Desert hiking is said to be addictive, but I think it’s just another version of a pastime that offers a glimpse of something many folks don’t afford themselves the opportunity to experience.  Fortunately I’ve had the opportunity to visit our southwestern desert this spring with two guys who’ve spent considerable time over the last 30 years in this region, and between them I’ve managed 4 backpacking trips, giving me just a taste of what resources we have 3 – 5 hours from Durango.  Our local desert, which I always said begins on the south city limits of Durango (while the alpine high country starts on the the north city limits), is just the place to spend your pre-summer shoulder recreation season.

While it still can be cool at night even on these desert backpacking trips, the daytime hiking temps are superb. (I’ve finally ordered a 20° ultralight sleeping bag to take more advantage of the high desert nights in Spring and hopefully Fall).  The first March trips still had snow in the shadows and on some trails we were the first trekkers of the season, stepping on puffy humus trails swollen from a winter of hibernation under the snow.  As March rolled on we saw more and more folks making their spring break/cabin fever escapes and taking advantage of desert trails of the southwest just like us.  What is totally amazing to us was just how many hikers were from more than 2 full days away from these destinations.  Evidently the Pacific Northwest hikers take their Spring break in the American Southwest.  And while I’m thinking of it, it’s really worth noting that 96% of the desert hikers we’ve seen so far are over 60 years old, some well over.

The Grand Gulch of Cedar Mesa is so popular the BLM only allows 20 folks a day to enter the area.
Fortunately the groups are generally 2-4 and, like river trips, travel at varying paces and you might only see one or two groups a day, or even none as in our last two days on the trail.  Day hikers start on both ends of Grand Gulch trail as there is a popular ruin within 5 miles from each direction, so after the first major ruin the volume of hikers falls down to the 1 to 2 backpacker groups.  Of course the major attraction of Grand Gulch is the abundance of “ancient puebloen peoples” ruins, art panels, glyphs, and artifacts.  The Perfect Kiva is a wonderful example of a cliffside kiva community ruin that is totally accessible to any willing to trek down the 1,200′ entry of Bullet Canyon and hike the 5 miles to enjoy Basketmaker living at it’s finest.

You’re able to see some 800- to 1,200-year-old examples of our earliest American settlers just about every other mile of the 30-mile route we choose.  Grand Gulch has several access points and one can travel 50 miles if you take the farthest two points.  I’ve been most familiar with the southern-most terminus on the San Juan River where we always camp on river trips.  We’ve hiked up as far as three miles from the river but I’d never realized the cultural experience further up the gulch.  These days not much water travels down the canyons, except those rain- and thunder-storms that frequent the region during the summer and fall.  Torrents have been known to rip down these narrow canyons and evidence is rampant everywhere with leaves, branches and entire tree trunks high up on the canyon walls, above sand benches and river bed.  One notable point about 28 miles into our hike (and very near the western exit at Collins Springs Canyon) is The Narrows, a 10′ wide “pinch-point” for about 30 miles of south-flowing canyon.Of all the intriguing cultural Basketweaver artifacts we saw, the Big Man Panel is a larger than life-sized graphic of an ancient couple stationed promiently high up on a gooseneck bluff north facing wall.  Done in the “Fremont Man” style, this triangular torso’d couple (man with smaller head includes dangling genitals, woman has necklace, purse and waist ornementation) stands not unlike an ancient puebloen people billboard advertising who knows what.  Without the hinderance of formal archeological training and study, I’m wondering if these Fremont Man graphics aren’t just how they saw themselves in the spring morning low-light shadows on the canyon walls, rather than the Abercrombie & Fitch models of that era.

This sand bank doesn’t look like it has several hundred new plants, but it does.  Prior to the Grand Canyon Vegetation Restoration project this spit of sandbar was primarily Tamarisk which had overtaken the camping and recreational aspects of this unique location on the Colorado River just above a 7-8 scale rapid called Granite at mile 93.4.  A very popular large overnight camp for boaters making the 225 mile run down the Colorado River from Lee’s Ferry to Diamond Creek and beyond.  The camp and beach are also destination spots for hikers descending the very popular Hermit Trail from the south rim to the Grand Canyon and those stopping at the Monument Campground about an hour up Monument Creek to the south.

Our trip was the finale planting of nearly 500 plants where they had spent several prior trips in November and January when they removed hundreds of invasive Tamarisk.  In Feburary they transplanted about 120 Willows and Cottonwoods about 7 feet deep such that their bases were at water table depth.  Two palates of local seedlings which were greenhouse grown on the Rim and later wintered in Phoenix were helicopter onto the beach the day before we arrived for planting.  Plants included Mesquite, Hackenberry, Dactura, Bridlebush, Catspaw and several other for the riparian level plus several grasses at the water level. It wasn’t easy to keep track but I think they planted well over 700 plants in the two efforts.  After planting the most difficult of all was watering each with a 5 gallon bucket of water from the Colorado many steps below.  Ten people could get the watering job done in about a hour the first day, but by the third day it took 50% longer as fatigue set in.

Planting took a day and a half and the next days were spent covering (camouflaging) our devastation with hand gathered mulch, stowing tools and supplies in the cache, inventorying, and mapping the site.  Plus we managed several hours each of weeding and eliminating about 200 more Tamarisk that escape the earlier eradication.  As the photo shows Tamarisk can reach a girth of greater than 6 inches in just 10 or 12 years according to the tree rings.  Sawing them off at ground level prior to herbicide treatment is no easy task with an eight inch hand saw.

