On April 28th I did 16.1 miles to Pasture Wash in Bryce Canyon NP. On April 29th I did 20.0 miles to Podunk Trailhead. On April 30th I did 22.9 Miles to a road near Kitchen Coral Wash. On May 1st I did 24.2 miles to the beginning of Buckskin Paria Slot (after going in and coming back out). On May 2nd I did 23.6 miles and camped near the Najvajo Trail Trick Tank. On May 3rd I did 13.5 miles to Jacob's Lake.
Listen to CCR "Up Around the Bend". This has been an absolutely amazing section and I have been so suprised and excited with the trail. I can feel my energy levels dropping a little but the excitement I'm getting from the trail is keeping me going on all cylinders and I never know what’s going to happen around the next bend.
I left Willis Creek narrows and popped up onto a jeep track. I decided to take an alternate that had me follow the double track to HWY 12 which leads to Tropic, UT. It's a 15 mile walk along the dirt road and eventual pavement that set me up for an easy resupply and a grand entrance into Bryce Canyon National Park. The actual Hayduke cuts directly west from Willis Creek and enters Bryce in its southern section for only 10 miles, this alternate will give me 35 miles inside the park. I did my town chores and had three huge meals while reflecting on hitting the halfway point on this trail. I shouldn't be this hungry after only 450 miles in, but my body and mind feels like I have hiked 1000s of miles already. Not only is my body a little worn, my gear is also in really rough shape, I've never destroyed gear this quickly and will be suprised if there is any life left in it after this adventure.
The main reason I took the alternate was for an easy resupply and had no expectations of what Bryce Canyon was going to hold and figured a few extra miles on a national park trail wouldn't hurt anything. Maybe the key to life is to keep expectations low because I was utterly shocked when I entered the park. I hiked up from the valley floor and made my way up to the rim. I was hiking slow, partially because of the epic views and partially because my body wasn't happy about the entire XL pizza I ate the night before. The morning was overcast but still had a little light coming through making the juxtaposition between a gray sky and brightly colored orange walls even more surreal. I meandered my way up to sunrise point where I was greeted by hoards of tourists. I was a little concerned because they were all out of breath, I wasn't sure if there was a new covid variant or if they were winded from walking the quarter mile from their cars. I took so many pictures and probably only hiked 1 MPH around the top rim just looking down into the valley below trying to comprehend all of the unique formations. I should probably do more research on the areas I'm going to hike, but this suprise had me smiling ear to ear. I followed the trail around the rim and dropped down to another trail appropriately named "under the rim" trail. I followed this trail for about 26 miles around the rest of Bryce. I didn't realize I had gained so much elevation and left the sage brush behind. I was at about 8,000 feet and it felt like I was back in the Sierras with manzanita, douglas fir, and ponderosa pine, except the Sierra granite was replaced with Bryce Canyon sandstone. I had enough food in my bag to go slow and enjoy the park so I did, taking lots of breaks and enjoying every vista. I got up to 9,000 feet and had a stunning view looking back at where I came from and a good look at the Kaibab Plateau which is where I was going. I followed the trail to the park boundary and entered Dixie National Forest leaving the giant orange walls behind.
