I never sleep well my first night out on a trail and last night was no exception. I woke a couple times to something wet on my face. At first, I was worried it was bat dung; although, amazingly, we didn't see any bats come out last night. But it had a very thin consistency when I touched the affected area of my face and had no smell when I checked. “Oh well”, turn & fall back asleep. Morning reassured me that it was only an occasional water drop falling onto my face from a tiny crack in the overhanging ceiling. We ate breakfast then packed up to ramble on. The river runs east/west here so we were lucky to get sun early. We continued on the trail, watching swallows and squirrels and bees go about their business. Eventually, we arrive at the confluence of Escalante and Death Hollow. We turned off of the Escalante and started moving up Mamie creek. Immediately it was a different creek. The Escalante moved slowly on a sandy path. Mamie creek flowed on top of flat rock so, although still shallow, it moved swiftly.
 |
| Hiking upstream the Escalante River |
 |
| Escalante river valley |
We followed up it a few miles before reaching our first pothole, holes in the rock making deep pools in the river. It was a perfect place for lunch so we sat down. As always Mat was in the water in a matter of seconds, splashing around. After a lunch break, we continued on, the canyon getting more red and narrow. Most of the time we were walking in the river so we were moving at a slower pace than the riverside trails of the Escalante. Large trout would dart every time we entered a new bend in the river. The river bed was littered with potholes of different sizes; one looked 15 feet deep! Fortunately, the canyon floor had been wide enough that we could skirt around these deep potholes.
 |
| Checking pothole depths |
 |
| Swimming in a pothole |
Around 4pm we arrived at a section of canyon too narrow to walk alongside the river. Unfortunately, the river was pretty deep and shadows casted by the rocks made it hard to tell exactly how deep. We readjusted our packs, making sure all items were secure and water proof, unbuckled all our straps, then Mat went first. It came up to his abdomen which was a relief considering some of the deep pot holes we’ve come across. OK, my turn. Up to my chest in cold water, panting high-pitched gasps from cold water. Mat couldn’t help but laugh at me, half my pack under water. Phew, made it through that dilemma! Hopefully we won’t have to do that again tonight!
 |
| Walking up Death Hallows |
 |
| Beautiful reflection |
 |
| Wading through a deep pothole |
We we made it another couple hundred yard before approaching another narrowing of the canyon walls over a waterfall. The waterfall was only a foot or so high but it splashed into a pool that was definitely deeper than the one we just waded. There was a narrow shelf of rock on one side but that shelf abruptly ended in a slick mess just before the waterfall, not to mention a long overhang requiring us to duck or crawl. We checked a route above it, testing our rock climbing skills, but one part of this option was slightly too slick and it seemed stupid for us to risk injury out here just to prevent getting wet.
 |
| Death Hallow Narrows |
So back down to the water we went, unbuckled our packs, and Mat went first. Luckily his foot hit a second shelf a few feet under water when he reached the end of the visible rock shelf. He was able to step onto it before transferring onto the next visible rock shelf up stream & crawl his way up above the waterfall! It was too bad we were hitting this section of trail so late in the day, it would have been fun to swim all these potholes during midday. Fortunately, that was the last of the tricky sections, the canyon opened up again so we can find a place to camp for the night. We found a sandy beach and set up our cowboy camp partially under a rather large oak tree. This place had bats so we fell asleep watching their acrobatics against a billion stars.
 |
| Another deep area |
 |
| Crawling to get beyond the deep pool |
No comments:
Post a Comment