HDT 2022 Day 38, May 8, Sunday
Start Colorado City Alternate mile 22.0
End near Zion boundary S14 mile 55.6
Miles walked: 10.6
I soon meet up with the main HDT and head north and downhill along loose sandy road, and finally cross country route which drops in at the Virgin River.
The water meanders through a canyon, with deep pools carved in many places, so you have to take care where to cross.
Toward the end of the five mile span of river that I cross dozens of times, larger boulders start appearing in the channel.
Soon one boulder completely blocks the channel, along with wood debris, and creates a small falls, difficult to climb down with torrential water, angling for an eddy to the right, getting dunked ultimately.
The narrowest of slot canyons, Fat Man’s Misery, is where I am supposed to leave the river.
The canyon has dozens of slick drop-offs and pools, with water running, even a warm spring at one point, but with so much water and slippery surfaces climbing up is impossible.
I attempt a climb-around, and when I get to the rim of the canyon, discover I am on the wrong side of a deep ravine, and would have to go north several miles to rejoin my route. An hour up, an hour back down, rather demoralizing.
While stopping to have an early dinner to gain enough energy for another climb-around attempt, a couple of hikers with climbing gear descend out of Fat Man’s Misery. They tell me about an alternate route out of the river canyon they plan to use, just a few bends down the river, on a user trail that is faint but has a few cairns, with a steep initial rock climb.
I climb out on the trail they describe, rejoin my HDT route, and camp on BLM land just before the route enters the national park boundary, on a cold windy ridge.
Finished audiobook The Box-Car Children, by Gertrude Chandler Warner.