tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91444995046400099852024-02-07T06:25:08.066+00:00Brian & Martina's wee walk along the watershed of the USBrian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-50916879355364857232014-06-23T03:48:00.001+01:002016-02-14T13:43:05.911+00:00Pecos Wilderness<div dir="ltr">
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On to the Southern end of the Sangre De Christo range: above Santa Fe loom the Pecos mountains. Best wildlife encounter of the trip so far. We saw herds of elk cows with calves, bighorn ewes and rams, marmots, pika, eagles and of course ravens. 35 miles and 5000 feet ascent, a high camp below a melting snow patch which provided water just under the ridge at 12500 feet. The alpine flora is about to swing into full spring mode. Simply lovely!<br />
Found marine fossils on the ridge and met a family with pack-lamas...</div>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-18293498072972655582014-06-19T19:29:00.001+01:002014-06-19T21:53:13.510+01:00Sangre de Cristo mountains backpack<p dir="ltr">The main Rockies mountains have a LOT of snow this June so we visited another range in the south east of Colorado with a little less snow for a 4 day backpack. It turned out to be a beautiful trip in a wild area where we crossed 5 high passes up to 4000m with some snow and ferocious winds to add some excitement!</p>
<p dir="ltr">Saw bear tracks, bald eagles, herds of elk with their young, marmots, plenty of beaver signs (see pic of gnawed aspen) and no people once away from the trailhead.</p>
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text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqrBKqCrcGrUADFHZy3G70OL7pHWKzfzuyRARG44A-ukQcEFbhyphenhyphenEA9jBNoubcq9dB08aYa1EzNyXwYEllCvrXT-_avg1F-sapyhIZ5uPGQWaNX3m1LQif9SdSTQl3ou3xPrDcyA1UP1As/s1600/20140617_142150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqrBKqCrcGrUADFHZy3G70OL7pHWKzfzuyRARG44A-ukQcEFbhyphenhyphenEA9jBNoubcq9dB08aYa1EzNyXwYEllCvrXT-_avg1F-sapyhIZ5uPGQWaNX3m1LQif9SdSTQl3ou3xPrDcyA1UP1As/s640/20140617_142150.jpg"> </a> </div>Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-80115468525682828352014-06-19T17:40:00.001+01:002014-06-19T21:53:12.024+01:00Colorado Rockies<p dir="ltr">We left the hot desert of southern Utah to return back to the Colorado Rockies visiting the Martin family in Montrose Colorado and doing some hikes into the Rocky mountains. It was nice to hear bubbling streams and to see lush forest and mountains again.</p><p dir="ltr">We revisited Lake City where we had resupplied in 2009 on the CDT and where our favourite cannibal in history, Alferd Packer, ate his victims and was later tried.</p>
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We have now picked up a rental car and are roaming around heading back to Colorado in general like proper tourists. No longer do we have to explain to incredulous American travellers that "we have no car" - something that seemed v hard for most to grasp if indeed it ever fully sunk in.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But we are still not done with canyons! We visited 'Zion narrows' a famous and super popular canyon hike. We managed to avoid both the heat and crowds by getting up at 4am!</p>
<p dir="ltr">Also pics of Cedar Breaks National Monument, with its cool high elevation temperatures (10,500 feet) it was lovely to visit. </p><p dir="ltr">Sent from the Sleepy Hollow motel, Green River Southern Utah.</p>
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<b>1st June Mt Carmel Junction to East Fork Virgin River 15.5 miles</b></div>
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We hitched out of Kanab and chose to rejoin the Hayduke by hiking down another route down the Virgin River from Mt Carmel junction. We started out down a jeep track following the river valley, half a mile south of the junction into an area called White Cliffs. The views out to these cliffs on either side of the wide valley were beautiful, the walking was easy for a while and the temperature today was refreshingly just warm. This was a lovely colourful hike with pink, red, yellow and white rock set against a clear blue sky.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White Cliffs</td></tr>
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Heading west, we left the jeep track, sometimes to hike through the brush on either side of the river and sometimes finding it easier to hiking down the river itself.<br />
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Dropping the rucksacks at the junction with Mineral Gulch, we explored this canyon to the north which was a worthwhile trip up a narrow steep walled canyon of Navajo Sandstone with some deep caves.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mineral Gulch</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mineral Gulch</td></tr>
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Back in the main river as the heat kicked in again, we collected the backpacks and hiked westwards as the canyon narrowed nicely with some big alcoves and deep red walls. We passed Rock Canyon where the Hayduke joined our river from the south and hiked another 4.5 miles of grand deep canyon called the Barracks- but Parunuweap is the Payute Indian name. Much of the hiking was in the roaring waters of the river itself now with the steep walls restricting hiking on the side banks -but this was fantastic hiking.<br />
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At about 18.30 we found a sandy bench to camp next to the river flanked by steep walls. We hoped for no flash floods in the night but the weather looked dry and stable overhead. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Barracks</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Barracks</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Barracks</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camp in the Barracks</td></tr>
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<b>2nd June East Fork Virgin River to Zion Weeping Wall 18.5 miles</b><br />
We were away from camp at 6.15 am splashing down the river between brilliant red steep canyon walls. As we progressed, the river got deeper and deeper, fed from many side springs such that we were thigh deep in water on occasions. After a couple of miles we reached a boulder jam where the river plunged noisily over into a deep pool. We avoided this obstacle by a climb up leftwards and then a subterranean descent down a chock stone chimney to exit below the blockage.<br />
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Back in the river we continued more easily to the 'Fat Man's Misery' junction and our exit of the canyon on the Hayduke route just beyond. The Barracks had been a wonderful experience and we were so glad we were wrapping up our Hayduke hike in such magnificent, world class scenery.<br />
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We still had 15 miles to go though, so we stopped to collect and treat some water, had some food and emptied our shoes of the gravel from so much river wading.<br />
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The exit climb was bushy and Martina spotted some poison ivy which we hoped that we avoided. But there were signs of use from other hikers as we scrabbled up through some scrub to exit onto more open slickrock slabs. With the odd cairn to help us we then continued onto easier faint trails on flatter ground as we heading north.<br />
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This was completely different to the deep canyon with red, gold and orange slick rock slabs on an undulating plateau and quite stunning in its own way. After skirting some mesas, we turned north to climb up a steep sided tree filled slot to a col. The views around here reminded us of Tuolumne Meadows in California and it had a great mountainous feel. Dropping down north through the slot like valley we passed by a couple of other parties of hikers before hitting the Zion National Park road.<br />
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It was 11.30 am now and we had been hiking for 5 hours and the heat had crept up into the 30's C so we had a stop in the shade in view of Checkerboard Mesa - a wonderfully creased slabby mini-mountain<br />
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We headed on on good trail but the heat makes for hard going. Reaching Stave Spring we find that it is all but dry with just an intermittent drip every few seconds. We had only 5 miles to hike though and soon drop into the scenic steep walled valleys that Zion is famous for. A 2,500 foot descent and we make it to our trail end and the road.<br />
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Sadly the horrid heat somewhat detracted from the splendor of Zion valley and we headed out by bus quickly to escape the furnace! We vowed to return some day to give the park the attention it deserves.<br />
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Despite the heat of our last couple of weeks in the Grand Canyon and Zion, what a fantastic hike we have had on our own version of the Hayduke. The mix of beautiful red rock canyons, riparian green waterways, dry desert plateau and high forests has won us over. The variety and challenge of the terrain from scrambling through canyons and their sidewalls, wading rivers, hacking our way through scrub and enjoying some relaxing contrast of trails and jeep tracks was brilliant. Rather than being tired of this part of the world we are desperate to return!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Slick rock hiking as we headed into Zion National Park</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Checkerboard Mesa, Zion National Park</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zion</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking down to the finish of the Hayduke Trail in Zion National Park</td></tr>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-34620056005722734312014-06-08T03:18:00.001+01:002016-06-21T20:50:26.356+01:00Exit from the Grand Canyon<b>26th May Grand Canyon South Rim</b><br />
We met up with Li Brannfors and friends Jen and Jasper who kindly let us stay with them in their South Rim national park lodgings. Today was a lovely relaxing day, catching up with things on the internet, eating lots and generally chilling out.<br />
We reserved a campsite at Cottonwood Campground for our intended crossing of the Grand Canyon tomorrow to the North Rim. Well, it was almost booked out, but we got a place in the overflow mule area!<br />
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<b>27th May Grand Canyon South Rim to Cottonwood Creek 18 miles</b><br />
Alarm at 4.30 am Utah time (3.30 Arizona time!). Thanks to Li for a great stay!<br />
Off hiking around 4.20 in the dark to reach the rim of the canyon again to start descending the Bright Angel trail into the canyon. We dropped height easily on a zigzagging path in a valley, soon heading into the shade of beautiful green cottonwoods and flowing water at Indian Creek campground.<br />
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Following good trail down easily into the inner gorge of the canyon led us into different rock types of schists and granites to the Colorado river itself. We were able to cross the river on a suspension bridge here and hiked a short distance to Phantom Ranch (this is a park lodge and campsite set in a deep side canyon near the bottom of the Grand). We made it by 8.20 am after a 10 mile easy, scenic and enjoyable descent. Both glad to have started so early though as it was already roasting (maybe 30 C) at Phantom Ranch even this early.<br />
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Picking up water, we had a look at the canteen and 1920's style chalet buildings which all look pretty nice. But we headed on and now had the uphill part of the day ahead of us climbing towards the North Rim of the canyon on the popular North Kiabab trail. The hiking was on good trails, firstly following a stream flowing through a deep canyon made of ruptured schists and pegmatites- this rock scenery was very much like that in Scotland and was familiar to us!<br />
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The heat really cranked up though after about 1 and half hours hiking when the valley opened out and we had less shelter from the sizzling sun. A stop in the shade by the river revived us after we soaked our T-shirts in the river and wore them wet to cool us a little. It worked!<br />
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It was a relief to stop at a waterfall - 'Ribbon Falls' at 11 am for another cool down. We hid there from the sun for almost 6 hours under a deep mossy overhang with stalagtites; reading, dozing and chilling out under the waterfall. Some wild mint made for delicious tea and we had some frogs for company - perfect! Our thermometer recorded 36 C in the shade.<br />
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Eventually in the evening we hiked onwards, climbing up to Cottonwood campground which remained uncomfortably hot into the late evening.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bridge over the Colorado River</td></tr>
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<b>28th May Grand Canyon Cottonwood Creek to North Rim 8 miles</b><br />
It was uncomfortably hot overnight and at 3.30 am it was still 24 C and we decided to get up and hike on. Leaving at 4.20 am in the dark felt good and the trail was clear with head torches- climbing upwards towards the rim at 9,000 feet where we hoped it would be cooler!<br />
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Above Roaring Springs the light crept in and the scenery was beautiful with red rock walls and a 'Dolomitic' style trail traversing cliff edges. We made it to the top at the North Rim after about 3 hours and it was refreshingly chilly - it felt good to wear a fleece again. Also there was Ponderosa, White fir, Douglas fir and Aspen trees around, a great contrast to the dry inner Grand Canyon.<br />
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North Rim has a national park visitor centre, lodge, campsite and lots of tourists but is quiet compared with South Rim and we liked it. We find the laid back campers store and have a relaxed coffee and cake on the veranda- excellent!<br />
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Our dinner was a luxury mix of Idaho mash potato, black beans and salad, washed down with a bottle of Chardonnay- way hey! A campsite talk by park rangers on bats ends a wonderful relaxing day after the early start.<br />
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<b>29th May North Rim rest day 4 miles</b><br />
We were both happy to chill out today and take a stroll around the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for the views.<br />
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The evening park ranger talk is 'Ravens' - a specialty and love of Martina's!<br />
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The heat of the inner Grand Canyon had been getting to us and we agree not to do the next section of the Hayduke which descends back into the canyon for a particularly tough hike where we felt that the heat would prevent us enjoying the marvelous scenery. We will need to come back earlier in spring or in autumn some day to do that!!!<br />
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Instead we decide to hike out north on the Arizona Trail tomorrow to the National Park entrance to complete a loop hike in the Grand Canyon National Park. Then to hitch back to near Zion National Park to do the final two days of the Hayduke Trail. It's disappointing not to continue on the Hayduke but we would have been miserable hiking in these hot temperatures.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the North Rim of Grand Canyon</td></tr>
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<b>30th May North Rim visitor centre to North park entrance on AZT 14 miles</b><br />
After posting our 'float box' of spare supplies at the PO to Zion National Park, we hike north at around 9.40 am on the Arizona Trail. It was easy going through green forest of aspen and ponderosa in cool conditions at 9,000 feet - hoorah!<br />
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We caught up with another hiker- Shawney(?)- running the AZT, covering 30-45 miles per day. We caught him at our walking pace because he had run up from the bottom of the Grand Canyon in the morning and had now slowed down after that huge climb. After a fun chat we leave him and hike on and reach the north entrance of the park where we quickly hitched a lift north to Jacob Lake resort.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hiking on the Arizona Trail through aspen</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brian at Jacobs Lake</td></tr>
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<b>31st May Jacob Lake to Kanab 0 miles</b>
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We took a day off today as Martina was feeling ill and we lucked out with a direct hitch to Kanab health centre (thanks!) and got taken straight away, diagnosed and antibiotics administered- our travel insurance was worth the money!Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-46281490966437341152014-05-26T20:37:00.000+01:002016-06-20T23:04:20.965+01:00Hiking along the Grand Canyon<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">22nd May Little Colorado to Escalante Creek 18.5 miles </span></b><br />
We woke at 4.45 to get some distance in before the sizzling sun hit us again. The scenery and hiking was magnificent down here but the heat- was brutal! The trail now though was excellent, contouring up above the river on sandstone terraces (the tapeats rock layer).<br />
