Memories from October 19, 2018.
This is my first zero day after about two weeks of hiking and a few particularly hard days recently. I spent as much time as possible in the motel bed napping, consuming digital media, eating trail food, and getting the crumbs on the blankets.
Memories from October 20, 2018.
I checked out of the motel and loitered around Hanksville waiting for my parents. I listen to Man’s Search For Meaning and then chat with the fellow running the restaurant whose porch I’ve been sitting on for 5 or more hours.
The parental units arrive and we drive to a campsite near Escalante, stopping to eat at a restaurant with a view so good I wonder why I’m hiking the Hayduke.
Memories from October 21, 2018.
I spent the day doing little hikes with my parents until it rained in the afternoon. They got to experience slickrock, ambiguous trails because footprints never wash out and so you can’t tell the main trail from the side ones, and incorrect directions because pour-offs aren’t the end of washes. They did get to see petroglyphs. We had dinner at the Hell’s Backbone Grill and it was one of the best meals I’ve probably ever eaten – and that was before digging into the meatloaf.
Memories from October 22, 2018.
Forecast thunderstorms made me decide not to get back on trail today. I got my resupply boxes. One had food and the other had cold weather gear because based on historical averages I’d been expecting things to start getting cold soon. It looks like I won’t need it in the near future and the freestanding tent, zero degree sleeping bag, and extra layers significantly increase my base weight.
In the evening after the storms cleared, we went on a short hike in Petrified Forest State Park. There was definitely a closed sign at the start of the trail but mom said, “what about this way?” and pointed to an alternate start of the trail five yards away which immediately joined the trail behind the sign which said closed. The parents got to experience hiking in the mud but the view from the top of the cliffs above camp was picturesque.
Isaac Takes A Hike 