Miles: 13, easy

We finished section one of the Hayduke on top of Hurrah Pass, a nice steady climb with a great view on either side. We had a snack and headed down toward the Colorado. This side was a bit rougher, though still popular with ORVs, OHVs and Jeeps. We also saw a few mountain bikers, but no other walkers.

As we got down further the people thinned out and it got quiet. After a while an old rwd Chevy pickup pulled up beside us headee the same way. “Where you headed?”

“To Zion,” Dave said, “We’re hiking the Hayduke trail.”

He nodded and said, “Yeah, I’ve seen folks like you coming through.” Then he tried convincing us we needed to stay just ahead at the bed and breakfast. I said we were headed to the river and down a ways to camp, and he said there’s no camping at the river, that’s too far. He offered to drive us down to the B&B, saying he owned the land on either side. We said thanks and said we’ll go ahead and walk.

Whether on bicycles or on foot, it seems some people can’t understand that, 1) we want to be out here doing this, and 2) we can really get somewhere under our own power. That second one I admit is hard to understand until you do it.

When we got to the next turn indicated by our book, it happened to be right next to the one for the B&B – and it was posted with a sign:

NO TRESSPASSING
Violaters will be prosecuted

Well, that was our way down to the river to get water. So Dave checked the route ahead and the topos and saw that we could continue down the road on BLM land and make our way down the next drainage to the river. And we did. Therw was even a jeep track to make it easy. We saw the man in the truck about three short miles back.

We made pur camp on a sand burm at the edge of the river. We had a rest day planned for tommorow and would enjoy being close to the water. We quickly washed up in the chilly water and then made dinner.

This night whenever we awoke we heard a fiesty beaver splashing around in the river.

TRAIL NOTES:
Can’t make the turn now at mile 2.7 so either try to get water or stay at Adventure Lodge B&B or continue to about mile 5 and follow wash to river.