Zion 2024 – Segment 3
November 17, 2024 § Leave a comment
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This post will over the last 2 days of our Transverse of the Zion Wilderness. If you have been following along, you will know that we are camped on the East side of West Rim mesa/plateau at what is probably one of the best sites in all the National Parks. It is Jed, Paul, Jim and myself, minus Mike who is hanging out in Vegas, we awake early, around 6:30 to get up and see what the sunrise brings us this day. We are in Mountain Time, on the West edge of that timezone, so Sunrise is about 7:21 with first light appearing at least 30 minutes prior. When I emerged from my tent there was the hint of a glow on the Eastern horizon. I grabbed my chair and moved down to the trail junction where we had a clear view. Unfortunately the sky was clear which meant that there would not be any colored clouds, and it would just be a clear sunrise. Anyone who chases Sunrises or Sundowns knows that the best versions involve clouds. We ventured from our viewing site looking for other opportunities I believe Jim got a Raven to pose for him a wee bit down The Grotto trail.
« Read the rest of this entry »Zion 2024 – Segment 2
November 10, 2024 § Leave a comment
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The second segment of our Zion traverse includes what I have called Death March 1, and Death March 2 based on how I felt at the end of each of those two days, which was exhausted. Just to be clear, this is not like a Solzhenitsyn march where you know from the start what kind of day it will be, but rather each day began just like any other day when you backpack and have to move camp pretty far along the trail. Don’t sleep in; Pack your sleeping bag, and deflate and stow your air pad before you exit the tent; Breakfast on oatmeal, and coffee drinks, water up, and pack the rest of the things; Groan while raise the potential energy of the pack, and start walking, a smile on your face, and nothing but happy “What will today bring?” expectations ahead.
We compared “steps” at the end of each day, where Jed and Jim were scoring around 3-4 thousand more steps than me, who marks out a fairly decent stride. More, when I go up hill. The two “Death March” days were 24,951 and 28,985 steps, and I still backpack in fairly traditional leather boots made by Zamberland (“Zambies”) that weigh in around 4 pounds so 2 pounds per foot. Jed and Jim wear something more like trail shoes that are a lot lighter. Mike is also more traditional, and I can’t remember what Paul was wearing. I think you see where I am going here. Each step moves that 2lb boot further along the trail, and as they add up, fatigue starts to set in, so that by the end of the day, you just want to get those damned heavy-assed boots off your feet and let those feetsies recover.
« Read the rest of this entry »Zion 2024 – Segment 1
November 6, 2024 § Leave a comment
The Grand Escalante Staircase. I am sure that most people have heard of it, but I am not really sure that most people understand what it means. Yes, its an area of the country, mostly in Utah, but it has importance in Geology terms when it comes to the age of rock. Now, though there are people that would like you to believe that the Bible has dictated the age of Planet Earth, the fact it is that it is much older. Orders of magnitude older. Bible Age is 103 and actual age is 109, but we are only talking about the last 120 million years. Over that time frame, the undersea plain that had collected 100’s of millions of years of various sediment layers began to be pushed upward, and over the course of time, rose out of the water, and continued its ascent as a flat plain, however once it was above the level of the sea, it began the process of erosion. In Physical terms, it was probably very light at first. The potential for erosion is dependent on the number of feet above sea level, so not a lot of erosion at first, but of course, the uplift continued. Today Bryce Canyon sits at 9000′ above sea level. That is more than 1 and 1/2 miles. Water boils at 193 degrees at 9K instead of 212 at sea level.
« Read the rest of this entry »Zion 2024 – It isn’t 2011
November 3, 2024 § Leave a comment
The last time I went to Zion National Park was to do the Trans Zion Trek. Not the entire trek, as few people ever do the Eastern portion. It was one year after I joined my Brother-in-law Walt E for a 4 day Grand Canyon adventure that I joined him and his friends in Zion for a truly wonderful 4 days in early May 2011. I didn’t own a digital camera then, and I recall borrowing one from Ed who, for some reason, brought 2. In those days you applied directly with the park staff for permits, and the permit process was pretty simple. You submitted a request with your dates, group size, and preferred campsites as most of Zion had fixed campsites and only 1 at-large area. I think the queue was FCFS, and if the sites were available, then you got your first pick, if they weren’t, then they’d suggest alternatives, and give you a day to respond.
Today it is a wee bit different. First of all, almost everything in Zion requires a permit now, especially the famous Angel’s Landing. A certain number of sites were opened to long term planning back in March, which is when I would have had to apply to get both the back country permits as well as an Angel’s Landing permit, but I didn’t get the date straight (again) and was left with the second option which was to be ready at 2AM Mountain Time on September 5th to see if I could get a permit for up to 12. I was staying in Bend, OR with D2 and her husband Will, and you may recall my adventures in the Three Sisters the previous weekend, so I was an hour behind, and I set an alarm for 12:50 am.
