Double Rainbow
My mom is struggling with the election results. She said, “but look at the wonderful light out there,” and when she looked there was this.
Category : Hayduke
I hiked this trail in Spring 2016 and again in Fall 2017. Then I hiked my own version of it in 2019. I had fun. If I make it look easy, keep in mind I’m tough as nails.
From the back cover of the book that started it all:
Traversing six national parks (Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Zion), a national recreation area, a national monument, and various wilderness, primitive, and wilderness study areas, the Hayduke Trail is a challenging, 800-mile backcountry route on the Colorado Plateau. Whimsically named for a character in Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang, the trail begins in Arches National Park and ends in Zion National Park, stays entirely on public land, and traverses the complete variety of terrain available to hikers on the Plateau short of technical climbing.
Joe Mitchell and Mike Coronella pioneered Hayduke after concluding that a long trail—such as the Appalachian or Pacific Crest— was possible on the Plateau, thus introducing more people to these unique and threatened public lands. The Hayduke Trail includes detailed maps of the entire route, suggested cache points, and a wealth of description and tips for tackling this intense undertaking.
Sand Collection
Going through photos from my Spring 2016 900-mile hike over the Colorado Plateau. I really liked their sand collection at Coral Pink, with bottles from all over the world. Like spices.
Hayduke Throwback
Throwback to April in Coyote Buttes, SW Utah. Those 800+ miles were probably my last major hiking miles this year, but that’s fine by me. It was major. (Two more shorter hikes are planned, though, so come along with me on IG, yeah?) ?: Joery Truyen
Hayduke Desert Panoramas
My 850-mile backpacking trip this Spring took me through Southern Utah and Northern Arizona, through all these National Parks and wild lands I’d never seen before. What better way to see them for the first time than to walk through them and sleep in their dirt? I couldn’t think of one. I took some neato panoramic photos, so maybe the next best way to look at them is to click on them, blow them up in your browser, look around, and pretend you’re there. Most these iPhone panoramas were taken in remote areas, difficult to get to by car or foot, and most of them were on detours or alternates off the main Hayduke route. Get yourself an eye full… continue reading
No Comment
Ultra runner on the Zion Rim trail: “You thru-hiking?” “Yep.” UR: “Where you headed to tonight?” “I’ll probably finish.” (A lie. I have learned to not tell people where I’m going to sleep.) UR: “Oh well, that’s a ways… But you might be able to do it if you skip Kolob Arch, that’s half a mile each way and pretty technical hiking. Maybe you could do it, yeah, there might be time.” “I think I’ll be fine. I hiked 800 miles to get here.” UR: “Oh, from where?” “Arches.” UR: “I hiked the Appalachian trail, finished the last 200 miles last year. And last weekend I did the rim to rim in Grand Canyon, that was something else…” “Cool, well… continue reading
Rattler vs. Squirrel
Showdown! Cute squirrel v. baby Grand Canyon Rattlesnake. Who has the scarier tail?
No Angel
How to have Angel’s Rest in Zion National Park all to yourself for coffee in the morning on Memorial Day weekend: 1) start hiking up at 5:30am 2) tell the 3 people you find up top that a ranger (true) is checking out their illegally (true) parked cars. ??
Stung by a Bark Scorpion
Nobody told me Instagram upped its video length limit from 15 to 60 seconds! So here you have almost my entire reality TV diary-style scorpion video from a week ago. Before I was stung that night I was only worried about flash floods coming down the Kanab Creek (a real danger, and what I’m alluding to in the video except I was in Arizona not Utah) but now all I’m scared of are flash floods of scorpions! I also I think it’s funny how I was still really wanting to hike those twenty miles even though I couldn’t walk and wasn’t sure if I was a goner or not. Thruhiker priorities are funny/stupid! And sun glove finger tans are funny/stupid…. continue reading
Zion
…Sort of like this is a dream. Is it? Zion somehow still has my favorite flower of the route (and author Ed Abbey’s fave too, as you would have it) in bloom, and I have a little blue sky before the black clouds sweep in and I get wet with rain and tears at the west terminus of the this hiking route, Zion’s Weeping Wall. The smell is wafting this way and that as the weather makes up its mind, and I’m trying to keep moving forward. I’ve now been weeping for a day off and on, thinking, I can’t go back! Well, I can’t go back the way I was, anyway.