Adventures in Onionism

I finished thru-hiking the Hayduke Trail two weeks ago. It was an incredible experience. Overview:   The Hayduke Trail isn’t a trail, it’s a route. It’s a mix of trailless canyons, washes, gullies, jeep roads, some trail, and a tiny amount of pavement. The route connects many of the highlights of the Colorado Plateau in Utah and Arizona. It takes you through Arches, Bears Ears, Canyonlands, Glen Canyon NRA, Capitol Reef, Grand Staircase, Bryce, Grand Canyon, and Zion. The route is approximately 800 miles long, and it took us 5.5 weeks, September 8 to October 15. We hiked westbound from Moab to Zion, and everything written here is from that perspective. I would rate this hike as very difficult, somewhat on par on a per-mile basis with my previous trips to Alaska or the Sierra High Route. The route includes significant class 3 scrambling. The weather was very hot, resupplies are far apart, and there was not a lot of water, so we had to carry heavy packs, and doing this scrambling w...

We finished the Hayduke Trail today. Got up and hiked down into the East Fork of the Virgin River. Aside from a hunter who was glassing the valley shushing us when we were discussing navigation, we didn't see anyone. (Side note: after discussing it, we think there were two days in which we saw no other humans, but zero days in which we saw no other humans or cars in which a person would probably come back to by the end of the day.) The East Fork was freezing cold, but the aspen were gorgeous. We entered right about Rock Canyon, and there are some petroglyphs just opposite there. We explored upstream a bit but not too far; adding freezing creek crossings seemed unnecessary. But descending was of course also cold, we basically had to cross the creek every few minutes. It obviously got warmer as the day went on, so it was fine. We stopped at Poverty Wash, where I went all the way to the grotto and a brief narrows at the end. It's worth checking out, though you just walk in the bru...

Walked the highway frontage OHV trail to the edge of town and the soon-to-be old location of Bee's Marketplace, the local grocery (they're currently building a bigger new location right on the highway a bit further north). Bought way too much food. Check the expiration date on your grocery store pastries, kids.  Then walked through town, stopping at the post office to pick up even more food, send a couple things home, and pet a stray dog. None of the four people at the Post Office, including two employees, live in town, so they couldn't tell me where to pick up a used paperback. (I finished Ed Abbey's terrific Fire on the Mountain. The plot and its politics are a little simplistic but the description of the desert ranch life is beautifully evocative.)  Got coffee and verified with NPS that the East Rim Trail to Observation Point is in fact closed. So that means our hike essentially ends with the Barracks section of the East Fork of the Virgin River, which is actually su...

Walked 6 or 9 miles to highway 89 and hitched into Kanab. The spot where we were hitching was rough since people were going 80 miles an hour, but a woman turned around and came back for us. Took care of our post office, gear, and food resupplies, and we could have been ready to hitch back to the trail by noon. But we stayed the night, so I wrote postcards at the library, then managed to thread the needle by finding a restaurant that has outdoor seating, serves beer, requires mask, and has vegan options (Wild Thyme). The bakery was also excellent. Kanab is a decent resupply town but it is less pleasant to walk around than Moab, as there are basically no crosswalks. Just run (hobble with a pack full of 7 days of food) across four lanes whenever. I found an Ed Abbey paperback at the thrift shop, so I'm all set. 

The morning was very nice. The night before was very cold, so we kept layers on and started walking. We filled water at Iron Spring, which tasted so metallic I could feel it in my dental fillings. Then we finished the Under the Rim Trail and enjoyed the views from Rainbow Point. We saved a mile going around Yovimpa Pass instead of around Promontory Pass, there was also good water at the pump house/well at the pass. Maybe they used to pump water from there up to Rainbow Point? Anyway, we were done with the park, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We walked on a road for a while, and then left it for a wash. It was nice, but messy from cows. The water source there was essentially dry and far too cowy to do anything with. The wash had nice fall colors, the first time we've seen red maple leaves in a canyon, I think. Unfortunately, this wash ended in Park Wash which was an awful sandy mess. It was really hot, so we were glad to come across a full stock tank with a functioning gas engine-pow...

