area reminded me a lot of the Wave. I did have to do a bit more climbing on my alternate route, but it was only about a thousand feet up initially, so not a huge deal.

The trail was pretty sandy for the most part, so it took a little bit more energy, but there was flowing water until I climbed to the top of the plateau area. On top, I kept stopping for pictures as well because there were a lot of different formations, and it was incredibly scenic. I slowly picked my way across the mountain or plateau, once again following a 4×4 track. The sandstone hills and mountains were littered with sparse pine trees, which I think added a lot to the beauty of the area rather than just being bare.

Eventually, the ATV track petered down at the wilderness area boundary where the ATVs were just going around the fence to get on the trail, passing numerous “no motor vehicle” signs. From there, I was on an actual 4×4 track to get me back to the Hayduke. I was feeling a bit lower energy today, which is typical for me after a town stop. I can only attribute that to the massive amount of food I usually eat in town. However, I had a reasonable mileage today, so I wasn’t worried about making my goal at all. I knew that if I just kept moving forward, I would get to where I was headed.

The track continued to be very sandy all the way back to the Hayduke. However, the incredibly scenic hills continued all the way until I approached the Hayduke, where they disappeared. There was just a flat forest where the Hayduke was, which was not at all comparable. That really validated my choice to take the alternate route through the wilderness area.

I picked up mostly fresh food for this resupply. I did have a couple of snacks left over from my last stretch of trail which I had for lunch along with one of my hard-boiled eggs.

I joined back up with the Hayduke, and from there, it was, for the most part, less sandy and generally flat and downhill, so it was pretty easy. I did want to get to camp a little bit earlier today, so I made good time on the section of trail. When I got back to the Hayduke, I could see Zion in the distance—my destination! The cliffs of Zion that looked like a bunch of white mesas, were fantastic looking. They were sprinkled in with a little bit of red as well and had trees on top for green.

I made it to the end of the 4×4 track, where I had been planning to camp. However, it just didn’t look that great, and it didn’t look like there was much in the way of firewood in the area. I could see down to the Virgin River, which is where the trail went, and it looked like there were some flat spots immediately down there. I also had a waypoint for a good campsite down there. I decided to head down to the river to camp instead. It was a pretty short distance but a bit steep down to the river down a gully that the bighorn sheep obviously make a ton of use of. Not too hard, just had to watch my footing because it was a lot of loose sand and rocks mixed together. I got down to the river, and there was a flat spot right there.

I set up my tent and immediately started a fire in a fire ring that I built. I wanted to get some good coals going for my dinner. For dinner, I cut up some potatoes and roasted them in foil with oil, and I had a 1.7 lb. bone-in ribeye as well that I roasted on the fire. Both came out really good, perfectly done, and I had that in addition to some salad and a 24 oz. beer. Since this was my last night on the trail, I really wanted to go all out, and I knew I would have some time to do it with the fire. This is actually the first fire that I’ve made myself this entire trip. There was one with the rafters, but they made that.

I couldn’t quite finish the steak and potatoes, and I didn’t touch the brownie I had for dessert because I was too full. I don’t get to say that too often long-distance backpacking. I boxed up the steak and potatoes in my food container, and I figured I’d have that for breakfast tomorrow morning. It’s cool here, so I’m not too worried about refrigeration. Then I just had a campfire to sit by for the rest of the night, which was great entertainment and nice ambiance, minus some excitement when one of the river rocks in my fire ring exploded. A great last night on the trail!

It’s supposed to be a cooler night tonight, and I’m camped right next to this river. The first thing I’m going to have to do tomorrow morning is wade right through it, and I’m not really looking forward to that. However, I’m only eight miles from the end of the trail, so I’ll just power through it to claim victory!

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Hayduke Trail Day 52

Yeti — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 02:18:04 +0000

Start: Sandridge Wash

Finish: Colorado City, Zion’s Backyard B&B

Daily Mileage: 10.7

Trip Mileage: 923.7

Elevation gain/loss: 341/409ft

Definitely not my best night out here, and my worst campsite by far. I did hear some coyotes howling and yipping early in the night, but after that, it didn’t bother me. I also saw two big dogs or wolves pass by my camp in the night. I saw their footprints in the morning, and they were enormous. Not sure what they were; I just saw a glimpse of white.

The wind did calm down overnight, but it came up again in the morning when I was packing up. It was pretty cold in the morning, below freezing for sure. Since I was heading into town, I just put on all my insulation layers except my puffy and set off down the flat, straight road. I did find some broken glass under my tent when I packed it up in the morning. That’s pretty awesome. I didn’t see any obvious damage to the tent though.

