Friday, March 12.
17 miles.
It was cold and windy again all night. I managed to stay warm most of the night but woke up around 5am having to pee so badly it made me cold. We packed up and hit the 4wd road for a while onto the park boundary fence. We followed that for a while, taking in the brisk morning views.
At Willow Spring, our first on trail water source, we bushwhacked a little trying to find the actual spring but settled on some clear pools near the route itself. While we were filling up, three other Hayduke hikers caught up to us. They were three older folks who seemed nice, if a bit overburdened with heavy stuff. This trail is so different than others when it comes to gear though. Definitely requires some tougher and maybe heavier gear.
We got ahead of them and started no working our way down some narrowing canyons towards the Courthouse Wash, the big attraction of the day. Right before the start, there was a big pool of water we’d have to wade through to make it into the wash. Since it just rained and snowed the day before, we figured that the wash would probably be full of pools like this and since it was like 30 degrees, we really didn’t want to get wet. So from that point we found an easy spot to scramble up above the wash. There is an alternate further up that it is supposed to be much easier but it cuts through a lot of crypto biotic soil, living soil that is very delicate. A few blogs I read before encouraged people to avoid the alternate to stay off the soil so we were very hesitant to go up. Turns out it was actually fine to up near the edge of the wash since that was mostly hard rock with very little crypto soil.
It was easy for us to hike along the wash occasionally peering down into it. The views from above the wash were amazing too. We could all around us for miles. We even had service for a while and Jordan was able to FaceTime his family during our lunch break.
After a lot of easy hiking on the rocks, we rejoined the alternate and started the scramble down to the wash. From above we saw the three other hikers who it seemed had just taken the direct route. We were able to follow behind them, getting a little beta from them to work our way down the steep slick rock ledges. This section was amazing. We were on slick rock ledges hopping our way down from one to another zig zagging back and forth on them trying to find the best ways down. And by best I mean less likely to break our legs. Utah slick rock is so different than other rocks I’ve scrambled on. Lot more texture than granite which make it seem gripper but it’s also very sandy and crumbly so still have to be very careful.
We got down into the wash and followed it to the main park road. Right before we got there, we ran into yet another Hayduke hiker. He’d been in Arches for a few days doing the Devil’s Loop alternate. We talked for a bit, got his contact info, and made plans to meet for dinner in town.
We crossed the road and again went the wrong way again following a use trail above where we were supposed to go. We joked that we are somehow not bad at off-trail navigation but horrible on trails.
We backtracked and went down into the wash which actually had a real (ish) trail. We caught up to all four other Hayduke hikers. The group of three we had met in the morning had gone a little further up and saw a water crossing they didn’t want to go over so they were backtracking and going to try to hitch to town from the park road. That did not bode well for our plans to make it through the last 5 miles early enough to get to town but we decided to keep going.
It ended up really not being that bad. The first water crossing had a few logs we could shuffle our way across easily enough and the other ones along the way we could find sections where we could just jump or step right over.
The hike through the wash on trail was v nice. Mostly flat cruiser terrain with the occasional overgrown section and trail finding. The wash itself is really interesting. It’s basically a canyon with a lot of vegetation and a meandering creek that runs through.
A mile or two in though and it really turned into a slog. We’d been hiking for like 24 hours at that point but my body was already feeling pretty beat up. My pack was nowhere near as heavy as it’s going to be and my shoulders and feet are hurting. I suppose this is just the acclimation period while I get my trail legs and body back but it’s rough. I also realized that we did spend 3 days driving hours and hours which also took a toll.
We made it out of the park and on the busy main highway. One national park down, a few more to go. From the highway the route takes us down into town. There’s major construction going on and the thought of road walking 2 miles through that back to the town was unacceptable so we just got a quick hitch to our hotel. I’m normally vehemently against yellow blazing (every fucking mile) but since this route is really about choosing your own adventure why not skip the sketchy shitty road walk.
Our cache was still at the hotel and we were able to order some overpriced mediterranean food from a nearby place. We showered and did laundry which feels weird to do basically a day into a thru hike but we have been on the road for 5 days and the next real town isn’t for another 10 days so might as well.
Bottoms of my feet are really sore and tender I think from the section walking on the rocks above the wash. I love the shoes I’m wearing, the Altra King MTs since they’re super grippy and don’t have mesh upper which keeps out the sand (Jordan has a mesh upper on his shoes and has to constantly stop to take sand out of his shoes) but they have already lost most of their cushioning which is probably contributing to my feet hurting.
Tomorrow we’re going to hit up the gear store and swap some stuff out and hopefully get me some insoles for a little added cushioning. Then we’re gonna hike out at least 10 miles mostly on paved and dirt roads and try to get further down this thing.
Plants Outside 