Monday, April 5.
19.8 miles
Writing this in the morning since I got caught up watching a cake baking reality show competition until midnight. I hate/love town days.
It didn’t rain last night, thank fuck. It was warm most of the night until around 6am when it got cold as usual. I slept on a slant all night and woke up pressed against a tree outside my tarp. One day we’ll find a good campsite.
We managed to pack up and start hiking early for once, before 7, which isn’t really that early but it is for us.
We had just under 20 miles to the highway to Kanab and I was determined to get there early enough to have two restaurant meals. Spoiler alert: we did it.
We got into the Bullrush Gorge, another sandy wash area that was a little bit of a trudge. Found some on and off cattle trails above the wash though that helped get through it faster. We went by a cowboy shack that looked like a meth house, old grimy pots and stained mattresses on rusty bed frames. I was hoping we could have made it there last night but hindsight glad we didn’t. The cylindrical tank we had planned to get some extra water from was bone dry except for an old cow pie right in the middle. Maybe we missed the actual water source but it seemed like that was it. Thankfully we’d gotten enough water at the spring last night that we didn’t really need any more water to the road.
We kept hiking through the soft sand wash all morning, trying to find the most packed sections to step on and mostly failing. We also ran into an eastbound Hayduke hiker! We had started at stateline and was heading to Moab. He also that he was planning on hiking from Moab to Grand Junction via the Kokopelli Trail, a mountain bike trail from Moab to Grand Junction. I’m pretty sure I’m going to fly from SLC but I’m very tempted to add that on since we’re going to be done so early.
The rest of the day until we got to the highway was entirely on well groomed dirt road which made for fast hiking. We didn’t hit 10 by 10 but still managed 20 miles by 1:30pm, a new record for us. Aesthetically, the area was fine. Some cool sandstone formations, especially near the highway where we could see the stereotypical big red mesas that shape the skyline.
We passed by some cows behind a fence and I saw a small calf that seemed to be stuck near a barbed wire fence. I went to see if I could help it and it just seemed confused. It was so gaunt and emaciated and as I got closer it hobbled away. The sight of that calf behind the barbed wire fucked me up. I’ve been pretty upset about all the cow shit all over this route and the treatment of cows in this area and seeing that calf in that state made me so mad and depressed. These are the “good cows”, the free range ones that are supposed to have better conditions than the factory farm ones and most I’ve seen look miserable. Cows are not native to this area and not well suited for it. They also cause massive amounts of ecological damage, as we’ve seen for weeks. /end preachy vegan rant.
We got to the road fairly early and waited about 20 minutes until a van lifer/hiker trash guy picked us up. He had done a few long trails himself including the CDT and PCT and just finished doing trail magic for AZT hikers. He had a nice van with a big map of the world inside and it made me want a van of my own again.
I was able to book a hotel for cheap (S/O Travelodge by Wyndham Kanab) and we got dropped off at the Mexican place across the street from it. I absolutely loved the Mexican place. It was a straight up Mexican family run restaurant with seemingly every family member working there, including a shirtless baby under the register. Reminded me of home.
Only downside is that no one gives a fuuuuuck about masks here. There’s a handful of people still wearing masks but there’s also full on indoor dining going on. Looked almost like pre covid times. We asked to be seated outside and luckily were not near anyone. While we were ordering, we spotted Captain Jack across the street! He came over and told us he had gotten in earlier today so we hadn’t been too far behind him despite the longer alternate through Bryce. He was in town for two nights, same as us, waiting for a package so we’ll probably be hiking near him for a while.
After burritos, we checked in to a v nice hotel which unfortunately had busted laundry machines. It was Jordan’s turn to laundry which I was very happy about after the last clothes washing fiasco I had. We went over to the gear shop and I was finally able to get a new filter. It’s a weird life straw filter that is a combination of the Sawyer Squeeze and Katydyn BeFree. It can be attached directly to a smart water bottle but also comes with a 650ml soft flask it can go into. Reviews weren’t great for it but there weren’t any other non pump filters so it’ll have to do. I did get some Aquatabs as backup so I don’t have to end up using Jordan’s filter again if this doesn’t work out.
We picked up some other random stuff from the supermarket (including vegan ice cream!) and went back to the hotel to chill while Jordan did laundry. Got to talk to Kay, always a town highlight, and watch bad TV.
Kanab also has a Chinese food place with vegan options which I was stoked about. We got dinner with Jack there, making right before they stopped seating people so we had the place mostly to ourselves. Since Jack is hiking about the same pace as us and has a similar itinerary, we might hike with him for a while. I even offered to try to get him on our Grand Canyon permit which I have to change anyway so we might all be sticking together until at least then depending on how my call with the permit office goes. He hasn’t been wierd so far and it might be nice to hike with someone else for a while.
We got back to the hotel and settled in for a long night of shitty TV. Jesus fucking Christ I could feel myself getting dumber the more we watched that awful cake show. The contestants were tasked with making a life sized cake replica of The Rock and they were all so bad. There were teases of a special guest to judge the cakes and we stayed up until midnight hoping it was going to be The Rock himself. Today’s Monday so I was hoping to watch Monday Night Raw but the cable here for some goddamn reason doesn’t have the channel it’s on so I was hoping to at least see The Rock to get my wrestling fix. Alas, the guest host was not The Great One but his stunt double.
I forget sometimes how terrible real TV is and it’s times like these I appreciate thru hiking for taking me the fuck away from it.
Plants Outside 