Henry Mountains to Burr Trail

I was glad I fortified my camp on the Poison Spring Benches. Soon after I went to sleep, wind gusts blew the first dust clouds into the tent again, then it started to rain. The pad still leaked, although it took the air some time to push through the duct tape and the ground wasn’t very cold. I fell asleep to the sound of the raindrops hitting the tent. They were still hitting it when I woke up in the morning. I left the tent and saw that low hanging rain clouds covered the whole sky. The Henry Mountains weren’t visible at all. 

At that point I hadn’t had cell phone signal or WiFi since I left the Needles Outpost, almost two weeks earlier. I texted River over satellite and asked for the weather forecast. Apparently the following day would have clear skies. It didn’t look very likely, but I had already experienced how quickly the weather can change here.

The rainstorm finally abated around noon and I started packing up. I had used the morning to pre-write the blog entries for the previous sections. There hadn’t really been much time to do that earlier. Long hiking days, planning the route ahead and normal chores like cooking and camp making didn’t leave a lot of downtime.

When the clouds finally parted, the mountains had turned white. 

Before

After

How deep would the snow be? It had rained most of the night and all morning down here. I shrugged. Only one way to find out. I hiked to an elevation of 7800’, just below snow level and set up camp. This would be a very cold night and I replaced the duct tape on the pad with Gorilla tape that had better glue. I also put on all my clothes before going to sleep. I still felt cold, but it was bearable. The pad still leaked, but it took a very long time, so I only had to inflate it once when I woke up from having a cold bum.

My overnight oats were partially frozen in the morning and I warmed them up with my coffee water, then I took a peak outside.

Mountain Camp

The sky was clear and the sun was coming up. I packed up and started my hike. I knew I had to make it through the mountains in one day and get to at least the same elevation as the night before, because it was forecast to be brutally cold the following night (9 F). As I hiked, the snow depth kept increasing. One inch, two… eventually an average of six inches. Not terrible, but after breaking trail for four hours my legs were feeling it.

Getting Water

I’m Not The First!

Many Miles Like This

I had waterproofed my trail runners by putting on plastic bags over my socks, covered with a second pair of socks. That proved to be essential, as my feet never really got cold, even after stomping through knee deep snow banks.

So Much Snow

The final climb up Mt Ellen at 11490’ took me much longer than planned. There were many snow banks along the final ridges and it was very tiring. The views were stunning. 

South Summit of Mt. Ellen

I could see almost the entire route I had travelled so far and as I got closer to the summit, I could see the immense Waterpocket Fold, my next destination. 

Endless Views

After reaching the summit around 2:30 pm, the long ridge scramble to the other side of the mountain chain started. There was a strong wind and for once I was grateful for it as it had cleared the snow off one side of the ridge. 

The Long Way Down

At the end of the scramble after almost three hours I reached a cell tower and unexpectedly had service for the first time in almost two weeks. It was a bit overwhelming as many messages came in that I wanted to read and answer. At the same time I had to keep going as I needed to get below snow level before it got dark and cold.

The day ended with a scramble and bushwhack down the snowy canyon of Sweetwater Creek. I knew I likely wouldn’t find a water the next day, so I melted some snow to cook dinner. 

Takes A Lot Of Gas

Then I continued to get below the snow line. I was completely exhausted when I found a camp spot outside of the canyon at about 7400’. The night was even colder than the previous one and in the morning I stayed in my tent until the sun warmed things up a little.

There were a few more hours of bushwhacking and climbing in and out of the canyon until I tumbled out of a ravine and onto a dirt road that would take me to Tarantula Mesa. I usually don’t like road walking, but here it seems like a treat. I can let my guard down. I can relax my senses. Nothing to do but to walk. No navigating, bushwhacking, climbing. No getting lost. I can even listen to some music to feel human again (another thing I usually don’t do or like when hiking).

Dry Fall At Sweetwater Creek

I didn’t find tarantulas on the mesa, but nice views back to the mountains I hiked the day before. They now had a dark cloud over them and I was back down. It stayed cold and windy throughout the day. After traversing the mesa I had to climb down into beautiful Muley Creek Canyon. 

The Next Climb Down

It took me a while to find the route as there were footprints going in a different direction and the route wasn’t visible from above. I figured it out eventually and climbed down into this beautiful canyon. Once at the bottom, the route finding started again as I had to navigate over several side canyons to eventually get to Swap Canyon. I found many interesting rocks, including glass like ones and regretted not knowing more about geology.

I camped when the sun disappeared over the Mesa above. I made a sturdy camp again as the wind wouldn’t let up. I slept early as I was tired, but woke up again at 12:30 am as the tent shook pretty violently. The wind had turned, now coming from the snowy mountains, and was bitterly cold. Again I wore all my clothes and used my backpack as partial cover against the wind. It got ever more violent and I started to worry for my tent. I didn’t want it to break out here in the middle of nowhere. Eventually I pulled down the poles, so that it now functioned as a staked down tarp over me and my belongings. Still the wind increased and howled outside. It needled me in the back through the sleeping back and tent material. Eventually exhaustion took over and I fell asleep, wondering if I would wake up in Oz.

Tent Or Balloon

When I woke at first light, the wind was as strong as ever, but seemed a little less cold. I fell back asleep until the sun was pretty high. It was still windy, but felt safe to put the poles back up. I surveyed my surroundings. Everything was covered in fine sand and needed to be shaken clean, but the tent had survived. The sand had worn out the the zipper on my sleeping bag though. Fortunately it was one of those double zippers and the second one still worked. From now on I had to climb into the bag from the foot end and close it from the top down. Together with the broken sleeping pad that would make for interesting nights until I could replace both.

I made some coffee in the closed tent to keep the wind out, had my last breakfast of this section and headed out. 

It was only ten miles to my next food cache. So far the supply was in sync with demand, but only because I had added food for an additional day to each cache. That enabled the longer Salt Creek alternate as well as the time I spent waiting out the rainstorm and the reduced miles due to the deep snow in the Henry Mountains.

I set out and after some navigating found an old path that started out in the right direction. I followed it for a while, but when I eventually checked gps I found that it had led me completely of track! I tried to shortcut the return, but at some point had to admit that I was lost. I climbed onto one of the higher knolls to get my bearings and find the route again. When I did I had lost about two hours and what should have been an easy day had turned into a race against time. I found my way into Swap Canyon and hiked along its bottom until I saw the Waterpocket Fold right in front of me. I had made it just before sunset, dug up my bucket, set up camp and made dinner. Again, I was exhausted, but happy to have made it. Another incredibly beautiful part of the hike. And I had not seen a single human being in this entire section.

Swap Canyon