12 miles, 5 hours

All day we walked up gradual, flat-bottom canyons: Last Chance Creek and Paradise Canyon. Both climbed so gradually we barely noticed the elevation change. It was another fast and easy day. These are the days where my mind can really wander since we’re just walking, not scrambling, bouldering, or climbing.

It snowed several times again today, which made a pretty sight but left us chilly at times.

TRAIL NOTES:
The creek had a tiny but mostly consistent flow.

12 miles, 6 hours

Last Chance Creek is very flat and the walking is easy, though because of recent rains the bottom was muddy and had quicksand in many places. The quicksand seems to be in places where silt collects and mixes with the sand.

There was not much growing and it was quite bland to begin with, but near the road it got more interesting with pinyon and juniper and sandstone walls worn with all sizes of holes.

We saw more oil shale exposed by the wash and it smelled like a garage sometimes. Sometimes our footprints in the wash bottom exposed black oily silt settled beneath the tan silt.

The wash was very cow-trampled in the upper parts. They sure make a smelly mess.

Another storm blew in last night and it snowed on us several times today.

TRAIL NOTES:
There was water all the way to the road.

18.5 miles, 10 hours

We finished Rogers Canyon and were glad to be done with it as it continued to be boulder-choked and slow. The lower part of Navajo Canyon was like walking a dirt road, with a flat, dry wash bottom. The middle part was difficult with shale slides and boulders and tons of goat heads, a massive pile of which I fell straight into after a boulder slid out from under my feet. OUCH! That got me riled up. It took me a while to realize it was kind of funny.

TRAIL NOTES:
The picture of Navajo Canyon on page 139: the canyon is on the far side of the hills shown. You can either climb over for a shortcut or walk further down the wash to get around them. There was a small pothole with good water at mile 29.5 after recent rains that you could probably count on if you’ve had recent rains.

11 miles, 10 hours

The hike today was hard, no getting around it. This is the slowest we’ve hiked, and it had to do with all the pour-offs, boulders blocking the sandy canyon floor, and steep sides to climb to get around things. But we saw the best wildlife on the trip so far. Dave spotted it first: a beautiful red fox on a ledge above us. He most looked like a cat. He was as curious about us as we were about him, and he stayed and stared at us for at least a minute. Dave got some good pictures of him, but you’ll have to wait until after the trip to see his pictures. It was really a wonderful moment to experience.

8.5 miles

We had a short but fun day! We climbed from about 4800 feet to about 7300 feet on a pack trail up to the Straight Cliffs of Fifty Mile Mountain. The view got more spectacular with every switchback. We could see a lot more snow on the Henrys from all the storms that have gone through recently. At the top I discovered a cell signal so I posted some journal notes and pictures while we ate lunch in the warm sun.

We ended the day at Mud Hole Spring, which is fenced off and the water piped into a tub. There was clean slickrock to hang out on and plenty of pinyon and juniper trees for shade. There is even a beautiful stand of aspen trees, though they were not yet leafed out.

We cooked dinner and had a great time talking with John. He had us laughing with some crazy stories from past hikes.

We caught up on rest, washing, and lots of eating today. We had buried extra treats in the cache and we really enjoyed them!

Today we got to meet John Goodman. He had emailed us back when we were in Hanksville about hiking section 7 with us and he came in time to camp with us so we could leave together in the morning. John has hiked a few sections of the Hayduke as he’s had time away from work. We immediately knew we would enjoy hiking with him and had plenty to talk about.

12 miles, 6 hours

Easter weekend should now be called boy scout expedition weekend. We’ve seen more troops than we can count. It’s strange after so many days of seeing no one at all.

The walk up Coyote Gulch is beautiful, with seeps of water coming out of the rock walls and small waterfalls and amphitheaters and slickrock ledges and arches and natural bridges. No wonder it’s a popular place.

As we left Coyote Gulch and walked up Hurricane Wash the sky clouded over and progressively looked stormier. We got to Hole in the Rock Road and then to our buried food cache and dug it up in the late afternoon. We set up the tarp in the building wind wishing there were some trees around to break the wind.

10 miles, 7 hours

We had a bit more of the Escalante to walk today, at the end of which we saw people for the first time in many days. Then we took John Goodman’s suggestion and hiked up and over the pass to Coyote Gulch and we were rewarded with a fantastic view of the back of Stevens Arch, which we had just seen from the other side down in the Escalante, and a wonderful view of Coyote Gulch and beyond. Getting up out of the canyon after so many days gives not only a new perspective on the view but does something to open the mind too.

We found the perfect camp spot at the bottom of the trail from the pass. We’re by the creek under tall cottonwoods, just in time to watch group after foot shuffling group of boy scouts tramp in for the long Easter weekend. Man, their packs are huge.

13.5 miles, 9 hours

My last post came out sounding a little arrogant, I think. And I want to be clear: we planned well but we are also subject to a lot of luck. We have had good weather for our Escalante River days and it makes a huge difference. The weather threatened to blow in another storm today but it didn’t. The difference is felt not only in the warm temperature making the many crossings pleasant, but also the lack of rain keeps the river clear and low for easier crossings. We are very thankful for the good weather!

Some of our crossing were deeper today and we had a lot more rock scrambling, making it a slower day. But it is also refreshing to be hiking along water in this section instead of the many dry washes we’ve seen.

13 miles, 8 hours

I’m sitting by a fire, sipping red tea and listening to the singing river while Dave reads beside me. I’m tired and relaxed. It was a tough day, but a fun and rewarding one.

The book describes the Escalante River portion of the Hayduke Trail as “extreme” in difficulty, and certainly it is in many ways. But we timed this hike to hit the Escalante early, well before peak flow, which is usually near the first of May. With the early start we had some cold days to get through, but we also got to the Escalante when it is flowing clear (not silty with runoff) and only shin- to thigh-deep (some Haydukers bring inflatable rafts). That makes our many crossings a day much easier. And with the current warm weather it’s pretty refreshing. There’s still plenty of bush whacking, climbing up and around boulders and sand slogging, but we’re getting used to that now.

We completed four weeks on the route today. I have to admit I sometimes had doubts I could do this. The book makes it sound completely gnarly–and it is at times. The super steep and loose slides scare me to death and sometimes make me cry. But I get past them because so much awaits and I can’t bear to miss any of it: the shapes, the colors, the vastness.

I blow on my tea and wait for the moon to rise over the high canyon wall. Some may describe the day as extreme, but this evening is going pretty easy on my soul.