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The sun hit us alarmingly early, so we pushed on quickly before the heat built up too much. A stop at Lava Creek, where the trail drops about 1,000 feet to the main Colorado river, was pleasant as we arrived back into the shade.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morning light on the Beamer Trail, Grand Canyon NP, at 7 am</td></tr>
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From there we hiked closer to the river and saw our rafts from yesterday float by. The rafting looks fun but despite the heat, this hiking adventure is the way to go for us! We passed the Tanner Trail campsite and another three miles on to Cardenas Creek. Here the trail climbs up away from the river for a few miles but the heat was too much for us to consider doing that in the afternoon, so we stopped under some mesquite bushes next to the river for some meager shade.<br />
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A few hours were spent dipping in the river and lazing in the semi-shade. Haze came in - possibly from a nearby fire- although it didn't cool the air much!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Riverside stop at the dry Cardenas Creek junction with the Colorado<br />
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We had dinner at 5pm and decided to hike on another 7 miles in the evening to the junction of Escalante Creek at the Colorado, which would give us a good camp with the Colorado river as a certain water source.<br />
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We set off at 6pm in deep haze with an orange globe of sun just penetrating through, but it remained sweaty and muggy. The terrain had a Mars like feel to it - exaggerated by the red haze. The character of the hiking here is unique as we climbed up the jaggy Escalante ridge with hazy views back down to the river. We walked at a flat out fast pace to make it back down to the river to camp before dark. Descending from the ridge on red soil we reached the black depths of Escalante creek which provided an enjoyable and surprisingly easy route down to the river. That was a great evening hike- we would love to do it again in clearer weather!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hazy views from the Escalante ridge down to the Colorado</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Hazy hiking!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Made it to a descent campsite just as it got dark!</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">23rd May Escalante Creek to Cottonwood Creek 13 miles </span></b></div>
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Awake early again at 4.45 am feeling fatigued after some hard, hot days! It was a rough little trail bordering the rim of 75 mile canyon, which we had to deviate round then drop back down into to reach the Colorado again. The walls of this narrow canyon were a lovely smooth quartzite and there were fantastic large white datura flowers growing here (great looking flowers that give out a scent at night to attract moths). </div>
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Wow- we then came across a fresh dead bobcat lying in the base of the canyon. It looked like it might have fallen from the rim down the cliff, poor thing.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">75 mile canyon</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bobcat</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Datura</td></tr>
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[We reported the Bobcat to the National Park when we reached south rim].</div>
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75 mile canyon opened out to the Colorado river again and we scrabbled along a great route following the river downstream including a steep climb at Papago canyon before a loose steep gully descent back to the river. A short trail along the river then led to Red Canyon, a lovely spot used as a campsite by rafters, where we took a rest and collected water from the Colorado.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Relaxing at the beach at Red Canyon for 'mid morning snacks' at 8am !</span></td></tr>
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We now said farewell to the Colorado river for a while as we followed a good climbing trail (the Tonto trail) as it steadily ascended upwards on baked terraces with boulders, cactus, agave and big views. We made it to Hance creek around lunchtime with it's small water flow amid cottonwood trees. There were campers here, our first other hikers seen in the Grand Canyon!<br />
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Next up we climbed for about 1.5 miles past Page/ Miners spring. Copper and silver were mined in the canyon in the 1890's and there are some interesting relics around.<br />
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Climbing up to the flat area of Horseshoe Mesa was fun and we then dropped steeply back down again into Cottonwood Canyon. On discovering a tiny trickle of water under cottonwood and junipers, we declared an early camp here to rest in the shade and take on more water. It stayed cloudy in the afternoon even threatening thunder which was great for us and we could relax at camp out of the fiercest heat!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Near Page Spring</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Typical Tonto trail scenery 1500 feet above the Colorado river but 4000 feet below the rim of the canyon</span></span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">24th May Cottonwood Creek to Cremation Creek (dry) 18 miles </span></b><br />
A great evening in camp with some distant thunder and rain to cool things down. Both of us were tired- we went to sleep at 7! With an alarm at 4.30 am we were off hiking into the dark at 5.30 am with head torches. It was light enough at 6 am though as we left Cottonwood Creek and headed westwards in a huge arc on a plateau (the Tonto) way above the Colorado river itself.<br />
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There was a good trail on flat terrain which made for easy hiking and the most interesting sections were when we could look down from the cliff edges into the black depths of the Colorado.<br />
Six miles in and we reached Grapevine Canyon - a potential water source. We split to look for water; Brian went down canyon on slick rock and Martina up canyon to successfully find some pools of water. Another 4 miles in and we found shade to rest in Boulder Canyon. The weather built up a bit and it didn't heat up too much - which was a relief as this is frying territory!<br />
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From Boulder to Lonetree Canyon (our intended camp) was easy flat hiking with some bighorn sheep along the way. Arriving at Lonetree we were delighted to find some small pools of water as this was a critical water source which we had heard dries up in early summer each year. We happily lazed around here in late afternoon watching frogs, lizards and chickadee birds at this little oasis.<br />
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We decided to walk on around 5 pm stocking up with enough water to do us overnight and tomorrow before reaching the south rim of Grand Canyon along with its shops and plentiful water!<br />
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Our trail continued on quite a burnt out, dry, desert landscape along the flattish Tonto plateau still. On reaching the dry Cremation Creek we found a pleasant camp spot and, since we aimed to reach civilization tomorrow, we splashed out by scoffing our spare energy bars with tea after our pasta dinner- luxury! Both of us are looking forward to showers and fresh food!<br />
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25th May Cremation Creek to Grand Canyon South Rim 8 miles </span></b><br />
Another early start to beat the heat, hiking out with head torches and adrenaline pre-dawn. This has been a tough, too hot, but fantastic hike and we push on fast along the flat to meet up with the very popular South Kaibab trail. This is the normal way for people to hike down from the Grand Canyon rim to the depths of the Colorado river some 6000 feet below.<br />
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There are other people around now as we turn south to ascend up the well worn trail for 4000 feet of climbing to the south rim, roads and town. We have light rucksacks with little food left, are now lean and fit and we charge up the trail at a fast pace, meeting trail runners, mule trains and lines of hikers of all shapes and sizes coming down in the opposite direction.<br />
We reach the summit rim at 8.30 am to relax after a wonderful, but draining hike!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Being watched by ravens....</span></span></td></tr>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-33998116546338880842014-05-19T20:13:00.000+01:002016-06-15T20:34:22.273+01:00Descent down to the Grand Canyon<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 19.26px;">17th 18th 19th May Kanab -Jacob Lake to the top of Nankoweap Trail, Grand Canyon National Park</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19.26px;">We had a rest in Kanab to let Brian's insect bites recover aided by cortisone cream, food, coffee and beer! We liked Kanab. Firstly there is the great little outdoor shop 'Willow Canyon Outdoor' where you can sit in with a nice coffee and relax. Also we headed out to a pub called 'The Dog House' which is a vegan eatery as well. We had vegan cheeseburger pizza and listen to a live bluegrass band playing outside. Sign says 'WAG MORE, BARK LESS'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19.26px;">We had two hitches and a bit of waiting to make it out to Jacob Lake where we met another Arizona Trail hiker, Treker4(?) </span><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Being a bit behind our permit dates for the Grand Canyon, we decided to hitch forward about thirty miles to Grand Canyon north rim vehicle entrance and hike for a two to three miles back onto the trail from there. This also gave us the chance to see a fire lookout tower that the writer and inspiration behind the Hayduke Trail, Edward Abbey, worked at. A wonderful couple from Wisconsin gave us a lift as soon as we wandered out onto the gas station forecourt to stick out our thumbs.</span><br />
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The lookout tower was cool and we were able to scramble up the tower but unfortunately the cabin at the top was locked.<br />
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We then hiked along the Arizona Trail at around 9000 feet elevation before rejoining the jeep road of the Hayduke towards Nankoweap Trailhead. Carrying heavy loads with 7 days food and water to do us until the next afternoon made for sore feet. The hiking was easy though through ponderosa and aspen forest and we even glimpsed a couple of squirrels but were unsure if they were the famous Kiabab species.<br />
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Our first views of the Grand Canyon itself came when we reached the Nankoweap jeep track trailhead around 5 pm. It was hazy but even so it was impressive as our first ever glimpse into the Grand canyon itself! We hiked onto a ridge protruding into the canyon over a hilltop then down onto a small plateau where we set up camp under some ponderosa at a lovely spot. An evening stroll along the rim of the canyon to catch some late sun catching the cliffs of the canyon walls was a pleasure.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 19.26px;">20th May Nankoweap Trail down to the Colorado River Grand Canyon 15.5 miles</span></b><br />
This was an exciting day that we had been looking forward to- our descent of 6000 feet + down into the Grand Canyon on 'the most difficult of the named trails in the Grand Canyon'.<br />
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It was very windy overnight with some strong gusts banging against the tent only giving us an intermittent sleep. Despite that we were up at 6 and away hiking by 7 starting with descending a tree covered ridge before we dropped off down into the canyon itself. There wass a clear trail to follow and for a while it traversed and undulated between cliff bands with tremendous views down into the canyon. Both of us were going well this morning with the shaded, rugged trail hiking and the exciting views.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nankoweap descent</td></tr>
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After rounding Marion Point we continued traversing before the trail descended south east more deliberately into Nankoweap Creek valley. The sun was on us now and the heat notched up into the high 20s C. The terrain wass much more arid as well with thorny shrubs and giant agave peppering the dusty ground.<br />
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Descending through some lovely colored rock layers of yellow, limestone white, green and black lava rock, the temperatures reached furnace like levels and we were super glad to reach cool shady cottonwood trees and trickling water at Nankoweap Creek for an early lunch break at 11:15.<br />
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We had heard that the Nankoweap trail would be difficult but we found it a lovely easy hike, it is the heat that could make it hard (especially if hiking in the other direction, uphill)- it looked like there has also been recent trail maintenance carried out here to ease the way- THANKS!).<br />
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We reluctantly left the shade to descend down the rocky wash towards the Colorado river. The temperature reached body melting levels and it started to fry our brains a little as we both got grumpy but stumbled on. Eventually we reached the huge Colorado river in the Grand Canyon and found a lovely beach to pitch the tent in the most amazing of settings. What a fantastic place!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First camp by the Colorado at Nankoweap</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camp cooking!</td></tr>
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After dinner and the sun thankfully sinking below the cliffs, we had enough energy again for an evening hike 300 feet up to the wonderful Nankoweap granaries. These are believed to be food storage caves built into the cliff around 1100 AD. The situation is also a candidate for the best viewpoint along the Grand Canyon (IMHO)- tremendous! We descended back to the tent and rested with a late tea and bats swooping overhead.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Nankoweap granaries built into the cliffs above the Colorado river</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 19.26px;">21st May Nankoweap granaries to Little Colorado river 12 miles</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We were up early for a potentially interesting day on three counts: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">-it would likely be in the 30's Celsius again today, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">-there was a reportedly rough section ahead following the west bank of the Colorado river downstream without trail over boulders and scrub, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">-and lastly we would then have to try and get a hitch across the Colorado river from a raft or other boat going downstream (t</span><span style="font-size: small;">he Colorado is way to big, deep,cold and fast flowing for us to cross without a raft or boat). </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Since we hadn't seen any boat traffic on the river yesterday, the hitch might take a while!</span></div>
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We started at 6.15 am in the delicious morning shade with sandy animal trails winding round the deep thorny vegetation. For some of the way we managed to follow the shore, wading in the shallows of the river, but mostly we boulder hopped and bushwhacked for 9 miles through every type of spiky bush and cactus imaginable!<br />
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Torn, sweaty and disheveled we made it to a beautiful little sandy beach suitable for hitching a lift from a boat at 12:15. Wonderfully, the beach also came with an overhanging shady rock ledge to sit out from the blazing heat while we waited. We even snuck out from our protective shade for a refreshing swim in the river.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waiting for a hitch across the river at our own personal beach</td></tr>
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To be honest, it was so relaxing in our shade next to the beach in this amazing place, we were both quite happy sitting around chilling, but we have next to no spare food so we really needed a lift today at least. And lo! - a couple of hours later river rafts appeared round the corner and we leapt out and waved.<br />
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Phew! - the rafts from 'Outdoors Unlimited' outfitters happily agreed to take us a across!- and better, a mile or two down river to the junction of the Little Colorado and the Colorado rivers.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The rafts</td></tr>
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The river raft guides were interested in our journey, and we in theirs, and we had a nice short chat before we landed at the other side of the river. We were now in a busy little spot after lot's of time hiking alone. The rafts stopped here to let people out to hike up the Little Colorado river for a while. There were also researchers studying the 'humpback chub' - a fish that seems to like the mineral rich, limestone waters.<br />
