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.
Once I found the correct path, the path went to the top and across a large part of the rim, only to plunge down in a non-obvious spot. Going down was quite steep with some bouldering– fortunately the way was marked with cairns. Suddenly they disappeared, and I realized I must have made a wrong turn, at a rock I could not climb back up. While trying to find the route, I war surprised to meet Lamb Chop and Lunar coming up. You have to look closely in the photo– they look like mountain goats.
They had slept at the pedestal last night, which we will see later. They are doing sections with car support, but may have to return to the real world soon.
Good water was running in Youngs. Sometimes willow and reed made barriers to progress.
Another big drop-off to go around, but this time the route goes up to a pedestal before descending.
Youngs Canyon turns into Dark Canyon, with strong shallow water flow in a rock-lined channel, and stepped rock layer to one or both sides, often dark colored rock.
The strong water flow and the way the canyon was constructed meant that there were no drop-offs– a real bonus. The way that the water wound between the sides of the canyon meant you often had to switch sides. It was most practical to make wet foot crossings in the shallow water.
Dark Canyon is really quite a gem of a wilderness, worth a visit.
I could not finish this section before dark, so cowboy- camped up high.
I also took the opportunity to trail-wash my clothes, since I will go through few towns this adventure, and will not often be near a plentiful source of water. With trail washing, you never wash clothes directly in a stream, but fill a one gallon zip bag with water, put in an article of clothing, close the bag, agitate a long while, discard dirty water on the sandy bank, never directly in the stream. Repeat as needed.