We are technically not in Bryce Canyon National Park. We got up for hotel breakfast and picked up my package at the Post Office when they opened at 8. A little bit of pack shuffling, "Am I really going to eat these raisins?", waiting for my friend to send me her new address, her missing the cutoff, and me re-addressing the postcard to my brother after crossing out the one irrelevant sentence, and we were off.  We just walked Center Street west out of town until it became the Tropic Trail and brought us into the heart of Bryce Canyon. The guidebook HDT doesn't take you through the best part of Bryce, which is a little weird. I guess it would be difficult to make a continuous route (you'd either walk highway to Tropic, or you could skip Tropic, hike into the park in the middle and do a loop to the north to catch the best part). Nano had never seen any of it; I think this is my fourth time, but it's still awesome. We then headed south on the Under the Rim Trail. It w...

Woke up and got going a few minutes earlier than usual. Sheep Creek was sandy and not a ton of fun, as I had to keep scanning for any bits the horses hadn't yet pulverized in order to get decent footing and make forward progress in the sand. But it was only a few miles and over with relatively quickly. There was a bit of petroglyphs at the junction with Willis Creek, though there unfortunately seemed like more modern graffiti than ancient stuff. We dropped our packs and did a brief out and back excursion up Willis Creek to check out the narrows. Then we turned back and headed north again.  Pretty soon we reached the trailhead and the junction with Sketumpah(?) Road. We walked that until it hit pavement, and then quickly caught two rides to Tropic. We were in town by 11am or so. I found wifi, booked a hotel, and we spent the rest of the day writing postcards and eating. We stayed at the Canyon Villages; the room was fine, but the TV didn't have cable, so Nano again missed a chan...

Great day today. We walked a road for a mile or three in the morning, goofed around with a pair of walkie-talkies I found, and then dropped into the Pariah River and headed upstream all day. There was water the whole time, and it got cleaner and more plentiful as we went along. We saw petroglyphs, a very strong piped spring coming out of a crack in the cliffs, beautiful red cliffs, my first ever pine cone with pine nuts in it, and bear and coyote tracks. The walking was easy, unlike yesterday's sand. Toward the end of the day we turned off the Pariah into Sheep Canyon, and that became less great. Maybe an outfitter brings dozens of people here on horseback? Maybe the BLM just rounded up a herd of wild mustangs? Horse tracks the width of the canyon, and less and less water until it dried up completely. But we did finish our 20+ miles early enough that we got to do a side excursion up Bull Valley Gorge. The guidebook says it has some of the best narrows in the area. I misread "n...

Oh boy. Day started off wonderful. (Maybe I should write blog posts in the morning?) We descended into Round Valley Draw after walking next to it on a road for a few minutes, as it became a wonderful slot canyon. We had to lower our packs first to make the initial entrance descent, and one other time as well, but nothing too difficult. Sliding against sandstone on your butt would feel better in long pants though.  The slot lasted for a mile or two and then joined Hackberry canyon, which we were in for the rest of the day. It quickly became very sandy, and travel was very slow. There was never a ledge or dense strip or rocks or anything to get a decent step on, just soft and pliable sand. We took a lunch break at a spring that was supposed to have water, but the water didn't start until about a half mile later. Clearly the spring and the water underground was getting the sand wet, which for a brief, brief moment, provided relatively firm footing. But then the water was flowing, whic...

A road day but a good day, calloo, callay! Dirt road almost all day today. We climbed up Death Ridge Road (really) and got decent views of badlands-type hills (Mudhills?) from the top. We were deciding whether to follow Jamal's route across ridges to Headquarters Spring, but the ridges looked pretty nuts, so we just stuck to the road. The road did turn the wrong way a mile or two further off, but the descent down a wash was pretty easy. It was tight and brushy with juniper at the top but opened up lower and wasn't bad. The wash basically hooked us in with another road that took us to Grosvenor Arch. As soon as we hit that road, we started seeing a small handful of vehicles, and the majority of them, unprompted, slowed down and offered us water. The first guy to stop knew of Haydukers and was doing a paleontology dig nearby. So, water problem solved, it would seem. (He also said Headquarters Spring was probably dry.) Grosvenor Arch was nice, if a little diminished by car accessi...