The next day was super cold and I definitely stayed in my sleeping bag until the sun thawed me out. I got up and did a quick 4 miles down a jeep track till I hit a wash and entered it before I took my morning coffee break. While I was making my cold brew (if you shake it vigorously it gets a foam layer on it and if you close your eyes you swear it's a cappuccino (if you believe that I've got land to sell you)), I looked up and saw a Hayduke Hiker named MacGyver. I briefly met him outside of Hanksville two weeks ago and he has been following my footsteps ever since vowing to catch me (he was hiking with a slow group or he would have caught me almost immediately). I was excited to see another Hayduker on Trail as I haven't seen anyone since Ben at Neeedles Outpost. MacGyver sat down in the wash and ate his second breakfast with me. It turns out we camped 200 yards from eachother the night before but didn't see one another. MacGyver was on a mission to make miles since it was actually his last day on trail, and we decided to hike together for a bit. He decided that after the half way point of the trail he would come back and do the other half another time. He was aiming for a road 25 miles ahead of us where his partner was going to pick him up. I was excited to hike with him, but he moves well over 3 mph, probably closer to 4 mph so I was basically jogging to keep up. The canyons kind of sucked, they had super loose and fine sand that I dubbed Sahara sand since you just slide around in it and waste a ton of energy trying to hike through it. It was probably an 8 mile section of bad sand and to be honest maybe the worst 8 miles of trail so far but with the great companionship and conversation it made it bearable (the one highlight was an amazing sundog we saw over a mesa). It was a bummer this was MacGyver's last day on trail, we actually had a ton in common and talked everything from politics, to diesel engines. We eventually made it back onto hard pack trail and started to pickup speed when I heard a rattle and about plowed MacGyver down as I jumped out of the way. It was a decent size rattle snake hanging out under some sage brush. To be fair I'm not afraid of snakes, I just have a serious phobia of small children and figured there was a baby with a rattle in its hand playing in the sage brush, I definitely wouldn't jump out of my skin because of a snake.
We were making good time and hit the road. His partner Salt, came driving down the road about 20 minutes after we stopped for a break. She had loaded up on veggies, beer and hardboiled eggs and set out a platter on the back of the car. I was extremely happy for the random trail magic and we ended up hanging out on the side of the road for almost 3 hours. They had hiked the PCT in 2020 so we had plenty of hilarious stories to swap. It eventually got dark and we had to call it a night. We exchanged info and with any luck we might actually all be doing a rafting trip outside of Boise in early June (MacGyver is a raft guide). I made my way to tree line to hide from the wind. It's probably best that I slept alone after only having a beer and an egg for dinner, but it was nice having an extra warm sleeping bag.
The next day I had one thing on my mind, the Buckskin Paria Canyon. The Buckskin Paria Canyon has 19 mile slot canyon in it which is the longest in North America! I had a decision to make, which was to take an alternate and hike the entire Canyon (which would be a total of 100 mile alternate once you hike the slot and canyon and reconnect to the Hayduke) or to skip the alternate and stick to the original route. This caused me a lot more mental stress than I want to admit. Any given day leading up to this I could be 100% sure I was doing it and then the next day be 100% sure I wasn't going to do it. The Hayduke has taught me a lot and one of those things is finding the right balance between pushing yourself and letting go of shit that isn't going to make you happy. I decided the full blown alternate was a little much and I should add it to the long list of places I need to come back to. I ended up still going into the slot canyon for 4 or 5 miles (hard to tell since GPS doesn't work in them) and then turned around and came back out so I still got to experience 8 to 10 miles of going through a fun slot canyon. It was such an impressive section, I took over 100 pictures but as always they never do any justice. It was a really cool side trip and a good compromise.
I woke up the next morning and went through a small slot as the sun was peaking behind the rock formations. There is a really cool feature called the "Wave" about 2.5 miles off trail which draws people from around the world to see. Unfortunately it has a strict permit system and a heavy fine for going in without a permit. Through a lot of sheer luck I ended up meeting a woman who had an extra spot on her permit and I was able to go in. Her name was Alisha and who was on a 2 week road trip, and hiked so fast I could barely keep up. It was so much fun to have a companion going cross country to the Wave. We spent the better part of 4 hours exploring the wave and the surrounding areas and doing photo shoots. The photos turned out pretty good but still don't capture how cool the area was. We walked back to the trail head together and she was going to go explore some of Buckskin Gulch, I did my best to try and convince her to jump on the Hayduke but she had a new residency to start (finishing your MD is probably smarter than hiking the Hayduke, but not nearly as fun).
After leaving the WAVE I entered Arizona and joined the Arizona Trail which I'll be on for the next 64 miles (yes someday I will hike the entire Arizona Trail, I just couldn't figure out how to fit it in this year) It's exciting to enter AZ as I have never hiked in this state. The trail is pretty beat in making navigation super easy, plus there is tree coverage; I definitely appreciate the change in the trail conditions and feel kind of spoiled. This section was full of surprises and amazing people which have significantly boosted my spirits.
