Tuesday, March 23
10 miles.
Went to bed too late and woke up too early as is usual on town days. Did some morning errands including sending a bunch of electronics home. I was feeling better about getting back on trail until we got to the road out of town and saw very few cars going our way. Fortunately two dogs saw us and came to keep us company for a bit.
After two hours (my new record for longest time spent hitching), we got a ride in the back of a pickup truck with some more nice dogs and their humans. Got back on the route fairly early and spent the afternoon on rising dirt roads towards Mt Ellen. The dirt road was fine though it was a bit confusing as there was a road that wasn’t listed on our maps that went the same way as the intended route. Thankfully Skurka’s guidebook explains it and we were able to make our way up easily and quickly enough.
As we started gaining elevation, we could see the wide open Colorado Plateau behind us, so big and forever seeming. It’s ridiculous how strange and massive this world is.
We spent some time in the morning trying to figure out the alternates around the Henrys. We have Skurka’s maps, a gpx track Jordan found, and the Across Utah maps and alternates. The Across Utah alt is much lower in elevation and very different from Skurka’s which follows the main route for 10 miles but then stays low instead of going towards Mt Ellen. We opted for the Skurka route though in hindsight kinda regret it. Mostly because we could see a snowstorm on top of the mountains and spent the afternoon walking right towards it.
We got to a maybe abandoned mine and it started snowing on us. We were hoping to actually sleep in the mine or some empty building but couldn’t find anything so we found the flattest most protected pine grove we could find, collected as many line needles as we could, and made two little nests. Hopefully it’s enough to keep us warm tonight since it’s supposed to get down to 27 degrees.
We managed to make camp by 6, despite the slow morning and long hitch which was very pleasant. It was nice to set up and be under my tarp while it’s still light out. It’s already started to get real cold and the wind is blowing all around us but thankfully not on us in our protected spots.
Tomorrow we’re going to spend most of the day on roads and maybe take a shorter more scenic alt through Tarantula Mesa so so that should be fun.
Plants Outside 