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The Little Colorado is a big river in its own right, draining a large part of Northern Arizona, and it was a deep wade to get across. A friendly researcher took us up river though to show us the best crossing point of this beautifully turquoise blue river. It was thigh deep but the water is warm, fed from hot springs upstream, making for a relatively easy crossing in the end.<br />
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We then picked up a trail again (the Beamer Trail) for some easier hiking we hoped. First though we sat out the oppressively hot sun in a shady spot and decided to camp nearby to hike on in the early morning tomorrow...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martina crossing the Little Colorado</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The confluence of the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers</td></tr>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-86963440530548283892014-05-17T04:04:00.001+01:002016-05-22T16:38:48.460+01:00We cross over to Arizona<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">12th May Out of Bryce south to Park Wash 20 miles</span></b>
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The next day we woke up to sunny snow cover and frosty conditions. Fortifying ourselves with breakfast at Best Westerns (hash browns, eggs, toast and pancakes) we were ready to take on our hike again!</div>
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We negotiated a lift back to our trail and were soon hiking on trails in the crisp post storm air at 9000 feet. Dropping down from Rainbow Point to 'Riggs Spring' brought us below the snow line to warmer air and lush green scenery of Ponderosa, White Fir, Douglas Fir, Manzaneta, Juniper and Pinyon.</div>
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Heading on south out of the national park we hiked on jeep tracks through more open but still pleasant country. We headed away from the jeep tracks into Bullrush Gorge which started as a dirt banked dry river but turned nicely into a steep sided gorge but this time with broken sides and trees growing from the walls. Deciduous trees here included oak and mahogany. It's amazing how every canyon has it's own character.</div>
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It's always cheering to find water and Adam's Spring didn't disappoint- water flowed clear and healthily into an old bathtub just off the trail.</div>
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Our campsite was a mile or so south from here amidst some great sandstone tepees and we scrambled up the rock to have a splendid dinner amidst rock and ponderosa. Excellent day!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heading south from Rainbow Point</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Park Wash camp</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 19.26px;">13th May Park Wash to Highway 89 and hitch to Kanab 19 miles</span></b></div>
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Another cold clear frosty morning and we headed off at 7.40 with the aim of reaching the highway early enough to hitch a ride into the town of Kanab.</div>
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Hiking here was down a sandy bottomed wash to No Man's Mesa. The wash had maybe 10 feet high dirt banks topped with sagebrush and there were lots of cows around. The views to the surrounding white vertical cliffs were great though. After a couple of hours we hit a windmill (not working) and better jeep tracks following a terrace above a wash. The valley was filled with a carpet of green grass and sage. BLM have signs marking restoration work done here which looked like it is having a positive effect.</div>
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Making good time on the jeep tracks, we meet two guys looking at artifacts from Indian settlements for BLM. They agreed to give us a lift into Kanab which we welcomed as we thought it might be a difficult and lonely hitch out here!</div>
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Kanab is a cool town but with a slightly pre-season feel to it. We checked in at the small Travelers Motel on the east side of town and it was a great place for us -sitting outside the motel munching bagels happily into the evening!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brian striding towards town...</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 19.26px;">14th May Buckskin Gulch 16 miles</span></b></div>
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We get a ride back out along Highway 89 in the morning and are soon hiking down Buckskin Gulch in much warmer temperatures now. The upper gulch is all beige limestone with marine fossils a-plenty. </div>
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We popped out to the dirt road of Buckskin Gulch trailhead. It was broad to start from there but with lovely red walls and swirly layers of sedimentary rock. We were back in the familiar (and favorite) red gold and orange sandstone layers of Navajo, Kayenta and Wingate. The heat was intense now in the afternoon and we lunch in the shade under a juniper. Soon we are hiking down the narrow canyon of Buckskin itself and reach a junction where the Hayduke heads off to 'Wire Pass'. </div>
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There are interesting sheep petroglyphs here. We drop our backpacks and head further down Buckskin Gulch ( a canyon famous for its continuous 12 mile slot and it's beauty) for an explore. Returning back after a couple of hours of amazing canyon shifting light and reflected light on steep red walls, we vowed to return someday to do the full Buckskin and lower Paria Canyon traverse down to the Colorado river or as a long alternate loop of the Hayduke.</div>
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We set up a camp nearby after carrying water from town for today and most of tomorrow.</div>
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Sheep petroglyphs</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Buckskin Gulch<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 19.26px;">15th May Buckskin Gulch to Arizona Trail meadow 21 miles</span></b></div>
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An alarm at 5.30 am went off this morning ready for a visit to a beautiful sandstone area called 'The Wave' in the early morning. We walked amongst glorious sculpted sandstone slabs and spend a relaxing hour or so wandering around the scenery. Fantastic and it was nice to enjoy it with no-one else around!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Coyote Buttes near the Arizona / Utah border<br />
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Near The Wave</div>
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From 'The Wave' we continued up valley on sand, slabs and rocks to reach a notch on a rocky ridge. The descent westwards down from there was a bit difficult and we had to retrace our steps on one occasion to get round a dry water pour off cliff. Lower down we find a trail and relaxed as we dropped down to a dirt road. </div>
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Descending back down from 'The Wave' -Coyote Buttes</div>
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A guy in a pickup stopped to ask us if we needed water, which was very kind of him, but as it happened, we were carrying about the right amount now to get us to our next mapped water source 2-3 miles away on good trail. We didn't want to carry any extra weight so reluctantly said no to the water.</div>
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One mile of the dirt road in hot, dusty conditions and we reached the Arizona/Utah border at the end point of another more famous trail- the Arizona Trail. There is a campsite here with shade, tables, benches and a privy(!) but no water and we had a late morning rest here in the shade. </div>
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Around 11.30 we set off south on the Arizona Trail and marvelled at the well constructed easy path we were now hiking on as a contrast to the rougher normal way on the Hayduke. An actual trail to hike on with sign posts and no bushwhacking! -walking was easy now for a while! The trail climbed and the heat picked up even more though with little shelter from the low lying desert scrub. </div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">It was a relief to locate our next water source - a big open tank in the pic below- the black dots are mosquito larvae - mostly - which Martina deftly filtered out through her neckerchief.</span></div>
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Taking water to do us the rest of today and tomorrow morning to get us to the small resort of Jacob's Lake, we gradually climbed into high desert forest of the Kaibab plateau on this good trail but with limited views. We were both going well and are hiking fast into the evening although it hurt a bit in the hot conditions on hard packed trail. Interesting to see two raven nests with chicks fairly low down near to the ground in juniper trees and to meet two new types of lizard we hadn't seen before. </div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 19.26px;">16th May Arizona Trail meadow to Jacob Lake 14 miles</span></b></div>
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Brian's legs were covered in big welts from insect bites in the morning which were super itchy- he must have got them from being bitten in the evening at Coyote Buttes. We were up early again though and hiking by 7.15 am to catch some cool morning air. </div>
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A rare thing happened- we met another hiker at 7.30 am- he was doing the Arizona Trail but unfortunately wasn't chatty so we pass on. Given that we have hardly met any other hikers on this trip it would have been great to exchange hiking experiences with someone else, but - oh well!</div>
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We soon enter into tall ponderosa pine forest at about 7,000 feet which provided some shade and morning air is cooler then yesterday's hot miles so we made good time. Brian's itching bites got worse and it seemed a bit of an allergic reaction so we resolved to put our head's down to make it quickly to Jacob Lake. We can then tried and hitch back into Kanab to get to a pharmacy - we also hopefully have new shoes arriving at the post office there.</div>
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We hit Highway 89A at about 11.15 and hiked the road up to Jacob Lake. Picked up a lift from a Texan couple heading to a Mormon wedding in St George, Utah who drop us off in the small town of Fredonia where we got another lift the final 7 miles to Kanab by a Mormon WiFi engineer. Thanks everyone for the lifts and we enjoyed chatting and finding out about Arizona/Utah!</div>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-18113745768787255702014-05-12T00:30:00.001+01:002016-05-22T16:42:41.750+01:00Into Bryce Canyon National Park<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">8th May Skutumpah Road to Cannonville 11.5 miles</span></b>
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The temperature plummeted overnight and in the morning there was ice all over the tent. Temperature differences in the desert are mind boggling! We had a slow start before shuffling off in the cold sun on a dirt road through pinyon-juniper to Willis Creek trailhead. Although only a dirt road the panoramic views in the clear air to horizons lined with crisp new snow were superb.</div>
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At Willis Creek we headed down the mellow canyon eastward back to the main Hayduke route in Sheep Creek. The sun started warming us and we stopped to dry out the tent and sleeping gear soaking up the warm rays.</div>
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Hiking up Sheep Creek the canyon opened up but the clear post rainstorm air made everything look lovely this morning.</div>
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We soon hit jeep trails and roads and headed north to the town of Cannonville. We had left a food package for ourselves here a few days ago and were happy to collect that and book into the motel here for a night. There was a grocery at the motel and the nearby KOA campground had a great selection of Uinta brewery beers - enough for us to have a veggie Mexican meal outside the motel!<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 19.26px;">9th May Cannonville-Tropic-Bryce Canyon National Park campsite 18 miles</span></b><br />
The official Hayduke route bypasses Bryce Canyon National Park (or at least the most famous part of it) so we decided to continue north and west into the park on a longer alternate.<br />
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A jeep track led from the town of Tropic to the National Park and then we were on trails from there. Bryce looked like NOTHING else on this planet! We followed the Queens Garden trail up through the magical 'hoodoos' (pinnacles of rock) onto the rim of the escarpment to where there is road access and lots and lots of people. After meandering around a national park campsite that is designed for cars and not hikers we eventually were able to book into the campsite and have some food outside the little grocery store cafe nearby.<br />
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Later on in the day we followed some more scenic park trails - the Navajo and Peek-a-boo. The crowds died down into the evening but the light was lower and the hoodoos looked even more vivid. Back to the tent and the luxury of a picnic table for a late dinner plus beers, biscuits, peanuts and crisps- great!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ground squirrel in Bryce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bryce Canyon</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">10th May Bryce Under the Rim Trail 21 miles</span></b>
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A mild complication of being in the national park was that there is a rule that we need to have bear canisters to protect our food when backcountry camping. Unfortunately we don't have a means of getting a canister or if we did, returning it back, as we will be hiking south from here. We could have arranged to camp outside the park boundary - where the rules don't apply - but we were not sure if the bears will conform to the rules though! But instead we decide to hike south from the park center where we are camped with daypacks and hitch back at the end of the day to the same campsite. Then hitch out the next day to carry on hiking where we will be able to camp the next night outside the park.<br />
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First though we had a luxury breakfast at our picnic table with real milk, yogurt and grapefruits. A nice couple from Michigan parked next to us gave us the grapefruits. They are 'snow birds' who have spent 6 winter months in Arizona's 'Sun City' before travelling back to spend the summer in Michigan.<br />
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We set off with light backpacks along the Bryce canyon rim to Bryce point which has a wonderful panoramic view of the hoodoos. We then descended a wonderful trail through colorful clay and gravel beds onto the 'Under the rim' trail, soon reaching an area called the 'Hat Shop' -lots of pinnacles at the cliff edge with limestone boulders perched on top.<br />
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The trail was excellent, reminiscent of the Pacific Crest Trail in southern California. Lots of ups and downs, zig-zagging over ridges extending out from the pink cliffs of the rim edge. And then looking up to the escarpment it was like a better version of the Continental Divide Trail's 'Bob Marshall Wilderness' section. Anyway - it was great!
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Eventually we pull off the trail to climb up the escarpment to the park road. We hoped to catch a shuttle bus here back to the campsite but none appeared so hitching was required! We lucked out and got a great ride back from another Michigan couple in the back of their pickup truck.
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Around 10pm a storm came through. We were at 9,000 feet here and we got dumped on by a huge amount of snow through the night along with gale force winds! Our tent was sheltered to an extent in the tall ponderosa pines- but Martina spent most of the night shaking the tent to free it of snow- Brian slept through!<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 19.26px;">11th May Bryce 0 miles</span></b><br />
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We beat a retreat in the morning back to the park visitor centre then caught a bus 3 or 4 miles down to the town of Ruby's Inn where we dried out in a motel.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hit by a snowstorm in Bryce</td></tr>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-54912756716453252132014-05-12T00:19:00.001+01:002016-06-23T21:52:17.672+01:00Paria river<b>6th May Hackberry Canyon to Paria River - Kitchen Canyon 21 miles</b>
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We had a nice campsite under a steep striped wall in Hackberry Canyon and we were off hiking at 8am down canyon. We followed the now running river, sometimes down the water itself with some trails on either side and willow bashing. It was pretty easy going though amidst lovely green lush riparian scenery and varied colorful walls of deep red along with yellow/grey/blue bands (probably Chinle?).
