Twig Adventures

Monday, April 10th, 2023, 0600-1915Hite Marina\UT 95 to halfway through the Dirty Devil River24 miles, including 6 mile hwy walk to drop off van, elevation 3800′ We planned an early start since we had little packing to do and were driving away, not walking. We needed to deliver the van to the take out, which was across the river. As the raven flies, it was only a few miles from where we were but almost 10 miles via the highway. Along the way, we were smart enough to drop off our packs, heavily loaded with water, on the dirt road we picked up as part of the route to the Red Benches. We needed to backtrack about 6 highway miles[…]

Sunday, April 9th, 2023, 0650-1915Youngs Canyon mm 45 to Sundance Trailhead, then #vanlife to Hite Marina (about 11 road miles skipped)12 miles and 23 river crossings, elevation 4000′ Craig Childs roamed the desert for years then wrote a fantastic book about his discoveries in The Secret Knowledge of Water. His smaller cover header reads: “There are two easy ways to die in the desert: thirst and drowning.” I knew this to be true, just never expected both threats to come into play in the same day. When the Hayduke hands you one of the hardest days, get ready because there is probably more to come. A big surprise was waiting for us in Dark Canyon, but thankfully we’d remained in[…]

Saturday, April 8th, 2023, 0650-1915HomeWater Spring S3 mm 25.5 to under The Thumb, Youngs Canyon mm 4520 HARD miles, elevation 5360′ What a day! It was one of my hardest ever but also helped to build confidence. And it was amazing to travel through the rugged canyons. We did a full day’s worth of miles too, which was incredible considering the last 10 were at 1 to 2 mph pace. There was a lot of scrambling, some rock climbing, downclimbing, route finding, backtracking, bushwhacking, stream hopping, stream wading, climbing up snow (sometimes on my knees so I didn’t sink), walking over snow, and postholing into rocks, shrubs, logs, and cactus. Maybe a few times there was some cursing. But also[…]

Friday, April 7th, 2023, 0650-1930Lost Canyon site 3, Canyonlands NP to HomeWater Spring S3 mm 25.525 miles (includes 4 mile side trip to Druid Arch), elevation 6400′ I finally heard an owl overnight..I think maybe a Mexican spotted owl. Oddly, I hardly heard any other bird song or calls. It was eerily quite in the canyon in the morning. It wasn’t too cold overnight (30 degrees…funny when just below freezing feels like an improvement) and I awoke excited for another day in the park. When we planned our (expensive) overnight in Canyonlands, we did so with the hope of having enough time for a side trip to Druid Arch, a 4 mile RT out and back. Pictures showed a very[…]

Thursday, April 6th, 2023, 1030-1630S3 Needles outpost to Lost Canyon site 3, Canyonlands National Park 8 miles, elevation 5250′ It was the coldest morning yet at just 20 degrees. It made it very hard to get up, so I played with my phone for awhile inside my quilt. Eventually I packed my stuff and headed for the camp store, where the wifi was. We lingered there forever, doing stuff on phones, playing with Coco and chatting with Mac, Amber, and Caleb. Two women, Jill and Sarah, were just finishing their trip and offered me their fuel canister. I’d just been fretting over whether mine would make it to Hanksville…the trail provides. Since they were so nice, I asked if we[…]

Wednesday, April 5th, 2023, 0700-1500S2 Rustler Canyon mm 35.3 to Needles Outpost.14 miles, elevation 4800′ It wasn’t near as cold as I feared it might be…only 32 in the morning. My tent site was great after the wind died overnight. I woke to clear skies and soon the sun was hitting. We shortly turned upstream into Indian Creek and did another tricky climb out of the canyon. Once again, there were several routes and we kind of went with the flow of the most obvious one. It was a fairly easy scramble up, assuming ones takes the time to scout for the best options. There were many nooks and cracks in the cliffs, providing access for animals and humans alike.[…]

Tuesday, April 4th, 2023, 0640-1730S2 mm 5 BLM camp to Rustler Canyon mm 35.328 miles, elevation 4050′ What a great night…so not what I expected! I was toasty and content in my quilt. Once again, I was very glad to have a tent because it was so much warmer and protected from the wind and sand. I love my 1 lb tent! I was using my old (2016) camo DCF Zpacks Solplex for this trip, since I figured it would take a lot of abuse in this environment. Goodby zippers! I already replaced one slider a few years before and brought an extra in case I needed to again. But it held up just fine to the light rain and[…]

Monday, April 3rd, 2023, 0840-1730Moab to S2 mm 5 BLM camp near Colorado River16.5 miles, elevation 3950′ I heard the wind beating at the door all night and didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning. The forecast called for 50 kt gusts through the day, and some rain then snow overnight. Tuesday might have some more snow and then temps in the 20s overnight. Boo. The problem was, if we waited around town another day or two, we’d miss our permit for Canyonlands NP. It cost us $46 for the privilege of pitching our tents on bare earth, with not even a pit toilet at the site. It was the same situation we got every night, the[…]

Sunday, April 2nd, 2023, 0730-1500Arches National Park, S1 mm 11.7 to mm 24 Lions Park\Moab12 miles, elevation 4,000′ A coyote call to dawn was a great alarm clock in the morning. It was 32 degrees as I awoke but I felt pretty warm all night. One of the downsides of wash camping is that they can be cold sinks. Also there’s no protection from condensation, but thankfully it was dry and breezy enough for this not to be a problem overnight. We climbed out of the wash to begin an alternate across the slickrock and the sun hit us almost immediately. It warmed pretty quickly and soon we were stripping layers and donning sun protection. The slickrock alt was very[…]

Saturday, April 1st, 2023, 0630-1800Arches National Park: Devils Garden to S1 mm 11.7 BLM land.17 miles, elevation 4,300′ After all the planning, running around, and fretting, it was finally time to start hiking this trail, er, I mean route! It wasn’t too cold overnight and I slept really well…with earplugs to drown out the highway noise. We were up and moving before it was barely light. We walked 2 miles on a bike path to get to the park entrance. A nice lady picked us up just beforehand but her timed entry permit wasn’t until 9 am. Just our luck, the timed entry requirement had just gone into effect this day…go figure. The ranger asked her to turn around and wait[…]