Twig Adventures

Monday, April 17th, 2023, 0645-1900Halls creek  end to beginning of Coyote Gulch18 miles, elevation 3750′ There was a 2000′ climb to start the day, glad we saved it for the morning while it was still cool. Instead of waking up to the 30s, temps were in the 50’s! We got a great start before sunrise and were flying up the Waterpocket Fold. From afar, the feature looked like a giant homogeneous slab of white sandstone. But there were many peaks and valleys, ripples and rumples. It was incredible to see how varied the formation was up close. As the name suggests, there were many pools of water but also tiny micro-cosms of habitat, including juniper and pinon pine. I spotted a[…]

Sunday, April 16th, 2023, 0650-1845Muley Tanks to Halls creek, just before the Baker route23 miles, elevation 3830′ I woke with a bit of a headache, probably because of staying up too late. The party people didn’t go on all night but I wasn’t sure when they stopped, since I took measures to be dead to the world…earplugs and herbal remedies. I think they carried on pretty late. I was glad to get away from them in the early morning. We waved goodby to Mac, since he was heading over the Waterpocket fold on the main Hayduke route to the Escalante River. He planned to packraft down the river for about 25 miles. We were doing the Halls Creek \ Baker[…]

Saturday, April 15th, 2023, 0650-1830End of Swap Canyon to Muley Tanks, S618 miles, elevation 4630′ I woke to the usual chill, 32 degrees, which was starting to feel pretty normal. I got used to sleeping with my filter every night from the beginning. We walked out of the canyon in a few miles and entered Capitol Reef, our 3rd National Park on the route. There was a humble sign to welcome us and an easily bypassed fence to keep cows in or out. There was more cow poop on the park side of the fence, plus lots more hoof prints. We made it to the road leading to the various points of interest in the southern end of the park,[…]

Friday, April 14th, 2023, 0640-1920Under The Horn S5 to end of Swap Canyon26 miles, elevation 5150′ I was warm all night until about 4 am, when some squalls passed through. Maybe they started before that but I was asleep. The wind really picked up and I heard the pitter-patter of rain, then sleet, then snow. It didn’t sound like much so I was really surprised when I woke to find my tent walls heavily misshapen. My half-working brain thought a stake had pulled loose in the wind. But no, it was something else. A few shakes and punches deposited piles of snow all around me. Outside the ground was covered by about 2 to 3 inches. Snow on the heels[…]

Thursday, April 13th, 2023, 1030-1915Hanksville\UT 95 Little Egypt to Under The Horn S521.5 miles, elevation 7700′ I was still trying to get so much online work done in the morning that we got a pretty late start. I intended to be hitching by 8 am but it turned into 10 am. We also hoped to get to the road before Sky and Leah, so that there weren’t 4 of us trying to get a ride. But of course we were all ready to leave at the exact same time. Lucky for us, a local with a pickup stopped. Connie was driving south on her route to clean all the federal land privies on the way to Hite…which included the same[…]

Tuesday, April 11th, 2023, 0645-1400Dirty Devil River to UT 95, then hitch to Hanksville 19 miles, elevation 3800′ It was a refreshing start to the day to do another 7 crossings of the river. The water wasn’t too cold since I was wearing my camp shoes with neoprene socks. We only had to go a few miles and were quickly done with the river for good. Still no quicksand to tell stories about. I know how much other hikers hate this river but to me it was pretty straightforward and easy, especially compared to Dark Canyon a few days prior. I was glad we didn’t take the high route to avoid the river section. It was 4 miles longer and[…]

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[…]