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- Feb 23, 2012
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It's painful, but here's an overview of my hike formerly known as Bryce to Moab!
As you may have read, I decided to bail on my Bryce to Moab Hike on Day 11 after getting an infected toe and a strained muscle in my lower leg. It is the first time I have ever abandoned a hike due to an injury and it's a real bummer. I know it was the rational decision as the situation could have gotten much worse and I may have found myself out in the middle of nowhere. BUT, that doesn't make it any less depressing after doing all the prep/homework for the hike. Now 4 days off the trail, my toe is nearly completely healed, but my leg strain is still quite painful.
If you followed along or left comments via my site with my short check-ins as I hiked -- thanks. I have since gone back and added more detail and pictures. I've also added a photo gallery for each part of the hike. So, for the full report, head back and check out:
www.AcrossUtah.com/wordpress/?p=1372
I don't have the capability to compile my video yet, but I will get right on that as soon as I get back to LA.
Otherwise, here is a quick overview:
It all began with a COLD, but awesome camp in Bryce. Technically -- it was just outside the park so that I could camp w/o a permit. After finding this spot, I think it's a better choice than the official sites.
The next day I followed the ridge down and out of the NF and to Willis Cr. Road. Crossing a piece of farmland, I had one of those cool moments you can never expect -- about 30 horses came trotting toward me when they spied me walking the road. I didn't know what to expect, but they just crowded around presumably looking for a handout. The were nice and seemed to enjoy me petting their noses.
Farther down I went through Willis Creek Narrows. I saw a few groups of day hikers here. In hind site -- they would be the only hikers I would see on my ENTIRE hike!
From here I huffed it all the way down to the Paria to camp.
The next day I checked out several of the landmarks of Upper Paria: Lone Rock, Paria Arch, Crack Spring and Lower Asay Slot:
This is the day that probably screwed up the rest of my trip. A) I didn't wear my new neoprene socks in the water. I'm sure this led to the beginning of my blisters. B) I could not make it past the obstacle in Snake Canyon. Kelsey mentions this waterfall shouldn't be too much a problem for a couple of guys and/or with a short rope. Well... I was a little gunshy to try it solo with my big pack -- even with my rope:
This was a big setback as I ended up wasting over 3hrs in Snake Canyon doing the hike, scouting and contemplating a new plan. That new plan was to go down to Hogeye Canyon.
The next day I completed the longer route and made my way to Upper Stone Donkey Canyon. This was a really cool area -- white sand dunes and white/yellow slickrock:
Bypassing the technical slot, I did the slickrock traverse down canyon. This will a little more scary than I was expecting. It's that situation where it's not really that bad, but your mind begins to mess with you. Like... walking down a sidewalk -- no problem. Now, if there is a 400' drop right on the edge of the sidewalk, it's suddenly MUCH more difficult. Here's the view looking down:
Finding my way down into the canyon was a little more difficult than I imagined, but a little persistence paid off and soon I was down in Stone Donkey. From here I went up canyon and checked out the bottom of the slot. It was a cool, dark slot. I had to get into COLD water up to mid-thigh and then chimney over a few short sections where it was too narrow to walk. Before long I got back in far enough that it was pitch black. That's where I turned around.
h
The next day I headed down Hackberry where I picked up the old Goulding Trail to get out of the canyon. Once up on top I headed cross country through the Rush Beds and eventually to Cottonwood Road. Cool "wave"-like slickrock in this area. I wanted to head down to Castle Rock -- but didn't have the time.
Walked Cottonwood Road for a ways -- if one has to walk a road, this is a pretty scenic one! Went through the Narrows and then headed up to Grosvenor Arch after stopping in at the old CCC Well which had the best water around (yeah -- no more cow water!)
From here I headed out east across the Kaiparowitz Plateau. The mudhills of upper Blue Wash were cool -- but a lot of work. Climbed up to Paradise Ridge and then down into the Upper Right Hand Collet Canyon. I didn't know for sure if this canyon would go all the way down. But... it did. I just had to jump a couple dozen boulders along the way.
The lower canyon had some really cool shallow slots with overhangs as well as colorful cliffs. It also cut through a few bands of coal.
A day later I finally made my way to Devil's Garden where I had hidden my first cache nearby. Once I had my re-supply, I headed out x-country through the colorful hills up toward Harris Wash.
Once at the Harris TH, I followed the route up into Red Breaks. Once past all the sand, the canyon slots up and is pretty cool; nice sculpted walls, but fairly shallow. It was a tough go though with a big pack as there were a bunch of chockstones which had to be negotiated. None were scary or overly difficult -- just very tiring!