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As the canyon narrowed further down we met some day hikers coming up from the Cottonwood Wash trailhead we were nearing. Seeing people is a good sure sign that there is road access nearby!
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We popped out of the canyon at the trailhead and wandered down about 300m into a small 'box canyon' for some lunch. This is where we wanted to head away from the Hayduke route again for a 2-3 hour longer alternate up above the canyons past some colorful rock features (described in our <a href="http://wildernesstravels.co.uk/hayduke/notesescalantebryce.htm" target="_blank">Notes for Hikers website as the 'Yellow Rock' alternate</a>).
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'Yellow Rock' really does not do it justice! It should be called "orange and pink and yellow swirly rock" and is a splendid surreal landscape of stunning vibrant colors. The wind was wild up there though- maybe 40 mph- so it was difficult to linger to long.<br />
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Yellow Rock</div>
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Looking back up Hackberry Canyon from Yellow Rock</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Yellow Rock</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">At the natural cairn below Yellow Rock</td></tr>
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After Yellow Rock itself we crossed a rugged plateau full of white sandstone lumps and pumps with some cross country and faint trails before finding a better trail that took us to an overlook above the wide valley of the Paria river. The Paria is a Paiute word for " muddy river " and it really was - like orange milk - the early European settlers said it was....<br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">"too thin to plough and too thick to drink"</span></b></i><br />
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By the time we had descended to the Paria, the regular afternoon wind had started up kicking up dust storms mixed with alkaline white salts that coat the ground. Not a welcoming place!<br />
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It had its charms though as it was bordered by bright red banded rock and narrowed to a more amenable canyon as we headed upstream.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Overlooking the Paria from the Yellow Rock route</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paria dust storms</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paria colors</td></tr>
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We found a place to camp in a vegetated silty side canyon, Kitchen Creek. The trickle of stream was heavily polluted by cattle but Martina found a little fresh spring bubbling into the side of the creek and we took our water from that.
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<b>7th May Paria River - Kitchen Canyon to Skutumpah Road camp 20 miles</b></div>
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After a good sleep we headed back along the Paria at around 7.40 am. Our route upstream involved many river crossings and the water was frigid at that early time in the morning so we kept a fast pace up to keep warm!</div>
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The canyon scenery gradually improved as we headed up, the walls closed in and the rock turned redder and redder. We took a a nice stop in a big rocky alcove with hummingbirds darting by and Martina was delighted to find a small well preserved skull - possibly a ground squirrel. </div>
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By mid-morning we headed out of the Paria and into lovely Sheep Creek which had it's own character- white rock, tall ponderosa pine and a clear stream at last!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Footprints- Raccoon?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Melted rock shapes in the upper Paria</td></tr>
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We split from the Hayduke route again here for another <a href="http://wildernesstravels.co.uk/hayduke/notesescalantebryce.htm" target="_blank">longer alternate up Bull Valley Gorge</a> to the west of Sheep Creek. For the first 3-4 miles or so this is a grand hike up a dry wash of a twisting wide canyon - somehow with a big mountain feel - we even saw bigger trees lining the rocky walls Douglas Firs perhaps.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcVHrRXGAa-ztIa_k-_CL2boUqwO-hRM83nJUu-qZV8wVWNE6rZTkaFhwiR2oT9vNIc3W_w6sDRMoJAOdmKj7dntTum009BSp_CKPovneG8q_NwNG92Zy-oBGveW2ZX7m8hkNiKnfa4V8/s1600/20140507_192217.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a> </div>
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Three people we had met in Sheep Creek had told us about a pothole water source up here. We were delighted to find it and tanked up with water to do us through to tomorrow afternoon where we hoped to hit the town of Cannonville again.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Water pocket heading up Bull Valley Gorge</td></tr>
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Continuing up valley rain started to fall. It was still raining and the skies were foreboding when we arrived at the start of the two mile slot canyon section of Bull Valley Gorge. Wary of the risk of flash floods and the lack of escape routes once in the slot canyon, we were a bit nervous but decided to go for it anyway- we were committed!
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The gorge narrowed impressively, but the rain poured down more heavily and water started running off the walls and puddled in the floor of the slot. We took shelter a few meters up on a ledge in case a flood came through and waited for half an hour or so. But with no change in weather we decided just to keep going as fast as we could through the remainder of the slot. A few sections of scrabbling up boulders and tree branches that blocked the canyon and slowed us down, but eventually we escaped out and were grateful to climb up onto the canyon rim rather soaked and bedraggled!
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We set up camp next to a jeep road in cold, still wet conditions. We saw Bryce Canyon, our next destination ahead, but covered in fresh snow!
Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-24641061220924265072014-05-11T23:03:00.001+01:002016-05-22T16:48:58.830+01:00Round Valley Draw to Hackberry Canyon<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">5th May Round Valley Draw to
Hackberry Canyon 14 miles<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Escalante is a small town but has
all the facilities we needed; post office, grocery store, thrift shop, gear shops
and some nice eateries. We had a good rest up here and after much
deliberation, decide to hitch forward around the next section of the Hayduke to
start hiking again from near Grosvenor Arch. This allowed us to have a shorter
hike next where we could carry less food (four days) whilst allowing us to add in
some interesting side trips including Yellow Rock and Bull Valley Gorge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">On the 5th we headed out of town.
Breakfast first sitting outside our motel room, then we packed up and posted our
'float box' of extras to the town of Kanab, a couple of weeks of hiking away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">We waited for about 30 minutes at the
edge of town before we got a hitch from Mario who worked in the building trade
in Escalante and gave us some of his wife's delicious cactus salad! He dropped
us of in the tiny town of Cannonville. As we aimed to hike back through here in 4
days, we arranged to leave a food package for the next 4 days so that we can
save weight whilst hiking.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cactus salad!</td></tr>
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Cannonville is still around 20 miles by
dirt road from our re-connection with the Hayduke but we just headed off hiking
south on 'Cottonwood Canyon Road'. We soon got another lift from a very
friendly and chatty German couple in an RV along a dirt road for a few miles
(there is some traffic here heading to Kodachrome Basin State Park and the Arch).
Eventually at midday we reached Round Valley Draw trailhead near Grosvenor Arch.
It's pretty around here in an open sagebrush landscape but with sweeping Ponderosa
pine trees and white and pink Navajo sandstone cliff faces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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After
our cactus salad lunch we headed down south towards the slot canyon of Round
Valley Draw. This <span style="font-family: inherit;">was an amazing place,</span> the land just opens up into a slot
which we could squeeze down for about 20 feet to the floor of the canyon. We
loved it! We needed to hand down our backpacks in a few places to squeeze
through and jammed logs showed the power of flash floods.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dropping down into Round valley Draw slot canyon</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Down!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flood debris in Round Valley Draw slot canyon</td></tr>
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From there we traveled down the wider and sandy Hackberry Canyon where eventually we
found water (shared with lots of tadpoles which you can see in the pic) and
lush cottonwood trees. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">(Explanation of "Shackleton": our 4 two liter
water bags are named for polar explorers so we can distinguish them when we
carry treated and untreated water - we also have Nansen, Franklin and Tillman
with us)</span>.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6RavmTSjU-GanTjGjWKNDttb1MdYTf6WbmjanZobGy3QKKPTwcwgVrH4zW2Nyx6nvx4SVc2b9hBSNBKFiexYCN8I_-nOgfHahrGf9CAlmSW5MCrR6ZkfjOamFWbyVD_KZAPy4_YGh5RE/s1600/20140505_205849.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6RavmTSjU-GanTjGjWKNDttb1MdYTf6WbmjanZobGy3QKKPTwcwgVrH4zW2Nyx6nvx4SVc2b9hBSNBKFiexYCN8I_-nOgfHahrGf9CAlmSW5MCrR6ZkfjOamFWbyVD_KZAPy4_YGh5RE/s640/20140505_205849.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hackberry Canyon</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQCKUEpOYYNrpt29FdFlWqvxUxvYQ1-U8UZM7P4DjOd9eq7A3OB758nXCtpAJ2SP1PRExMGtY_9WoIZzUVJaW4CQdvF7Py_hJYqnL7lvVRxrPOwBEE4I3GkkCyQ8Kz5GofwlFzyeSaQlI/s1600/20140505_221154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQCKUEpOYYNrpt29FdFlWqvxUxvYQ1-U8UZM7P4DjOd9eq7A3OB758nXCtpAJ2SP1PRExMGtY_9WoIZzUVJaW4CQdvF7Py_hJYqnL7lvVRxrPOwBEE4I3GkkCyQ8Kz5GofwlFzyeSaQlI/s640/20140505_221154.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hot sandy floor of the canyon</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCN_OY2f2Aha_79Dmogy2NGlvW-6mkx8Idt2eZzyFQK_hr_3Gha5-O9Fiw1ZCWzKM07iGllli2H5kwYYKC8s4Ac6cFKkEISW7JgoHg2OHFtT00C6HN3BZJavuTg6iG2fp4kKxvbmEyABs/s1600/20140505_234944.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCN_OY2f2Aha_79Dmogy2NGlvW-6mkx8Idt2eZzyFQK_hr_3Gha5-O9Fiw1ZCWzKM07iGllli2H5kwYYKC8s4Ac6cFKkEISW7JgoHg2OHFtT00C6HN3BZJavuTg6iG2fp4kKxvbmEyABs/s640/20140505_234944.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our tadpole water source</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPgLOIxTddbiHGS7MEsfJIqCXYpANENo3DwDGlo2GlGMueHZIZ3UUDqv_4ww1WGFQGoT7X91BFPZipQH7mgucrXXk3XrXfDRkCTjXvLho6-_TJH29n4cPf62SFKHF1XVN_kxgDGChdBxA/s1600/20140506_014902.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPgLOIxTddbiHGS7MEsfJIqCXYpANENo3DwDGlo2GlGMueHZIZ3UUDqv_4ww1WGFQGoT7X91BFPZipQH7mgucrXXk3XrXfDRkCTjXvLho6-_TJH29n4cPf62SFKHF1XVN_kxgDGChdBxA/s640/20140506_014902.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camp in Hackberry Canyon</td></tr>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-26416360572219926592014-05-04T22:00:00.000+01:002016-05-22T21:43:25.792+01:00Escalante!<div dir="ltr">
Wow that was a wild, tough but beautiful hike! </div>
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Have reached the small western town of Escalante last night after 7 days out there.</div>
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We climbed into the Henry mountains and got snowed on then descended in wonderful Capitol Reef national park before weaving through the canyons of Escalante national monument through world class scenery. Now recovering in town after demolishing a 16" pizza and pitcher of excellent Wasatch brewery beer. Oh met one other hayduke hiker in town.. Micheal Geiss from Munich! Details to follow in the next post.........</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYXQVnBJQ2a5PFKk9_eIDRuAEK0kyQad5Mj6GCfMc44g5ryqKY4prBPi-vO46-Pd_CTHGAnRr3OaRfJXtNQ96Sg_6lUF-P76u3xXb3oirGKnQ70FJMjtBJROxoAM1qRUqIEuq-Y3GW_as/s640/IMG_20140503_095010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYXQVnBJQ2a5PFKk9_eIDRuAEK0kyQad5Mj6GCfMc44g5ryqKY4prBPi-vO46-Pd_CTHGAnRr3OaRfJXtNQ96Sg_6lUF-P76u3xXb3oirGKnQ70FJMjtBJROxoAM1qRUqIEuq-Y3GW_as/s640/IMG_20140503_095010.jpg" /></a></div>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-61934632815515191382014-05-04T18:24:00.001+01:002016-06-23T20:43:24.638+01:00Into the Escalante canyons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<b>May 1st Halls Creek to lower Steven's Canyon 15.5 miles</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0n5J-DHgiXnfjZNOHkEKjv6GX08RbZH9cofKsGcpjWcXgn-BrhZuJl5e-rtOybDJgBGlzE_dj16AxzDX_Xuxih-M7BnLKquH63BOdLDHX_77ZnBQj4JCJp_6EyBwO5pjqAm19P29qK8o/s1600/vitamini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0n5J-DHgiXnfjZNOHkEKjv6GX08RbZH9cofKsGcpjWcXgn-BrhZuJl5e-rtOybDJgBGlzE_dj16AxzDX_Xuxih-M7BnLKquH63BOdLDHX_77ZnBQj4JCJp_6EyBwO5pjqAm19P29qK8o/s640/vitamini.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our first aid flowchart</td></tr>
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From our camp we crossed the river through thick riparian vegetation to the west side and scrambled our way onto Navajo slickrock slabs. A cairn was found-excellent, we hoped this was the historic Baker Trail and would lead us upwards out of Halls Creek and into the Stevens Canyon watershed.<br />
