Day 48 – 4/30/16
11.2 map / 16.0 GPS miles
708.7/ 765.6 miles total
Welp, we knew we were getting into this. It rained the entire day except for about an hour this afternoon (an opportunity we used to dry out our tents and feel happy). And our route was entirely a slow, off trail slog.
But first! A couple miles in we reached the Colorado River and took a lovely little side trip (on real trail!) up to visit the Nankoweap granaries, a site I’d been wanting to visit for years. The famous view of ruins above the Colorado River was amazing and the clouds and fog from the rain added some extra drama.
I didn’t have much camera out much during the day since it was so wet, and I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired for photo taking in the rainy bushwhack anyway. We were just following the Colorado River the entire day. In the beginning there was decent game/use trails to follow, though it was still slow-going as the cactus overrun paths went up and down ravines, often suddenly disappearing altogether. We fought through patches of tamarisk and other brush, scrambled over rocks and loose dirt and just generally labored, struggling to break 1 mph.
We knew this was going to be a very slow day, and our plan was really only to hike the 11 miles anyway. You see, this is when we hit a beach where we are supposed to hitch a ride with a raft to the other side of the Colorado. We are now stuck until a raft comes by. Today, we saw one group of like 3 rafts, all in the morning when we were up near the granaries. So when we got to within a tenth of a mile of our hitching beach in the late afternoon, and a downpour hit, complete with thunder and lightning, we already knew it was too late in the day for a raft to come by. Rather than finish the last five minutes to get to the beach and set up our tents in the pouring rain, we decided to stop right where we were, under some wonderfully sheltering ledges and cowboy camp. It was early and with so much time we entertained ourselves by setting our cook pots out in the rain to collect water. I got about half a liter!
We’ll head to the beach first thing in the morning and wait for a raft. Our entire plan depends on this raft hitch. Let’s hope some come by before we run out of food!
Great adventure. Rain sucks but makes for dramatic photos.
Great post. Like the hiding out from the rain. Apparently that puts a smile on a weary hikers face.
White flower is datura which is a hallucinogen.
Russell is correct about the Datura Flowers. I first saw them in Canyon de Chelley. After a bit of research, here’s what I learned:
Sacred Datura, aka Desert Thornapple, Western Jimson Weed, Moonflower, Angel’s Trumpet. “Jimson” comes from “Jamestown” where soldiers died in 1676 after eating this plant. They are poisonous and hallucinogenic, and are/were used by Indians.