Category: Trip Journal

HDT 2022 Day 36, May 6, Friday
Start Hack Canyon S13 mile 79.9
End dirt road S14 mile 23.2
Miles walked: 30.5

Continuing up Hack Canyon, we pass Hack Canyon Mine, with electric lines running to it, but can see no details.

Now, after getting a cache that included water since it has been a long distance since the last source, the day starts a long road walk, a welcome change after days of rock hopping.

The guidebook refers to this as the Arizona Strip, wide open range land.

Heading up Yellowstone Mesa offers several springs, and I find enclosed water reservoir with water running from some spring above. This resembles a water holding structure I saw on the PCT.

Ahead we can see a mountain range come closer, as we walk the rest of the day on hard-pack dirt road.

Finished audiobook The Tenth Clew and Other Continental Op Stories , by Dashiel Hammett.

HDT 2022 Day 35, May 5, Thursday
Start along Kanab Creek S13 mile 57.3
End Hack Canyon S13 mile 79.9
Miles walked: 22.6

A short walk continuing along Kanab Creek brings me to Showerbath Spring, dripping under lush vegetation, which I should have stood under to wash up.

Nearby were camped some hikers who live near Hack Canyon.

I met another hiker who came in through the difficult 8 mile cross-country route along the Colorado River that I recently did, BUT he is going back out the same way! I would not look forward to ever doing those eight miles ever again.

A couple of groups of hikers warn me of 100 degree weather in the next few days.

The canyon eventually becomes wider, and huge boulders go away, and water stops running.

I leave Kanab and join Hack Canyon, a wide dry canyon with braided gravel wash, that eventually adds a dirt road.

Some cowboys are moving their herd to a summer location, and ask me if I had seen signs of any. Theirs were the first cattle I had seen in several days. Bison do not count.

The only water source along the 24 mile Hack is known to be radioactive, so I skip it.

Finished audiobook Little Men, by Louisa May Alcott.

HDT 2022 Day 34, May 4, Wednesday
Start Fishtail Canyon S13 mile 45.1
End along Kanab Creek S13 mile 57.3
Miles walked:12.2 

Continuing another 4 miles along the Colorado River, rock hopping that entire distance, I am glad to start this endurance test first thing in the morning when I am fresh and the air is cool.

Moving rapidly, and decisively choosing that next big step on a boulder seems to work better than the slow cautious approach, as long as my energy holds out. My path tends to be close to the shoreline, with no user trail higher up slope.

A couple of rafters, river guides acting as sweep for one of the group of rafts, offer me a cold seltzer and a couple of snacks– so thoughtful and a real morale boost.

After several hours of concerted effort, the cliff wall opens up for Kanab Creek.

The creek is an amazing place, with deep pools of clear water, with fish playing hide-and-seek and frogs calling out, partially shaded by impossibly high vertical canyon walls, the route fitting in as many twist and turns as physics allows.

The hiking involves uncountable wet-foot crossings, The water has carved deep pools in many places, limiting where one can cross. Sometimes one must scramble over huge boulders rather than risk deep water. The hiking is slow, with constant rock-hopping and puzzle-solving, and we will be along the creek for a stunning 20 miles of twists and turns.