Backpacking the Escalante: The Gulch down to Choprock

[Joey]

An 8 day backpacking trip down the Escalante River. I started down the Gulch, and headed south along the Escalante River to Choprock Canyon. I set up a basecamp, and explored the area. I then went up Choprock, and around to Silver Fork Falls. From there I hiked back up to The Gulch. I broke my GoPro on day one, and then accidentally deleted my other camera's footage. This week I was able to recover a portion of the footage, and put together this trip video. I have no pictures, so I can't post a trip report. May, 2014. Here is the video:

Here is a link to the route: http://caltopo.com/map?id=7T40

 

[Chuck the Mauler]

Really enjoyed the video, Joey. Some great footage and liked the narration on this one. The descriptions on the days event, locations, etc. are great reference points for those who may want to explore the area. The idea of bringing a "flotation device" for travel was cool too. The choice in color though? Fail.

With all the water crossings I'm curious as to how you avoid blisters or any other kind of foot issues? I have always had to remove boots otherwise end up with silver dollar size blisters.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Another cool vid Joey. So when you were wading upstream, would it have helped any to put your pack on that inflatable tube and pull it with some cordage?

 

[Joey]

Another cool vid Joey. So when you were wading upstream, would it have helped any to put your pack on that inflatable tube and pull it with some cordage?

No, it would have been more work. I wasn't in the river the whole time. Easier to just keep everything in my pack. The water was near chest deep in some places. I lost some real good footage of that.

 

[Joey]

With all the water crossings I'm curious as to how you avoid blisters or any other kind of foot issues? I have always had to remove boots otherwise end up with silver dollar size blisters.

I wore neoprene socks. I was pretty comfortable walking in those wet boots all day.

 

[WasatchWill]

I admire the dedication you and others have in putting in the extra effort of leaving and retrieving the camera to get a good action or perspective shot, such as when you jump in the tube to float down river away from it knowing that you then had to get off that tube at some point to come back up stream to retrieve it. Same goes for the shots of you climbing up some spicy looking terrain in your Maze video. @Jammer does it a lot too. I dig it!

 

[Joey]

I admire the dedication you and others have in putting in the extra effort of leaving and retrieving the camera to get a good action or perspective shot, such as when you jump in the tube to float down river away from it knowing that you then had to get off that tube at some point to come back up stream to retrieve it. Same goes for the shots of you climbing up some spicy looking terrain in your Maze video. @Jammer does it a lot too. I dig it!

Thanks Will! I'm hoping to shoot more footage that way this coming year.

Part of me feels its sort of "fake", since I am walking those areas twice, just to give a video shot. But I also think it makes for a much cleaner video. Easier to edit as well.

On the one shot where I was climbing up to the Maze overlook, I actually did that 3 times. I was in a hurry to hike out that day, and thought my camera battery was dead. About 5 minutes after climbing past that spot, I felt guilty for not trying to film it. So I went back down, set up the tripod, and luckily had enough battery life left. I climbed up the 2nd time, dropped my pack, and came back for the camera, before climbing back up a third time. In the end it was kind of fun to do it several times.