Friday, March 26
21 miles.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. To celebrate we are maybe bailing on this section wooo.
Woke up to some light rain, nothing to bad. Very shortly after packing up, it started to pour on us. And snow. Pretty much all morning.
The hike down Lower Muley Twist Canyon was really scenic and flat but cold and wet. Big sandstone and limestone walls with haunting dark streaks spreading. There was no trail but the canyon was easy enough to follow though a little slow because of the wet coarse sand.
It rained and snowed all morning pretty hard at times. We got drenched which Jordan got worse. He didn’t put his Gatewood cape on because it was too much of a hassle to put on and instead just got soaked.
Around lunch about ten miles in we decided to stop at a little sheltered cave. The cave had a bunch of names carved in it, including one from 1929. As we sat there watching the rain and snow come down, we realized heading into some narrow slot canyons that were already probably full of water was probably a bad idea. We spent some time debating our options going back and forth on whether or not to keep going, turn back, or try one of the alternates.
The canyon narrowed a bit right before the cave we were in and we could see waterfalls start to form from the walls. As we were discussing what to do, a small flash flood swept across the path in front of us, right were we had come up to the cave. Which solidified not continuing towards the Narrows.
With that option out, the only real options were to head back to the trailhead at the start of the section and either get a very long hitch to Escalante or take a northern alternate that would lead us to Escalante directly. There were three other options as well, the main Hayduke, an Across Utah alt, or the Skurka alt. All of these required long sections in the Escalante River which every journal I’ve read says is terrible and often requires multi-day bushwhacking or packrafting so all those options were out too. Neither of us have a lot of canyoneering experience either and since we’d be going through a lot of canyons and a maybe high water Escalante in the next few days, it seems the best idea to head back to the trailhead. We haven’t decided whether or not to take the alt or hitch yet though.
So we backtracked the 10 or so miles we had hiked back up the windy canyon. It was less rainy but there was a lot of snow up above the canyon. When that melts it’ll probably cause more swells and flooding so maybe good to get out of here. We made it to the spot we camped at the night before and kept going a bit, partly to get closer to the trailhead so we could be there early and partly because we just couldn’t find a decent spot to camp. We hiked until almost dark and found a flat semi protected spot that is very damp and covered in some snow. All our stuff is still very wet or at least damp and it’s supposed to be cold tonight so should be a fun night.
We’re gonna see how this night goes. If we don’t freeze and the sun actually rises in the morning, we might dry out our stuff and hit up the northern alt. If we’re miserable, we might just say fuck it and skip this section. 22 ish miles on this section is not that bad, even if 11 of them are the same.
Jordan just asked me what I want the 33rd year of my life to be about. I think I want it to be about the outdoors. I’m gonna spend the summer being a camp instructor and have a few other hikes planned for the fall. And of course, I’m starting off the year on this ridiculous hike so seems like I can live up to that.
Plants Outside 