If I had the Strength of a Pioneer! & Buckskin Gulch

Last Sunday my father-in-law invited me to go on a hiking trip with him and some of his family. He was going to leave on Friday and mentioned that since I didn't have a job I already had the time off. I agreed to go wondering if I was crazy. Oh I forgot to mention this hike is about 20 miles.

We left for Kanab, UT to stay the night and start out hike early Saturday morning. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to do our hike with all the government shutdowns and what not. This hike is called Buckskin Gulch and is part of the Escalante National Monument, even though it was seemed it would not work out we decided to meet in Kanab and if it didn't open up then we would hike somewhere around Kanab. Fortunately it opened up and we were able to do the hike (not that there were barricades or anything to stop us).

The hike was BEAUTIFUL! I'll post pictures as soon as I get some from my father in law. The first 13 miles are mostly slot canyons. There are parts that open up and there are little grassy/weedy sand bars. There were muddy puddles that we had to wade through and hope we didn't lose our shoes in the mud. There isn't much elevation change, except when you have to climb rocks. There are some parts that you have to find your way around, over, or under gargantuan boulders. The formations that the canyon walls make are amazing, sometimes they appear to be straight up and down while others times they are wavy and bubbly looking. After the 13 miles you have to wade up river for a little bit and then the trail ends up going from one side of the canyon to the other. Our group kept track and we crossed water 150 times within out 20 mile hike.

It was kind of funny, I could estimate how far we had gone based on the things that started hurting. Since I have done half marathons (13.1 miles) I knew which of my body parts start aching at certain times. About 10 miles my knees started hurting. It's just a little spot on the outside and below the knee cap. They always ache at that point and certainly after the race. Once my knees started hurting I knew we were close to the end of the slot canyons and I ended up being right.

The water was a little chilly and we were burning daylight. The way my feet are built the bottom of my pinky toes tilt in towards my "ring" toe so I often get blisters where they are squished and rubbed by my "ring" toe. I tried to help that with moleskin. With 20/20 hindsight it was pointless to put on moleskin before spending 7 miles walking in and out of water, but it helped for a little bit. Once we crossed the river a ton of times and with the water being the temperature it was my feet were slightly numb so any pain on my feet didn't bother me much. My only problem now was my knees. Both knees hurt but my right one hurt much worse than my left. As we trekked on the sun started setting, my right hip joined the painful club. It hurt to walk on land and it hurt worse to walk through the water. There was nothing I could do, I had already taken all the ibuprofen that is allowed according to the bottle directions. The only relief was to stop and stopping meant the trek would last longer so I forged ahead, bit my lip when it got really bad and held back my tears. I was going to make it through.

I wasn't the only one hobbling along, thankfully, my father in law had some pain in his foot so he needed the pair of hiking poles we had, that I had been using. My aunt (in-law?) was having her lower back tighten up with made it hard for her to lift up her legs. It got to point were I would tell my leg to lift so it could clear this rock that was sticking 2 inches up from the ground and it lifted up only about a 1/2 inch. That was kind of scary only cause I've never had an experience where my body didn't do what my brain was telling it to do.

As the sun disappeared behind the mountains, we were still in good spirits, however they seemed to fade as the sun faded. Once it was dark it seemed to make the trip harder. We couldn't clearly see where we were going and we had to make sure we were staying near the river. Each bend of the river we hoped would reveal the end of our hike. Part of our group went ahead to get the cars. They marked the place were we needed to get off the trail with a flashlight and a glow stick. I have never been so happy to see a glow stick in my life.

I am glad that I did it, and survived it. Will I do it again? I am not sure at this point. I am still healing. Most of my muscles are fine now, I can walk up the stairs like the average human being. My biggest pain now is one of my little pinky toes. I think if I were to do it again, I would go the other way. Start with most of the water wading and finish in the slot canyons. That way I could wear one pair of shows that get supper wet and muddy. Once I got to the convergence I would switch to another pair of shoes and socks so they can be dry for the rest of the hike. Well most of it, we went through water 9 times in the slot canyon and I am sure that number changes with each year.

After this hike I have a whole new appreciation for pioneers. I did a trek when I was in young women's. We had to wear pioneer dresses, aprons, bonnets, and used handcarts to haul our stuff. That was kind of tough. We were out for 3 days and I don't think the total number of miles we went was more than 13. For me I know it wasn't because I got some beastly blisters and they wouldn't let me walk on the hardest longest day. But to go 20 miles in one day I was done and to think they would do that, go to bed, wake up and do it again the next day, some without shoes! Props to the pioneers.