Days 44-46, 4/26/16-4/28/16
0 miles
676.1 / 725.6 miles total
This trail is full of surprises. I had never triple zeroed prior to this hike, and now I’ve had 2. After getting back to Kanab, we had a lot of decisions to make. We came up with a bunch of options, none of which seemed very good.
In the end, we decided the best way to turn our whole bail out into a positive was to take the opportunity to place food caches on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. This would reduce a ~9 day food carry to a 5 day and a 40 mile water carry to 30 miles.
Zero Day 1 – We moped around town until this decision was made, then bought plastic buckets and food shopped for the caches. We had this whole scheme worked out to hitch to Page, AZ and rent a car to do the caching. But last minute we were able to work out crashing Carrot and Dan’s caching trip, leaving in Dan’s car the next afternoon.
Zero Day 2 –
We further crashed Carrot and Dan’s plans, going on a short hike with them and Dan’s parents, who were visiting from out of town. We had quite an adventure driving a 4WD trail.
Somehow we crammed 5 people with packs and 8x 5 gallon plastic buckets into Dan’s Subaru Forester and set out to the first cache site. I got pinched almost as many times as there were cattle guards on the long dirt road.
We had planned to drive towards the second cache site and camp in the national forest. But wouldn’t you know, it was snowing and like 20 degrees out, so we once again got a room at Jacob Lake.
Zero Day 3 –
We woke up to a winter wonderland. Could we even make it to the intended cache sites in this? At checkout time we finally left for the caching. We almost made it to a spot that only Carrot and Dan were caching at, stopped about 3 miles short from the intended destination by a giant puddle in the road. This cache spot was accessed by double solid line road on the map, indicating well graded dirt road.
Our last intended site, where all of us wanted to cache, was accessed by a double dashed line, meaning crappy dirt road. The well graded road was bad enough in this weather. Time for a new plan. We came up with a slightly alternate route to walk which would give us good road access for caching. We walked our buckets half a mile before stowing them in the woods.
Now, to get dropped off at the privy or wait some more…? It was 3pm and 27 degrees and snowing hard. Ewws.
The final (I hope) plan: All 5 of us are staying the night and Jacob Lake again. Carrot and Dan will take us back to the privy first thing in the morning. Hopefully this will give us enough time to hike down to the bottom of the canyon by tomorrow night, where it will be significantly warmer.
We are beyond lucky to be getting all this help from Carrot and Dan. Endless thank yous!! Oh, and Carrot writes a great blog, check it out. www.carrotquinn.com
The kindness of Haydukers’!
Way to pack those buckets and get ‘hem out there. I bet you all have pro tips on how to cache!
This has been one heck of a winter in spring sort of season on the ol’ Hayduke. Sheesh!
Hope the canyon finds you warm tomorrow night.
I’ve got all kinds of notes for goi’
Oh my! What an adventure! Glad you opted for a break from the snow!
Yup, Carrot’s blog is great, and as a matter of fact it is how I found yours. Her book on the PCT is also a must read.
I want to go to Kanab and visit Best Friends Animal Rescue there and see Angel Canyon..
Crazy to have snow, but from last year’s blogs, it seems anything can and will happen on the Hayduke.
Hope you found some warmth.
Your photos are outstanding! One question, with all the Hayduke hikers caching foot in plastic buckets, what happens to the buckets? Are they just buried? Over time, there may be hundreds out there! Just curious after listening to talks about “Leave No Trace.”
We are most definitely retrieving all cache materials after the hike, and I would hope all Haydukers would do the same!
Pretty sure NONE of those zeros were spent in vain! You guys rock efficiency! Hayduke on!
Loved the red canyon pictures. You are impressive planners. Thanks so much for sharing this journey.
Hay(duke)!,
it is an “all the things” hike!
Triple zeros, snowstorms in April, privy rescues from Carrot Quinn and her Danfriend. Looks like you are rolling with the adventure to me! Nice decision on the In Reach, in my opinion. It was meant to be, what are the chances of 2 other hayduking friends having a car within driving distance! Thanks for sharing! Happy Trails!
Hope you are still hiking and having a good time
Yes! Just had website problems followed by long period of no cell/wifi service. Updates coming soon!!
Missing your blog….was enjoying parallelling your story with Carrot’s.
Just had website problems followed by long period of no cell/wifi service. Updates coming soon!!