Day 12 – 3/25/16
16.6 map / 20.8 GPS miles
210.8 / 220.4 miles total

It was a 100% cross country/route day, which means it feels like an entire week went by and we are exhausted.
First was 2 miles up a nice wash with lots of petrified wood! I’ve got to stop getting so excited/sidetracked by it: it’s everywhere.

 

The wash dead ended in a bunch of big cliff walls. Our exit was a “class 4 chimney…hauling [pack] up with rope is probably necessary”.

This was actually fun and way less sketchy than some of the other things we’ve already done this hike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that was 7 miles of pain in the butt cross country over the “red benches.” A more accurate name for this area would be “red ravines that run the wrong direction.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we had to find the one and only spot to drop down into Fiddler Cove Canyon. Our route dropped us 750 vertical feet in 0.1 miles. Better pick the right line.
I’d never heard of Fiddler Cove Canyon before today, probably because it’s such a pain in the butt to get to, but it’s really stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

Our final “5.3” miles (I say that in quotes because it felt like twice that long) was up the Dirty Devil River. Remember we are still hauling lots of water with us from yesterday because multiple notes on the maps and guidebooks caution against drinking from the Dirty Devil, which is not only silty, but said to be laden with heavy metals, agricultural waste and alkaline. Yum!
The hike up this river was a pain in the butt. In and out of sinky sand, pushing through brush and pokey things, and crossing the river from one bank to the other at least a dozen times. Not wanting to have to wade more in the freezing cold tomorrow morning, we were determined to get to our river exit point tonight. 7:00pm on the dot we made it.

It’s town day tomorrow. Boy do we need it.