April 2022 – Page 8 – Sagebrush Trails

Bench?

HDT 2022 Day 9, April 9, Saturday
Start S4 mile 0.6 along Flint Trail dirt road
End Dirty Devil Escape Route 0.6 from S4 mile 18 
Miles walked: 18

A short roadwalk leads to the wash for Rock Canyon, where I discover a small pool of water almost hidden by tumbleweed. The water is brown the color of tea, but not silty, and filtering does not lessen the color much. I hope the good minerals outweigh the bad ones, as I gratefully take 3 liters.

The climb to the rim of Rock Canyon has, as a finale, a rock climb up a narrow chimney that cannot be done with your pack on. I tried pushing my pack ahead with my trekking pole, but that did not work. All HDT hikers are asked to bring a rope to haul your pack in these circumstances. I use my bear line, doubled, which works fine

Sundance?

HDT 2022 Day 8, April 8, Friday
Start S3 mile 49.2 along Dark Canyon
End S4 mile 0.6 along Flint Trail dirt road
Miles walked: 20.5 (including Sundance reroute)

After a little more time in Dark Canyon, where I started to see a few campers, it was time to hike out. The route is Sundance Canyon Trail.

The “trail” here up the very steep slope covered in boulders is marked by small cairns and footprints. Actually, the trail here is more like a “user trail”, that is, a trail defined by the footprints of hikers, and not actually built by a public lands agency. I counted at least three alternate routes up, each defined by their own cairns, sometimes merging or separating. What an intense aerobic bouldering workout, for an hour or two.

Here is the view from the top.

Young?

HDT 2022 Day 7, April 7, Thursday
Start S3 mile 36.9
End S3 mile 49.2 along Dark Canyon
Miles walked: 12.3 !

The night was particularly cold, and my water froze. Fortunately I was sleeping with my water filter, or it would have been ruined.

Climbing out of Fable Canyon still left a few high drop-offs to find a way around.

Getting to the top of the plateau and going a bit, the route reaches Youngs Canyon. Soon a giant drop-off appears, and the trail around was hard for me to find. Several user trails were going to wrong places.