A number of interesting things took place as we participated in the April venture.  A Colorado River Guides training trip came in the first day and provided us with their camp kit and food for their 20+ and our 10 volunteers.  Accompanying the guides were experts on various topics for guide education such as geology, ecology, fisheries, and more.  We were treated to a number of mini-seminars on the beach ,after dinner and breakfast, during their overnight stay.  One of the best was a professors’ 20′ sand graphic of how the Grand Canyon and Colorado River had different and separate development stages with the earliest Colorado River running eastward to the great inland sea that spanned Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and parts of Kansas.

The Hermit Trail down to the Colorado is a formidable 10 1/2 mile hike in itself and so popular that hikers must vie for backcountry hiking permits just to stay in the remote campgrounds.  Out trip down not only featured the daunting one mile descent in altitude thru the eons of stratified canyon layers but we endured a Spring wind and rain storm (with short bursts of snow) that was so strong that you virtually had to “hold on” to rocks at times.  No photos of that downhill trek as it was difficult enough just to unbuckle packs to get on rain gear.  However as all things are in the western mountains by afternoon the storm abated and we shed our rain gear and finished the descent into camp under cloudy skies.

Climbing back out to the rim is (IMO) far easier on the legs, than long steps down are on the knees.  And fortunately the canyon colors and Spring flowers where showing more vibrant color contrasts.  Even without the infamous high summer temps we consumed over 3 1/2 liters of water on the exit.  On the right is near the top of the trail and said to be over 100 years old when the Union Pacific workers improved the trail for train visitors on mules to visit deep into the canyon.  Unfortunately this quality of trail doesn’t last more than a few hundred yards out of the over 10 miles.  See if this Panorama below will enlarger on your screen.

Lucky enough to snag a trip down into the Grand Canyon with the Granite Camp Planters  on their finale to the 2012 Tamarisk eradication program along the Colorado River corridor in the depths of the Grand Canyon.

According to the National Park Service website Tamarisk, commonly known as salt cedar, is an exotic (non-native) shrub or tree that grows in dense stands along rivers and streams in the west. Tamarisk, introduced to the U.S. in the 19th century as an erosion control agent, spread through the west and caused major changes to natural environments. Tamarisk reached the Grand Canyon area during the late 1920s and early 1930s, becoming a dominant riparian zone species along the Colorado River in 1963 (following completion of Glen Canyon Dam).

I’ll be trying out my newest ultralight acquisition a zPacks ArcBlast (15.5 oz 52 liter) made of cuban fiber sail cloth.  Unfortunately I’ll have to load it up for the descent on the Hermit Trail down to Monument Creek with up to 34 pounds of load.  My base weight will be 12.3 pounds but we’re required to carry 4 liters of water (8 pounds) and approximately 15 pounds of group food (which isn’t the dehydrated versions I normally carry).  Fortunately I’ll only have the 12# plus 8# of water coming back up the trail and the water weight will decrease by the hour.

These strawberry milkshakes will always be remembered now when passing thru Blanding, Utah after five days of backpacking in the Escalante and Cedar Mesa slickrock hiking arenas.  These “small” over 10″ tall versions were a fabulous fortuitous find recommended via Yelp! in the first town where we could get a cellular signal on my iPad.  I’ll have to admit the mushroom and swiss hamburgers hadn’t been delivered to the table yet. But that’s the reason we workout and do these strenuous feats isn’t it? So we can binge on those forbidden fruit shakes?  Now I’m eager to head back to southern Utah to burn up more calories and earn the reward.

Actually I’d like to take any of you back to this desert playground for day hikes or even backpacking.  One comment I’ve always made was that I’d get around to exploring our “backyard” for recreation once I got grey and now it’s all the better since I’ve adopted the ultra-lite base weight philosophy.  You really need to try backpacking with the same load you might take for a day hike.  This recent trip my base weight was 10.9 pounds for everything excluding consumables of food and water; a new low for me and I’m soon to go sub-10 pounds once I get my new pack.  Mid March was just about the first week that hiking without post-holing in snow was possible and mid-50 daytime temps were probably as low as I’d like to spend on the trails, but all the hiking and biking in the Durango area is still snow-bound.

Mike Taylor, his lab Ryler and I, first hiked the Boulder Mail Trail between Boulder, Utah and Escalante, which was a 11.5 mile mule-packing trail between those two historic Mormon towns.  What was special about the trail is that the first 6.5 miles is almost all on sandstone slickrock with pinon and juniper offsetting the rich red rocks.  Much of the trail is marked with sandstone rock cairns to keep the hiker from descending a “pour-over” or otherwise unscalable route.  At the mid-point of the Mail Trail you wind thru the Death Hollow creek bottom which on this occasion was backed up by a fresh beaver dam.  We opted to turn round at Death Hollow and search for another loop.

Our second 3-day trip (just over 24 miles) while we were in the region, was to hike the Fish Creek and Owl Creek loop on Cedar Mesa which turned out to be spectacular as well.  Similar slickrock but this time it was along much steeper canyons that once was the terrain of the Anasazi Indians who are now called the “ancient pueblo peoples”.  We saw granaries, cliff dwellings and petroglyphs that aren’t on any of the trail maps.  Let’s go back soon, so we can pause for those strawberry milkshakes on the way.