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Hiking up the slabs was superb with views opening out back to the Henry mountains again- already showing signs of snow melt since we crossed them a few days ago. Dammed Lake Powell (or Lake Foul as Li Brannfors had named it on his maps) appeared now to the south east, its low water levels revealing expanses of unnatural scrub plains.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Climbing out of Halls Creek on slickrock</td></tr>
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We soon lost the cairns and headed up south west. The terrain was complex though- domes of slickrock sometimes dropping steeply requiring some backtracking to weave a reasonable line up to the top. Occasionally we found another cairn but couldn't see any continuation of the route so we just navigated our own way.<br />
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At the summit we had a short rest then descended south west looking for a way into Stevens Canyon. The top of Stevens has many steep 'fingers' and there was no sign of a route so we just picked a 'finger' and scrabbled down slabs using junipers for holds until we popped out into what looked like the main canyon.<br />
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Eventually we made it onto an easier beautiful wash bottom with lots of pink towers and steep canyon walls. Awwhhh, this was brilliant hiking down slabs with sensually sculpted potholes of water like a 'string of pearls'.<br />
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The upper canyon had a real wild feel so we were surprised to meet 3 hikers coming up canyon. We exchanged navigation and water notes and this gave us encouragement that there was a way through down Stevens to the Escalante river (we did have doubts!).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking west down upper Stevens Canyon</td></tr>
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Sometimes we would be hiking the canyon bottom but we alternated to following the canyon sides on amazing slick rock shelves. On one of these we had to scramble over a boulder field sitting on the slab. Brian hopped off a freezer sized boulder onto the ground below between other rocks. The boulder rolled towards him just about pinning him against another rock but luckily jammed itself in. He was left with various gashes to thighs and arm. Martina emptied our somewhat frugal first aid kit and, along with duct tape and some spare clothing managed to patch Brian up. Even more luckily for him his injuries were just scrapes and bleeding rather than muscular or any bones and he could still hike, albeit a bit wobbly for the first hour or so!<br />
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Lower down in Stevens the hiking is through more densely vegetated canyon bottom with some wading through deep water pockets. Poison ivy made an appearance as well and was quite hard to avoid. About a mile short of the junction with the main Escalante river we found a marvelous camp next to a garage sized boulder serenaded by croaking frogs through the evening!<br />
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Despite the boulder incident it was a fantastic day through the best of scenery with varied challenging hiking. Some more images below.....<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of potholes with water in Stevens Canyon</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stevens Canyon </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cold water dip in Stevens</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our wonderful camp in lower Stevens Canyon</td></tr>
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<b style="text-align: left;">2nd May Stevens to Hurricane Wash 16 miles (plus hitch into Escalante)</b>
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We aimed to make it to town today and were off at 7 am (early for us) in lovely early morning canyon light. Our canyon emptied into the larger Escalante and we follow this downstream for 1.5 miles or so. The water seemed to be running quite high with much thigh deep wading and the water temperature is COLD! Stunning hiking though in this world class area. The reflected light on the striped uniform sandstone cliffs is a sight to behold.</div>
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We passed 3 hikers sleeping in bivvy bags under Stevens Arch indicating to us that we were entering the popular Coyote Gulch area. Turning into Coyote Gulch itself we found it had quite a strong water flow and we had a rest to warm our feet up and change into dry socks.</div>
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Coyote is popular for a reason, as it has splendid scenery- mixing flowing water, lush green vegetation, awesome canyon walls and many natural rock arches. We kept to a fairly fast pace though, winding our way up the canyon hoping to make it to the Hurricane Wash trailhead dirt road by early afternoon to give us a chance to find a lift back the 30 miles or so to the town of Escalante.</div>
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The day heated up but the mix of shade and sun was ideal for us. Passing by campers at Jacob Hamblin Arch we looked up to see the scrambling route up the arches rib we had taken when last here in 2004.</div>
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Stopped to watch a raven returning to feed chattering chicks on a high rock ledge. Swirling fluff from the cottonwoods added a surreal edge to the day.</div>
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We exited out into Hurricane Wash which was smaller and pleasant but soon opened out into a dry, sandy, exposed hike to the trailhead. Reaching the dirt road where we hoped to hitch, it was hot and windy and most disappointingly there were very few cars there! We hung around for an hour or so but lucked out as a hiker returned to his car and agreed to give us a ride to Escalante- hoorah!</div>
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In town, all the motel rooms were booked out for the night, so we camped at Escalante Outfitters and booked a motel room for the next night. Both of us were a bit tired, dirty and sore, so a rest was in order. After a shower we had a huge pizza and beer at the outfitters and met Micheal Geiss, the other Hayduke hiker we had heard of- the first we have met. It was nice to relax and exchange tales of our hikes from the last few weeks!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wading the Escalante</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking up to Stevens Arch</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starting up Coyote Gulch</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coyote Arch</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hot, dry and dusty hitching next to the dirt track</td></tr>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-38170690147870309762014-05-04T16:59:00.001+01:002016-06-23T20:36:48.205+01:00Capitol Reef National Park<div dir="ltr">
<b>April 29th Swap Canyon to Muley Tanks 20 miles</b></div>
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An epic and great day...<br />
We had a pleasant start down Swap Canyon on a meandering gravel wash surface. It was cold and windy but warm when the sun hit us. After an hour or so we emerged out of the canyon into colourful views of the waterpocket fold and its multiple pinnacles of rock.<br />
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What happens here is that all the colourful layers of sandstone that are usually horizontally stacked on top of one another have tilted upwards. The plateau we were moving over is sloping up. Erosion creates deep canyons full of colour and reflected light- like 'sleeping rainbows'. After the snow and rain from the past days the desert was blooming. Temperatures were still mild and a fresh wind blew us gently along.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV7D-TQWU9NRwsDj9QHzX3FR9hdBrV_TgGz-Cdt8gqzZOTs3jaGyMwpZg6MKaACi-31TGoggZjEfFAqRIRc-byJIoWgLPst-HUSPBasObd89hEO2qa8E3-e7TaQD-LnwP0rLhywqk2dV0/s1600/IMG_0945-6-pano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV7D-TQWU9NRwsDj9QHzX3FR9hdBrV_TgGz-Cdt8gqzZOTs3jaGyMwpZg6MKaACi-31TGoggZjEfFAqRIRc-byJIoWgLPst-HUSPBasObd89hEO2qa8E3-e7TaQD-LnwP0rLhywqk2dV0/s640/IMG_0945-6-pano.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Approaching the waterpocket fold</td></tr>
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Our route took us onto the dirt road of the Burr trail which zig zagged upwards under huge sandstone walls. Expansive views opened up eastwards back the way we had come to the Henry Mountains.</div>
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At the top we hit Capital Reef National Park, the Lower Muley Twist Trailhead and signed the trail register. Surprisingly we saw that another Hayduke hiker had been here two days ago- Micheal Geiss. </div>
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Since we hadn't met any other long distance hikers yet (and hardly any other hikers at all) we looked forward to seeing if we could meet him - perhaps in our next intended town stop of Escalante.</div>
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We did meet an English couple staying in Calgary a few minutes into the canyon though and enjoyed a chat with them, before we headed between the amazing sculpted sheer rock walls of Lower Muley Twist.</div>
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Further on the twisting canyon had some fantastic deep alcoves (or alcaves as we called them) -bigger than we had ever seen. The 8 miles down the canyon were tremendous with lots of variety overall.</div>
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We stopped at 'Cowboy Alcove' - complete with some old food tins and graffiti- for a break before the canyon dropped east through lovely narrows and exited out into the wide expanse of Halls Creek.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cowboy Alcove</td></tr>
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Here the canyon was less dramatic but still scenic with maroon wingate sandstone domes. Our destination was some huge pools of water called Muley Tanks lying a few hundred meters west of the canyon bottom. We struggled to find them though, and had to double back and search around for them. It was worth it though as the pools sit in an idyllic spot on sandstone slickrock. Our feet were sore but it was a great end to the day and we set up camp a few hundred meters away under a juniper tree.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sun setting at Muley Tanks</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6aWt0jZFQli4yTiRg0vvQi1CKwX8c6zfXd88CCePmqubiJSqtZPZO6ib8mVZNGzHPBmb9EFJwIpDb48gbp8htzZi1qdqQ94gIb8Ks27iWBSkFUQF0edz_gt5VXhoLiG6rmvRzxFnMPUU/s640/IMG_20140503_214554.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Deep alcoves in Lower Muley Twist</td></tr>
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<b>April 30th Muley Tanks to south end of Halls Creek 20 miles</b></div>
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After studying our maps we decided to divert from the Hayduke route again and take an alternate down Halls Creek and Stevens Canyon over the next 2-3 days. It looked scenically fantastic in Stevens (we had visited the lower part of the canyon in 2004) and the alternate would avoid the normal Hayduke route's.long 25 mile wade down the Escalante river.<br />
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Halls Creek was initially dry and sandy and was wide open in complete contrast to yesterday's narrow canyon. The going was fairly good - a gravelly sandy base- and the views were ever changing. We found a single track trail on the east side of the wash that took a more direct line than the meandering river for much of the way.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Halls Creek</td></tr>
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It also took us through some of the loveliest desert flowers we have seen! Pink cactus, yellow lillies, purple lupins, white primrose, some orange flowers, sages- contrasting with a deep red soil.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quicksand shoes</td></tr>
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Further south, water surfaced and into the afternoon we hit thicker scrub and bushwhacked through bamboo like willow and other tangled vegetation. We resorted to just hiking down the river for a while and some spots of quicksand kept us alert! The quicksand we came across wasn't particularly dangerous especially with a partner to help pull the victim out! Once you emerge from the quicksand you end up with thick clinging goo over your shoes and socks though which can be hard to clean off.<br />
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Our campsite was beside the river in halls Creek nestled against a red sandstone dome, about 2 miles short of where we aim to climb out of the valley over into Stevens Canyon via a disused route called the Baker Trail. One of the tent zippers at the front failed probably due to the excessive sandy, dry conditions- bummer (we have a otherwise wonderful Terra Nova Voyager)!</div>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-63588956757646235412014-05-03T23:03:00.000+01:002016-06-23T20:29:26.473+01:00The Henry mountains and Tarantula Mesa<div dir="ltr">
