Road Trip Daily

This one or two night Coyote Gulch hike was an easy test of my newly learned navigation skills.  Anxious to get started I awoke at 545 just as the sun was rising.  I followed an obvious landmark, a tall thin spire called Chimney Rock, northwest to Hurricane Wash (a drainage running into Coyote Gulch).  After a couple of hours of walking up over and around slick rock, I entered the famous Coyote Gulch.  The walls around me raised up, darkened and th water flow increased--like nature hinting at the scenic beauty ahead.  The normally crowded Coyote Gulch was fairly empty on this early Thursday morning, giving the canyon a very peaceful and quiet feeling-- fragile almost. Down steam, I ran into the famous Jacob Hamilton Arch and then thirty minutes further-- the Coyote Natural Birdge. Both were beautiful due to their see through the wall character, but both would be overshadowed in my memory by the Stevens Arch tomorrow. Pics.  By 1pm, I had hiked for six hours...

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...

Our last day of Southwest Adventures with Andrew and Alan was a calm repose and warm goodbye capped with an exiting side journey with Blake to the famous Peek-a-boo and Spooky slot canyons.  The hike out was only two hours and knowing the exact path along the river meant quick progress to the cars. Everyone seemed happy-- a mix of accomplishment, new skill and experience and thankfulness to be out of the wilderness. We exchanged goodbyes  with Joshua and Joel who set out east toward Chicago and then the rest returned to Escalante town for a final goodbye lunch of salad and pizza. We stopped at the Escalante overlook and I struck an impromptu pose than somehow captured how I felt.  A salad and three slices of amazing pizza later, the trip was done. The group exchanged hugs and goodbyes and went separate ways in life again. Blake had one day left in Escalante and I had an open schedule until June, so the two of us fast hikers set out down Hole-in-the-rock road, an old Mormo...

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 rid...

Surviving a not-as-bad-as-forecasted rainy night, our Southwest Adventures backpacking group at breakfast and set out to walk down river in search of a climbable path up the 1000 foot canyon wall. We followed the instructions from a Canyoneering guidebook down The Gulch creek to the Escalante River and then up a ways to the climbable Gulley (fallen in canyon wall with boulders you can climb). Our guide Andrew had to read the directions three times but we did find it... And climb it up. Halfway up the gulley we came to a steeper section and as Andrew was helping Ursala up by extending a hand the rocks underneath her foot gave way just as Indiana Jones Andrew pulled Ursala to safety!  Here was the Indiana Jones section. Ursala was a beginning hiker on the trip with her very experienced boyfriend Vic. You could tell Vic loved seeing Ursala fight through her fears and overcome difficult physical and mental challenges out in the wild. I was impressed by Ursala's perseverance as well....

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 yo...