Living easy life on the Hayduke path

I bet that you didn’t expect that title, right? To be honest, I don’t either.

Easy and Hayduke are not words that are usually seen together in a prayer, unless he says something in the line of: ‘Easy to lose in Hayduke’, or maybe: ‘Easy to run out of water in the Hayduke’.

But once I spent the midpoint of the path, things became considerably easier for quite some time. Yes, I want to say easier in relation to the rest of the path. For now, I had become accustomed to slowing miles, hard terrain. He got used to the bushes, the fight, the climbing, sliding, sliding, stumbling and trembling. And let’s not forget: Dehydrate.

When being tired and thirsty becomes a way of life, any change that allows you to sleep, rest and drink water, is equal to living high life. The last time we talked, he had reached the middle of the point somewhere in Hackberry Canyon in Utah.

400 miles made, 400 stayed to leave.

I was ready for more difficulties, but the land was leveled, and I had to make miles. That, in turn, brought another consequence:

I had arranged permits for the Gran Canyon section of the Path, and the hiking friends they sold and would find me there, so I had no room to arrive before. If I began to move too fast, it would come too early!

Talk about a luxury problem …

Suddenly, I found myself walking through the level, the open terrain and not hurrying. Even so, the amount of water and food that I could (and did) transported, limited the amount of time I could waste. Eventually, I would run out of one or both.

For Hackberry Canyon, the path takes you along the Paria River, and finally spits you in Willis Creek. From there, it is an easy detour for the city of Tropic, to replenish and visit the Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce is not officially in Hayduke, but I had never been there, and I had some time to kill, so, of course, I went there!

In addition to the usual comforts of the city, such as an unlimited supply of fresh food, showers, laundry, a real bed (you know, with pillows and everything), towels and internet reception, Tropic also gave me the opportunity to repair my malfunction team.

If you ever consider doing the Hayduke, be sure to bring equipment that is very resistant or old and ready for retirement. Because, let me tell you: Hayduke is not kind in your expensive ultralight team. For now, everything that had a zipper protested by the abundant presence of fine sand. Two of my store zippers had surrendered, my frog opened open, my fleece vest zipper began to malfunction. In addition, my stove was refusing to screw over the gas boats, one of my hiking posts had folded during a minor accident and my new backpack now wore several abrasions and holes on the side and mesh pockets to transport it through the rocks with a rope.

With a lot of fat in the elbow and some luck, I managed to temporarily fix the majority of the team, but I had to resort to sowing one of my permanently closed carp zippers. It is also good that cold soaking is easy in the desert, so who needs a stove anyway?

After a quiet stay in the tropics, Bryce was impressive, but busy. I had not seen all people all together in one place since I left Las Vegas in March. I took a while to get used to the multitude of tourists. Using more people around always takes me longer than getting used to any people nearby. While wandering around the park, marveling at the alien needles and bright colors everywhere, I heard the languages of the world around me. He was not the only one under the spell of this amazing landscape. While I sat on a bank with a view to Bryce Point for lunch, I looked at the rocks and tried to visualize how these wonders were created. In addition to me, a couple was arguing if they wanted to walk from Rim Trail to the queen’s garden. I encouraged them to go. «It’s a fairly special place, and you may be here once, right?»

«Yes, but we already walk five miles today,» said the man. «And what are you eating anyway? That seems horrible.»

I looked at my peanut butter omelette and I had to agree. It didn’t seem very attractive, but it would take me through my more than 20 miles for the day. However, I decided not to say this out loud, and I wanted a pleasant day.

As popular as the park, once you move away from the main roads, the crowd becomes a drip, and soon it was alone again. Although I was still suspicious, hoping that any appearance ahead would bring more evidence and tribulations, the march remained surprisingly easy to the Grand Canyon. Not until I dropped the Nankoweap path and I had to start jumping along the Colorado River, I would start cursing again. However, I will tell you more about that section next time.

For now, the path brought me to the small town of Kanab for another zero, and when I met my old spreadsheet of members of the PCT plot, we had a quiet amount of time to reach the north tire along the 60 miles of Arizona (The Hayduke follows the AZT from the term on the border of Utah-Arizona to the north edge).

Now, they do not misunderstand me, I am not affirming that the AZT is a walk in the park, but compared to what I just came, it was pure bliss. There was a real and visible path to follow. We had all the time in the world to take long pauses to lunch in the shadow of the trees, eat cookies in Jacob Lake Inn and walk as little as we feel every day. Yes, I admit that, when the weather became quite erratic and ice cream on the north edge, we even camped near a spring (frozen) after a day of two miles once. Difficulties, you know …

Every Azt hiker we found, had heard of the Hayduke path, also a new experience. As they approached at the end of their 800 miles through, almost all of them exclaimed how hard we were to do the Hayduke. Meanwhile, we feel like the most lazy hikers in the world. I had already forgotten everything about the difficulties of the previous weeks and now I felt a little ashamed and very well rested to be a Thruhiker. Not to mention hydrated! For the first time since I started this walk, it didn’t really be thirsty all day. Compared to Hayduke, Arizona’s path offered a true cornucopia of water and caches.

It was a good thing, then, I knew that all this luxury would soon cease …

Do you want to know more about my walk? The previous articles of my trip can be found here, or register to receive a notification when my next article reaches the Trek website at the bottom of this page!