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<b style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">April 26th Poison Spring H95 to Crescent Creek 10.5 miles</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The temperature dipp</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">ed and it poured down as we tried to hitch out of the tiny town of Hanksville 17 miles back to where we left our hike</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">. We soon gave up hitching and retreated back to Stan's diner for some mid morning coffee. That then turned to lunch!! Luckily the skies brightened a bit after lunch and we finally got a lift from two guys driving down to Lake Powell to repair their boat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Loaded up with 9 days food for this long stretch to Escalante, we took it slowly, but there were great views upwards to the snowy mountains and back to the extensive plains to the east. After navigating around Butler Wash we headed back up on jeep tracks in pinyon juniper before hitting tall ponderosa pine and ghostly white aspen. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ascending into the Henry mountains</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some cobalt blue bluebirds fluttered around in the trees. We hiked on a big muddy dirt road from recent active mine workings and were glad to escape from it to find a pleasant grassy camp site near Crescent Creek nestled amongst aspen. Five wild turkeys strutted past and disappeared into the bush.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We enjoyed a wonderful burrito and taco from town for dinner as we listened to the drumming of hail on the tent outer as well as the sound of thunderstorms. We read about Norwegian explorer Nansen's polar exploration though and our little bit of cold weather seems like nothing compared with his hardships!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camp in snow amidst aspen beneath the Henry mountains</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">April 27th Crescent Creek to Tarantula Mesa 21 miles</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nice day. We awoke to a white snowy scene in the morning. There was wild, windy, cold weather above the cover of our aspens and we chose reluctantly to bypass the Hayduke route over the south summit of Mount Ellen by skirting the mountain to the south and west on jeep tracks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was rather lovely though with crisp air and woodpeckers rat-tat-tatting in the trees. At Copper Ridge we tried to head back west onto the mountain ridge but were beaten back due to high winds and biting hail and spin-drift. Oh well another time -we simply didn't have enough clothing to withstand that sort of weather! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As we circled the mountain, the temperature increased a little and the jeep track turned into gloopy, gooey mud making for tricky going. Our high point was about 9,200 feet before we started to descend onto the northern slopes of the Henry mountains.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lunch was at the sunny, grassy meadow of Airplane Spring at 7,665 feet which made for a warm pleasant stop. We relaxed near the memorial plaque for a crashed airplane here with its dry water </span>spigot<span style="font-family: inherit;">. However we found water eventually about 300m down (westwards) the track in a trough.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">From here we descended further into drier mesa country on more dirt roads to meet up with the Hayduke again. There were a couple of steep climbs but the track generally meandered easily south west. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The mesa is a shelf sloping gently down westwards before dropping over a couple of cliff bands to the Waterpocket fold -our destination tomorrow hopefully-which looked great ahead. Views back to the sparkling snowy Henry's were impressive too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The 7 mile dirt road of Tarantula Mesa wore both of us out a bit and we are glad to reach the second of two solar panel water troughs in the evening to pick up water and camp a few hundred meters away amongst juniper for shelter.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Collecting water on Tarantula Mesa</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camp on Tarantula Mesa</td></tr>
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<b>April 28th T</b><b style="font-family: sans-serif;">arantula Mesa to Swap Canyon 11 miles</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We woke up to cold wind and clear air. Today we are due to drop into wild country with some tricky navigation down through cliff bands and complex canyons. After a short dirt track we headed cross country through the juniper looking for the cliff edge drop off. We were pleased to pick up some welcome cairns at the top of the cliff and then scrambled steeply downwards on ledges and rock. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Above the drop down from Tarantula Mesa </td></tr>
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After a traverse left we dropped down a dusty rubble chute to the canyon bottom made of soft bubbly clay.The going was easier for a while along the Muley Creek's dry gulch bottom before we headed into tremendous arid country south west across undulating benches. We ground to a halt trying to find a trail on our map and had to retrace our steps and resorted to the GPS for a bit before picking up the faint path traversing benches.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmmCzBlQ9SfjxmjM7oR4NFHhgCS9WJwYIqWMriK557UGCtw6Dn9jO9mKxQuKcaWEj_XwJKbZX_j61e4Lf19A6JifGmO94A_rCA8BmNvHgVN866jxgylJRf5d3htPTxIB6DsGDRBR838U/s1600/IMG_0926.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmmCzBlQ9SfjxmjM7oR4NFHhgCS9WJwYIqWMriK557UGCtw6Dn9jO9mKxQuKcaWEj_XwJKbZX_j61e4Lf19A6JifGmO94A_rCA8BmNvHgVN866jxgylJRf5d3htPTxIB6DsGDRBR838U/s640/IMG_0926.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Below the Tarantula Mesa first cliff band</td></tr>
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Another gulch with some wicked quicksand(!) wound its way down towards surface water amongst thick reeds at a canyon junction. We had a fair amount of drinking water left from last night and decided not to bother with the fairly cow infested water here abouts. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We stopped for lunch in the shade of a cottonwood near the water though with hummingbirds zinging around and a dead buffalo which added to the scene.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Hayduke route takes a loop north west and then south from here and we chose to take a more direct but interesting alternate described by Nicolas C. Barth called </span></span><a href="http://ncbarth.com/Hayduke.htm#OurHike" style="font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;" target="_blank">Below Tarantula 2</a><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We passed what looked like a coal seam and followed some dry </span>drainage's<span style="font-family: inherit;"> upwards before a steep scrabble back to meet up with the Hayduke route (although the Hayduke itself is also cross country here!). </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">More complex rocky terrain followed before we found another key scrambling descent with the odd cairn into Swap Canyon. From here we had easy navigation down the wide gulch to a pool of water which looked like a good stopping point. Although it was early at 4.30 we were able to have a clean and it meant that we could hike tomorrow to the next water source at Muley Tanks 19.5 miles away without carrying overnight water.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrWdz2VoBkMhyphenhyphen_r0-n9yPyLZf2KUA8NAxju2uErO5X_Qga3OoW1uvl7CRiVsEJ_F53u05P0VCjusbz8PrQrVwmXFZl8__j0RVeDhxOnQp2mQ4ZExUihFcVIVCQIP8MreePfUu52_SQk0Q/s1600/20140428_013637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEt6hlCyoVfxmH7YH_8IIZdBi-IZIU2pFbX5psSSY_9IE6vAoZihbgf-HhhlRxirWfzUEOq5PjT7WWuGVRg_2JBjtUAMmqgZJL5HWdBMj7GsC5KngV93B8cKdo5euIovD-kgPyiWwPTvc/s1600/20140428_162719.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEt6hlCyoVfxmH7YH_8IIZdBi-IZIU2pFbX5psSSY_9IE6vAoZihbgf-HhhlRxirWfzUEOq5PjT7WWuGVRg_2JBjtUAMmqgZJL5HWdBMj7GsC5KngV93B8cKdo5euIovD-kgPyiWwPTvc/s640/20140428_162719.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrWdz2VoBkMhyphenhyphen_r0-n9yPyLZf2KUA8NAxju2uErO5X_Qga3OoW1uvl7CRiVsEJ_F53u05P0VCjusbz8PrQrVwmXFZl8__j0RVeDhxOnQp2mQ4ZExUihFcVIVCQIP8MreePfUu52_SQk0Q/s1600/20140428_013637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a> Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-13920668220910391862014-04-25T22:21:00.001+01:002016-06-23T07:53:11.559+01:00The Colorado to Hanksville<div dir="ltr">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4TFoS-geqDK27mJIivjl-RmyLmBJQF_ZWbHwa-kxnaIghRfjVx9E9QsPa3DNJ-UT5zHwWlT7KZPsBFzJIIXI0Ly39kZDSCI1K-JlZznDuxnOSLJ5EMd5N4U_EHTlF5Jf3R3OpH2a6R2o/s1600/spanish-bottom.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="489" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4TFoS-geqDK27mJIivjl-RmyLmBJQF_ZWbHwa-kxnaIghRfjVx9E9QsPa3DNJ-UT5zHwWlT7KZPsBFzJIIXI0Ly39kZDSCI1K-JlZznDuxnOSLJ5EMd5N4U_EHTlF5Jf3R3OpH2a6R2o/s640/spanish-bottom.jpg" width="640"></a></div>
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<b>20th April Spanish Bottom to Lou's Spring 12 miles</b></div>
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We left the boats behind at Spanish Bottom in Canyonlands National Park. Our plan is to hike on for 4-5 days roughly westward through desert and sandstone country to a highway where we aim to hitchhike into the small town of Hanksville for supplies. In the Utah desert lots of comparatively small geological or landscape features have been given names by white explorers and cattle ranchers and our hike was a sort of micro navigation from one such feature to the next.<br>
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It sounded a bit like an itinerary from middle earth......<br>
From Spanish Bottom to the Dolls House, over Ernie's Flats past the Fins up Sweet Alice Canyon to Lou's Spring. Climb the Golden Stair - past 'Mother and Child' Rock - over a plateau to the Flint Road. Down into Happy Canyon, through the narrows to cross the Dirty Devil river, then up to Poison Spring Canyon to the highway.<br>
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We had a nice relaxed morning beside the Colorado sorting the gear out in the shade. Our pick up boat arrived around 12.30 from Moab and they made short work of pulling our kayaks onto the boat and taking our kayak rental gear, toilet(!) and garbage bag away with them. Soon we are alone, just us and our backpacks. It's got hot (high 20's C) and we were motivated to camp at a water supply 12 miles away so we set off quickly up the steep slopes above the Colorado.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our kayaks are collected</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heading above the Colorado to Dolls House</td></tr>
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There was a trail to follow uphill which made the hot climb easier. We reached the Dolls House - an area of superb sandstone towers with a campsite reachable by a long dirt road, and we saw some people here. We picked up a faint trail through pinyon juniper out onto Main Flat, a sandy plain surrounded by pink pinnacles. The sand made for tough walking but we loved getting back into hiking and soaking up the views.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD_y5pfklPUlHjRaSFpAtPWT8N1hiUIzL6TcqFdOUOMrqtwriDYNsYiZMBqVbFn5KsPoMoXGeecAKx35t4OgwAz5rqJsqiEWK0J6X6s7XPT83v9sROsPvN4EuQeg-uYebY1ohTMHLqo9U/s1600/20140420_195315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD_y5pfklPUlHjRaSFpAtPWT8N1hiUIzL6TcqFdOUOMrqtwriDYNsYiZMBqVbFn5KsPoMoXGeecAKx35t4OgwAz5rqJsqiEWK0J6X6s7XPT83v9sROsPvN4EuQeg-uYebY1ohTMHLqo9U/s640/20140420_195315.jpg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Main Flat</td></tr>
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Our route weaved it's way through lovely rock garden scenery to near Clells Spring, which we don't visit, but we do spot a couple of pools of water here that we could have drawn from. We are aiming for Lou's Spring though further on which is supposed to be a good water source. After some rockier terrain we made it to the spring in late evening and were glad to find clear water in a tank fed by a dripping pipe. Martina spotted a hummingbird here.<br>
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We camped on a good flat spot on top of a sandy hillock, a few hundred meters away from the spring itself. Some spots of rain but the sky cleared as it got dark around 8.30 pm. A great day!<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heading west away from Doll's House</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqM3dhwAf_q_WQB-KSfs5izHmkqeA17OmO-DTZuH8D_JG_A8NUZGckA5G41zjfjpI4qDz6Z16ZFFQ2SAcpUf5kwJi6KJWGL32QWJ-XFZXz6C-Fb-R_Cm9QJefQ_EzTlrb0DFmwU2u7edU/s1600/IMG_0761.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqM3dhwAf_q_WQB-KSfs5izHmkqeA17OmO-DTZuH8D_JG_A8NUZGckA5G41zjfjpI4qDz6Z16ZFFQ2SAcpUf5kwJi6KJWGL32QWJ-XFZXz6C-Fb-R_Cm9QJefQ_EzTlrb0DFmwU2u7edU/s640/IMG_0761.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lou's Spring</td></tr>
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<b>21st April Lou's Spring to Happy Canyon south fork 20 miles</b><br>
We woke at 6 am as it got light and fetched some more water from the spring before heading out with 5 liters each as we were not sure where our next water would be. The tent is frosty but the heat soon builds up as we climbed slick rock out of the canyon and are bathed in red light from the sunrise. After crossing some jeep tracks we headed uphill through another cliff band on the Golden Stairs trail. This traverses across the cliffs finding a line of weakness up onto a higher plateau area via a neck of rock to another jeep track trailhead.<br>
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Here we met Tom who is 70 and is heading out into Ernies Country (where we have just come from) for 2 days. We had a good chat and Martina in particular is delighted when he offers us bananas (the first fresh food item for 5 days!!!) and who had lots of useful info about the way ahead (himself being a desert hiker for many decades).<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6bPBJmRwK1gsw7Qi7gvRqENP31J6rlTmNAJGgV9DSelhA4DwNf7_j6zS_13wR7gvbkX_y4VfQihdDCDX94c9PreNQCgdbd9gs85sNvDYyN8t73Jz_zNcfvRcm2PnT3nCuKapMq0lEBeE/s1600/IMG_0764-golden-staircase.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6bPBJmRwK1gsw7Qi7gvRqENP31J6rlTmNAJGgV9DSelhA4DwNf7_j6zS_13wR7gvbkX_y4VfQihdDCDX94c9PreNQCgdbd9gs85sNvDYyN8t73Jz_zNcfvRcm2PnT3nCuKapMq0lEBeE/s640/IMG_0764-golden-staircase.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the top of the Golden Stairs looking east past 'Mother and Child' rock</td></tr>
