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| Backpack | 55.00 Miles |
1,000 AEG |
| | Backpack | 55.00 Miles | 5 Days | | |
| 1,000 ft AEG | | 44 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | What a trip! It started on the 21st picking up Alex aka big_load from the airport and off we went. My mother in law told my wife I was in essence picking up a hitch hiker from the airport. Fortunately, he is much less scary than his mean looking avatar.  Picked up sandwiches from the Safeway and got gas in Flag. and headed towards Mexican Hat and the Valley of the Gods where we would rendevous with other HAZ strangers for the first night camp before heading to the Kane Gulch Ranger station.
Note to self properly mark bottles of similar liquids. Brought my last real meal (homemade pizza on the jetboil) for dinner. Thank goodness I brought enough for two pizzas 'cause I accidently used Dr. Bronners Peppermint Castille instead of Olive Oil on the first one.  Did try it, but decided the risk before 5 days in the Grand Gulch primitive area would be too great. 
We checked on the water situation which we were told was great from Collins to Kane and watched the video and waited for our shuttle... and waited... Finally, the man showed up and commented on his lateness and we loaded up and were on our way. We managed to pick up another stranger to share the ride with us and we were off. The driver then started commenting on how the brakes were just done and the back wheel axle area was making a bad noise and trying to call his company with the patchy cell service that he may need someone to come and pick us up. We stopped so the wheel could be checked and the driver proceeded to relieve himself on the side of the road before driving us to our destination. The scenery was great, temps were warm with a late start, but manageable. I believe we stopped the first night at a camp by Bannnister ruins. Water was not nearly as plentiful as we were led to believe. My filter was the first to die. The element in my filter has a plastic lid connected to the ceramic filter which seals the unit unfortunately a liter into pumping it broke. Everyone else brought a filter as well and one by one they all died with the exception of Alex's. On this first day of pumping Jay's started slowing down as well as Dan's.
Only injuries that day I believe was Paul following me up a wrong route (Sorry) and sliding back down the steep sandstone unfortunately not completely on his feet. Hopefully he will provide the exact quote in his triplog as well as pictures. I was told he accurately saw into his future and provided a prediction of the outcome just before succumbing to gravity and adding a rash to numerous appendages. Day two I got stung by a bee on the forehead as I was exploring while the others were checking out a granary confirming once again that hornets are my only nemesis.
Checked out the Bannister Ruin and climbed up on a ledge and crawled on hands and knees to get a different perspective for pictures. After that each day went kind of the same. We marched along until we spotted either an expected or unexpected dwelling or pictograph. Dropped packs hiked up to explore or take a nap and then set off to find water and make it to another camp site.
This was my first trip using exclusively a hammock. I brought a bivy instead of a sleeping bag to save weight in case I couldn't find a place to hang. Should have brought the sleeping bag instead as the bivy was too warm to start out and I would work up a sweat before it cooled off at 2-3 am. I had to make adjustments and definitely learned a few things for next time. The trees were much larger than expected and I had to use the climbing rope I brought to hang my food at a couple of sites to get around the trees. Next time longer straps. I stayed completely dry on the night we got pummelled with rain. I had one night where I opted to stay under the bivy and woke up shivering, but in general found it to be more comfortable than sleeping on the ground.
The water situation became an issue for part of the trip and on day 4 with Alex's filter being he only functional one he spent a good couple of hours filtering to keep us hydrated. Thanks Alex.
We camped below Bannister ruins, Big Man Panel, The junction of Bullet canyon, and I believe Split Level Ruin before finishing our trip on day 5.
I found on day five that the reason I was emptying a large amount of sand from my left shoe on each stop was that I blew a seam on the big toe of my VFF, but this was easily remedied with some duct tape. After hiking the last couple miles to Kane Gulch Ranger station (which smelled more like my Grandma's Farm) than the sage infused lower canyon we made our way to our cars. Checked in chatted and said our goodbye's. Headed to Flag. with Alex where we planned to get gas and food. Got that gas light on the way and thought no problem plenty of gas to get to Flagstaff. I didn't see the first gas station and about a hundred yards from the next going up a steep hill the truck sputtered and stopped.  Meanwhile Alex informs me there is a gas station we passed and inquired as to whether we can turn and coast back to the gas station. Fortunately, the truck started and ran long enough to get there and fill up. We headed to what I thought was Beaver Street Brewery and when we got into the parking lot realized it wasn't Beaver Street. Ate at the Lumberyard Brewery which was pretty good and headed back to Phoenix. One of the better trips in recent memory. Good meeting Alex, Paul, Dan, and Jay. Had a great time. Look forward to getting back there in the future and exploring other areas. 
Mileage on the gps came out to 49. Did a majority of exploring without pack and added a conservative number of miles. Was not able to sync the track with the fast sync despite cleaning up the track because of an error message and the usgs said it would take an unGodly amount of time for 5000+ points. Will adjust mileage and AEG when the others post. Have a decent gps track if I can get some help resolving the error message. 
http://youtu.be/UZzjL248zrk |
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