Day 41 – 4/23/16
10.5 map / 10.5 GPS miles
641.6 / 684.7 miles total
The wind never died down overnight and none of us got much sleep, kept awake by the gusts and faces full of sand.
After another mile picking our way through cactus covered ground, we reached the top of our route down the Vermillion Cliffs, the west Sand Hill crack route. The initial descent was an obvious and simple route following the drainage down before veering off to the east to avoid some cliffy bits. Except we didn’t veer off east quite as soon as we should’ve and ended up on a more fun route down a slick shoot while being sandblasted in the face, complete with roped pack lowering for a bit!
We got back on track, and the rest of the way was uneventful, just slowly picking our way down the loose rock to the bottom.
Eventually we hit dirt road which took us to highway 89a, where we had 5.2 miles of perfectly flat and straight paved road. What should’ve been the easiest 5 miles of the Hayduke ended up being 5 of the worst. We struggled against a ridiculously strong headwind while being whipped with sand and constantly pushed into the weedy shoulder/ditch as heavy traffic zoomed by.
Bubs and I had a cache buried 4 miles into the roadwalk. We made it a quick stop and picked up our resupply of food, planning to hitch in the Jacob Lake with Joey who mailed a box there. We would deal with sorting our food and buying any supplemental snacks while drinking milkshakes.
We finished up the highway walking and got a hitch super fast. We were so glad to be out of the wind and discussed the possibility of staying the night at Jacob Lake Inn. Obviously once that idea came up our chances of getting back to the trail today plummeted.
At Jacob Lake we found 2 hikers in the lobby, Don’t Panic and Smiles. We were confused how there were 2 Haydukers so close to us that we didn’t know about. Silly us, they were Arizona Trail hikers! The AZT and official Hayduke coincide for a bunch of miles I’m too lazy to calculate right now. Jacob Lake is just 2 miles off both routes (further for us since we are on an alternate). We ended up meeting 2 more AZT hikers, Foxtrot and Second Lunch later on. All 7 of us loitered in the lobby for hours. It was great!
Our gang decided to indeed get a room for the night and were hopeful some of the others might join in, but alas, they were better dirtbags and camped. But the real disappointment was in Jacob Lake’s supplies. They had no ice cream whatsoever, something about it was still their off season? They also had almost nothing to resupply with in their store – mostly bare shelves with a little candy and a bunch of sunflower seeds. We cooked extra dinners in our room.
89A, hmmm. You are in Arizona. Cool. That road runs right through one of my most favorite new places, Sedona. I’m heading there at the end of May and will do a bit of day hiking. I can’t wait. This place opened my eyes to the desert and its beauty.
You saw Foxtrot?! So cool! He showed us one of our most favorite campsites on the PCT (about a mile off trail with gorgeous oaks)!
Way to not let the wind steal your cheese.
And so glad you had your own extra dinners.
Oh and the chimney stimulus wad ridiculously awesome.
That was supposed to read: chimney stim.
I stayed at Jacobs Lake before. Be careful as I have heard sinister reports of strange going ons there. Ghosts and stuff. X-Files type stuff. Did you see any condors at the Cliffs?
Don’t Panic?!? So cool! He is a friend from way back. If you’re still near each other, give him a hug for me!!