One Way Ticket to Somewhere

 It’s finally happening. My first day on the Hayduke. The last days and even weeks have felt like a never ending succession of little tasks that I had to finish before my hike would start. Lately there was the food stashing, before that was the route planning, the food buying and packing.  I was so ready to get started! Hello Friend! The original Hayduke route starts with a long walk along a dirt road, but there is an alternate along the Devil’s Garden trail and, after the established trail ends, going down Buckskin Ridge into Salt Flat, continuing into Courthouse Wash which ends at the outskirts of Moab. I decided to make this a loop, so I could use my car to get to the trailhead. Initially I thought about road walking the last part of the loop, but while driving into the park I realized that the road has neither a bike/hike lane nor a shoulder, so I mapped out a route following washes and canyons instead of the road. But First Sightseeing! This loop would help me to fine tun...

 I didn’t have much time to enjoy Las Vegas, as downloading of maps and information onto my phone and backup devices took longer than anticipated. I think with two gps enabled devices and a complete set of maps on each I’m pretty well prepared. Then it was time to hit the road! Stash Map It was about three hours from Vegas to my first stash location at the end of Hack Canyon. To reach it I had to cross a large and uninviting looking part of the Arizona Strip. I read that usually there is snow and mud on the long and rattly dirt road crossing it, but it was already bone dry and the Hack reservoir, one potential emergency water source, was only a dank looking puddle. Even though it’s at an altitude of over 5000 feet, the temperatures hovered between 88 and 90F. It’s a somber thought that I have to cross this area on foot towards the end of my hike in two months when it’s drier and hotter… I hope the 5.5 liters of water I stashed along with food will still be waiting for me then. Betw...

 I am thinking to myself as I stare down onto the pile of gear I assembled. Glancing to the left I see my five buckets lined up neatly against the wall, topped with three boxes and my bear canister, all filled to the brim with food and other essentials. Almost everything I will consume during two months... It's March and I plan to leave tomorrow. While I am in great skiing shape, I have done very little hiking. Stuffing my gear and the bear can full of food into my backpack I try to remember the last time I carried it. November of last year. For a two day hike only. I'm sure the first few days will be tough as my body takes its revenge for my lack of physical preparation... Capitol Reef So, why then? Why not just stay home in the city that I love, now that the weather is getting better, the trees start blossoming. Why indeed... I posted parts of this interview with Osho already in my blog about hiking the PCT. Four years later, it still rings true for me. Osho: What does it mea...

 It actually turned out to be exactly five buckets, 20 gallon each. I hope I'm doing this right... Planning the types and quantity of food was relatively easy as I could draw from my experiences preparing for and completing the Pacific Crest Trail and the Arizona Trail. I estimate the Hayduke to take about two months. Unlike for the much longer PCT, I decided not to do any cooking and dehydrating and will rely on commercially available foods only. The Buckets And The Stuff That Goes Into Them My breakfasts will be based on overnight oats, just like during my previous thru-hikes. I add chia seeds, different kinds of nuts as well as dried cranberries or raisins to create variety. The mix goes into individual ziplock bags that I will also use for overnight soaking. The moistened mix is a favorite for rodents, so the bag goes into my cooking pot during the night and will be firmly secured with a metal lid. I eat directly out of the ziplock bag, eliminating the need for cleaning any dis...

One of the skills I had to improve on while preparing for the Hayduke was making routes on maps. While the route exists on CalTopo and AllTrails, updates and alternates are missing. Many underlying maps are pretty old and do not reflect developments in recent years or even decades. I found, for example, that a rockslide closed part of the Zion route and I had to look into detour options. I’m sure I will discover more changes as I continue my preparations and also along the hike.  I started looking into my preferred route last year already, but worked out most details in the last few weeks. While the process of working on those maps can be pretty tedious, I enjoy imagining hiking the routes I created. Current State Of My Route With Some Alternates I learned the hard way during the hike in 2023 that marked water sources like springs can be really unreliable. Luckily I found a spreadsheet online that showed known water sources along the route, but the last updates were from 2022. I su...

 Today I received a long awaited email from a backcountry ranger at Grand Canyon National Park. "Hello Michael, I drew up a permit for you...". That was the moment my next thru-hiking adventure started to feel real. It's been two and a half years since my last long hike, the Arizona Trail. Back then, I had added roughly 100 miles through southern Utah, more out of convenience than anything else. By starting my hike in Bryce Canyon instead of the Arizona border I could just take a bus from Las Vegas instead of scrambling to find transportation to the official terminus. I ended up liking this part of the hike more than most sections of the official trail and started looking into hiking the complete route. Overlooking Grand Gulch in Capitol Reef National Park At first, it sounded too daunting. The Hayduke is an 800–850-mile, mostly off-trail route linking Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks across the Colorado Plateau. All my...