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We hiked onwards on jeep tracks with heavy loads for 2-3 miles to another climb through a cliff band of Wingate sandstone. This is a jeep track called the Flint Trail which will take us up to the higher plateau at 6,800 feet. There were people around here accessing the area by the jeep tracks and we realize that it is Easter weekend as well! Lot's of petrified wood around, and we spotted mountain bluebirds around the pinyon juniper.<br>
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Big expansive views opened out to the 'islands in the sky' cliff bands around. After some more jeep tracks we reached the edge of the plateau at Happy Canyon campground and searched out our route down through cliffs into Happy Canyon itself.<br>
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We picked up what looked like an old disused mining track zig-zagging down into colourful blue, white, bright orange and lavender bands of rock - part of the Chinle group which is also a source of minerals and uranium.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiNusc1rvRkJBN5lKF1o-7c57Lyghm_PBt-x_xtbODci8C-iEuFmJ5ANQRuggX0cZp_z6fWHAb2pyKcQa-EYYqowF5oUs-VMceNtCvItzD7AUhvKajRbU4MDXwVJrxfy7ECRtq6N5WeZM/s1600/20140421_181033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiNusc1rvRkJBN5lKF1o-7c57Lyghm_PBt-x_xtbODci8C-iEuFmJ5ANQRuggX0cZp_z6fWHAb2pyKcQa-EYYqowF5oUs-VMceNtCvItzD7AUhvKajRbU4MDXwVJrxfy7ECRtq6N5WeZM/s640/20140421_181033.jpg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Descending down into Happy Canyon south fork</td></tr>
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This route was quite clear, if a bit bouldery in places but the drop into Happy Canyon felt like we were entering wonderful wild country with no one else around. Once we dropped into the canyon bottom we just followed the sandy dry wash as it meandered downwards.<br>
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We stopped just after a prominent feature above the canyon called 'The Hat' (a rock tower) and find some shade under an overhang to read and rest. Brian's feet were blistered from the hot hiking but otherwise we are holding out well and loving Happy Canyon.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5TaBi5tU1vBd1Br4pRjU8xOvSgkkTohevp468sK2YcbTmmsZVHVf2i5VaPITKD3WTt2IdieVGS_eWavvi4X9xDqew5sCLr4GCN1YCTtXhceuHKtlwqC1gGomQRTsuJa_ebouB9lbLtE/s1600/20140421_192521.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5TaBi5tU1vBd1Br4pRjU8xOvSgkkTohevp468sK2YcbTmmsZVHVf2i5VaPITKD3WTt2IdieVGS_eWavvi4X9xDqew5sCLr4GCN1YCTtXhceuHKtlwqC1gGomQRTsuJa_ebouB9lbLtE/s640/20140421_192521.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shady juniper rest in Happy Canyon south fork</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9nyqtWpUhASbGnxcoX-baUh3gg2G8AWTyRzLGXz7VlCBXaYJwZQLvw7vStGKEKGPUZCD530WBIr827fPA3xPiWAfVcN8vbMZEHPkFA_k6bk1vAIyi384ago9OR1b_rvO86dllF0fTbYk/s1600/20140422_011506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9nyqtWpUhASbGnxcoX-baUh3gg2G8AWTyRzLGXz7VlCBXaYJwZQLvw7vStGKEKGPUZCD530WBIr827fPA3xPiWAfVcN8vbMZEHPkFA_k6bk1vAIyi384ago9OR1b_rvO86dllF0fTbYk/s640/20140422_011506.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy Canyon south fork camp</td></tr>
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<b>22nd April Happy Canyon south fork to the Dirty Devil river 21 miles</b><br>
Alarm at 5am this morning (super early for us!) and we breakfasted in the dark. We made good pace down the south fork following the twisting dry, sandy bottom of the wash. Cheerily we see a number of pools of water in the slickrock along the way although we are carrying enough for today through to our intended campsite by the Dirty Devil river and we hope to have some pools of water in the canyon before then.</div><div dir="ltr"><br>
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We soon join the main Happy Canyon and head south west with a few more hummingbirds around. A fox dashes up the canyon slopes when we surprise it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This main canyon has some cool honeycombed cliffs maybe 100 feet high and still the occasional pool of water. Its dry and windy though and both of us put on headphones for the first time whilst walking and start listening to music. This works well, no navigation is required for a few miles as we simply head down the dry riverbed and watch the scenery change subtly as the canyon twists along.</div>
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A strong wind got up later though, at one point blasting us with swirling sharp sand grains and forces us to take shelter- like the 'Jibli' in the Sahara that we have seen in the movie 'The English Patient'!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhapRqtuiqyWYTDX1O-4puphamYWR5189u037F7xT25ixk5QY9ihu8PIeMPkJnMRGgUGIn7rAPXsf7nMmKXxFqSXJgeE34vGPLaVUMZ97dztQSxDn6lTmlTFrpEFPg5FdPabQwriYcnFuo/s1600/20140422_151325.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhapRqtuiqyWYTDX1O-4puphamYWR5189u037F7xT25ixk5QY9ihu8PIeMPkJnMRGgUGIn7rAPXsf7nMmKXxFqSXJgeE34vGPLaVUMZ97dztQSxDn6lTmlTFrpEFPg5FdPabQwriYcnFuo/s640/20140422_151325.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hiking down the alkaline wash in Happy Canyon</td></tr>
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We arrived at a point where Happy descends into a narrow slot canyon in the afternoon, providing a great chance to shelter from the sandstorm. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We clambered down a dryfall into the rocky slot canyon and take the opportunity to have a sheltered lunch. The slot canyon is wonderful, with beautifully sculpted walls, seamed with curving white layers of rock. We loved this hike with the odd scramble but too soon eventually emerge at a widening to the Dirty Devil river itself.</div>
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This river can change in nature very quickly but our crossing was easily achieved in ankle deep refreshing cool water! We found a place to pitch the tent by the river but the wind was gusting hard and whipping sand which found its way into everything.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgok_Bf9sUGq7HX1Pk0G-SijAti1ecWayOs1svF5oQg5grDkSz4W-5HbNzM0eFIuUdz5e6IphyphenhyphenAOJchcMqYWF6eFBy6PV-CUHF9fc_8MxhihgoowV3FazaPbYY0E4ZpOZ8Q9G3OK24B8xQ/s1600/20140422_211723.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgok_Bf9sUGq7HX1Pk0G-SijAti1ecWayOs1svF5oQg5grDkSz4W-5HbNzM0eFIuUdz5e6IphyphenhyphenAOJchcMqYWF6eFBy6PV-CUHF9fc_8MxhihgoowV3FazaPbYY0E4ZpOZ8Q9G3OK24B8xQ/s640/20140422_211723.jpg" width="480"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy Canyon</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybS92ZklzG5V5RlL_-c630QCez_UU7HJuFjuhyphenhyphenmOn1AkrTUu_6ZZfWYHB9x80ZGVr7rzaXRkpgjUU0G9NtA7JQIRG0pb8q5d6xz51CePY6Lt2XLTPYPJHMy7rrJCQvzKoUn9WbVBL7Xs/s1600/20140422_212329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybS92ZklzG5V5RlL_-c630QCez_UU7HJuFjuhyphenhyphenmOn1AkrTUu_6ZZfWYHB9x80ZGVr7rzaXRkpgjUU0G9NtA7JQIRG0pb8q5d6xz51CePY6Lt2XLTPYPJHMy7rrJCQvzKoUn9WbVBL7Xs/s640/20140422_212329.jpg" width="480"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy Canyon</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBGIzGmUAPS9xn9VzDptsYniDMtoCfqqGNoCq2sSzMs_DhkOtEDBfGAITl60nHJFrs2ig5_spfCxN-AaWB9px3eVurU8-vOC70AC4WdlcRwATnHP6h5Vl72DWWz3HQ2_XFtBQSMyA2-GU/s1600/20140422_140540.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBGIzGmUAPS9xn9VzDptsYniDMtoCfqqGNoCq2sSzMs_DhkOtEDBfGAITl60nHJFrs2ig5_spfCxN-AaWB9px3eVurU8-vOC70AC4WdlcRwATnHP6h5Vl72DWWz3HQ2_XFtBQSMyA2-GU/s640/20140422_140540.jpg"></a></td></tr>
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<b>23nd April Dirty Devil river to near Poison Spring 16 miles</b><br>
The wind had thankfully died down when we woke up making things a bit more relaxed. We even managed a wash in the river before leaving at 7.20 am. </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Our climb out of the Dirty Devil was fairly straightforward on some faint trails but we generally just kept heading up until we hit an old mining track contouring around the west side of the canyon. This is a viewful 'balcony trail' along the colourful Chinle rock strata and we could see back down to Happy Canyon and south along the Dirty Devil river as it makes it's way to its confluence with the Colorado river itself.<br>
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Lots of petrified wood at the side of the trail before we swing west away from the Dirty Devil to parallel Poison Spring Canyon and meet up with the actual Hayduke Trail. The wind is up again and we take a break behind a large boulder for shelter and snacks.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNgqr3a_oznNKZ7kyoW3a9b49YLCxw4QVUDDoPbwbqOkZWvNJSecz-TIFwBWFGUfO-oN3ghr4_Inii3Xr_lIMpg2VS2-SAn2sJ94Us2PE07ZQyZS71wz02HIC2Cr_OWlIGkj0OBq5xaE/s1600/20140423_152651.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNgqr3a_oznNKZ7kyoW3a9b49YLCxw4QVUDDoPbwbqOkZWvNJSecz-TIFwBWFGUfO-oN3ghr4_Inii3Xr_lIMpg2VS2-SAn2sJ94Us2PE07ZQyZS71wz02HIC2Cr_OWlIGkj0OBq5xaE/s640/20140423_152651.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Petrified wood above the Dirty Devil river</td></tr>
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A jeep trail provides relaxed, easy hiking and there were seeps of water on the track. The canyon walls were now the smooth red Wingate sandstone and with lush green cottonwood trees on either side, it was very welcoming. Poison Spring was just up the track where we decide to camp in late afternoon on our 8th night out by the clear piped spring (no poison).<br>
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Once the tent was up we headed out for a few hours east of the canyon by scrambling up slabs and broken rock onto the plateau for some grand distant views both back east to Canyonlands national park and west to the snow capped Henry mountains where we are heading next! We reached a canyon overlook and disturbed some swifts - a grand wander!<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking to the Henry mountains from above Poison Spring Canyon</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camp in Poison Spring Canyon under cottonwoods</td></tr>
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<b>24th April Poison Spring to Highway 95 (hitch to Hanksville) 10 miles</b><br>
Today we headed for town for some food and a clean - yay!<br>
The highway was about 10 miles away and we started with a sandy jeep road. It made for pleasant hiking with more green cottonwoods and smooth Wingate sandstone walls changing to the blonde Navajo sandstone further on, higher up.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Walking out of Poison Spring Canyon</td></tr>
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We hiked quickly in the cool morning air and made it to Highway 95 by about 11 am with wide vistas ahead to the Henry mountains. Got a lift to Hanksville from the 3rd car passing after about 15 minutes - hikers from Steamboat Springs Colorado who have been in hiking at Salt Creek canyon in Canyonlands National Park. Hanksville is a small place which you would imagine that tumbleweed is invented for, but it has motels, diners, a post office and a small grocery- all we need!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hanksville post office - we collect our supplies!</td></tr>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-91974559403057173462014-04-25T21:48:00.001+01:002016-06-23T07:16:17.112+01:00Paddling down the Colorado<div dir="ltr">
<b>16th April Moab to south of Potash 17 miles</b></div>
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Our plan from here was to hire two sea kayaks in Moab and paddle down the Colorado River from just outside the town where we walked past yesterday. Loaded with 9 days of food we intended to paddle for 70 miles or so, have the kayaks picked up for us and returned to Moab whilst we shoulder our backpacks and hike on for another 65 miles through Canyonlands National Park before reaching a road.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">National Park inspection before we set off</td></tr>
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The boats were a tad silty looking (for reasons which were to become obvious to us in due course). We had never paddled a river before and were pleasantly surprised when we put in that even without paddling we were moving at walking speed. Keeping up a relaxed paddling pace we made 5 miles per hour! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We are off!</td></tr>
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This was the life! The water was a thick cappuccino, silty brown color and the paddles disappeared from sight once submerged under the water. Although on our first day a minor road followed the river it was still a pleasure staring up at the big red, black walls above the thick green vegetation lining the river.<br>
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Our schedule gave us plenty of time so we stopped at midday to hike up to Corona Arch. The shore was made up of deep silty mud and we already become caked in it! We passed a canoeist on this first day and a motorized tour boat came up river but that was all the river traffic we see. Later on we see Potash Mine but soon float by in our own world.<br>
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We found ourselves an idyllic sand flat to hitch up the kayaks and set up camp for the evening. What a great day!<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First river camp by the Colorado</td></tr>
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<b>17th April Potash to Lockhart Canyon 17 miles</b><br>
And so we followed the meandering river for another day underneath red and pink and orange and maroon walls and towers, camping on sandbars and ledges. The unexpected things were 1) the deep incredibly sticky mud and 2) the number of beavers and Canada geese we encountered!<br>
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Today we crossed into Canyonlands National Park and the water levels dropped along with the water flow rate- probably settling after the rain a few days ago.
