Got a little dose of wifi/data and posted a few pics. But bigger updates will have to wait.

This morning we start an 8-9 day leg. Going rim to rim today with eight days of food. We’ve wrestled 16+ pounds of food into our packs. Feels like such an effort and we aren’t even walking yet. The heavy food bag has me wondering: why can’t I just live off of spirulina and oxygen? My pack would be so much lighter!

With Tapeats Creek still running high (it was a wet winter all over the West), we are detouring from the standard Hayduke to contour across the Esplanade up to Crazy Jug Canyon. We’ll rejoin the guidebook Hayduke route at Deer Creek. Then we’ll hike up Kanab Creek and out Hack Canyon to the grasslands of the Arizona Strip to resupply in Colorado City.

I’d like to think we are still getting the spirit of the Hayduke with our Esplanade alternate. It offers another perspective on the Canyon. The Park Service describes the route we will take as having “moderate flesh shredding brush”. (A sincere yay!) It is a route described by Harvey Butchart in some of his journals. Harvey is to the Grand Canyon as Fred Beckey is to the Cascades. So I’m excited about the route! I hope it will also be good conditioning for returning home to do trips with Yana, Carla, Matt, and others.

It may be 9 to 14 days until there is an update on the blog. We go from Colorado City into Zion NP – the last leg of the Hayduke.

More to come!

Gabriel enjoys a cup of coffee on the shuttle bus to the Bright Angel TH.

Finally wearing my rain pants. Classic hiker style for laundry hour.

Mukmuk liked the coffee stout and the nice selection of beers found here in Arizona.