D wasn't up for giving us a ride back down 35 (70 roundtrip) washboard miles of Hole in the Rock Road, so our choices were to try and hitch, or just walk out of Escalante. We went for the latter. A major concern was water, and we couldn't quite figure that out. Buck30 says it's bad, but Jamal says it's good. I think it's actually going to be pretty bad, but there are a couple places where we'll probably see tourists, so we will try and yogi water from them. The calculus was that this route was guaranteed (no waiting for a ride), shorter by as much as 40 miles, which should allow us to spend more time in Bryce, and the official route didn't seem to have must-see stuff. I don't think the official trail sees much (any?) of Bryce, and Mike has never been, so that seemed like an obvious choice. I've done Under the Rim, but it's worth repeating. So after 35 miles or so we'll hook into mile ~70 of this section of the Hayduke, but then on the tail en...

Stephens Canyon was dry when we hit the bottom, then dry and sandy, but then we had to avoid a dryfall on ledges, and the ledges were very fun. They looked narrow and super sketchy from afar but were easy up close. We had one more dryfall to avoid, and encountered some poison ivy, but not unbearable--we just put on long pants and long sleeves. Then we finished Stephens at the Escalante, which was awful--super brushy and muddy and the brush had thousands of aphids. But we only had to do one or two bends before climbing over a pass to Coyote Gulch and getting a great view of Stephens Arch. Coyote Gulch was pleasant and beautiful, but not epic like Stephens. Too crowded, and there's a ton of different use trails and muddy tracks and stuff. We saw maybe a dozen groups of backpackers. I'm glad others were out there to enjoy the cool flowing waters, large caves/grottos, and a few more arches (a 3 arch day!) but it would be great if BLM could try and confine the use to one single trai...

Day started off great. We were pleasantly surprised to find fairly decent water in Halls Creek, and it just kept getting better. Also we started finding solid use trail with multiple sets of footprints, so we used that to cut off several bends  in the wash. We got to the Halls Creek slot twists, and weren't up for swimming, so we took the very well marked way around them. We cut over at the end, and I dropped my pack and went in reverse up canyon to see what we skipped. It was incredible. High walls like yesterday, but with water. Only 3 inches deep mostly but there was an unavoidable pool that I briefly tested to at least waist deep.  We continued on, occasionally losing the track, but mostly following a set of fresh Brooks running shoe tracks, "Brooksy." We finished Halls Creek, took lunch, chugged water, stocked up, and started up the slickrock Baker route. The rocks were broiling, and it felt like we were in an oven. Gaining a couple thousand feet didn't help eith...

Started the morning with a climb up Burr Trail (road) switchbacks. Good views. Immediately descended into Lower Muley Twist, and the whole thing was spectacular. Huge vertical cliffs over it, and some overhanging cavern cutouts that were really fun to walk through. Like when I paddled under overhanging icebergs in Alaska, but probably less stupid. Finished the canyon around 1pm and made our way to the Muley Tanks, potholes that often hold water throughout the year. There are 6 or more of them up the slickrock face, and 2 or 3 had water, or rather, had tea. About a foot deep at the deepest and 6 or 8 feet around, covered in film, and full of bugs. I was really hoping for better, but at least it was cold, and my rear end hasn't exploded yet. I did remember to chug before leaving, so I barely needed water the rest of the day (only a few hours, but hot). Unfortunately one of my Platypus bladders sprung a leak so my capacity is reduced by a liter or so. We branched off from the main rou...