Headed out the next day the area up and around the East Fork was pretty scenic -- quite the slickrock paradise. I made my way all the up to the Volcano aka Cosmic Ashtray:
Here I headed east to the Escalante. I had a little bit of a problem finding the sand slide route down to the river -- but I eventually found it. Once down had to fight the brush and a slightly-swollen river up a few bends to Horse Canyon.
I was meeting my parents at the LDH Trailhed, so I had to really push it up Little Death Hollow. It's really is an amazing canyon though -- gotta be one of the longest non-stop slots around. Like Red Breaks, the Chockstones didn't pose anything crazy hard, just time-consuming and tiresome for the solo hiker with a big backpack. I will say that a few of them I went UNDER though -- which if there had been water in the canyon wouldn't be an option.
I made it past the dead cows -- yuck! The BLM rangers said they were to be cleaned out by last week, but NO.
It soon got dark on me and I had to pull out the headlamp. Nothing like being in a narrow canyon in the dark. Making even spookier -- there were quite a few LIVE cows in the canyon who didn't like me being there. There were huffing/mooing at me and kicking up quite a bit of dust.
After a few hours hiking in the dark -- I made it too the TH and the rendezvous with my parents. They were happy to hear that I would be calling it quits and not continuing with the 2nd half of the hike.
All in all it was just shy of 160 miles in 10 days. Despite being an abbreviated agenda, I still got to see some good stuff.
Finding water was not an issue despite warnings from the rangers of how dry it was this year. I was lucky with cooler temps after day 4 or so.
Besides quitting early, the only major negative for this trip was the COWS. The Paria and Hackberry both seemed more trampled and polluted than my last visit 3 years ago. The water still had a bad taste even after filtering. Lower Collet, Harris and Lower Red Breaks were also a mess with cows. Not only are the cows ruining the environment, it doesn't seem good for them either. I saw FIVE dead cows on this hike and the many that I saw alive were really skin and bones. It seems like there has to be a better way to raise cattle.
I've taken a peek at my video footage and I think I should have ample for something good. Stay tuned for this. I also tried my own GoProHD set-up by taking a picture straight ahead every 5 minutes. I'm not sure how this will turn out (maybe not frequent enough) but I will string these together soon as well.
OK -- that's the report for now. Maybe this fall I will do the "Little Death Hollow to Moab" hike!
- Jamal
Featured image for slideshow:
As you may have read, I decided to bail on my Bryce to Moab Hike on Day 11 after getting an infected toe and a strained muscle in my lower leg. It is the first time I have ever abandoned a hike due to an injury and it's a real bummer. I know it was the rational decision as the situation could have gotten much worse and I may have found myself out in the middle of nowhere. BUT, that doesn't make it any less depressing after doing all the prep/homework for the hike. Now 4 days off the trail, my toe is nearly completely healed, but my leg strain is still quite painful.
If you followed along or left comments via my site with my short check-ins as I hiked -- thanks. I have since gone back and added more detail and pictures. I've also added a photo gallery for each part of the hike. So, for the full report, head back and check out:
www.AcrossUtah.com/wordpress/?p=1372
I don't have the capability to compile my video yet, but I will get right on that as soon as I get back to LA.
Otherwise, here is a quick overview:
It all began with a COLD, but awesome camp in Bryce. Technically -- it was just outside the park so that I could camp w/o a permit. After finding this spot, I think it's a better choice than the official sites.
The next day I followed the ridge down and out of the NF and to Willis Cr. Road. Crossing a piece of farmland, I had one of those cool moments you can never expect -- about 30 horses came trotting toward me when they spied me walking the road. I didn't know what to expect, but they just crowded around presumably looking for a handout. The were nice and seemed to enjoy me petting their noses.
Farther down I went through Willis Creek Narrows. I saw a few groups of day hikers here. In hind site -- they would be the only hikers I would see on my ENTIRE hike!
From here I huffed it all the way down to the Paria to camp.
The next day I checked out several of the landmarks of Upper Paria: Lone Rock, Paria Arch, Crack Spring and Lower Asay Slot:
This is the day that probably screwed up the rest of my trip. A) I didn't wear my new neoprene socks in the water. I'm sure this led to the beginning of my blisters. B) I could not make it past the obstacle in Snake Canyon. Kelsey mentions this waterfall shouldn't be too much a problem for a couple of guys and/or with a short rope. Well... I was a little gunshy to try it solo with my big pack -- even with my rope:
This was a big setback as I ended up wasting over 3hrs in Snake Canyon doing the hike, scouting and contemplating a new plan. That new plan was to go down to Hogeye Canyon.
