In the Beginning...
Hayduke Lives! It’s been a bumper sticker, a book, an idea. But now Hayduke really does live on; a symbol of the passion some have for America’s southwestern deserts has been brought back to present a chance for a view into the soul of the exquisite region known as the Colorado Plateau.
Hiking Willis Narrows on the Colorado Plateau Trail in 2000...
Seven years in the works, the Hayduke Trail is about to have its inaugural passage. Beginning on the Vernal Equinox, or March 20, Joe Mitchell and I (Mike Coronella) will head out with the intention to become the first end-to-end travelers of the Hayduke Trail. Stretching 812 miles across some of the most visually stunning land on the planet, this primitive backcountry route was “designed” around existing trails, paths, drainages and roads to provide reasonable access to water sources while experiencing the full range of terrain this land has to offer. We wrote a guidebook to the trail that will be available in March (’05) from the University of Utah Press.
The Hayduke Trail is a byproduct of our desire to illustrate and publicize the continuing damage that is being inflicted upon our public lands by selfish mechanical visitors, industrial and agricultural users, and by an irresponsible lack of government oversight and sustainable management practices. We want to showcase the beauty and value of the wilderness qualities of these threatened lands with the hopes that folks will see what we’re losing, and help halt the destruction. In 1997 we decided to backpack from Arches National Park to Zion National Park, a trek of 510 miles that lasted 94 days, and was reported by Backpacker magazine and locally. In 2000, we set out for 101 days, this time including the Grand Canyon in the journey. That trek was highlighted on Mountainzone.com with a series of tales from the trail.
Combined with numerous other shorter journeys, the two long treks provided the route for the Hayduke Trail. Beginning at the north entrance to Arches NP, the Hayduke traverses Canyonlands NP, the Henry Mountains, Capitol Reef NP, Glen Canyon National Disaster Area, the Grand Staircase National Monument, Bryce Canyon NP, the Grand Canyon NP before ending at the Weeping Wall in Zion National Park. While we have previously traveled every inch of the Trail, we haven’t done it all at once. This spring’s trip will change that, as we intend on enjoying the fruits of our labor with a 100-day foray into the wilds. Mountainzone.com is once again be posting updates from the trail.
While we have some idea of what to anticipate this time, in terrain as wild as where the Hayduke Trail leads one to, we know to expect the unexpected. We’ve visited all of the places, but how much have things changed in the last few years (some areas we last visited in 1998)? Have there been cliff faces calving into the canyons, blocking passage? Have floods rerouted drainages or has access been eroded away? Have trails been taken over by rogue off-road vehicles? What will the weather be like; our journey in ’98 was cold, snowing on us at least once during the day for 23 days straight. We’ll be in the Grand Canyon in June, and temperatures can be smoking hot (I’ve seen the thermometer pass 125 degrees F in the inner gorge); we won’t even have the benefit of moonlight for night travel if we stick to our itinerary. The huge snowpack in the area this year also brings it’s own challenges: we’ll be crossing high elevations early enough to need snowshoes (unless a meltdown starts fast!). When things do melt what will the runoff flows be like? We could get shut down from raging water in any number of canyons (we’ve gone as far as getting Trail Boats for the stretch down the Escalante River. Just in case.). Then again, we managed to “make turns” out in the Henry Mountains on one trek, maybe we’ll have the boards out again for the 11,500 foot Mt. Ellen (there’s an above average snowpack as of this writing).
Getting this trip together has been quite a task; unlike the two previous major treks that we’ve taken, we both have, let’s say, a heightened sense of responsibility in our lives; Mitch has a daughter that turns one the day before we set out, and I have my own “instant family”, having married in the fall, further complicated by the purchase of a home just weeks before the trek is scheduled to begin. Work has kept us both from engaging in the planning as much as either of us would like. Then again, our experience has made sponsors for gear and supplies a little easier to find (for a list of sponsors visit www.deepdesert.com and see “Hayduke Adventure”), but funding is still elusive, putting the trek in jeopardy. We’ve both given up credit cards since the last long journey as well, taking away our most reliable “sponsor” (albeit one who demands more in return than we received, which is why we gave them up in the first place!!). We each are giving up prime time guiding opportunities to make the journey that we’ve been talking about for so long, and that the media has covered rather extensively; Backpacker, Hooked on the Outdoors, Outside, and National Geographic’s Adventure magazines have all published stories recently, and we expect more press as we continue on this project. Now we just have to get out there!
One thing we plan on doing differently this time is resupply; many sections will be supplied by cached food, water, and gear. We’ve found using 5-gallon pickle buckets works great; simply seal the lids with cayenne pepper laced duct tape and hide (it’s also a good idea to clearly mark the container as to ownership and removal date). We’ve left caches in the Grand Canyon for over six months that had nothing more than a couple of nibble marks. Water is a different story; we haven’t cached water before. I suspect it may be a bigger target for critter invasion than the food, but then again, it has been a wet winter. We also will be joined on appropriate sections by my dog Aldo (National Parks prohibit dogs in the backcountry), who likes to camp and wander the desert as much as I do.
