4th Annual Columbus Day Hike - Zion National Park

Better late than never.  I'm finally my trip journal posted.

9/10/2011, Sunday, Getting There
Our plan was to leave Farr West at 3:00 p.m., which meant that I had to be ready to go before church, which runs from 11:00 to 2:00.  When church was over, I hustled home, put the last touches on my stuff and was ready to roll by 3.

My ride arrived just after three and we loaded up my stuff and we were off.  Our departure time was 3:15.  We drove to Salt Lake and picked up Kris's sister Natalie at the Home Depot parking lot.  We left there at 4:10 and made two pit stops for fuel and restrooms.  We arrived at our camp site just outside of Zions at 8 pm.

Jason H. drove up from Las Vegas and had secured a campsite for us just up the hill from where I camped out in September with the Virgin River group.  Jason had his tent set up and as usual, we planned on sharing.

10/102011, Monday - LaVerkin Creek

The Motley Crew:  Natalie, Darin, Kris, Jason, Dale

We got up at 8:00, had breakfast, packed up, and left the campsite at 9:30.  We stopped at one of the stores along the way because Natalie had gotten cold and wanted to pick up something a little warmer.  We got to the trailhead at 11:00 a.m. and were on the trail at 11:30.  We made two 15 minute stops.  I was the first to arrive at our campsite at 2:30 and the others arrived about 15 minutes later.  Our campsite is #12 which is straight across LaVerkin Creek from where we camped at last summer.  It's a pretty good location and there is a stream flowing into the creek just West of our campsite.  It got dark about 7:30 and the temperature started to fall as it got dark.  While hiking, the temperature was pretty comfortable, a little warm during the afternoon, but not bad.

LaVerkin Creek Trail

After setting up camp we pumped several gallons of water from the side stream and then I went for a short walk and jumped onto a sandbar and 1 leg sunk well past my knee.  The sand was supersatured with water and though it looked solid, but damp, it was far from solid.  After pulling my self out, I walked back to camp
and everyone was a bit surprised to see my leg all covered with sand.  I took them back to where I jumped and did it again.  This time though, it was much firmer and as I looked around for the reason, I discovered the each time someone walked on the sand, it pushed out water which made it even more firm.

The mud pit

We sat around camp until 9 p.m. or so.  They moon came up, temps dropped and people started going to bed.  I let Natalie have my bivy sack to use inside of her tent so hopefully she'll stay a little warmer.

LaVerkin Creek near our campsite

My eats today consisted of dried Mango, beef jerky, roast beef sandwiches, a banana, apple cider, steaks, and mashed potatos.

6 Miles, 2.5 hours, ~1510 calories burned


11/10/2011,  Tuesday - BearTrap and Kolob Arch
I got up at 7:30 and everyone else was up shortly thereafter.  My breakfast consisted of pancakes and syrup along with a 3 inch roast beef sandwich.  We are staying here again tonight, so no need to rush around putting our stuff away.  Our plans call for a day hike up to Bear Trap canyon this morning and then up to the Kolob Arch area this afternoon.

Homemade? Pancakes and syrup 

 We hit the trail at 9:50 and arrived at Beartrap waterfall at 11:50.  Two hours for a 2.5 mile hike.  We took several breaks along the way and had to cross the creek a number of times.  Beartrap waterfall is at the end of a short narrows canyon.  It's technically to wide to be called a slot canyon and it has a shallow stream flowing through the bottom.

Mouth of Bear Trap Narrows

It was a refreshing hike and the scenery made it worth while.  We left the falls at 12 and arrived back at the confluence of LaVerkin Creek at 12:10 where we stopped for more photos and lunch.  We arrived back at the camp at 1:30 and ate a more hearty lunch, relaxed, and then prepared to hike up the Kolob Arch canyon.

Bear Trap Waterfall

We left for Kolob at 2:34 and after getting to the viewpoint, we headed to the left and found a better place to view the arch.  Our better angle gave us a better view of the arch and allowed us to see blue sky thru it.

Kolob Arch

We then went back to the trail and headed further upstream (North).  This was the right fork of this little stream.  There is supposed to be a triple waterfalls up there somewhere.  We didn't find it last summer when we were up here, this time we have more time and hopefully we'll be more successful.  When we arrived at the place where we turned around last summer, we stayed on the West side of the creek instead of the east.  We found a way past the barrier that hindered us last time and within 10 minutes we were at the first waterfall.  It was a nice scenic area and we spent a few minutes there before again heading upstream to see the other two falls.

