Day 36 - Escalante Rainy Mesa Hike

The forecast for the day was all day rain-- a highly unusual and not great condition for this desert environment. We hiked up to the top of the Mesa (top of canyon wall) while practicing our slick rock waking technique. We put on our rain gear, read our maps and hiked up to the Mesa top where Andrew and Alan instructed us on magic of compass reading and route finding.

Two basic skills were needed-- 1 how to find a bearing or direction on a map by matching your intended bearing with true north on the map (align side of compass between two points on map then turn compass until true north lines on compass are aligned with true north lines on map) and then 2 how use that bearing in the field using magnetic north (by putting the red compass needle in its red box or red in shed) in order see where in the field terrain you are heading. The other key was once you had that heading to read the terrain to avoid dropoff cliffs or walk on easier terrain like slick rock not sand. The bearing gave you an approximate target but you had to read the terrain to take the straightest but most efficient path. As a group, we navigated to a high point along the horizon at one bearing, stopped for a snack, and then navigated on another bearing to our exit area down to the river. The clouds looked threatening and serous the entire day but we luckily didn't get poured on much during the hike. 

Expert canyon hiker Alan Dixon led us safely down the red Kayenta rock to the The Gulch creek where we were met with a muddy, silty water. Low on water, we filled up our bottles in hope that the silt would settle to the bottom. We had a lesson on tarp setups and a group cuddle under a tarp during a short rain pour.  Looking at the forecast for up to a half inch of rain, we decided to hike up to a ridge area to avoid flash flood dangers. The campsite vista was beautiful but the thin layer of sand on top hard rock made anchoring tarps very hard-- we had to wrap the tarp lines around our stakes and place big rock over them. My tarp has eight lines making this process tedius, but the vista still made me jump for joy. 

With camp setup, we made a hearty Polenta dinner and ate under an overhang as the rain fell. Needing a boost, we then made a campfire, exchanged stories and bonded a bit as a group before retiring under our maybe secure tarps for the forecasted night of rain and wind.