Escalante 2006 - A Dream and the Realities - Part Four

Day Three
Monday July 24 8:30am MDT
We've arrived at our goal, at least our pre-goal goal. We were at the BLM visitor center looking for a clean bathroom and some information about our likely hike(s). The intern that helped us was likely in his early to mid twenties, presumably living a pretty cool lifestyle if making little money. Dan told him what our plans were regarding Coyote Gulch and also about our thoughts of climbing the 50 Mile Cliff. To this last he was less than enthusiastic as the trail was not maintained and with likely daily temperatures around 100 degrees we may have been biting off more than we could swallow. But Coyote Gulch seemed reasonable and he thought it was reasonable to hike from our trailhead at Red Well to our camp site in about 3 hours, despite it being about 7 miles. Encouraged by this, we asked a few more questions, got the low down about low-impact camping and the other required info, and also learned that we may not need to carry the 1 1/2 gallons of water we had planned. The prospect of lightening our loads by 4 pounds and the fact that we would get to our campsite in as little as 3 hours really had us in good spirits as we left to get a good hearty breakfast.

Breakfast found us at the Golden Loop where the food was tasty and the proprietor unable to explain why the town of Escalante existed. Why did people settle in this place? She didn't really answer. She was a native, but had this been a movie with a sinister backdrop, it would have been clear that there was more to this town than met the eye, and the locals didn't want it to be common knowledge. But as we got her non-answer without the benefit of ominous music or cuts to other locals looking shifty, we just took it as her not really understanding what we were after.

With bellies filled we made a couple quick stops in town, one with an eye for t-shirts. That done, we headed out to the trailhed, eschewing the smooth asphalt of UT24 for the red gravel washboard of Hole in the Rock Road. This curiously named road runs 50 miles from the east edge of the town of Escalante out to the eponymous geographical feature that overlooks Lake Powell. We were only travelling 30 miles or so out to the Red Well trailhead, but we certainly got a full taste of both the road's unkindness and the scenery's grandeur and bitter desolation. Off to the south ran the 50 Mile Cliff with the misty shadow of the Kaiparowits Plateau behind, the second of the steps of the Grand Staircase (as seen from the north). Everywhere was scrub vegetation and red sandstone and sand. The geologic features are dramatic, but there's no avoiding that this is a tough place to live, for anything. We passed a few other trailheads on our trip down HITWR and were fairly glad to be in a vehicle with significant ground clearance. Even without AC, the ol' Sombrero (read Montero) was far more capable than any Chevy Malibu might have been in these conditions. TClog was back at the helm and maintaining his composure quite well despite the fact that the road was very rutted at times. After an hour or so we made it to the turn off to Red Well and drove the last 1/4 mile to the parking area. We were alone. And it was incredibly quiet. After having been in an extremely loud car for most of the last 30 hours the ringing in our ears was by far the loudest sound we could hear. Even after that ringing subsided you could hear your blood moving through your skull, and if you've never been somewhere so quiet you owe yourself the trip. It's amazing. The only manmade thing we would hear over the next 48 hours would be airplanes, and they were few and far between.

At the trailhead we changed our clothes and shoes from car friendly to trail friendly and generally got our gear together for the expedition. Once everything was packed and stowed we snapped a pre-picture, locked up the Sombrero and began the 'real' part of our adventure. Almost immediately it wasn't exactly clear where to go, but we sorted that out and headed off along a small ridge towards the beginning of Coyote Gulch. As often happens in these adventures the novelty of all the things around us sends Dan wandering off the trail after about 40 steps on the trail, his zeal for the adventure overcoming any concerns that the energy spent now may be unavailable later. There wasn't much more of this as it turns out, and given the guy at the BLM's advice about the timeline to our campsite, everything seemed golden even though it was about noon, heading towards 100 degrees and nothing but the hottest part of the day ahead us.

The ridge continues for about a half mile with some minor ups and downs before dropping quickly down to the level of the river bed, now dry and wide though the cracked mud makes clear that it has been wet relatively recently. Down in the river gulch the vegetation has a chance since water flows this way with some regularity. Even still the trees and plants that grow here are not tropical by any stretch. These are hardy plants, capable of dealing with long stretches with minimal water. Once down in the river bed we notice almost immediately a profusion of cow pies, a surprise to me at least even having gotten used to the concept of open range. When do the cattle make use of Coyote Gulch? We saw lots of them at the higher elevations of Dixie National Forest, and I guess it makes sense that the summer would find them in the mountains and the winter would find them down in the valleys (see Brokeback Mountain - just for the whereabouts of the cows - really). Nonetheless, cow pies were everywhere.

For the first mile or so the trail was pretty easy to follow. The vegetation was sparse and while dry, the river was clearly identifiable. There was one sharp bend to the right that caused a second of confusion, but compared to what was to follow, that little wrinkle was nothing. I think we all had the sense that navigating through the gulch would be very easy since it was generally just a matter of following the course of the river, so as a result we did very little looking at the map after a while, and this would cause us some trouble later. But as of 1:00pm we were all in pretty good spirits as we headed down the trail, though TClog's pack seemed to be causing him some significant discomfort. It was hot, and we were stopping pretty frequently though we had plenty of water to get where we needed to go.......

More coming soon...