It’ll be interesting to see how it all works out!
Next communication should be from the trail, as long as things go as planned....
Keep it Wild,
Mike Coronella
Hiking Willis Narrows on the Colorado Plateau Trail in 2000...
Seven years in the works, the Hayduke Trail is about to have its inaugural passage. Beginning on the Vernal Equinox, or March 20, Joe Mitchell and I (Mike Coronella) will head out with the intention to become the first end-to-end travelers of the Hayduke Trail. Stretching 812 miles across some of the most visually stunning land on the planet, this primitive backcountry route was “designed” around existing trails, paths, drainages and roads to provide reasonable access to water sources while experiencing the full range of terrain this land has to offer. We wrote a guidebook to the trail that will be available in March (’05) from the University of Utah Press.
The Hayduke Trail is a byproduct of our desire to illustrate and publicize the continuing damage that is being inflicted upon our public lands by selfish mechanical visitors, industrial and agricultural users, and by an irresponsible lack of government oversight and sustainable management practices. We want to showcase the beauty and value of the wilderness qualities of these threatened lands with the hopes that folks will see what we’re losing, and help halt the destruction. In 1997 we decided to backpack from Arches National Park to Zion National Park, a trek of 510 miles that lasted 94 days, and was reported by Backpacker magazine and locally. In 2000, we set out for 101 days, this time including the Grand Canyon in the journey. That trek was highlighted on Mountainzone.com with a series of tales from the trail.
Combined with numerous other shorter journeys, the two long treks provided the route for the Hayduke Trail. Beginning at the north entrance to Arches NP, the Hayduke traverses Canyonlands NP, the Henry Mountains, Capitol Reef NP, Glen Canyon National Disaster Area, the Grand Staircase National Monument, Bryce Canyon NP, the Grand Canyon NP before ending at the Weeping Wall in Zion National Park. While we have previously traveled every inch of the Trail, we haven’t done it all at once. This spring’s trip will change that, as we intend on enjoying the fruits of our labor with a 100-day foray into the wilds. Mountainzone.com is once again be posting updates from the trail.
While we have some idea of what to anticipate this time, in terrain as wild as where the Hayduke Trail leads one to, we know to expect the unexpected. We’ve visited all of the places, but how much have things changed in the last few years (some areas we last visited in 1998)? Have there been cliff faces calving into the canyons, blocking passage? Have floods rerouted drainages or has access been eroded away? Have trails been taken over by rogue off-road vehicles? What will the weather be like; our journey in ’98 was cold, snowing on us at least once during the day for 23 days straight. We’ll be in the Grand Canyon in June, and temperatures can be smoking hot (I’ve seen the thermometer pass 125 degrees F in the inner gorge); we won’t even have the benefit of moonlight for night travel if we stick to our itinerary. The huge snowpack in the area this year also brings it’s own challenges: we’ll be crossing high elevations early enough to need snowshoes (unless a meltdown starts fast!). When things do melt what will the runoff flows be like? We could get shut down from raging water in any number of canyons (we’ve gone as far as getting Trail Boats for the stretch down the Escalante River. Just in case.). Then again, we managed to “make turns” out in the Henry Mountains on one trek, maybe we’ll have the boards out again for the 11,500 foot Mt. Ellen (there’s an above average snowpack as of this writing).
Getting this trip together has been quite a task; unlike the two previous major treks that we’ve taken, we both have, let’s say, a heightened sense of responsibility in our lives; Mitch has a daughter that turns one the day before we set out, and I have my own “instant family”, having married in the fall, further complicated by the purchase of a home just weeks before the trek is scheduled to begin. Work has kept us both from engaging in the planning as much as either of us would like. Then again, our experience has made sponsors for gear and supplies a little easier to find (for a list of sponsors visit www.deepdesert.com and see “Hayduke Adventure”), but funding is still elusive, putting the trek in jeopardy. We’ve both given up credit cards since the last long journey as well, taking away our most reliable “sponsor” (albeit one who demands more in return than we received, which is why we gave them up in the first place!!). We each are giving up prime time guiding opportunities to make the journey that we’ve been talking about for so long, and that the media has covered rather extensively; Backpacker, Hooked on the Outdoors, Outside, and National Geographic’s Adventure magazines have all published stories recently, and we expect more press as we continue on this project. Now we just have to get out there!
One thing we plan on doing differently this time is resupply; many sections will be supplied by cached food, water, and gear. We’ve found using 5-gallon pickle buckets works great; simply seal the lids with cayenne pepper laced duct tape and hide (it’s also a good idea to clearly mark the container as to ownership and removal date). We’ve left caches in the Grand Canyon for over six months that had nothing more than a couple of nibble marks. Water is a different story; we haven’t cached water before. I suspect it may be a bigger target for critter invasion than the food, but then again, it has been a wet winter. We also will be joined on appropriate sections by my dog Aldo (National Parks prohibit dogs in the backcountry), who likes to camp and wander the desert as much as I do.
It’ll be interesting to see how it all works out!
Next communication should be from the trail, as long as things go as planned....
Keep it Wild,
Mike Coronella
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