Sep 21: Halls Creek, Baker Stephens, Cell Reception

Day started off great. We were pleasantly surprised to find fairly decent water in Halls Creek, and it just kept getting better. Also we started finding solid use trail with multiple sets of footprints, so we used that to cut off several bends  in the wash. We got to the Halls Creek slot twists, and weren't up for swimming, so we took the very well marked way around them. We cut over at the end, and I dropped my pack and went in reverse up canyon to see what we skipped. It was incredible. High walls like yesterday, but with water. Only 3 inches deep mostly but there was an unavoidable pool that I briefly tested to at least waist deep. 

We continued on, occasionally losing the track, but mostly following a set of fresh Brooks running shoe tracks, "Brooksy." We finished Halls Creek, took lunch, chugged water, stocked up, and started up the slickrock Baker route. The rocks were broiling, and it felt like we were in an oven. Gaining a couple thousand feet didn't help either.

The views did get pretty nice though, we could see a couple arms of Lake Powell and all the Great Gulch that we'd descended. We took a break near the top and remembered that we were supposed to have cell reception here. I turned on my phone and got the message "Fuck. Fuck Fuck Fuck." with no explanation from a friend. Based on the sender, I knew it was the news, which I have been happily avoiding. I called Amy. "Did something really bad happen?"

"Yes."

"0 to 10, with 10 being Trump is automatically re-elected, what is it?"

"It's not about them."

"Oh shit, is RBG dead?"

"Yes."

Just then I heard a yell, and in my mind it sounded weird like someone needed help. Turns out it was Brooksy, the only other backpacker we've seen outside tourist trails in Canyonlands, who wanted to say hello and just had awful timing. We chatted for a few minutes. It turns out the Halls Creek swim was chin deep on him and he was nearly six feet tall. After separating, I returned to the news. Obviously we would have found out tomorrow when we got to town, but the next few miles were a weird stupor.

We had some convoluted contouring to do before we descended into Exit Canyon, climbed out again, and then contoured and descended into Stephens Canyon. The canyon is gorgeous, and was lit very well, with a cloud perfectly placed near a giant tower. (We get an hour in the morning and one in evening for photos, the rest is entirely too washed out and/or hazy.)

We should reach Hole in the Rock Road tomorrow, and Nano's mountain mentor is going to pick us up. We could use showers.

Rest in Power, my wonderful, if in the end, strategically foolhardy queen.

"When there are nine." --RBG

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adze Picket Co. (I Love the PCT)

Image
Me at the Border I spent the weekend at the ADZPCTKO with Nitro , Tatu Joe, Ducky (the Wise) , Tomato, BearCan't , Mattress, Love Barge, Nano, Sly, Disco , WeatherCarrot, Too Obtuse, Nacho, Tall Paul, Mags , and Wildflower (AKA Icognito Cheeto Bandito). I got a ride down with Firefly. I'm tempted to just end my post there, as it would seem like complete gibberish to many of you. But I won't. The ADZPCTKO is the Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kickoff, held the last weekend in April (also known as NFL Draft weekend, where, miracle of miracles, the Redskins, despite Dan Snyder's best attempts to screw it up, actually managed to avoid throwing away multiple draft picks on Chad Johnson and instead traded for more picks. Hallelujah!) at Lake Morena campground, 20 miles north by trail from the Mexican border near Campo, CA. Conventional wisdom says that the weather window on the PCT is such that there's not much point to starting earlier thanks to snow in the S
Read more

The 50th Year of Trying to Hold the Western States Endurance Run

Image
I ran the 50th Western States Endurance Run June 24-25 in a disappointing 28:54.  I mean, 50 years ago a guy ran a horse race, and 47 times since then a footrace of similar distance has been held. (There was one fire cancellation and one COVID cancellation.) So it's kind of the 48th running in the 50th year, but whatever. By disappointing I mean it took me longer than 24 hours, and it took me longer than the 25:30 it took me when I did it 10 years ago. (And by 10 years ago I mean 10 years, not eight, though I believe I applied eight times in those 10 years, having not bothered to apply in 2014, and if I remember correctly, COVID meant they rolled over 2020 without a new lottery.) I trained hard and consistently from early March through May 20, going as far as hiring an online coach. That seemed to work well, until it didn't. I hurt my hamstring running the Silver State 50K (more on that in my previous post ) and babied my hamstring for the final five weeks prior to Western Stat
Read more

Hardrock 34:42

Image
It's Tuesday, I'm back in Berkeley, and I just ran my first Hardrock last Friday/Saturday in 34:42. I wanted to record thoughts immediately after the experience, because it was hard , and now that it's been a few days, I'm already forgetting the pain. [I don't want kids, so you'll have to insert your own reference to childbearing here if you so desire.] Start The race started at 6AM. I slept reasonably well the night before in my truck just behind the school gym where the race starts--Silverton is very low key, so it's easy to dirtbag inside the city limits. I did, however, have a bit of GI non-normality, but it didn't seem like a big deal. I started in shorts, T-shirt, and a windshirt. As expected, the windshirt soon became too warm, likely because of the clouds that were obviously going to bring rain sooner rather than later. First Climb I started maybe 30-40 deep in the field, going faster than I'd ever climbed in training, but not feel
Read more