Little Package Blog

Yellow Mountain
2016.04.21
Hayduke, Latergram
Currently on top of Yellow Mountain near the bottom of Hackberry Canyon, some 5500 feet tall, and a mile and 800ft up off my route, just to watch the sun set and sleep out under the full moon. The surface looks like giant SKIN, it’s breezy, and there is nowhere to take cover. It looks like the moon using Google Earth. Fantastich advice from my imaginary trail boyfriend, who is real (if that makes sense) but not my boyfriend at all (more of a stalker), and Flemish, and hiking a couple days ahead of me and probably also having the same going-out-of-his-mind-hiking-solo-imagination-stuff going on. Also thank you to Will, who I found today sitting at a spring with his beagle, for letting me see your amazing handmade, […]

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420
Hayduke, Latergram
Yesterday I got to the head of the Round Valley Draw slot canyon, where a gash opens in a wash so narrow you can straddle it, but deep! The gash stays narrow and the hole gets deeper, the fun is going in. Tired and a bit nervous about the drop in (lowering my backpack with rope, getting myself down, etc) I started to make camp. Suddenly I was seized! Get in there! Not like it’s going to be warm or even lit in the morning! So I dropped in, easy peasy. Looked at my clock, 4:20, so I made a quick self portrait, 4:21. Best high EVAR. Happy 4/20

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A Lollipop
2016.04.20
Hayduke, Latergram
Today’s road walk, coincidentally stoned on 4/20 thanks to a 4 year-old lollipop, has been grounding and good for the feet. My shoes have dried quicksand stuck in the fabric layers so road walking lets me wear my slippers and rest the poor toes. What with my $5 white sunglasses and white foam slippers I probably look like something out of Burroughs. In a few minutes I’ll be half way done with this incredible trek. That makes me happy and sad. Oh look there’s a car at the bottle of this cliff! I was just gifted an orange and by another person, and orange Gatorade. Best high ever. Happy 4:20

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Remote Cows
Hayduke, Latergram
Cows run this place. Sprained my ankle the other day when a gigantic muscular bull (like you’d see in a bullfight ring) came out of the trees grunting and huffing. I was scared but he was more scared of me as it turned out. Grand Staircase Escalante is a national monument but ranchers still have permits to graze their stock, so it’s tough finding clean-ish water and shade on route without cow patties (but the pack trails are great! These cows really know the area!)

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Dirty Devil
Hayduke, Latergram
My first step into the Dirty Devil went up to my hips. I turned right around and walked an extra 5 or so miles to avoid crossing it numerous times. This is the view down on it from old uranium mine roads. It seemed to be flowing hard and is said to be unpredictable with quicksand too. I just wasn’t mentally prepared to tackle it alone. Like I said in an earlier post today, I have a little issue with walking in rivers. I opted for the psychedelic (awesoooooooooome) Hatch Canyon route, and came down to my ONE Dirty Devil crossing that night. I didn’t have courage; I slept on it. That night a truck pulled up on my side. Bruce and Lani had taken 4×4 roads […]

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Dimonds
Hayduke, Latergram
How am I going to get into town from the middle of nowhere? Oh I know! I’m going to meet a family of Dimond alumni from Anchorage, Alaska. I am Dimond alumni (freshman, sophomore). I was big into cross country skiing and raced state at Kincaid, as well, so these sweatshirts were just blowing my mind. I got to ride in the back of a pickup 35 miles down a dirt road with these awesome Alaskans. And then their dad bought me pizza. How does this happen?! 😍😍

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Free Flow Dance
Hayduke, Latergram
Some free flow dancing after finishing up wading down the Escalante River yesterday. I’m not scared of many things but rivers over knee-deep have almost claimed a couple friends of mine (as I watched) and I have a deep respect for their power. The Escalante was pretty low but mostly opaque and with patches of shallow quicksand. I was alone so there was nobody to laugh it off with. My anxiety was high and I had to talk myself through it; I even sobbed in gleeful relief when I discovered my phone had fallen out of my pack 20 yards back and not a mile upstream as I feared. It took all my nerve to do it once, and to do it again for a phone? I […]

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Escalante Admirer
2016.04.13
Hayduke, Latergram
Had I known I was being watched from above, this moment’s tension would have shattered. I was leaving my nice eagle’s nest view/rest spot below Stevens Arch because I’d realized I had dropped my phone somewhere along my walk down the Escalante River. I had bolstered all my courage to wade the thigh-deep waters, and now I was bolstering more to head back and do it twice more. First I had to walk straight down off the wall. (But that doesn’t scare me – fast-moving water scares me.) My “secret admirer” captured my descent. I found my phone in the bushes at left. Then I’m sure I did a little dance and wept a little. And I was being watched. It’s weird to think about. I found […]

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Out There
Hayduke, Latergram
Proof I’m doing just fine. 20 days without a shower, 17 days without a town stop, hiking solo. Almost wishing I could do this whole thing without stopping in town, but also sort of looking forward to a shampoo and some light beer. Here I’m atop the Waterpocket Fold, with Navajo Mountain and Lake Powell in the background, behind me — to the south. Doing great! (Total tally at town day (4/14) is 22 days without a shower and 19 days without a town stop.)

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