The next day I completed the longer route and made my way to Upper Stone Donkey Canyon. This was a really cool area -- white sand dunes and white/yellow slickrock:
Bypassing the technical slot, I did the slickrock traverse down canyon. This will a little more scary than I was expecting. It's that situation where it's not really that bad, but your mind begins to mess with you. Like... walking down a sidewalk -- no problem. Now, if there is a 400' drop right on the edge of the sidewalk, it's suddenly MUCH more difficult. Here's the view looking down:
Finding my way down into the canyon was a little more difficult than I imagined, but a little persistence paid off and soon I was down in Stone Donkey. From here I went up canyon and checked out the bottom of the slot. It was a cool, dark slot. I had to get into COLD water up to mid-thigh and then chimney over a few short sections where it was too narrow to walk. Before long I got back in far enough that it was pitch black. That's where I turned around.
h
The next day I headed down Hackberry where I picked up the old Goulding Trail to get out of the canyon. Once up on top I headed cross country through the Rush Beds and eventually to Cottonwood Road. Cool "wave"-like slickrock in this area. I wanted to head down to Castle Rock -- but didn't have the time.
Walked Cottonwood Road for a ways -- if one has to walk a road, this is a pretty scenic one! Went through the Narrows and then headed up to Grosvenor Arch after stopping in at the old CCC Well which had the best water around (yeah -- no more cow water!)
From here I headed out east across the Kaiparowitz Plateau. The mudhills of upper Blue Wash were cool -- but a lot of work. Climbed up to Paradise Ridge and then down into the Upper Right Hand Collet Canyon. I didn't know for sure if this canyon would go all the way down. But... it did. I just had to jump a couple dozen boulders along the way.
The lower canyon had some really cool shallow slots with overhangs as well as colorful cliffs. It also cut through a few bands of coal.
A day later I finally made my way to Devil's Garden where I had hidden my first cache nearby. Once I had my re-supply, I headed out x-country through the colorful hills up toward Harris Wash.
Once at the Harris TH, I followed the route up into Red Breaks. Once past all the sand, the canyon slots up and is pretty cool; nice sculpted walls, but fairly shallow. It was a tough go though with a big pack as there were a bunch of chockstones which had to be negotiated. None were scary or overly difficult -- just very tiring!
Headed out the next day the area up and around the East Fork was pretty scenic -- quite the slickrock paradise. I made my way all the up to the Volcano aka Cosmic Ashtray:
Here I headed east to the Escalante. I had a little bit of a problem finding the sand slide route down to the river -- but I eventually found it. Once down had to fight the brush and a slightly-swollen river up a few bends to Horse Canyon.
I was meeting my parents at the LDH Trailhed, so I had to really push it up Little Death Hollow. It's really is an amazing canyon though -- gotta be one of the longest non-stop slots around. Like Red Breaks, the Chockstones didn't pose anything crazy hard, just time-consuming and tiresome for the solo hiker with a big backpack. I will say that a few of them I went UNDER though -- which if there had been water in the canyon wouldn't be an option.
I made it past the dead cows -- yuck! The BLM rangers said they were to be cleaned out by last week, but NO.
It soon got dark on me and I had to pull out the headlamp. Nothing like being in a narrow canyon in the dark. Making even spookier -- there were quite a few LIVE cows in the canyon who didn't like me being there. There were huffing/mooing at me and kicking up quite a bit of dust.
After a few hours hiking in the dark -- I made it too the TH and the rendezvous with my parents. They were happy to hear that I would be calling it quits and not continuing with the 2nd half of the hike.
All in all it was just shy of 160 miles in 10 days. Despite being an abbreviated agenda, I still got to see some good stuff.
Finding water was not an issue despite warnings from the rangers of how dry it was this year. I was lucky with cooler temps after day 4 or so.
Besides quitting early, the only major negative for this trip was the COWS. The Paria and Hackberry both seemed more trampled and polluted than my last visit 3 years ago. The water still had a bad taste even after filtering. Lower Collet, Harris and Lower Red Breaks were also a mess with cows. Not only are the cows ruining the environment, it doesn't seem good for them either. I saw FIVE dead cows on this hike and the many that I saw alive were really skin and bones. It seems like there has to be a better way to raise cattle.
I've taken a peek at my video footage and I think I should have ample for something good. Stay tuned for this. I also tried my own GoProHD set-up by taking a picture straight ahead every 5 minutes. I'm not sure how this will turn out (maybe not frequent enough) but I will string these together soon as well.
OK -- that's the report for now. Maybe this fall I will do the "Little Death Hollow to Moab" hike!
- Jamal
Featured image for slideshow: