Wind Morning and Night Friday May 6, 2022

The wind blew hard overhead all night. It would only reach our tent in gusts, but the noise of it just made my back seem cold. I snuggled deep into my bag waiting for morning’s light and warmth. I have the end-of-the-hike mind. I don’t want to open my sleeping bag because I smell so bad, so foremost I want a long shower then a bath then another shower.

The terrain was taking on a pattern of meadows with dusky green/gray grasses, ribboned by a narrow cut of red trail heading sharply up into thick forest and plunging back down what looked like the same meadow. This part of the trail is supposed to be descending to the end. We may be loosing elevation, but it involves a lot of ups and downs. It’s difficult and exhausting.

We ran into three Hayduke hikers, a couple from Scotland and a woman from Virginia. The hike follows a crazy path hitting many of the parks in Utah before hiking in the Grand Canyon. The three said they didn’t understand some of the choices on the trail but overall found it amazing and great fun.

Later on we were sitting in a meadow filtering water from Swan Lake. It sounded so good Terry couldn’t wait to get there. However the brown sludge still had a brown hue after being filtered. Another Hayduker came down the trail and said basically the hike had been hellacious for him. He lost all of his fat and worked for days to regain some. He even took time off in a hotel with the express goal of eating.

About 11:00 our trail popped out near a highway presumably 89A. It seemed hopefully heading directly to Jacob Lake the last town before Utah. We aimed away from the highway into a burned area. We were told a couple of days before that we’d get our best phone service on telephone hill a burn from twenty years ago. For five miles we walked up and down totally devastated hills in the warm open unshaded skies.

Unfortunately the service was unusable. Fortunately there was trail magic. A large food locker with enough water so we could replace the brown water and we won’t need to filter before we reach Jacob Lake tomorrow. We shared a small lemon pie. Terry got coke and we both had enough energy to reach the trees and set up the tent for another windy night.