Day 3: The Escalante Route - What a Day

When I wake, the temperature is 51 degrees. Again, I watch the sunrise from the sleeping bag. The sky has some clouds that turn all the shades of pinks and oranges. I watch the day's beginning, eat breakfast, listen to the music of the canyon.

We leave the campsite at 8:40.

A majestic hike. We gain over 2280 feet as we head away from the river and over a big drainage. We all move smoothly together. But the day grows long. We learn to search for cairns over and round barriers.

I learn to overcome my fears of falling on the steep sections where the trail narrows and slants downward.

Finally we head down the Escalante Creek drainage to the river. We meet a hiker who shows us a detailed written description of the trail. More informed, we head out to complete the Escalante to 75-mile canyon leg of the hike. He thinks it should only take us 2 to 3 hours to get to the head of Red Canyon. He must be a whole lot stronger than us, for it takes us over 4 1/2 hours.

75-mile creek is at the bottom of a gorgeous box canyon, with 300 to 500 foot walls. The trail winds up and along the top of the west wall. We see no break in the canyon walls in the area the ranger had indicated on the map that Monday night. Our hiker had said very little about this section and the written description indicated it was only a half-mile up the trail. Maybe we had slowed some, but it seems to take forever to get to the blocking cairns that are to push us down into the drainage.

The map shows the route going all the way around the canyon and, indeed, there is a well traveled trail that goes around. A group from Oklahoma had pushed on around (story from our lone hiker and, later, confirmed by a wilderness ranger). They ended up getting lost and, in getting back to the river, one of them injured his ankle severely enough that they requested a raft group, who had a radio, to contact the rangers. The rafters called an airliner, that contacted the forest service, who sent down a helicopter to check the situation out. The ranger, Michael Nash, determined it was not severe enough to warrant a payment by the injured party of $1000 to $1500 for the helicopter. (Michael will appear again tomorrow.)

Down into the drainage we go and are almost immediately confronted with a twelve-foot pour-off into the drainage itself! Thank goodness we have 30 feet of 1-inch webbing. Doug uses this to belay Wes and me down. This is Wes's first experience with rock climbing; he does great! Doug then lowers the packs and down-climbs this obstacle, with me spotting him. What a start.

The walls are sheer and sometimes they close to within 10 feet. We're glad the weather is clear.

90 minutes after leaving Escalante Creek, we reach the river at the mouth of 75-Mile Canyon. As the day is turning to evening, we decide to camp here. Again we set up camp in near darkness. Each retiring to our own world of tent, sleeping bags, and memories.

We are unsure about tomorrow because we had intended to stay at the Hance Rapids totnight, so we agree to wake at 5:30 and be ready to go at sunrise.

Again I write for a while, read for a while, watch the night begin, dream of potential tomorrows. A shooting star brings all into focus: tomorrow will take care of itself ... if we are smart. I look out into the beginning of the inner canyon, which becomes the third barrier of the Grand Canyon for the next 70 miles or so.

The night is beautiful, still, warm.