Canyon Chronicles (Part 1)
Saturday, April 21
In the little town of Escalante, we found out where our contracted shuttle driver was located–the Outfitter/bar/tee-shirt-shop/pizza joint–and made final arrangements. He would lead us to 25-Mile Wash where we’d drop our car, and drive us to the trailhead at Harris Wash. Then we’d hike down Harris toward the Escalante River, down the river, and then up 25-Mile Wash to our truck. A jaunt of about 35 miles that we could easily (?) do in 6 days.
We scarfed down our last good pre-hike food (pizza) at the Outfitter, and followed the Shuttle guy’s truck down the gravel Hole-In-The-Rock road toward 25-Mile and Harris. We left our truck at the site he designated, and then rode with him to our trekking-off site.
Hiking down the Harris Wash trail, Chuck and I were contemplating the view, but Reed was fiddling with his new GPS. He had (luckily, as it turned out) set a “Waypoint” on the GPS at the location where our shuttle driver had left our truck, and then set another one at the Harris Wash trailhead, but he couldn’t figure out how to extract the coordinates to compare with our topo maps. Finally at a rest stop he worked out where the trailhead was, and after some puttering around we decided, that our shoulders testified to many eastward miles, we hadn’t even reached the west edge of our topo.
The clouds loomed dark and thick in all directions. We were uncormfortably aware that the weather man had predicted rain for tomorrow and Monday, so we hoped to reach camp and put up shelter, just in case the rains came early.
After a multi-mile trudge through heavy thickets of tamarisk–an illegal immigrant from Siberia that chokes the shores of most western streams–we finally arrived at the entrance to the Glen Canyon Recreation Area, and, coincidentally, the west edge of our topo map. Now we were in “known” territory. At another rest stop, Reed finally figured out how to get the coordinates of the GPS Waypoints, and he informed us where the car was. Unfortunately, our shuttler had parked us at a point in 25-mile Wash all right, but about 5 miles upstream from where we expected to be. So it looked like we’d have some extra hiking to do on the last day of the trip.
After entering the GC Rec Area, the canyon walls rose higher, the canyon narrowed, and the stream started meandering. The views were prettier, but we had to make many more stream crossings. Chuck had river shoes, but Reed and I, if we wanted to keep some dry boots, had to alternate between Crocs and boots. After the 5th or 6th crossing, I said, “The heck with staying dry”, and just walked into the creek at every ford with my big boots on. Comfort-wise, the wetness made no difference, I was surprised to find.
About the time the sun was settling behind the canyon walls, we reached a nice camp site and set up the 2-man and 1-man tents. We hung up our boots and clothes to dry in the warm desert breeze, and cooked up a well-deserved freeze-dried dinner using our handy butane stoves. The next day, we hoped, we’d toddle up, sans backpacks, to Silver Creek Falls in a side-canyon of that name on the other side of the Escalante river.
Next: The Escalante and Silver Falls Creek Canyon
-rakkity
It’s odd, I love the southwest, however, when I grok (you were right, Adam) your photos, I think how inhospitable. What happens when you run out of water, and Chuck and Reed have already died in knife fight over the last drops, and you’re left to wander without Reed’s GPS which was smashed on the rocks during their last struggle?
That aside, what a difference it must be to hop one state west rather than more than halfway across the country.
Comment by michael — May 3, 2007 @ 7:01 am
Great map! You can see our route–Harris Wash to Escalante R. to 25-Mile Wash–and lots of other places we passed through (Water Pocket Fold, Arches,…)
And yes, it’s great to be just one state away from America’s “Empty Quarter”.
Comment by rakkity — May 3, 2007 @ 10:06 am
So, apparently EVERYTHING is making me jealous and sad. Well, not YTT.
Comment by jennifer — May 3, 2007 @ 7:12 pm
Forgot to say … I hope it’s ok, Rakkity, I am saving this wonderful picture of dried mud to show my students the kinds of things you can figure out from rocks. Thanks for all the photos and the story.
Comment by jennifer — May 3, 2007 @ 7:25 pm
Of course it’s OK, Jennifer. Glad to provide something educational. When I saw those shards of dried mud, I said, “What’s that? Pottery shards?” From then on, I looked at the mud more carefully. Some of my soon-to-appear pictures show other strange forms of mud.
Comment by rakkity — May 3, 2007 @ 8:10 pm
I knew when the pictures came they’d be worth waiting for … Thanks, Rakk, for bearing us along with you! And for your broadly egalitarian eye, from mudshards and wildflowers to vistas (plus the occasional shot of the elusive homo globo positiensis).
I found your route in the upper left of Mike’s map — whole lotta apparent nuthin’ out there — not much topography even, though the detail be scrace. Both of which facts say to me, well chosen!
Comment by el Kib — May 4, 2007 @ 8:10 am
These images are fantastic. Drove past Escalante NP 10 plus years ago and said “I must come back and camp…”. Someday, someday… Word has it that Lake Powell is shrinking so much that the drowned part of Glen Canyon is become
visible again. Are you in that area at all?
Comment by BirdBrain — May 4, 2007 @ 2:22 pm
Yes, Lake Powell is shrinking, and it will probably shrink some more as the thirsty Southwest slurps down ever scarcer water. But we were way upstream from Powell on the Escalante River, which gets twistier and twistier as you approach the lake. Maybe we’ll traipse some more southern canyons next time.
Comment by rakkity — May 4, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
Where’s part 2 of the Canyon Chronicles?
Comment by rakkity — May 9, 2007 @ 11:48 am
Did it arrive and go unnoticed?
Comment by michael — May 9, 2007 @ 1:27 pm
I don’t know if “it arrived”, but it was sent. Recently I’ve been emailing you at both qbl and vanishingreality, and have gotten endless messages from gmail that qbl can’t be reached. Maybe gmail has been failing to send to vanishingreality too.
I’ll send it all again from ed@astro or schmahl.org.
And after that, much much more…
Comment by rakkity — May 9, 2007 @ 4:07 pm