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We stopped at Lockhart Canyon paddling through the rushes up a small inlet before getting out and hiking up canyon for a while. It was super hot though, the air is definitely cooler kayaking on the river. Back at the kayaks we set up camp on a little sand bank island in the river. The river flows silently by on both sides and it was another great spot. Luxury meal of tortilla, beans, salsa mashed potato and Chardonnay wine. Bats, ravens and Canadian geese around the campsite- we could get used to kayaking on the river!<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2nd sandbank island campsite</td></tr>
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<b>18th April to the Loop 'neck' camp 19.5 miles</b><br>
A slow start today as we had plenty of time. Martina paddled into the inlet again to collect some fresh drinking water to save us cleaning the silty Colorado River water. It was cool first thing but the cloud overhead soon dispersed to give hot conditions again. The dreamlike meandering down the river continued until we stop at midday at Rustler Canyon on a steep mudslope. Behind the thick tamarisk though there was a cleared area for camping and we met a family there paddling with their children- what an adventure!<br>
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We hike up Rustler Canyon to a scenic waterfall and pools and manage a dip in lovely cold water. Further upstream the Hayduke trail crosses Rustler Canyon.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rustler Canyon</td></tr>
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Back in the kayaks a wind got up and it clouded over, but still remained hot. The wind made it harder work for us- funneling upstream against us. Further on the character of the canyon changed as the rock walls closed in on us and the river took some dramatic 'gooseneck' meanders. The options for beaching the kayaks disappeared so we kept paddling until we saw a high muddy ledge and go for that. It turned out to be an excellent pre-used site with a fantastic perch for the tent 100 feet above the river. Lots of desert flowers around and a boulder with a petroglyph panel.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Petroglyph panel</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camp 3 above the river</td></tr>
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<b>19th April to Spanish Bottom 11 miles plus hiking </b><br>
There was rain overnight but otherwise we had a very comfortable camp in a dramatic spot with no-one else around. In the morning we hiked up to the narrow neck between the loop of the Colorado river in a unique spot.<br>
After a bit of ferrying the gear down to the mud take off point, we float off again in a very still, gently flowing river.<br>
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Brian spotted a beaver at close quarters swimming near a sandbank. We guess the river is too powerful for dams so we think they stay in burrows in the river banks instead.<br>
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Later the clouds break up and the sun pokes out so we 'raft up' to remove our fleeces before paddling on to 'the slide'. This is an area of small rapids which we were a bit unsure about! Its a narrowing of the river caused by a rock slide and we knew we were nearing it as a dull roar rather intimidatingly got louder and louder. It was short though and we were soon through but the eddies afterwards swept us round off to the side before we both managed to take control again and paddle on.<br>
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The confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers is an iconic landmark which we passed by quickly before settling onto a sand bank for some lunch.<br>
<br>We had three miles now of faster flowing water down to 'Spanish Bottom', an open area of the canyon where we had pre-arranged for the kayaks to be picked up by a tourist boat the next day. We both agreed we will be sad to leave the river- it has been sublime! Just beyond 'Spanish Bottom' the canyon narrows and the river plummets into a series of rapids- 'Cataract Canyon', a no-go area for us!<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At Spanish Bottom</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Approaching the rapids</td></tr>
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After pitching the tent we wandered downstream to have a close look at the rapids of Cataract Canyon. It's a lovely short hike in its own right, and we felt lucky to have this spot to ourselves.<br>
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Tomorrow the boat hire company will picked up the kayaks and we will shoulder our packs and continued on foot, taking as our drinking water some of the Colorado (and its silt).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We used Alum to sort the sediment out of the silty Colorado River water for drinking</td></tr>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-3482178828245921442014-04-15T23:21:00.001+01:002016-06-23T07:07:36.846+01:00First 3 days in arches national park<div dir="ltr">
We are setting out on our version of the <a href="http://wildernesstravels.co.uk/hayduke/" target="_blank">Hayduke Trail</a>, a wonderful hiking and scrambling route that winds its way through the canyons and plateau of southern Utah and northern Arizona. We have lots of alternates planned from the published version but hope to follow the general spirit of the trail and seek out some wild, beautiful territory!</div>
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The first part of our route is through Arches National Park and, as we are intending to rent kayaks for the next section and have to stick to a schedule, we find ourselves with a leisurely three days to do this part of the route.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starting out!</td></tr>
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<b>13th April Klondyke Bluffs to Devil's Garden 17 miles</b><br>
It rained hard on Sunday April 13th as we tried to hitch from Moab to our planned start point 18 miles to the north. After getting soaked at the side of the road we retreated to the 'Sweet Cravings' cafe to regroup! Luckily for us fellow Scots Mathew and John from Largs (thanks guys, and enjoy the rest of your holiday) gave us a lift to the Klondike Bluffs junction near Moab airport and we started our hike in driving rain across the sage brush plains.<br>
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We headed north east on dirt road in the rain for about 3.5 miles to a trailhead possibly used by mountain bikers. From here we headed out east cross country over washes and rising sandstone slabs. This was great and what we had traveled from Scotland for! We aimed for the 'Marching Men' tower formation on the horizon and the sky gradually cleared as we reached Tower Arch in Arches National Park. Sitting under the arch we looked out to a magnificent canyon view framed by the arch itself.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Starting out from Klondyke Bluffs<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tower Arch</td></tr>
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From Tower Arch we followed a cairned trail winding through sandstone towers, then a jeep trail into the wide open Salt Wash. Here we crossed the Hayduke trail to head out again on an alternate north east. We had our first scramble up a cliff band towards Dark Angel tower and vast open views all around. Now on proper trail we took the Primitive Loop through the Devil's Garden area of Arches NP through its labyrinth of vertical fins and gullys. A superb start to our journey!<br>
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We camped at Devils Garden and got hit by freezing cold wind and rain....long may it continue as we know that heat will be our enemy later on this hike rather than cold. Our sleep was broken during the night caused by us needing to get out to move and repitch the tent after a large puddle formed underneath.<br>
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<b>14th April Devil's Garden to Courthouse Wash 16.5 miles</b><br>
Next morning we awoke to clear blue sky and frozen puddles around the tent. Firstly we did a wee extra hike around Broken and Sandy Arches which were fantastic.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Broken Arch, Arches NP</td></tr>
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Crossing the Arches NP road, we then headed cross country south west to aim for the Hayduke trail again. Both of us wore all our clothing to keep out a biting cold wind on this exposed stretch but views opened out to the La Sal mountains covered with fresh snow.<br>
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Our mid morning break was taken sheltering from the wind beside a rock fin before we climbed up to a fence line forming the park's western boundary. Back on the Hayduke, we crossed country south, weaving on sand between bushes and cacti before arriving at a semi circular slab dropping below us. A scramble down this led to Willow Spring wash and it was heartening to see some water in potholes in the slabs.<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2-jVw0wgJxeIT01TekQH6pxj2dXB1t8Wio6RaK34-pF9PWnJ6LHbcGUhN6UZdDXscmj6KXHRaITDwAmYbZYfOl-axALVLiTPY0WUhBTnoSZTUlCsfuo9VZl5W1QF2cB-kh3qbxfBf59Q/s1600/IMG_0587.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2-jVw0wgJxeIT01TekQH6pxj2dXB1t8Wio6RaK34-pF9PWnJ6LHbcGUhN6UZdDXscmj6KXHRaITDwAmYbZYfOl-axALVLiTPY0WUhBTnoSZTUlCsfuo9VZl5W1QF2cB-kh3qbxfBf59Q/s640/IMG_0587.jpg" width="640"></a>The wash was left further down to allow us onto the slabby plateau following a route described by Nicolas C. Barth called <a href="http://ncbarth.com/Hayduke.htm#OurHike" target="_blank">Arches Slickrock</a>. This provided a great hike with expansive views to the La Sal mountains to the south east, still with a spring snow cover. A sea of grainy, ripply slick rock interspersed with sandy joints, juniper, cactus undulates but it was easy going.<br>
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Arriving above Courthouse Towers we looked down into a slightly intimidating great amphitheater of rock. The first step down was easy followed by a traverse rightwards along a slabby ledge. We then scrabbled down slightly slippy, grainy slabs using our 3mm cord to lower the backpacks a short way from a juniper tree. Then down a chimney crack back into a sandy wash- phew that was interesting!<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking down to Courthouse Towers</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Descend down final chimney</td></tr>
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We found the main Courthouse wash valley and followed that for a while through vegetation crossing the park road again. Pools of water here and signs of beaver activity in the wash. There was a faint path and we stayed dry as there are logs handily spanning the pools. Our tent was pitched on a small patch of grass in the canyon next to the river under cottonwood trees. A superb day!<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courthouse Wash</td></tr>
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<b>15th April Courthouse Wash to Moab 7 miles</b><br>
A crisp frosty morning but the sun was up quickly and we were able to lay the tent out to dry before moving off. The canyon is not narrow, generally about 50-100m wide, with red walls and shimmering green cottonwoods with mild breezes and the trickle of water- it is beautiful. We see what look like raccoon tracks in the mud and enjoy our easy walk downstream before breaking out onto the road into Moab.<br>
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Our first crossing of the mighty Colorado river is by footbridge and then we hiked on by road into the town of Moab. We had some logistics to sort out for our next long stretch and enjoy the luxury of a motel for the night - the Adventure Inn. Moab is a great vibrant town...but it was a bit weird as it is 'Jeep week' and the town is packed full of the strangest looking 'souped up' Jeeps!</div>
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Tomorrow we pick up kayaks for 70 miles paddling down the Colorado followed by 65 miles hiking. Next stop Hanksville, Utah in 9 days ....<br>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-29675841601594214342014-04-12T04:10:00.001+01:002014-04-12T04:10:36.398+01:00First impressions<p dir="ltr">Our first camp before starting the hayduke trail itself was car camping in Colorado National Monument (like a national park). We had great views down from a canyon rim onto towers including independence monument shown here.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Organised some food parcels to send forward to ourselves to collect at post offices... Which was hard work but fun! Martina rests in the sun....</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8u_ZC2Scmi8lR3n5RaxMJGnrJPLbEMftTKytP3IMQoDZz8sYbiNuKeR_yAcY5E6up4Ai6mjl4Ib_Ws2Wj8Oaxli3RAgYVoHgb0wNWYVrh-8G85_HASnPxZyi5qeKGQIHBiz_SFTYzhgI/s1600/IMG_20140408_084548.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8u_ZC2Scmi8lR3n5RaxMJGnrJPLbEMftTKytP3IMQoDZz8sYbiNuKeR_yAcY5E6up4Ai6mjl4Ib_Ws2Wj8Oaxli3RAgYVoHgb0wNWYVrh-8G85_HASnPxZyi5qeKGQIHBiz_SFTYzhgI/s640/IMG_20140408_084548.jpg"> </a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxb8t4cBeF73KPPJib4-pBExkFBYQjIDp1PJ8J5YpkB8W9ZUDAHhqWVNSk59mcekgOlVqe0TedZxZD-ILRQHH3Zgk5fDdJtSBir0eo-9kCEZoNcDUPR8HYpzluAde6rSGUgW0c1nLT8rI/s1600/IMG_20140408_161939.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxb8t4cBeF73KPPJib4-pBExkFBYQjIDp1PJ8J5YpkB8W9ZUDAHhqWVNSk59mcekgOlVqe0TedZxZD-ILRQHH3Zgk5fDdJtSBir0eo-9kCEZoNcDUPR8HYpzluAde6rSGUgW0c1nLT8rI/s640/IMG_20140408_161939.jpg"> </a> </div>Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-80657734165543187722014-04-10T23:15:00.002+01:002014-04-10T23:20:50.103+01:00Getting sorted to get goingWe are in Montrose, Colorado, with our friend Mary-Joy and have just shopped for food for 28 days in the desert. The plan is to head into Utah tomorrow and to start with a short 2 day section through Arches National Park before renting kayaks for 4 days and letting the Colorado river do some of the work for us (from Moab downstream for 70 miles). After that it is 5 days hiking through desert (an area called "the maze" - ominous!) before we get to the next resupply town, Hanksville. We've been down the canyon of the Gunnison River yesterday with Mary-Joy and saw lots of interesting things including a burrowing owl, lots of prairie dogs and vultures circling above - apparent they can dispatch a carcass (human) in under an hour! Happy to be back in red desert country and smelling the sweet juniper and pine. Photos to follow!<br />
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Burrowing Owl<br />
<img src="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/PHOTO/LARGE/BurrowingOwl-Vyn_070309_0013.jpg" />Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-26101083669952489162014-03-31T12:34:00.001+01:002014-03-31T12:42:37.915+01:00Move<div dir="ltr">
Martina moves out of her Glasgow <u>flat</u></div>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com2Fortrose, Fortrose57.58156 -4.130675tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-55831229026552533892014-03-09T16:24:00.001+00:002014-03-09T16:26:11.851+00:00Hayduke planning....<div dir="ltr">
Pouring over lots if maps, guides and web based blogs etc to plan out our 850 mile route through the desert and canyons of Arizona and southern Utah</div>
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Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com0Fortrose, Fortrose57.58156 -4.130675tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-76201521938073174972014-03-09T16:08:00.003+00:002014-03-09T16:08:52.334+00:00Hayduke training....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWCrbOV06dJsAk8Bsenki82uYI7A4MCu50jDwH_A-x4e9_1o32Cxvq4zwXFHUy8f7K2GOjAUGcWgCSl0WLU-RrUsbbsTmcLNXlVuiv3c0q3nC0K9qBsuSgewdzbXaXoWJ3XmGLVpV7woA/s1600/0505-cromarty-walk-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWCrbOV06dJsAk8Bsenki82uYI7A4MCu50jDwH_A-x4e9_1o32Cxvq4zwXFHUy8f7K2GOjAUGcWgCSl0WLU-RrUsbbsTmcLNXlVuiv3c0q3nC0K9qBsuSgewdzbXaXoWJ3XmGLVpV7woA/s320/0505-cromarty-walk-2.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We were out yesterday on our local coast from Rosiemarkie to Cromarty on a 21 mile walk. This is a very sheltered area and tends to receive better weather than the mainland to the west.</span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lots to see including sea birds, geology of the great glen fault, fossils
and footprints from the elusive otters around here. The terrain is varied too from sand, rock hopping, some cross-country, singletrack, single lane road and jeep track. We can't train for the temperatures of the Hayduke though, we had a cool 3-6 C yesterday, we are expecting temps up to 35 C out in the Grand Canyon!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Here's a quote from Edward Abbey, the Hayduke Trail is named after a character from his fictional book 'the Monkey Wrench Gang' - well worth a read!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span class="text"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em><span style="line-height: 19px;">"In the first place you can't see
</span><span style="line-height: 19px;">anything
</span></em></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><em>from a car; you've got to get out of
the <br soft="" />goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and
knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus. When
traces of blood begin to mark your trail you'll see something,
maybe." -Edward
Abbey</em></span></span></span>Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9144499504640009985.post-45356021092242488382014-03-07T16:32:00.001+00:002014-03-07T16:32:13.549+00:00We are off again! This time we are attempting a more remote and less "official" route called the Hayduke Trail after a fictional eco-terrorist in Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang". The trail links Arches, Canoyonlands, Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks and very roughly follows the Colorado River. There are a lot of variants to choose from, not a lot of water and what we understand to be very challenging hiking conditions. Our tickets are booked, we leave Scotland on the 6th of April.Brian and Martinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740733239159089093noreply@blogger.com0