Not much to say about the walking today. I went down the perfectly straight, flat road for several more miles until I hit the highway. Then I turned and walked down the perfectly flat and straight highway for six more miles to get to Colorado City. Both were as uneventful as you would expect. I didn’t try to catch a ride to Colorado City since I thought I might do an alternate and hike through Colorado City.

When I got to town, the first thing I came across was the grocery store, which had a fast-food restaurant inside it and Wi-Fi and pretty much any grocery you can want. I got a burger as soon as the fast-food place opened, along with fries and a drink, and then I set out to do my shopping. I didn’t really need much food since I’ve only got two days to finish the trail. However, because I only have two days, I decided to have as much fresh food as possible since the weight doesn’t matter as much. Also, for my last night, I wanted to do something special. At the meat counter, I asked if they had a frozen ribeye. They did, and they vacuum-packed it for me. I’ll keep that in the freezer overnight and let it thaw during the day when I’m hiking tomorrow, along with stuff to go with it and a couple of other luxury items.

I called the B&B where I was staying to check out a couple of things, and Kristi said that she was actually headed to the grocery store shortly and she could just pick me up and check me in early. Can’t really beat that. Shortly, I was at the B&B, which also had laundry for the first time in 15 days. However, the very first thing I did was take a shower. Fifteen days is too long for that. I got all cleaned up and settled and figured out the logistics for the rest of my trip.

When my laundry was done, I went to the town brewery/pizza place. It was halfway between lunch and dinner, but I definitely got the hiker hunger, so that didn’t stop me from having another meal for sure. I had a 12-inch pizza and some beer. Then I headed back to the B&B because they invited me to join them for dinner: trout and a baked potato and some lemon cake for dessert. I had four meals today, plus my snacks—the life of a thru-hiker in town. Highly recommend Zion’s Backyard B&B.

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Hayduke Trail Day 51

Yeti — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 02:18:04 +0000

Start: Robinson Wash

Finish: Sandridge Wash

Daily Mileage: 25.4

Trip Mileage: 913.0

Elevation gain/loss: 1849/1054ft

The wind calmed down overnight, although there was still a gust every now and then. I was on the road as soon as it was light enough to walk. I finished up Hatch Canyon, climbing out through the end of the canyon. The walls gradually got lower and lower as I approached the end of the drainage, and then they just disappeared. I touched the very end of the canyon wall since that’s my last trace of the Grand Canyon.

Then I was into the Arizona strip. The canyons and cliffs suddenly disappeared, and I was in low rolling hills, back in cow country. I was going to be on BLM roads for the rest of the day. I hit the roads and kept moving since it was cold and windy. I had to have my hard shell and gloves on.

A couple of miles in, I came across a hunter’s camp next to the road I was on. They asked me if I was all right, saying they didn’t expect to see anyone walking out here, and I explained what I was doing. They said they had just finished breakfast and put it away unfortunately but rooted through their stuff to see if there was any food to give me. I ended up with a tortilla with cheese and tomato and bananas and apples. It was about 9:00 a.m., and they even asked me if I wanted a beer. I said, “Why not?” and they gave me two Bud Lights. It’s pretty much water anyways. I hung out, we chatted, and they tore down their camp for about an hour before I headed on. Thanks to Landon and his crew!

Then it was more Arizona Strip. The strip is pretty much just a desolate area. It’s almost flat, and there are no trees or anything; it’s just perfectly flat desert. Not really exciting at all, especially since I’m just on roads through here. Some of the roads were perfectly straight, and I just had to follow them for miles. No traffic since they’re backcountry tracks, just cow traffic. I definitely had to put on an audiobook to keep me going today.

About halfway through the day, I passed Yellowstone Springs, which had good flowing water and ended my approximately 40-mile water carry. I ended up seeing water a number of places in between when I picked up water and now. Some flowing water yesterday which I mentioned, and several cow ponds today. The hunters also obviously offered me some water, but that’s not something I would have planned on.

There was some cool terrain around Yellowstone Springs with red and yellow layers of rock and then layered stone sand dune-type things. That was about the highlight of my day, which isn’t saying a whole lot. That area even had some junipers which got me excited for possible shelter at the end of the day, but the juniper quickly disappeared, and I was back to an even flatter, more barren, desert.

