Friday June 9, 21.8mi/35.1km
Squirrel Creek (NA/5480ft) to Above E Fork Virgin River (797.0/4800ft) (UT) +2.1mi GPS correction
I slept in and left camp at 7:30. I still had some uphill hiking to do to finish the climb out of Squirrel Canyon. Surprisingly I was hiking in a green tunnel for a little while!
Once I climbed out of Squirrel Canyon, the views opened up and I was hiking on sandy roads for most of the day.
There was even some water flowing in Birch Creek!
Occasionally I got to hike on some slickrock that would appear randomly. It’s been awhile since I had hiked on some slickrock!
The sandy roads continued all morning, and often the sand was soft and deep which was very slow hiking.
When I found some shade under a Juniper tree I stopped and had lunch. It was my last lunch on the Hayduke since I will finish tomorrow morning!
I turned around while eating my wrap and saw this thriving cactus. Springtime in the desert is so colorful.
I continued on down the trail/road, and after an hour I entered the Parunuweap Canyon Wilderness. Cool! Parunuweap is a Paiute word meaning “roaring water canyon.”
Finally at 3pm the road walking ended, and I started my steep descent into the Parunuweap Canyon.
I went steeply down some slickrock and talus…
… And within a quarter mile I was standing in the East Fork Virgin River.
For the next five miles I got to hike down this amazing canyon.
I mostly hiked in the river, but occasionally there were little herd paths next to it.
I had to pay attention on some of the herd paths, since this evil plant was growing next to it.
After awhile the Canyon became a narrows.
I definitely had to walk in the river here!
This would definitely be a bad place to be stuck during a flash flood. Probably the reason nobody hikes these narrow canyons during the summer monsoon season.
After four miles I came to an obstacle with a few boulders and some driftwood choking off the canyon. Hmmm…
It took me quite awhile to solve that puzzle since none of the three options (downclimbing, swimming, jumping in water of unknown depth) looked pleasant.
I waterproofed my backpack and prepared to swim, but once I got closer I didn’t like how narrow the chute was. So I played to my strengths, and carefully downclimbed the large boulder, and lowered myself into crotch-deep water. With part 1 of the obstacle completed, I now had to figure out part 2, which came just a minute later…a small waterfall! Fortunately I found a very small cave/tunnel in the left canyon wall, and I was able to bypass the waterfalls.
The waterfalls, as seen from just downstream where the tunnel emerged from the boulders:
Solving those puzzles took me an hour, and by now it was 7pm. I quickly hiked the rest of the Canyon in 20 minutes and got to the exit point, which was called “Fat man’s misery”. It started as a steep climb of a talus field, with a bunch of poison ivy to avoid.
The namesake feature of the climb was this little tunnel between boulders. I had to take off my backpack to fit through, and even then…. it felt squeezy.
After emerging through a hole in the boulders, I felt thoroughly scraped up, wet, full of sand, and tired.
But I was done for the day! And I had a great view down to the East Fork Virgin River (& Parunuweap Canyon) where I had just been hiking.
It was my last night camping on the Hayduke, and I had an amazing little camping spot.
What a surprisingly long day! Usually dirt roads are easy but these were slow and sandy, and the Parunuweap Canyon was amazing but also slow due to the tricky spots. The Hayduke kept the adventure coming, right up to the last minute! I will finish tomorrow morning after hiking what should be a quick 4 miles to the road.