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| Backpack | 55.00 Miles |
6,000 AEG |
| | Backpack | 55.00 Miles | 5 Days | | |
| 6,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I made a new friend for this hike and we got along pretty well. He has spent a lot of time wandering around the Kanab Creek Wilderness and took the time to show me some interesting prehistoric sites. We also avoided having to mess with the new GRCA permit system here, which is not something I look forward to.
We started before noon on Tuesday and saw several cows on our way down Hack Canyon. It wasn't apparent to me until the return to Hack, but the cattle really have trashed the place. Dust, cow pies, trampled terraces, and invasive vegetation - including one nasty spiky thing - wherever they've been. Thank goodness there isn't more grazing than this in Kanab, but I wish they wouldn't permit it in Hack.
I had a better time once we were into the Supai. The sandstone invites scrambling but a heavy pack held me back. We exited the creekbed on the Lawson Trail, which still has some nice construction showing, and then I was having a really good time in the winter sun surrounded by Esplanade mushroom rocks. We camped at some reliable potholes just shy of Jumpup Point, but water was available everywhere after the recent storm. Given the cold weather, I carried my bulky 20 degree bag, 30 degree quilt, and tent. A few pounds more than I normally schlep, but I was cozy for each of these long nights when temps dipped into the 20s. Except for one day, we had early sun to coax us out each morning.
On Wednesday we continued contouring around Jumpup Point. I'm less familiar with Esplanade contouring than Tonto, and I found it a little harder to orient myself when the trail followed Hermit slopes around deep but near-indistinguishable gashes in the sandstone. Unlike Tonto, I think progress may be better monitored by watching one's position with respect to the rim, rather than the side canyon. I would love to set up a base camp to visit those Esplanade terraces and scramble through the ravines.
We hiked down Sowats Canyon, where we found icicles at the springs and pools of water had frozen into beautiful white ice with concentric rings. We only had to take care in a few places not to slip. When we reached our camp I hiked up Kwagunt Hollow to collect water. After seeing several small potholes frozen solid, I bashed a rock through an inch of ice on a deeper one and was able to extract some cloudy water. We decided to exchange this for liquid water retrieved from a short ways up Jumpup later.
It snowed in the early hours of Thursday morning and stopped soon after sunrise. This was actually the warmest night, staying about 30 degrees. Even though we didn't have direct sun, it wasn't too uncomfortable to pack up quickly and start down into the Jumpup Narrows. Below Indian Hollow I was on familiar ground for a short while, until we resumed our hike back upstream in Kanab. We made a short detour into the bottom of "Crack Baby", which is impressively narrow. At the mouth of Flipoff we paused in a patch of sun. There is a mark (maybe a cattle brand?) on the rock here, which looks like a backwards 4 underlined.
Flipoff presented some fun obstacles and I enjoyed the sections with lots of slabby Supai bedrock. There are a good amount of cottonwood trees and I think it would be a nice place to visit when they have leaves. We made camp shortly after reaching the Esplanade and had an early night, chilled by a persistent breeze off the rim.
Friday morning was spent exploring the Esplanade near our camp with day packs. There was an old salt block near our camp. We finally packed up around noon and continued contouring around Chamberlain Canyon, again making a camp near a point of Esplanade which received lots of sun. The frequent potholes were a boon because I only carried one liter at a time while hiking and we never had to worry about dry camping, no matter where we stopped.
We followed the Esplanade into Hack on Saturday, reaching the car around 1pm. After all the sandstone terraces and potholes of the previous days, the return through cattle dust felt unpleasant and tedious. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
We ran into a couple on our way out and they asked about the ladder...we had completely forgotten about reading that previously. Oh well. Guess we will have to go back! I'm not sure where people usually camp near Lower Jumpup Spring but we camped on the flattest slab of rock we could find. It was either thick brush or rock. The rock would've been fine but it was so so windy & there was little to secure our tents to. We ended up using rocks to tie down the tents. They were very noisy though. Also, it got HOT. I am always cold and this is possibly the first time I can remember just laying in my tent sweating - no sleeping bag, no clothes, no nothing. It was really strange especially since it had not been that hot during the day. 
