{"id":3849,"date":"2021-10-27T20:15:10","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T03:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yetihikes.net\/wordpress\/?p=3849"},"modified":"2024-02-04T20:25:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T04:25:31","slug":"hayduke-trail-day-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yetihikes.net\/wordpress\/2021\/10\/27\/hayduke-trail-day-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Hayduke Trail Day 26"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Start: Near Cottonwood Canyon Road<\/p>

Finish: Hackberry Canyon<\/p>

Daily Mileage: 22.3<\/p>

Trip Mileage: 459.5<\/p>

Elevation gain\/loss: 684\/1913ft<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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It got cold last night, and there was frost on my tent this morning.\u00a0 As I expected, the wind died as soon as the sun went down, which is typical.\u00a0 For some reason, even though it was cold, I got up and packed up in one of my quickest times yet.\u00a0 I did want to get some trail done today to set myself up well for my next town step.<\/span><\/p>

I headed out from my protective hill back to the road, which I’d walk for a few miles till I got to my next trail.\u00a0 As I was walking the road, and a ranger pulled up to me and asked me if I was a Hayduke Hiker.\u00a0 I said, who else would be walking on this road?\u00a0 She suggested that I skip Round Valley Draw ahead because she expected it to be muddy and told me about a bypass route.\u00a0 I thought about it as I continued hiking down the road and decided that I would at least give Round Valley Draw a try.\u00a0 It had frozen last night, and the ground was hard, so I thought this might help freeze any mud in the canyon.\u00a0 Worst case, if I couldn’t do it, I could climb some small hills and be at the bypass route that the ranger suggested.\u00a0 So, there wasn’t a whole lot of risk with me at least taking a look at Round Valley Draw.<\/span><\/p>

I got to the trailhead then hiked down the wash to the draw.\u00a0 When I got to the start of the slot canyon, I was confused if I was supposed to drop in straight away or hike down the edge and then drop in.\u00a0 My guide had talked about a log that’s helpful to get into the slot.\u00a0 I saw no logs and hiked down a bit along the edge but could tell that wasn’t going to work since the floor of the valley drops deeply away.\u00a0 I went back to the head of the slot canyon and dropped in to give it a try.\u00a0 There was a big drop to get to the floor of the slot canyon.\u00a0 For the first time of this trip, I took out my haul rope and lowered my pack to the bottom.\u00a0 There wasn’t a place for me to really anchor my line to use it to help me down, so I resigned myself to just down climb.\u00a0 The drop was about 10 feet, and it was almost vertical, but there was a very small crack that I managed to jam my shoes into to carefully get down.\u00a0 Probably my toughest single move yet on this route.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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