The hike to the waterfalls was quite enjoyable.  It is pretty much an obstacle course with lots of fun little challenges to overcome.  Of course, anything thing that we climbed up, has to done in the reverse direction and a little teamwork went was beneficial.

The upper part of the trail was a much more difficult and Kris, Darrin and I had to do a lot of scrambling.  I did find the upper falls and we sat at the base of it which was at the top of the middle falls.  The lower and middle falls had similar shapes and looked like big slides.  After a few minutes, we headed back down the slope and met up with Jason H and Natalie and then headed back down to camp.  This canyon is a beautiful canyon and what makes it unique is the obstacles that you have to negiotiate due to numerous flash floods.  I'm sure it changes just about every year.

We arrived back at camp at 6:00 p.m., had dinner and most were in bed by 9:45.

7 Miles, 5.5 hours, ~ 2849 Calories burned

12/10/2011,  Wednesday - Hop Valley & Northgate
Today the real hiking begins.  We hike from here to the Northgate Trail 12.8 miles away where we'll spend the night.

I got up this morning at 6:30 and had a breakfast of hot chocolate and poptarts followed by a bottle of instant breakfast made with morning moo.  We left the camp at 8:30 and hit the junction at 8:45.  From the junction, our trail turned South and up a significant hill.  The Hob Valley is a nice peaceful valley with a stream meandering thru the middle of it.  We crossed the stream several times as we worked our way south.  Finally the stream petered out and we started climbing out of the valley.  At the top of the ridge, we stopped for lunch in some shade and were passed by several other hikers headed toward LaVerkin Creek.  Our lunch site was about 1 mile from the Kolob Reservoir road.  We crossed the road and started the Connector trail which will take us to Wildcat Canyon and our campsite on the Northgate trail.

About 1 mile passed the road, the Fowers and I stopped and pumped some water out of a very small stream.  We then started climbing the last big hill on the Connector trail.  I was leading as we were going up this hill and had my head down just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other.  I was a bit startled when I saw a pair of boots off the side of thre trail.  A older guy was standing there waiting for me to come up.  I stopped and talked with him for a few minutes and found out that he didn't know exactly where he was.  His GPS wasn't working and he had no food or water.  The rest of my group caught up and  we told him where he was and figured out where he needed to go.  He had missed his trail junction and had to choices.  Continue the direction he was going and then hike back up the road or go back to the junction, the same direction we were headed, and then get back on the right trail.  This second route was shorter and so he hiked with us to the junction and then he took the fork that would lead him back to his vehicle.  It was the shorter route and where he didn't have any food or water with him, it was a decision I felt more comfortable with.

We continued on the Wildcat trail for just a short distance and then took the Northgate trail to the south.  There isn't a defined camping spot and so we didn't know exactly what to look for.  We ended up hiking to the very end of the trail (about 1 mile) and then turning around and hiking almost all the way back to the junction.

At 5:00 p.m. we found a site overlooking a valley and pitched our tents.  There isn't any water at this location, but according to my notes, there is water in the area.  So Darrin, Jason and I gathered up water bottles and started looking around.  I went back to the junction and headed East.  AFter about 35 minutes, I found a
stream and filled up all the jugs I had.  Darrin and Jason also fund water, but there's came out of a mudhole, so I think mine was the better choice, but either way, at least we had water to drink and cook with.

I got back t camp about 6:45 just a few minutes before dark and started unpacking and getting dinner.  The lasagne was good and I was pretty hungry.  It was a long day and though the point to point distance was 12.8 miles, I figure that I put on at least 17 miles with the extra hour of hiking to get water that I made and the extra
2.2 miles to the end of Northgate trail.

