Twig Adventures

Thursday, May 11th, 2023, 0610-1800Cardenas to West Horseshoe Mesa19 miles, elevation 3865′ My little nest among the trees was so snug and complete with the loveliest of birdsong in the morning. The crash of the river waves made me think I was sleeping next to the ocean. I was dreaming that I was on a beach in the Ten Thousand Islands, instead of in the canyon. That is until I looked out to see walls and buttes all around. I left my mesh partially open since the site was pretty much mosquito free (also unlike Florida). The trail greeted us with a nice 1,500′ climb, only to go right back down to the river. We went in and out of[…]

Wednesday, May 10th, 2023, 0610-1800Nankoweap to Cardenas via raft and Beamer Trail12 miles (plus 9 miles hitched on raft), elevation 2600′ It would be hard to top the previous day, but we still managed! As I said before, I’d hiked through the GC on the AZT, but never had the pleasure of camping in the canyon before. I slept well but did wake up with a pretty bad migraine. The day before had been excellent but also tough. The heat and exertion had cooked my brain. Thankfully my prescription medicine kicked in quick and we were ready to tackle another hard day. We needed to go about 9 miles along the river where there was no trail. It would likely[…]

Tuesday, May 9th, 2023, 0610-1800Mile 21 of alt to Colorado River \ Nankoweap20 miles, elevation 2800′ It was a very quiet night and I slept so well. I think I heard a western screech owl but that was about it. We had a big day planned: to get down to the Grand Canyon! First we walked the remainder of the road to the trailhead. We found several streams along the way, filling up on beautiful clean water, all run-off from the snow melt above. We climbed towards Saddle mountain for quite a ways, which I didn’t appreciate knowing how much we’d just have to go down to get into the canyon. Must go up to go down! My pack felt[…]

Monday, May 8th, 2023, 1230-203089A & House Rock Rd jct to mile 21 of alt21 miles, elevation 5750′ We took it slow in the morning. Sky had just finished a 5 day leg through the Buckskin and lower Paria loop alternate, so understandably had a lot of errands to attend to. I chilled out and wrote some postcards. Our hunger drove us to make another run to the grocery store…I wasn’t sure if I was carrying enough food for what should be about a 5 day leg. This was dependent on getting a raft hitch across the Colorado River, so one can never be too certain. Then we set out to hitch south from town to at least Fredonia, where[…]

Sunday, May 7th, 2023, 1130-1500Hwy 89 to Wire Pass14 miles, elevation 4750′ First thing in the morning, I booked a flight from Las Vegas to Denver for May 16th, committing to a pretty tight timeline. I left myself about a week to finish the Hayduke through the eastern Grand Canyon. I planned to meet Sky at Jacob Lake at the end of the day to start from there. Since I’d already walked the section from the Utah\Arizona state line to Jacob Lake on the AZT in 2019, I decided to skip it in the interest of my limited time. But I still felt a need to hike the 14 miles from the highway (where I’d gotten a ride to Kanab[…]

What follows is kind of a bullet list/summary of the days and activities of a week off from the Hayduke (Sunday, April 30th–Saturday, May 6th). I needed time to rework my plans for the upcoming Grand Canyon segment and hopefully let some of the snow melt. But first, a bit of an explanation is in order: During this interim, I had time to really assess my situation, coming to terms with many concerning factors. To follow the official Hayduke route through the western Grand Canyon in the spring of 2023 was straight-up impossible. The record snowpack had not only made the Kaibab plateau difficult to traverse, the snow melt also led to extreme flooding in most of the major side[…]

Saturday, April 29th, 2023, 0645-11201.5 miles south of LeFevre Cabin to HWY 89, then ride to Kanab15 miles, elevation 5350′ I felt especially cold overnight. It was significantly warmer in my tent but the wash was quite chilly…down to 31 degrees once we started walking. It wasn’t a very good site but we didn’t have much of a choice. I knew it would be blazing hot later and still couldn’t reconcile such oscillating conditions. I would slowly transition from wearing all my layers, including puffy, to nothing more than my dress and sunbrella. Another typical day in the desert. We were walking fast in the morning, anxious to get to town, where the conveniences of a car also tempted us.[…]

Friday, April 28th, 2023, 0645-1910Mile 35 of Bryce Extension to 1.5 miles south of LeFevre Cabin28 miles, elevation 5900′ This was one of my longest days on the Hayduke and it certainly felt like it at times. We got an early start and immediately enacted new plans. Overnight, we’d noticed that we could take a lower elevation route called the Grandview Trail. It stayed well below the rim and outside the park, only rising to 7900′. The main Under the Rim route would have taken us over 9000′ and we’d already been encountering a lot of snow at much lower elevations. For some reason, the south end of the park seemed to be holding more snow, perhaps because a lot[…]

Thursday, April 27th, 2023, 1000-1910Tropic to just south of Noon Canyon Butte, mile 35 of Bryce Extension, just outside of park boundary 20.5 miles, elevation 7740′ We got a late start, as I was once again dragging my feet. Tropic was actually easy to leave, since all we had to do was simply walk out of town, resuming the trail on what’s known as the Bryce extension. The official Hayduke route skips the best parts of the park, entering it far to the south at a remote trailhead. But I wanted to see all the hoodoos and pillars that the park is famous for. It was named after a Mormon guy, Ebenezer Bryce, which gave rise to my invented Bryce[…]

Tuesday, April 25th, 2023, 0630-0930Paria River 0.5 mile south of Sheep River to Willis Creek Trailhead, then ride to Tropic8.5 miles, elevation 6300′ I hiked the final miles of this leg as if I was being pursued by the Paria meerkats. Or maybe it was the possums…I couldn’t keep them straight. It felt pretty warm when I woke, with temps in the mid 40s, but as soon as I started crossing the river, I was freezing again. A cold wind was blowing straight into my face and my feet quickly felt like blocks of ice. I should have put my neoprene socks on but I was too stubborn and cold to stop. Town awaited. We turned up Sheep Creek right[…]