It was really just a grind, and I wanted to go as far as I could this afternoon to make tomorrow shorter into town. I ended up getting a little less than 5 miles from the road into town, which was what I aimed for. It was windy the entire day, and there was nothing for me to really shelter behind for camp. I set up on the downwind side of a sage bush, which is the best and saddest shelter I could find. There’s just nothing around here. It’s a horrible spot too, in the middle of a cow trail, lumpy, and there is a ton of tumbleweed and other pickers that I had to clear out to set up my tent. Hopefully, I got enough cleared that my tent and pad won’t be punctured overnight.

I hid in the lee of my tent, did my dinner and chores, and the wind died down a little bit as it got dark. I think it’s going to be a pretty cold night, and hopefully, the wind isn’t too bad. I watched the sunset, but it was under high-voltage power lines, so not the most scenic thing in the world. Not an exciting trail today, but it’s needed to connect up the areas.

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Hayduke Trail Day 50

Yeti — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 02:18:04 +0000

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.

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Hayduke Trail Day 49

Yeti — Sat, 20 Nov 2021 02:18:04 +0000

Start: Deer Creek

Finish: Showerbath Spring

Daily Mileage: 17.2

Trip Mileage: 863.4

Elevation gain/loss: 9647/9095ft*

*My GPS was very confused today with the steep canyons, so I’m not sure if this is accurate. Felt like it from my exhaustion.

I slept great last night and was up for the hike slightly before the sun was. Since I had already been through the narrows and seen Deer Creek Falls yesterday, I decided just to hike through the narrows with my headlamp to get going. After the narrows, I headed off on what looked like an old trail that I had noticed yesterday. It didn’t go straight along the river; this trail went in the same direction at a higher elevation. It worked out for the most part, aside from a couple washed-out parts and a couple of slips.

The main event for today was approximately 7 miles of completely off-trail hiking along the banks of the Colorado River to get me from Deer Creek to Kanab Creek. I hadn’t really been looking forward to this, but I figured I could power through it. The game trail or old trail took me down to the river in not too much time, so if nothing else, it was a little shortcut. For the next several miles, it was pretty much just looking for any game trail that I could find. At first, there were decent game trails and some cairns, presumably from other Hayduke hikers. I’m not sure who else would be going down the river like this not in a raft or kayak.

There were some pretty good game trails for the first part that made it relatively easy to traverse. However, the game trails and the hiker trail seemed to both disappear for the most part after 3 miles. Occasionally, I could get to a game trail, but they didn’t tend to last too long. That left me pretty much boulder hopping, wandering up and down the slope trying to find the most efficient way. It was utterly exhausting! I’m good with rock hopping, but it was just absolutely continuous jumping between large boulders every step of the way. Most of the time, the river went right up to the rocks, but occasionally, there was a little bit of beach I could walk along. It always disappeared way too quickly, though. I did make good progress down the river, and rapids came and went, but seven miles is a long way to walk with no real trail on a steep and very rocky riverbank.

Sadly, it was empty

I started to run out of energy with about a couple of miles to go. I just had to keep pushing myself to move forward. I kept looking at my GPS; I could see that I was making progress and could see how far I had come from when I started. And in the end, I told myself that I could not allow myself to take lunch until I got to Kanab Creek. And I was hungry too from all the hard hiking. I had a number of slips, but nothing too bad, and was constantly being tugged at by thorn bushes, stabbed by branches, and scraped by rocks. And they also tore my pack a little bit more and yet again.

I rounded a corner; I could see Kanab Creek and the rapids it generated. I made it! Those were some really tough miles! I threw down my pack and sat down for a much-deserved break and devoured my lunch. It was about noon when I got there, and I left camp just before 7:00, so I was only going slightly more than a mile an hour.

Even after my lunch, I was mentally and physically wiped, more tired than I can remember hiking. I didn’t particularly want to keep hiking, but I definitely needed to. I’ve got a big waterless stretch coming up, and I wanted to get as close to the beginning of that as possible today, so I would only have one night dry. I’ve also only got so much food left and need to do some bigger miles to get to my next town stop before I run out.

I started up Kanab Creek, which was flowing pretty good. I almost immediately jumped in and started the back and forth creek crossings typical for hiking up these creeks. I would be crisscrossing back and forth for the rest of the day. The canyon itself was spectacular with enormous canyon walls much higher than on the river in the Grand Canyon. While the Grand Canyon is pretty deep, you usually only see one tier of cliffs, and several more tiers are usually hidden from you above. This was just a single immense tier straight up.

