HDT 2022 Day 21, April 21, Thursday
Start along dirt road near Dog Flat S7 mile 69.2
End in Hackberry Canyon S8 mile 11.7
Miles walked: 23.3
A morning roadwalk past a ridge reveals Grosvenor Arch, which appears to be an arch among spire rock formations.
Some I dug up my 4th food cache.
A while ago my brother, knowing I like dark chocolate, got me a box of bars from a high-end brand I hadn’t heard about. I have been putting a bar in each cache bucket, for morale. So far, by burying deep in my pack, no melting or loss of temper. I eat a chunk when I’m about to do something particularly challenging. Good work, Bro.
From Round Valley Draw Trailhead the route follows a wash to a slot canyon.
The passage is going to be really quite narrow, so I reconfigure my pack to remove everything from outer pockets, to be as slim as possible.
A 10 foot drop is too narrow to climb down with my pack, so I lower my pack down first with a bear line.
The slot is a fantasy of alternating undulations.
Later the slot opens a bit wider and goes a bit straighter, but is awesomely deep. Pockets of cold air are held in the passageways. The lighting from far above reminds me of a cathedral. Having such a good time, I giggle to myself, but only inwardly, to preserve the profound quiet.
Entering Hackberry Canyon, a box canyon with width varying from 20 to 200 feet, the number of plants growing in any crack in the rock is remarkable.
(I wonder if hackberry is a shrub, and if any of these plants is a hackberry.)
Normally Hackberry Canyon is known to have water running in its wash, but today there is only loose sand and a fierce headwind, battering grains of sand against the brim of my hat as I keep my head down.
Finally, after several miles, I find a pool of water, with a frog, and water starts running in the wash.
Although skies have been clear all day, I pick a campsite well up from the canyon floor, with an old cattle trail that exits the canyon, as a precaution for flash floods.
Finished audiobook The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame.