Hard day. The first two cattle troughs we saw today were dry, so we were both out of water by the time we got to this measly pair of springs. At least in the second one Nano found an earthen blockage like a dam that created a pool to fill from. We had lunch there, and I packed water out, but I forgot to chug before leaving, stupidly. Four hot miles later was Swap Canyon, and the springs there were garbage. Really just the last remnant before it goes totally dry. I actually was able to fill a bottle, but it tastes really alkaline, so I can barely stomach it. I'd say it wasn't quite as hot today, and there was wind, but it often felt like it was just sucking the moisture from my body. And the route felt very circuitous. It was traversing in and out around the head of all sorts of drainages to avoid going down any of them, but there still managed to be two descents on truly crappy dirty rock. We descended Swap Canyon and made it into Capitol Reef National Park. The sunset was amaz...

You should take the low alternate around them. Good night. 

Resupplied in Hanksville today. We had a wager about how long it would take us to get a ride. Nano said 53 minutes, I said an hour 45. It took 3 minutes. And we rode in the bed of the truck, so no COVID worries. The Post Office was friendly, I sent home old maps and my pillow and tripod, which weren't pulling their weight, though only 3 oz each. The campground regestration office where we actually sent our food drops though, was unfortunately not open and didn't open until after noon. We showered, ate, used the Internet, and finally around 4 tried leaving town. We couldn't get a ride, so I struck up convos with employees at two businesses about potential new one-time business opportunities. The first thought I was a creepy weirdo and "but I work for the government! Here's my ID, you can Google me!" did not not assuage her concerns. The second interrupted me to say "you mean the Hayduke?" and gladly accepted. So $20 later we were back on trail. Made a...

Woke up on whatever plateau we were on, traversed it a bit more, then descended into Fiddler's Cove Canyon, which was neat but short and led us to the Dirty Devil River. It was flowing about ankle deep, which was nice, but it's apparently undrinkable: silty and full of ag waste. It didn't seem silty at first, but got more so as we went upstream. It would have been wonderful if it were a couple inches shallower, we could have easily splashed along in the creek. As is, walking in the water was slow, but the shores were very slick and muddy, and the canyon is brushy otherwise, so we constantly switched back and forth. No major falls into the mud, and we were done in 2.5 hours, so I'll call it a win. We left the river for Poison Spring Canyon, which has a jeep road most of the length. We took a long lunch and slowly made our way up canyon. Passed an amazing spring set in the canyon wall and walked off with masonry to keep animals out; it felt lovely. This was at the end of ...

Woke up early to get to the Hite Outpost (a Lake Powell former marina that no longer has enough water to launch any boats) before the employee left to run errands on her day off. We hiked early and fast enough that we woke her up, so mission accomplished. I took a shower, ate junk food, and drank Gatorade. It felt amazing. She gave us a ride to the turn off for the trail (neither of us gave two turds about skipping ~2 miles of pavement walking, and she let us get out and look around on the bridge over the Colorado). She was convinced that we could not go the way we clearly had to go (and did in fact go) so that was awkward. I mean, there are cliffs involved, but it was a short class 4 chimney that only required two or three moves but did require a pack haul. I was in a pretty emotionally ragged state, it being a million degrees and all, so Nano did the heavy lifting (both our packs contained 7 or 8 L of water leaving Hite) . The smoke from the fires is coming in, and the air is pretty ...

Started out with Young's Canyon. Lots of dropping in and out around pour offs, though the monster climb in and out were well cairned. There was some poison ivy right before Youngs spills out into Dark, so I backtracked and put on my long pants for a bit. Then all the sudden, running water! Holy hell, running water! Dark Canyon was spectacular. The water was low enough to splash across almost whenever, then there were gorgeous pools easily avoided on shelves that almost always go, on both sides of the creek. So fun. I could have gone swimming seven more times if we had the food and time. At the end of the day we crushed the climb (1200 ft/mile?) out on the Sundance Trail, hurrying to get it in at last light, since trying to follow those cairns in the dark would be bad. Kept going a little more on the surface in the dark to get to a road. Aiming to get up early to get to Hite. Owner said she'd open the store for us, but she may go into town later in the day. Up to 8 blisters now....