Skip to main content

Day 38 - Escalante The Fin and Deer Creek

Waking up in the secret canyon felt special-- like a once in a lifetime moment you should cherish-- and we did with a breakfast and then a hike up the canyon on the opposite, easy sloping side. Andrew, Blake and I had scouted the exit the previous night and knew the group could ascend it. And they did. Once to the top, we broke off into agressive and non-agressive groups with brother Joshua joining Joel and the scouting party from yesterday. 

Aggressive group, nicknamed Group Intrepid by Joshua, and led by triathlete Canyoneering master Alan, set out to see if we could climb up the fin, a narrow ridge above the Escalante River we had past below on our first day. We used our navigation skills of reading a bearing on a map with true north and then applying to the field with magnetic north and set out. We slogged through soft sand and over slick rock and around trees for several hours and Alan showed us his tactic for saving time on hikes-- cutting through the end of drainages and ridges. This worked very well for the first several crossings but as we neared the fin close to the river the terrain got very ridgey. Maps only show changes greater than 40 feet of elevation so sometimes the micro terrain or ridges and valleys between those elevations can be difficult to navigate. A 10 foot shear dropoff is still un-passable. We pushed hard up and down and steered our way toward the base of the fin. Now facing a forty foot blockage we stopped, claimed a hard fought victory, and ate lunch and enjoyed  incredible vistas to our left and right. 



A quick forty five minute hike up brought us to the meeting place with the other group. Together we descended into the canyon following a route described in the guidebook. Again confused by the language (especially since this one was given for coming up not down) we stumbled a bit following the directions but eventually pushed our way down, finding a cairn marking a hidden side path down a drainage to the canyon bottom. Finding paths up and down canyon walls is super fun-- my favorite. 

Tired but knowing this was my last full day at the Escalante River, I joined a group to explore nearby Deer Creek. A quick hour and a half hike proved exceptionally tranquil. We passed a magical pothole with hanging gardens and water reflecting off the back wall, a wide and high side canyon valley with towering totems and the Bowington Arch, a rock span set high in the wall. 




On the return trip to camp, Alan decided the pothole was so gorgeous that he couldn't pass it without a swim, so he undressed and jumped in the cold water. Andrew followed suit and then when-in-Rome I jumped in, followed by Blake. A skinny dip in a magical pothole pond at Deer Creek was the perfect finale to a full crescendo of a day in Escalante. 







Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 51 - Canyonlands Needles Pt 3

A deep connection to the nature surrounding you comes from the solitude of solo travel, but sometimes it is nice to have a companion!  I ran into David, a retired telecom exec from Canada a few days ago on the Syncline Loop trail at Canyonlands Island in the Sky. Then I ran into him again halfway through my Chesler Park hike two days ago, then again later in the hike, finishing the last two miles together.  David hiked his favorite trail, the Peekaboo trail yesterday, and said I could join him, but my heart was set on confluence trail, so we hiked separately. We did share a campsite though and exchanged travel stories. David was 55 and had retired at 50 from a high-level international job with Nortel and was now traveling full-time. We instantly bonded over our solo travel style. He outclassed me by leagues. He had trekked one month in Nepal, then another month in India, then some months in Asia. He had hiked and skied and adventured all over the western U.S.  and Canada....
1 comment
Read more

Day 40 Escalante Hole-in-the-Rock Road

I woke up late following a lovely slumber in a REAL bed-- such a luxury. I stayed in bed reading my maps and guidebooks, trying to put a plan together for the next months travels. I decided I would spend two more weeks in Utah and add on two weeks in western Colorado instead of spending all four weeks in Utah-- I was starting to tire of the desert and Colorado seemed like a good mix of backcountry beauty and civilization proper.  The last must do in Escalante was Coyote Gulch, so I read and reread the route description in my guidebook and went to the visitor center to get my permit. I was going to do a loop down Hurricane Wash to Coyote Gulch to the Escalante River and then up Crack-in-the-Wall overland back to my car. Permit in hand, I lingered by the Outfitters wifi emailing and blogging and then drove out Hole-in-the-rock road forty miles to my trailhead. The road was dirt but well graded in most parts. A high-clearance vehicle was recommended for the last five miles but my Dodg...
Post a Comment
Read more

Days 89 and 90 - Waterton

I started my journey north to Canada today. My plan was to head to Waterton Lakes, just north of Glacier, then to Calgary, then the Canadian Rockies parks of Banff, Jasper, Yoho, Glacier and a few others, then to Vancouver and finally to Seattle, all over the next several weeks. But first I needed the Internet!  I drove south out of Many Glacier to a place I remembered having cell reception.  I did some emailing and calling back home, did some research for my Canada trip and watched the final three episodes of Game of Thrones--wow, the final two episodes were sensational. This rainy, dreary day was perfect for such activities. I then drove into Canada late in the evening and to a campground set in the cloudy mountains at Waterton.  The weather cleared a bit the next day and I was able to do some hiking around this scenic alpine lakes district.  Waterton Lakes district from a high hill called Bear's Hump: The chipmunks at Bear's Bump were very interested in the conten...
Post a Comment
Read more