As nice as the canyon was, I couldn’t really enjoy it at first because of my exhaustion from the start of the day. I just had it in my head to pound the miles. It’s unfortunate because it was such a great canyon. I even put on an audiobook briefly but quickly turned it off because I felt it was disrespectful for a place like this.

Kanab Creek is pretty rocky, and there is no easy way up it. I would cross to the side that was more open and travel upstream on rocks the whole way. There were only brief stretches of sand to walk on, so it’s pretty slow going, picking my way upstream. It also had enormous boulders, often in the stream. They were the size of small houses at times. It was tricky to get around them at times with a little bit of scrambling. Scrambling was a little bit more difficult since the rocks were worn smooth by the river, and my shoes were caked with mud constantly.

As I went up the creek, my mood gradually improved, and I scarfed as much food as I could. Tom gave me some of his extra food yesterday, and I destroyed that in addition to my full ration plus one extra bar for today. I think the sugar helped pick me up, especially after my Snickers. I wound upstream until I got to Showerbath Spring. It’s like a rain shower underneath a ledge with lots of ferns and vegetation growing from it. Hikers had told me that this was the last place to get water upstream, but Kanab Creek is still flowing pretty good, so I’ll be able to go up it further before I have to camel up.

I was about to head on, and I looked at my clock and noticed that it was already 5:00. It would be getting dark in about a half hour, and there was a flat spot where I could set up camp at the spring. I decided to do that since I had only seen two or three spots the entire afternoon to camp. I didn’t want to get caught trying to go upstream in the dark. That would have been a disaster\, especially with as exhausted as I was from the day’s hike.

I set up camp and did my chores as it got dark. I repaired my pack’s pocket for the fourth time and one of the water bottle holders that tore. I almost lost my filter today through that hole. My back mesh pocket also has some bigger holes, and I put my bandana up against it to prevent anything from falling out. This pack is just barely going to make it to Zion!

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Hayduke Trail Day 48

Yeti — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 02:18:04 +0000

Start: Crazy Jug Canyon

Finish: Deer Creek

Daily Mileage: 9.4

Trip Mileage: 846.2

Elevation gain/loss: 1812/3256ft

I didn’t set an alarm since I had another shorter day today, but I was still up unusually early. It’s so much better than waking up to the alarm clock, though.

I continued down Saddle Canyon, which now had flow from Crazy Jug. However, the flow wasn’t very much, so it didn’t make travel difficult. It was the typical weave back and forth across the stream, but I mostly just followed the stream bed as the footprints of the others ahead of me had. Travel went pretty well, and I made good time. The canyon walls closed in and opened up, alternating back and forth. There was one section which was really scenic with tighter canyon walls but still enough room for a bunch of cottonwoods to grow. The cottonwoods still had half-green leaves on them while the other half were just starting to change. Surprisingly, not everything is changing down here yet.

I approached a side canyon coming in which had the source of Tapeats Creek. My guidebook made it sound like this creek can be sketchy to cross, and at times you may just have to turn around. However, it’s about impossible to go back the way I came since I went down some chutes that are pretty much irreversible. So it pretty much leaves you in a tough spot where you have to go forward. I wasn’t really concerned since it’s not spring melt or anything like that, but as I approached the stream, I could hear an alarmingly thunderous roar coming from it, and I began to fret. It did not sound like anything that would be remotely crossable.

I did come across a big campsite and then some worn paths picked up heading down the canyon. It’s always promising to see a good treadway where people have traveled before. It gave me a little bit of confidence that it might be possible to continue downstream. I got to Tapeats, and the stream was raging very quickly and cascading downwards with often white water. However, it didn’t look impossibly deep as long as I crossed at the right spot. However, the way trail picked its way through ledges above the stream for a while, so I gladly followed and figured I would stick with the path as closely as I could since it appeared well-traveled.

The canyon tightened up, and it was obvious that I was going to need to do some dancing in the stream. The way trail went sharply down to the stream, and I even had to put my pack on my haul line so I could do some vertical down climbing. I could see that the way trail went across the stream and picked up on the other side. I decided to feel it out and see what the water was like at a good crossing point. Turned out it was slightly less than knee-deep, at least where I crossed, and though the water was really fast, it was good enough for me to cross, though not something I would want to spend much time in.

