One Way Ticket to Somewhere

After a relaxing two days in Tropic I hiked into nearby Bryce Canyon. There is a convenient connector trail directly from the town that let me bypass the main entrance and avoid any road walking. I spent a day sightseeing in the National Park as I had secured a spot at one of the official campgrounds. Bryce  Then came the biggest change to my hike. I modified the route to stay in Utah which meant that I would bypass the Grand Canyon. My permit had expired because of the extra days I needed to complete the earlier sections. I didn’t mind though. The whole North Rim area had burned last year, even destroying the beautiful lodge. I had already hiked the section from Bryce to the North Rim a few years before. I had also hiked the Rim to Rim, River Trail and parts of the Tonto Trail. I would rather explore some new areas on the way to Zion. Decisions, Decisions… But first I set out to hike the whole length of Bryce Canyon over the following two days. As soon as I left the rim, there w...

Until now, my food planning had been on point. I had added an additional day to each cache and, for one reason or another, had always needed that added day. So when I reached my cache near the Hole-in-the-Rock Road, I had only one emergency dinner and a few snacks left.   I didn’t have this safety net for the next section. It was longer than the previous ones and, due to the capacity of the cache, I was not able to add a full day of food. In addition, the parmesan cheese that was supposed to provide three lunches was moldy beyond rescue. I had chocolate that I could substitute, but there wasn’t anything extra. I was confident that I could reach my next bucket before I would run out of supplies, but it’s always better to be prepared for an extra day. Yahan’s Garlic - Yumm! I was well rested after an easy day hiking out of Coyote Gulch on a well defined trail when I set out the next morning, but the climb up Fiftymile Mountain broke my spirit for the day. It was a moderate 3000’, but...