Category: Hiking

Ultra Lame
2016.05.15
Hayduke, Latergram
South to North to South rim ultra runners tough out the chilly thunderstorms on the North Kaibab Trail in Grand Canyon 5/14/2016. If only these guys could yield to uphill hikers, announce “on your left,” and not talk 10 decibels louder than anyone else in the park about their mileage stats or their jock itch, I wouldn’t want to gore them with my hiking poles. 🤗 Note I am not necessarily referring to these exact three men, but there was definitely a discouraging trend amongst the ultra runners. Since they are doing something so drastically more difficult than all the other park visitors, I think their hubris goes haywire. Same goes for long distance hikers like me though, it’s a constant battle against the ego. HIKERS: YIELD […]

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That Time I almost became a Grand Canyon Statistic
2016.05.11
Hayduke, Latergram
I am the worst daughter ever. My mother worries about me of course, and this morning she told me she had a nightmare about falling and was worried about me falling. And before that this morning I went to take a self portrait on the edge of the Grand Canyon, with a 600′ drop, and tripped and almost had a bad – very bad – fall. And the camera caught the whole thing. And I sent it to her. What an asshole I am. But usually, when I’m not goofing off I’m a graceful gazelle, poised and oh so balanced. Ha! Really. I am. Don’t worry mom! And Happy Mother’s Day!

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Latergram
Hayduke, Latergram
You can drive up to the park and peer over the rim or even hike down a few thousand feet. You can hire a plane or a helicopter. You can float down the Colorado River in a boat. But I’m now absolutely certain there’s no better way to meet it and see it than by crawling through it on your hands and bloody knees. Very nice to meet you, backcountry Grand Canyon. You’re intimidating as hell, but yet still so welcoming. I should be afraid but I’m not. Under the rim I feel like I’m underwater, looking up at the sky like it’s the water’s surface, this world is so strange and… practically mythical. Above the rim, surrounded by cars and tourists, well, I’m ready already to […]

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Wilson
Hayduke, Latergram
I’m alive. At South Rim Grand Canyon after five nights camped below the rim. I’ve now been hiking alone for 49 days I think, but at one of my most vulnerable moments, sitting on the shore of the Colorado near the Little Colorado confluence waiting for someone to ferry me across and getting ignored by commercial floats (I’m not used to being ignored while hitching), I made a friend. I was worried about my food and my itinerary (which I had to keep to keep my mother happy), and yet settling into the idea of never getting a ride, so maybe spending a night there. So I started looking around for places to hole up in the rocks for the night. And I found not one, but […]

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Beating storms
2016.05.06
Hayduke, Latergram
Again and again I beat the storms this trip. It’s not all luck: it involves watching forecasts and some hurried hiking, but what a treat to be on the favorable side of the clouds. When I shot this I had just come down off 9000′ and a storm was hitting up there (to the right, off camera). According to Joery it dumped rain and snow in windy thunderstorms. That night for the first time in weeks I didn’t have to wear all my clothes to bed. It was warm! And the views!

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AZT Water
2016.05.04
Hayduke, Latergram
Really working on my internal dowsing rod and it’s paying off. I don’t have water info for the Arizona Trail other than USGS maps so finding these tanks because I’m exploring a bit off trail is a treat. My mom thinks it’s gross but this is a fact of life for desert hiking. We drink this to survive. For this trip I’m using a Sawyer Squeeze filter and I like it! It makes yellow water clear and you can set it up a lot of different ways. Them’s the Vermillion Cliffs in the background and my first ever glimpse of the Grand Canyon. My heart is in my throat I’m so excited – and proud I’ve walked here the hard way. I’ll be entering the canyon on […]

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Tired of Narrows
2016.05.03
Hayduke, Latergram
I told Joery I was “tired of” narrows and slot canyons. “You’re bored of them?” he replied, surprised. “No, I’m not bored of them, it’s more like I’m full.” Like I’m full and I can’t eat any more. I have only walked a few narrows in Utah but they were all world class and overwhelmingly overpoweringly amazing. I’m happy to have a break walking through the familiar embrace of trees – a tunnel of trees with no views but green for a few days. The views and thoughts I’ve had on this trip are a lot to digest!

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Crystal Geyser
2016.05.02
Hayduke, Latergram
Yesterday was the first day in over a month hiking Utah desert that I really had “trouble” finding water clear enough to to consider drinking. Once I was totally dry and cotton-mouthed, I was still cracking jokes about my thirst, feeling unconcerned (I had reserved half a liter just in case things really went downhill), and then, after staring at a stinky brown cow pond several minutes trying to decide whether or not to drink it, a gallon of Crystal Geyser dropped from those trail angels in the sky.

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Scottus Richardsoni
Hayduke, Latergram
Yeah so what I didn’t win the lottery to hike the Wave, but I did win big with a private VIP tour of the BLM archeological lab in Kanab, from a wonderful and uncannily lucky fossil scout named Scott Richardson. Here he is explaining how the rock is removed from the bone, in this case on a tibia of a hadrosaur. Scott discovered in rapid succession the only two Kosmoceratops (“the horniest dinosaur ever discovered”), one a near complete fossil head to tail, and had it named after him: Kosmoceratops Richardsoni. It has the most ornate head of any dinosaur ever discovered. It’s Scott’s job to hang out camping in Grand Staircase Escalante, looking for fossils and helping extract them. He does have an AWESOME JOB. Honestly, […]

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Under the Bridge
Hayduke, Latergram
Part two of two of my “Ain’t Too Proud” series. Ain’t too proud to sleep under a bridge. Maybe really stupid, considering it’s raining and this is BUCKSKIN WASH, but not proud. I got rocked to sleep by the sound of semi trucks roaring by above (soothing because it reminds me of living in my van), bumped out of sleep by rats scampering over my bed roll and other unidentifiable animal sounds, and *really* stared down and mooed at in the morning by cattle who really envied my dry spot. I had lots of deep thoughts and internal dialogue about the allegory of sleeping under a bridge or settling at a crossroads such as this, but I’m pretty sure Hanta or Bubonic is already chewing through my […]

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Ponderosa
2016.04.29
Hayduke, Latergram
Those black clouds hit like a wall and found me huddled under a ponderosa, eating clams and Reese’s peanut butter and trying to look cool. Joery came up behind me in his ridiculous turquoise poncho and announced that the old LeFevre shack was less than 100ft from where I was huddled so we went there and stayed slightly more dry, signed the walls like everyone else before us had (Joery did the classic three letter Dutch word for “crazy man” and I drew a pentagram), recoined it the Hanta Hovel, then I left him there BECAUSE I HIKE ALONE. Honestly I was in my happy place with all that giant, wet sage – so fragrant… Ecstasy!

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