I continued down a series of way trails weaving back and forth across the stream as necessary, but it was still great that I could follow the way trails since otherwise, I would have spent a lot of time in the roaring stream due to brush on the banks. I’m not at all doing this trail to try to have a trail-free experience, and it’s nice to follow some trail at times. After my first couple of crossings, my confidence went up that I can do this as long as I was careful with my crossings and picked my spots well.

I worked my way downstream and it turned into a nice scenic hike with steep canyon walls going through different layers of the Grand Canyon. However, I knew my next obstacle was coming up. I would have to do one final crossing of Tapeats Creek but after it was joined by Thunder River. I’ve seen Thunder River before and wasn’t really looking forward to the crossing of the combined outflow of both rivers. I got to their confluence and found a spot that was wide but only about knee-deep, and I was able to get across. I definitely let out a sigh of relief after I was done with that crossing. That also put me back on official Grand Canyon Trail!

Since I joined Thunder River at the confluence with Tapeats Creek, I followed it upstream, and I would follow it its entire length to its source. However, Thunder River is the shortest river in the world, and that didn’t take all too long. Thunder River has got to be about the most vertical river in the world too, especially considering its short length. It’s just a series of cascades and waterfalls that the trail went up as close to as it could. It’s an amazing river with how vertical and how much white water there is in it.

I got up to its source, which is literally a hole in the canyon wall. The entire river is basically a spring just cascading forth from a hole in the rock. I’ve been here before and didn’t get to the actual source because it felt too exposed to me, but I did take a second look this time around and I didn’t see a less exposed route, so I didn’t make it to the actual source this time either.

I did take a good break next to the biggest waterfall on Thunder River, which was fantastic to feel its power.

From there, I climbed up into Surprise Valley where the trail cut across the Esplanade for a few miles. A nice high view point for the canyon around me. But I was due to descend back towards the Colorado for the day, so I started down towards Deer Creek. It was steep at times but no big deal, still nice to be on official trail. I got to the creek, went down a stream, and set up camp right before the Deer Creek Narrows since this is where my permit is for. Another short hiking day, but I wasn’t sure how the start today was going to go this morning.

I had two or three hours to kill, so I went through Deer Creek Narrows slowly and took a bunch of pictures before I headed down to the Colorado River to see Deer Creek Falls. I just did this as a day hike, carrying my pack with my food.

I got down to the falls and just sat there for a couple of hours, enjoying the falls and the Colorado. It’s mesmerizing to watch the moving water, almost as good as a campfire. I planned out my last few days of this leg of the trip and just relaxed.

When it was getting later, I headed back up and was getting situated in camp when someone came walking down the trail on the other side of the river, calling out if anyone was around. He looked sort of like a ranger, and I debated not saying anything since that could only be trouble, but I decided he probably wasn’t a ranger calling out like that, and I thought worst case maybe he needed some help. I spoke up, and he said that he was camped upstream with a group and they had food and beverages to share. Didn’t take much more of an invitation for me to gather up my stuff and head up there.

I met Tom, Mike, Christy, and Jeanette, and true to his word, Tom set out an elaborate spread with meats, cheeses, nuts, jam, and assorted olives. Fantastic, and he also passed around some brown wine! Quite a lively group, but it was nice to have some company. I saw one hiker in the distance today, and other than that, these were the first people I’d seen in 3 days. Quite a stretch for being in a busy national park. We hung out and chatted and had dinner before we each wandered off to our tents. A good day; I’m glad that my two-day downclimb of Saddle Canyon went well, and it turned out to be fun for the most part, though there were a couple of hairy moments.

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Hayduke Trail Day 47

Yeti — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 02:18:04 +0000

Start: Near North Bass Trailhead

Finish: Crazy Jug Canyon

Daily Mileage: 8.8

Trip Mileage: 836.8

Elevation gain/loss: 916/4654ft

I was awake when my alarm went off at quarter to five. I wanted to hit the trailhead at first light, and I had about an hour to get there, so I got up and started packing accordingly. It was a clear, cold night, and I’m sure it was below freezing, but I had the motivation to get this day started so I could tackle its challenge.

I don’t really like night hikes, but it was just necessary here. At least I was just going along the enclosed 4×4 track, not through some exposed scenic vistas. I was constrained to the muted glow of my headlamp but made good time marching along the road. I got to the trailhead just as the sun was starting to color the sky oranges and pinks. I snapped a couple of quick shots and headed down the trail, which would switch back down to Muav Saddle, where I took a brief stop at Theodore Roosevelt cabin. It’s not actually his cabin, but he was rumored to camp at the spot when he was hunting mountain lions in the when he was president. I took off my extra layers and prepared for the hard part of the day.