17 miles, 9.0 hours, 4530 calories burned

13/10/2011, Thursday - Northgate to Potato Hollow
I was up again at 6:30.  For some reason, that is all the sleep that Ambien will allow.  We left this morning at 8:20 and hiked for 40 minutes and then stopped for 40 minutes to pump water at the same place that I pumped last night.  We then went for another hour and stopped for 15 minutes and then stopped again for 40 minutes while I fixed my feet.  I think my socks are trapping to much moisture and my skin is getting soft from being damp.  After fixing my feet, we continued on and arrived at Lava Point at 12:10 and stopped for lunch at 1300.  Jason was a long ways ahead of us and so he wasn't with us for lunch.  We found out that he stopped at 13:10 for his lunch.  We met up again at 13:47 and hiked as a group for the next few miles until we reached our campsite at Potato Hollow.  We made a few stops for pictures as there was some unique scenery including a burned over area that left a bunch of burned our trees standing.  It was a great hike and lots of solitude.

Once we got to Potato Hollow we set up camp and Jason and Celsius (our new name for Natalie because she was always wearing hot pink, hot purple outfits) went exploring.  They found this neat little grotto area with waterfalls and ferns.  It made the whole days hike worthwhile.  They came back and told the rest of us about their discovery and we all went to take a look.  There was a lot of water in the area and so we made use of the facilities and cleaned up a bit.  It was nice to wash some of the dirt and sweat off.  My meals today included hot chocolate, pop tarts, morning moo and instant breakfast, Jerky, trail mix, lots of gaterade, tuna and crackers, chips, mango, top ramen soup.  I also finished of my first red bottle of fuel.  For Dinner I had 2 servings of dehydrated terriyaki chicken and rice and 2 cups of hot apple cider.

Once it got dark, we had four deer come visit us in our campsite.

10.2 Miles, 4.5 hours, 2718 Calories burned

14/10/2011, Friday - Potato Hollow, Angels Landing & Grotto
This is our last day of hiking.  Our path will take us to Angels Landing and then down to the Virgin River at the Grotto.

We got up at 6:30 again and got rolling.  I had my breafast of hot chocolate and morning moo with instant breakfast and poptarts.  I need to figure out something other than poptarts, but oatmeal is definitely not a good alternative.  My heels look pretty bad this morning.  I decided to keep them bandaged, but only wear 1 light weight liner socks.  I left the camp at 8:12 and stopped when I got back to the main trail because my heels hurt so bad.  The other caught up to me at the main trail and behind the bunch of us, we figured out a way to doctor my feet.  I ended up putting feminine pads around my heels which helped keep the pressure off and then I put on the liners and the heavy socks.  It helped to a degree, but they are still pretty sore.  We then proceeded up the hill and made our first real stop at 9:40 and started up again at 10 and went for another hour.  We stopped at 11 and then again at the 2nd telephone junction trailhead.  We then pressed on 2 Angels Landing.  I was definitely the slow guy today because every step was painful.  I arrived at Scouts Lookout @ 12:50 a took a 10 minute break.  The others had beat me down my a considerable about of time.  Jason was there before 12:30.  I changed out of my boots and put my Keens on and the group of us climbed Angels Landing.

The climb up to the landing was pretty fast.  There were not nearly as many people as there were in August.  We stayed on top for only about 10 minutes and then headed back down.  Once at the Landing, I changed back into my boots and headed back down at 2:15.  I arrived at the bottom at 3 p.m.  Jason was already there and the others showed up a few minutes after me.  After getting some water, we boarded the shuttle and headed back down to park central.  We arrived at the visitors center just before 5 and Jason and Darrin took off immediately to complete the shuttle.  Darrin's truck was still at Lee's Pass and so I said goodbye to Jason and they were gone.

The girls and I went to the Visitors Center and looked around and then caught the town bus and rode over to the Quality Inn Campground to take showers.  While Changing, I discovered that I had lost my Kodak Camera.  I new I had it at the bottom before I got on the bus, so after showering, I told Kris that I had lost my camera and was going back to the visitor's center to see if it had been turned in.  I walked all the way back and made it just before they closed.  Fortunately the bus driver had found it and turned it in.  AFter signing for it, I made the walk back to the Quality Inn and arrived at 6:10.  Darin had just arrived and was showering.  As soon as he was done, we loaded up and departed for dinner and gas in Cedar City.  We had a nice dinner at Chili's and left Cedar at 9 p.m. and arrived home at 1 p.m.

10.3 Miles, 4.0 hours, 2257 Calories burned

Trip Totals:  Miles = 50.5;  Hiking Time = 25.5; Calories burned = 13864