« Read the rest of this entry »The High Uintas 2023
September 10, 2023 § Leave a comment
Host: “Welcome to the show everyone, I want to thank you all for tuning in we have a very special guest tonight but more on that in a bit. Let’s first give a shout out to our sponsors, Preparation H, cause when you need a friend, well that is all the help you are going to get. And now, let’s welcome our guest tonight, some of you know who he is already, but our guest flies way under the radar, and he has just returned from another (self – described) miracle in the wilderness, everyone give it up for a very special guest, Eric Hallander.”
[Crowd is clapping, could be a wee bit more boisterous and louder]
Eric: “Thank you, thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here tonight with such a welcoming audience. Thank you. You are all too kind. Thank you.”
Host: “That is quite a welcome you got there. It appears you might have a following. Ha!.”
Eric: “Well, it is hard to self-promote, but I give it a go, you know. Put meself out there as they say.”
High Uintas Wilderness – Day 7 – Final Day
November 1, 2014 § Leave a comment
Our last morning began with the usual queuing for the cat-hole trowel. I was first (as was getting to be normal) and afterwards I grabbed my fly rod and headed down to the pond for one last native trout fishing experience. Forgotten was it that my one week license was purchased through Friday, and that technically I would be fishing illegally, but as they say, ignorance is in fact bliss. I fished the edge for a while until Larry abandoned The Point and then I took up his former location as this was a prime location. I was still fishing the dry cadis, but the morning felt different and I was pretty sure I had the wrong fly. A few casts, and I was about time to hang it up, when a fish took my fly and I managed to set the hook in time. It would be fair to note here that it took me more than a few tries the previous evening to get the hang of “setting the hook”. I could feel immediately that this was no small fry, so I pulled him in and as it turned out he was just barely legal. I was fishing for fun, so catch and release was the name of the game, and after Larry helped me extract the hook, I placed him back in the water and off it swam.
The fire ring, my poles, no one else, just me. The sun on the young Aspens, they will not survive, the Beaver will make a snack of them soon one day.
High Uintas Wilderness – Day 6 – Fishing with Andy
October 22, 2014 § Leave a comment
My initial focus this morning was what I could see. Facing south because I like to sleep on my right side, my view was open as that was the direction I had set my Tyvek shelter the previous night. In those first moments of consciousness I couldn’t help notice the clouds; The dark clouds; While coming into focus they appeared to be coming our way up the basin. “Rohr Oh” were the only words I could mutter and I jumped out of my sleeping bag with definite purpose. If a storm was coming, then I needed to re-orient my shelter away from the wind. I quickly stiffed my bag, and rolled up my sleeping pad. I decided to take another look. Maybe the clouds weren’t heading right for us. Maybe they were moving right to left across my field of view. Maybe I jumped to the wrong initial conclusion.
HDR shot in the early morning. Though ominous looking they looked worse when I first awoke.
High Uintas Wilderness – Day 5 – And it was only 4 miles
October 20, 2014 § Leave a comment
The day would prove to be a lot more challenging than the 4-ish miles we calculated we had to travel. On paper it seemed like it might be an easy day. Eighth mile return to the H55 trail, and then 3.5 miles to and over Bluebell. We had studied the lake documentation and we decided to camp on X25, one of the unnamed lakes without camping restrictions, and we hoped some native cut-throat trout. 🙂
First one up and went for an 8 shot panorama where clearly the exposure changes dramatically from East to West this time of day.
High Uintas Wilderness – Day 4 – Unexpected Pleasures
October 17, 2014 § Leave a comment
Day 4 is upon us. We will be moving camp from our current elevation, back down the Yellowstone, and then up the Bluebell Pass trail to Milk Lake. The net change in elevation will be almost +300′, but we need to lose 600′, and then gain back the 900′. We will be covering some of the same ground that we did on Day 2, however, we will hang a left when we get to the first trail junction. The hike back will have us recross the Yellowstone again, and we will have also to recross Milk Creek, which was a little dodgy the first time. Once we make the left onto Bluebell though, the terrain changes from a long valley walk, to a hill climb. The map indicates switchbacks, but there isn’t anything written which says how many, and how long they last. Reading the map says, there is about 1.2 miles of initial switchbacks, and then it levels off for a bit, re-connects with Milk Creek, and then ascends a little more mildly to the trail junction with Milk Lake. There, a spur will climb the final stretch to the lake where we will commence the search for a fire ring.
Larry Butler in his black attire: Pearl Izumi Cycling tights Moutain Hardware down vest REI Knit Cap Some kind of running shoe Star Bucks Via
High Uintas WIlderness – Day 3 – The roof of Utah
October 16, 2014 § Leave a comment
“Them mountains are mean!!”
I don’t really recall where that statement comes from. It might be from a weekend trip a long time back in West Virginia, but there is a certain wiseness to the statement. Mountains can be mean, because weather can form quickly. The higher the mountain, the more air it traps, and forces upwards where it is cooler, and the moisture begins to precipitate out, forming clouds, and later rain and lightening.
This is actually from the afternoon previous just after we got camp set up, but it shows our camp site from which we departed. The reason I know this is because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky when we began this day hike. Absolutely beautiful wide open blue sky o’er our heads.
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