Today’s goal was to do Saddle Canyon up to Crazy Jug Canyon. Saddle Canyon is the most notorious section of the Hayduke Trail and is considered the most difficult and slowest section of the trail. I had read many journal entries where it took people all day to go five miles to Crazy Jug. That was in the spring, though, when there’s more sunlight. That’s why I wanted to start in the canyon as early as I could in the day to make sure I could get to Crazy Jug.

Saddle Canyon is completely trailless. I started off my descent following a trace of a wash through brush. The brush wasn’t actually too bad, and I did make pretty good time through it. About half the time I was in the wash, and the other half of the time I was skirting the sides when the wash got too brushed in. I pretty much tore through that first area at just slightly below my normal pace. That started to give me confidence that I’d have the time to complete the canyon today. However, I still had a long way to go and the biggest challenges.

I came across a couple of flowing streams from springs early on, which weren’t even in my guidebook. I can’t blame myself for carrying the extra water, but I’m starting to flag stuff like this for future hikers. The bushwhacking alternated between scrub oak and various small thorn bushes, but there was a large section that was burned out where just stubs of former trees remained. Made it easier for me to travel, though the ground was a bit looser, and obviously I would have preferred it was not burned out.

The wash got bigger as I went and became the obvious travel path where I was no longer leaving its course. I navigated around my first three or four pourovers, which just involved some light scrambling around the sides. I kept a sharp eye out for cairns which would guide me around a large pourover. I heard that many hikers missed it and had to backtrack. I didn’t have good data on my maps for this section since it isn’t trail, just pure bushwhacking. The guidebook is wrong, and the other GPS data that I could find is similarly wrong. I found a cairn right where I thought it would be which lead me along a cliff edge to a raised spit of land between two canyons. This was reported to be a very difficult and exposed scramble, but I thought it was pretty easy. Nothing too challenging about it or exposed at all.

Once I got to the top of the spur, there were some cairns and a faint path leading down the spur back into the canyon. I looked at my mileage at this point and now was already about halfway through this trail section in only an hour or two! That led me to take a break to take in the canyon.

It took some winding around to get down the spur but not too bad. At one point, I slipped a little bit and grabbed a bush which broke off in my hand, but luckily I grabbed another one to prevent me from falling down a cliff band. It was a lot of loose rock up there. I made my way down towards the end of the spur and got back into the wash for Saddle Canyon. In this canyon, since it’s trailless, I’ve been able to see Sloppy Joe’s footprints in addition to the mystery hiker ahead of both of us. It’s been a while since I’ve seen his footprints, probably a month or so. I don’t know if he skipped the middle of the trail or if the rain just wiped out his footprints at some point. It’s always good to see other hikers’ footprints that I know, especially in trailless sections like this.

After I rejoined Saddle Canyon, it shortly narrowed down into a slot canyon. In the slot canyon, there were a ton of pourovers. These are the infamous chutes that I had heard about. A lot of the pourovers had a puddle at the end of them, but almost all of them had an easy way to scramble around. One I had to get out my haul line and lower my pack before I did some straight down climbing, but it wasn’t too bad.

For a couple of miles, Saddle Canyon was just a moving puzzle. I constantly encountered obstacles and pourovers and puddles of unknown depths, and I had to figure out how to get around or through them. I kept my feet dry for a long time. Then I came to a pourover where the walls closed in on either side. I saw footprints going through the puddle at the bottom, so I supposed that the other hikers had scrambled on one of the walls, but it was a bit steep and exposed for my liking. So, I climbed down a chock rock which, in and of itself, was pretty sketchy. There was nowhere to even lower my pack, so I had to climb with my pack on. I was able to lower myself down, but the bottom was muddy and sloped away from me. I played slip and slide on the bottom until I decided to screw it and just ended up walking through the puddle, getting my feet wet for the first time.

The pourovers continued, and I came to a few that were basically water slides into a puddle. One of them I pretty much just had to sit down and slide down it into the puddle. I was able to wedge myself on the sides of the chute to have a controlled descent, but I still ended up sitting in the puddle at the end since it was slippery. I had packed all my stuff to where I could probably dunk my pack and be okay, but that was about the closest I got to wetting my pack today. A couple more tricky pourovers, and then I came to another big one. However, there was a trail up some sketchy scree to go around it and eventually drop down. The scree wasn’t too fun since it was really loose. I made it, though.

