Day 5

Hike 5 miles through Bullet Canyon. Saw incredible ancestral Puebloan ruins and sat in a perfectly preserved Kiva. Camped again at the rincon.

Day 4

Hike about 7 miles down Grand Gulch. Make camp in the rincon. Drink a shitload of puddle water with electrolyte powder.

 

Day 3

Hike about 2.5 miles down Grand Gulch. Make camp at the convergence of Grand Gulch and Todie Canyon.

Photos taken by Jono, Liz, Carrie and me.

 

Day 2

Drive from camp to the Kane Gulch Ranger Station. Hike 4 miles or so down Kane Gulch. Make camp right in front of some incredible Ancestral Puebloan ruins.

Day 1

Drive to Outward Bound’s headquarters in Moab. Get all the gear settled and embark via van toward our first campsite. Stop along the way for a quick hike to the top of Salvation Knoll, then make camp on some slickrock somewhere.

Day 0

Arrive in Grand Junction, CO.

The Route

Okay, so it turns out that it’s pretty difficult to keep up with a blog.

I thought I would write a lot more during this trip, but I spent most of my downtime drawing, eating, or just enjoying not having to do anything. I’ve never been more grateful for lightweight shoes and electrolyte powder.

Over 5 days, we traveled about 24 miles on foot. I think the day that most tested my strength was day 3: hiking over seven miles from Todie Canyon to the rincon. That distance in the hot sun with a 70 lb. pack pushed me to my physical max. Interestingly though, I remember it as one of the best days of the entire trip.

Here’s a map of our route.

 

Countdown to Utah…

The adventure begins in t-minus 35 hours.

7:00AM ET Saturday and I’ll be off to Grand Junction CO, stress-chewing gum on my first flight ever and thinking about how it’s going to feel to disconnect from the world for a week. (Ironically, my plan is to take everything I write in my travel sketchbook and digitize it on this blog…) Anyway, after a brief, 4 hour drive from G-Junc, I’ll be in Bears Ears.

This is pretty cool: bearsears.patagonia.com