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| Backpack | 33.20 Miles |
3,889 AEG |
| | Backpack | 33.20 Miles | 1 Day 2 Hrs 52 Mns | | |
| 3,889 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | A couple weeks ago a friend reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in going to Cape Solitude, and I said, of course. I hadn't ever done any serious dry camping, but I figured it's just like wet camping, but with a heavier pack...
Saturday
Started out with 6L total water, but figured I wouldn't need that much since it wasn't going to be very hot. Relatively uneventful for the first 4.5 miles or so, then we dropped out packs for a side excursion to Comanche Point. Armed with my phone, GPS/topo, about 16oz of Nuun and absolutely zero research on the route (on my part at least), we headed out. I figured there were two possibilities: head up the ridge to the north and drop down to the drainage, or take the road towards the drainage and drop down where it's shallower. I suggested the latter since I had no clue how steep the drainage would be. The actual climb up Comanche Point was steep at first but very straightforward, with no real scrambling required. The side trip was extremely worthwhile, with Comanche Point being one of the more interesting views along the rim that I've experienced. It was a new perspective on the canyon, and I really appreciated the sheer amount of red in the area below.
We took the other route back to our packs, as the climb back up to the ridge looked easy once we saw it, and I'd agree with others who would suggest this is the preferred route. If I had a do-over, I'd have dropped the packs at the start of the climb at the point, and then followed the drainage all the way down to reconnect with the Cape Solitude trail at the Navajo Nation boundary.
After returning to the packs, we hiked a couple more miles and dropped some water under some juniper trees, which were few and far between the rest of the way. The 2nd half of the hike out to Cape Solitude is mostly flat and desolate, but also easier walking. We found a few juniper trees a quarter of a mile from Cape Solitude and decided to camp there, so we dropped our packs and wandered the rest of the way to enjoy the sunset at the overlook. What a sunset it was!
Went back to camp and got my tent set up in the last throes of twilight, and made dinner in the dark. As we were settling in, it started sprinkling, and soon after the wind gusts picked up. This kinda put the kibosh on any real evening socializing for me, as I was a little worried my tent would blow away. After ~4 sleepless hours, I had the crazy idea to actually take off the rain fly on my tent so as to make it less sail-like, and this actually worked, with the tradeoff being less heat retention.
Sunday
Got everything packed up and ready to go by 7:30am or so. Just before setting off, I saw some mud under my pack, and the bite valve on my bladder detached, and learned that I had accidentally dumped a liter of water. Fortunately I had a half liter left in a bottle (although there was plenty to spare in the group), so it really just meant that my pack was a liter lighter. But on a different day a silly mistake like this could be catastrophic...
The hike back was uneventful, slightly grueling, and we managed it in a little under 5 hours.
Overall it was a great little trip, although I'm not really in a hurry to go back to Cape Solitude. The camping isn't great and the hike there isn't super scenic. Honestly I thought Comanche Point was more interesting, and I'm really glad our trip leader had that on the itinerary. |
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