I was getting pretty close at this time to Crazy Jug but was also starving, so I took a quick lunch break. After lunch, as I was starting to approach Crazy Jug, I saw some big mountain lion prints in the wash. Awesome to see close to where I’ll be camping! I finished, I made it to Crazy Jug, which is where I had to stop for the day for my permit. It’s got a flowing stream, and I found a flat sandy camp spot not far from it. However, it was just after 12:00, so I had a lot of time to go today. Considering all of the daunting information on the internet, I’m amazed at how quickly this went for me today. I do like this type of challenging terrain that’s a puzzle that you have to put together on the fly. I really excel at challenges like this. However, I still don’t like exposed scrambling, though. There was a fair bit of that today. Most of the drops wouldn’t have been too far anyways.

I set up camp, and since I had a flowing stream, I washed my clothes as best I could and washed up myself as well. Then I set to repairing my pack. The brushy trail took a toll on it today. The water bottle holders on each side failed, so I sewed those back up, and my left hip belt pocket got a hole too, which I also fixed. That’s the third time I’ve repaired both of my water bottle holders and hip belt pocket. This trail is just not nice to stuff like that, though it is also an old pack with old material. I had planned that this trail was this pack’s last.

The sun set behind the canyon walls in very early afternoon, and I just relaxed by my remote stream, likely the only person for many miles.

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Hayduke Trail Day 46

Yeti — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 02:18:04 +0000

Start: North Rim Campground

Finish: Near North Bass Trailhead

Daily Mileage: 26.9

Trip Mileage: 828.0

Elevation gain/loss: 2836/3202ft

The wind howled last night, just like the last time I camped on the edge of the North Rim several days ago. However, it barely hit my tent, just like last time too, so that was nice. It was relatively warm, actually. The wind was blowing up from the canyon, and maybe that had something to do with it. I could walk just 100 yards away from the rim, and it got a lot colder.

I watched the sunrise from the rim since I didn’t have to hit the trail first thing. It was absolutely spectacular with some clouds near where the sun was coming up and amazing colors that were reflected off them from the sun. Probably one of the best sunrises that I’ve ever seen.

I had a leisurely start to today because I had to pick up my resupply from the general store. They didn’t open till 9:00, but the clerk said that she was usually there by 8:00, so I got there by 7:30. A few minutes after that, the clerk rolled up to drop off some supplies, saw me and immediately jumped back into a truck and took off. A minute later, she came blazing back down the road and said, “Oh, you probably wanted to resupply, right?” She got in a truck so fast I didn’t have a chance to say anything, so I was glad that she came back so I could get an earlier start. I got my supplies and then headed off to the backcountry office to get some water. I grabbed seven liters since I’m probably not going to see water until tomorrow night. It was cool and cloudy, and I didn’t expect to drink a lot of water during the day today, but I wanted to be safe with the 7 liters.

I got all my food and water loaded up into my pack, and I estimate that it weighed 45 lb. I should have just weighed it on the scale at the backcountry office, but I didn’t really want to know. It’s a pretty decent load since I was planning to do some big miles today, though it was mostly flattish. Also, since I just threw the water on the food straight into my pack, I didn’t have it packed that well, so it’s a bit of an awkward carry. The load is probably at or above the load limit on my pack, so it doesn’t carry as well as a pack that is heavier duty.

My entire day today was walking forest roads out towards the North Bass Trailhead. The entire day. Even though it’s on a road, I didn’t see a single person. The road was buried in the forest, and there was only one time that it even went out to the canyon rim, so it was really just quite the grind today with little in the way of jaw-dropping scenery.

My heavy load was really cutting into my shoulders, especially my right shoulder. I tried adjusting my straps all around and probably ended up spending a good portion of the day holding my right strap to get it off my shoulder. Towards the end of the day, I began to think maybe my shoulder was just sore and not just pressure from my pack. My pack is a lighter weight, so it might not have been meant to carry 45 lbs. either. Today I pretty much just had to plug in an audiobook all day and go. I just had to make progress to get as close as I could to the North Bass Trailhead so tomorrow I can maximize my time to descend back into the Grand Canyon.

I wanted to get slightly further than where I stopped for the day, but I was getting pretty sore, and I didn’t want to stress my body too much, so I decided to stop two to three miles early. I can easily do those tomorrow morning.

There’s really not much more to say today. Not an exciting day, an uncomfortable pack weight, muscles were complaining towards the end of the day, and soar.

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Hayduke Trail Day 45

Yeti — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 02:18:04 +0000

Start: Cremation Creek

Finish: North Rim Campground

Daily Mileage: 18.9

Trip Mileage: 801.1

Elevation gain/loss: 7014/2425ft

I didn’t sleep well last night at all. I was on a slight slant, but I don’t think that had anything to do with it. I was up and at it as soon as it was light enough once again. The other people in the area were still in their tents, stirring a little bit.

I had just a little bit more trail on the Tonto Trail before I hooked up with the main hiker highway between the North and South Rim. The trail went quick and easy, and I enjoyed a nice sunrise along the way. I got to the hiker highway, and it was a very wide dusty path filled with mule droppings and debris. The Park service uses mules to get supplies in and out of Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. After being on the small trails for a while, I didn’t really like this huge multi-use thoroughfare.

I was on the south side of the Colorado and had to cross over to the north side to climb up, so I had to go down to the Colorado River a little over a thousand feet to hit a bridge. A lot of the trail today was blasted from the mountains years ago to carve the way down through the steep cliffs. I’ve never minded that kind of trail work since it makes trail possible in a lot of places where it wouldn’t be otherwise.

Across the big suspension bridge over the Colorado River, and there were some Pueblo ruins with plaques explaining them. I was looking at the ruins and reading the plaques when a mule train told me to get out of the way so they could pass. Then, they proceeded to stop in front of the ruins for a lecture to the tourists riding on the mule train, blocking me from seeing or hearing. I thought that was incredibly rude, and it really upset me that they kicked me out of the area when I’m paying to be here as well, just so they could park in the spot that I was in. It really pissed me off in addition to all the mule shit I was walking through, and I just waved them off and stormed down the trail.

I got to Phantom Ranch, and it was just a tourist haven filled with the stink of mules and really busy, and I was completely turned off by this entire area. It was just a cesspool, and I wanted to get the hell out of there. More wilderness for me. Yesterday was fine, but for the past few days, I was constantly being buzzed by helicopters flying tourists over the canyon. What’s wrong with just having a wilderness experience in the National Park? I’ve really enjoyed the park itself but am turned off by all the catering to the tourists.

I really put the afterburners on, leaving Phantom Ranch as quickly as I could. I was doing 3.5 mph uphill, which is pretty good for me. I stormed through the narrow Bright Angel Canyon, and I just couldn’t enjoy it because I was upset. It took me probably an hour and a half before I calmed down and started to look around and enjoy the scenery again.

Shortly, I came to the turnoff for Lower Ribbon Falls. I did the short side trail and was glad that I did. The waterfall comes off a spout and drops straight down onto a mound of moss that has grown. The waterfall then streams down the side of it — an incredibly scenic area. You can even walk behind the waterfall, and it has a pool at the bottom — an extremely idyllic spot, and I’m glad that I took the short detour. The Park service took out the bridge to get back to the trail, but it was an easy rock hop for me across.

From there, I hit a little bit of sun finally. It had been cool and good hiking weather up to this point, but the sun started drawing the sweat out of me. It wasn’t too bad, though the temperature wasn’t too high. I made good progress climbing up and enjoying the Bright Angel Canyon unfolding in front of me. There are so many colors, and I was just marching upwards through the layers of the canyon since I was going from bottom to top.

Most of today was just about climbing. Climbing, climbing, and climbing. The climb is about 6,000 ft. of gain in a single climb, which I think is the biggest single climb I’ve ever done in my life. It went pretty well though. There was water a couple of places along it, and my food load was light since I was resupplying at the top, so I was able to just cruise up it and didn’t really feel the elevation gain. It was such a spectacular canyon to climb up, with so many colors, and the trail was really cool winding on narrow edges to work its way up.

I climbed, and I climbed, and eventually, I got to the top! It was not as bad as I was thinking. I am in pretty good shape since I’ve done a lot of miles on this trip already, but I’ve not done a ton of straight-up climbing like this on this trip. Most of the canyons I’ve gotten in and out of are a thousand feet max, with rare exceptions.

On top, I found running water at the backcountry office bathroom and got rid of my trash and cleaned up a bit, hiker style. Or rather, hiker trash style in the bathroom sink. I found the backcountry campsite and claimed a spot on the very edge of the North Rim looking into the canyon. A friendly ranger helped me get power to recharge all my stuff, which was surprisingly hard to find. I was able to watch the sunset over the canyon straight from my campsite. An amazing view!

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